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The Best Time for
Content Marketing?
Now
By: Betsy Emery Martin Digital Chairman, The CHR Group
David Navarro Digital Experience, The CHR Group
OVERVIEW
The new breed of customer lives within a fragmented digital world, experiencing
content on the go and on multiple devices. The challenge for any brand, large or
small, is to attract and engage relevant audiences to build measureable return.
In this new era of the connected consumer, optimizing digital operations to
achieve the highest value is critical for the growth of all channels, including
physical (brick and mortar, catalog, call center) and digital (web, mobile, social)
customer experiences.
With ad-blocking on the rise, marketers and brands are facing the newest
challenge in the increasingly complex ecosystem of digital marketing. Content
marketing presents both solid historical performance and a unique opportunity
for meaningful engagement in today’s customer decision journey. In our review
of over 50 clients engaged in content strategies over the last 17 years, content
marketing delivered 6 times greater ROI over paid media and resulted in a 29%
increase in brand favorability. This guide to content marketing presents an
overview of the key strategies and tactics for leveraging content to build your
brand, increase conversions, and achieve measureable return.
© 2015 Studio One. All Rights Reserved.
Leverage Content to Shorten the Customer Journey
The Connected Customer wants
to engage with your products and
services whenever, wherever, and
however they want… and expects
the experience to be tailored to their
needs. The mantra of the connected
consumer is “Know Me” and “Show
Me.” Business objectives depend
on customers accomplishing goals;
like finding products and making
purchases.
A well-crafted digital strategy
extends the experience of products
and services as well as the journey
to discovering, purchasing, sharing,
and building loyalty. This creates a
competitive advantage by offering
uniquely relevant experiences that
shorten the distance between need
and satisfaction.
Companies who win in today’s
marketplace are those who
understand the power of crafting the
customer journey. Strategies aimed
at “marketing to” or even “engaging
with” customers in the multi-device,
multi-stage customer journey
fail to attain the ultimate value of
actively optimizing the journey itself.
Successful content marketing shifts
from “Brand Stories” to “People
Stories,” leveraging data insights to
build rich profiles, engage customers
across channels, and deliver superior
value by anticipating customer needs.
As a result, content marketing plays
a key role in crafting a decision
journey, helping the customer through
stages of awareness, engagement,
consideration, conversion, loyalty,
and advocacy. A key value of content
marketing is the ability to accelerate
the customer journey, reducing the
number of stages in the buying cycle
as well as the time within each stage.
Advertising
Content Marketing
Push “Marketing to”
Pull “Attracting and Engaging”
Advertiser controlled timeframe
Consumer controlled timeframe
Focus on Quantity
Focus on Quality
Reach: Only 54% reaches the right audience
Reach: Attracts customers where they naturally
exist with content they seek
Provides sales focused information
Provides useful content
Focuses on overt promotional messages and calls
to action
Connects with emotional and intellectual needs
of the buyer with storytelling and narratives
Ad Blocking: Filters out undesired, intrusive
content making ad reach more challenging
Ad Blocking: Content remains unaffected which
means more attention to the desired content
Primarily “one-way” communication from brand
to consumer
Includes “one-way” and “two-way” connections
between consumer and brand
Lives for a limited time based on media purchase
Lives for an extended timeframe
Challenges include: Delivery of ad to the right
audience, competing for attention, ongoing
media fees, audience quality and fraud detection.
Challenges include: Creation of fresh and
engaging content, writing for specific needs of
each audience segment and stage of buying
cycle, ensuring distribution to correct destination,
organization of content to promote community,
sharing, SEO, and ongoing optimization.
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The Connected Customer
Content marketing strategies present
unparalleled opportunities to create
connections that align with customer
needs, creating revenue growth and
cost efficiency. At the same time, planning, prioritizing, and implementing a
successful content marketing program
has become more challenging as the
complexity of the customer journey
has grown. Content creation and distribution must engage each audience
with relevant content, across devices
and channels, at each stage of the
buying cycle.
The DNA of the Connected Consumer
means multi-device, multi-channel
experiences within a single purchase
journey. 90% of today’s consumers
move between devices to accomplish
this goal. The average shopper makes
6.2 visits to a company’s website
before they buy and uses 2.6 devices
within a single shopping experience.
Thus, a successful content marketing
program must plan for, and embrace,
the increasing number of contexts
for content consumption. Essential
components include a well-defined
strategy, understanding of each audience, publishing calendar, work-flow
for content variations and destinations, as well as content governance.
The success of content marketing programs rests
upon several key factors:
1. Well-defined strategy: Content marketing should
be tied to specific goals and key performance indicators for
the overall digital roadmap (aligning the digital program
with corporate performance measures). The power of
content lies in original, authentic, engaging content that
provides information people want to see. It must embrace
emotional and intellectual drivers to provide content that
informs, entertains, and produces meaningful connection.
Ultimately, the goal is to provide a value so inherent that
the content itself creates subscription, sharing, and brand
preference - accelerating the journey from discovery to
advocacy.
a. Mix of Content Types and Destinations: The
content marketing plan should include a mix of content
types and destinations including: on-site, off-site,
articles, social, blog posts, newsletters, case studies,
infographics, white papers, webinars, microsites,
data-driven content, polls, quizzes, photos, videos, tools,
recipes, and buying guides.
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b. Match Stages of Decision Journey: Content
types should match the stages of the customer decision
journey: awareness, engagement, consideration and
connection, conversion (sign-ups, purchases), loyalty,
and advocacy.
c. Align with Key Performance Indicators:
Primary key performance indicators for content
marketing include content consumption (page views,
downloads), engagement (pins, likes, comments, ratings,
and polls), sharing (social shares, tweets, and retweets),
lead generation (tracks leads such as online form and
call centers associated with content consumption), lead
and conversion (attribution of sales related to content).
2. Goals for each piece of content: Key metrics for
each piece of content will define its contribution to overall
content marketing goals. Each piece of content should be
considered in light of how it will help a customer, what
need it will satisfy, and what key metric will measure its
effectiveness in achieving goals outlined. Content should
be written for the customer first (as opposed to overt sales
messages or content primarily aimed at search engine
rankings) providing an authentic value related to customer
issues, pain points, and interests.
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3. Clearly defined target audiences: Target
audiences will match primary customer segments and
customer profiles. Data from a variety of sources can
be used to gain insights into customer profiles. This
profile information may include demographic information (age, gender, geography, and income level),
products purchased, amount of purchases, channel
most frequently used, and content topics of interest).
Writing content for specific audiences or “personas”
helps to ensure relevance to specific needs. Testing can
be done with sample customers from each segment to
confirm content is on track and rated highly.
4. Content Governance, Workflow, and Variations: Governance is the process of ensuring that all aspects of the
content marketing plan are clear and organized for execution according to defined standards. A well organized schedule
and process for content production, review, publication, and measurement is critical to content marketing effectiveness.
The plan should include standards for content:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Style guide: look and feel
Editorial guidelines: tone and voice
Emotional and rational elements of customer experience
Plan for consistency across channels and devices
Assign roles of content creation, review, and distribution
Define guidelines for content variation by audience segment, content type, and destinations
Archiving standards
Case Study: ConAgra Uses Targeted Content Distribution to Increase Purchase Intent
Hunt’s Tomatoes, one of the larger brands owned
by ConAgra Foods, sought to break through the
advertising barrier by reaching their target
consumer through content marketing.
Results
Studio One created What’s Cooking, a go-to online
destination for the home cook who loves making memorable meals with
natural, wholesome ingredients for her family and friends. What’s Cooking
included recipes and articles that not only inspired meals, but helped evoke a
sense of passion and love within the home – especially in the kitchen.
• Content syndicated to 25
publishing partners in 3 months
With a distribution network implemented to place content in the places and
spaces where Hunt’s target consumer visits every day, Hunt’s was able to see the
positive effects of a strategic content marketing plan as proven by a Nielsen study.
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• 40.2% brand lift in “Definitely
Will Purchase” after being exposed
to the content
• 42 seconds time on site
compared to 27 seconds of the
industry average
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Increasing Relevancy, Engagement and Loyalty
Quality content in its various forms is
editorially-focused, “always on”, and
detectable by search engines, maximizing the
impressions and value over time. Turning
readers into advocates creates competitive
advantage by offering relevant content
validated by the larger community.
Delivering the right message at the right
time creates one-to-one connection and
increases content performance rates. Ongoing
measurement ties the content marketing
program to key metrics for sharing, lead
generation, and conversion. By using
integrated platforms to track the history of
visitor engagement, profiles can be created
and personas validated. Data insight helps
optimize the program and builds the relevancy
of targeted content over time.
As new mobile ad-blocking trends emerge,
content marketing is the single best way to
ensure a message is seen. New ad-blocking
technologies work to put content at the
forefront, removing all the distractions for
the reader. Even when ads are displayed and
viewed, the click-through rates are historically
low.
Measuring the Customer Journey
Effective content strategy aligns with the stages of your customer’s experience
Awareness
Consideration
Pre-conversion
Conversion
As an effective solution to circumvent
ad-blocking and increase relevance to each
audience, content strategy provides an
effective solution for digital marketing return
on investment.
Successful content marketing programs
build ROI with an understanding of audience
profiles, customized content, and a targeted
content distribution plan. The content
distribution plan will be most effective when
it leverages existing networks to connect with
users where they naturally consume content.
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• Create content with wide
enough appeal to attract varied
readers, but stay on topic. Set
KPIs for impressions and visits.
• Review pages per visit, and
bounce rates to ensure your
content is engaging.
• Monitor your reader’s time
on site and click-through-rate
(CTR) to gauge interest.
• Post-conversion content is
important to build brand
advocates and expand a
customer base over time.
Satisfaction
Loyalty
• Monitor top performing
referral sites, social shares, and
especially return visits.
Advocacy
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Growing Your Efficiencies and ROI
As your content library and customer
database grows, so should your plan
to scale the infrastructure. Managing
strategy and content in the omnichannel digital era means centralized
processes and systems to support
more personalized logic and delivery.
Digital platforms and agile processes
accelerate growth and efficiency for
your company and simultaneously
enhance the quality of the reader’s
experience.
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As the content marketing solution
at CHR Digital, Studio One has
embraced process optimization from
the start, making content creation
and distribution fast and flexible for
clients. We are the only digital content
marketing company that can create,
distribute, and manage brand-aligned
content in all formats, at scale.
Studio One’s infrastructure uses
audience profiles and channel data
to create purpose-built, full format,
interactive content programs. The
result is an increase to online traffic
for publishers, significant boosts to
brand retention, and the targeted
delivery of information visitors seek
for brands.
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Studio One creates custom portfolios of websites and digital
destinations, leveraged to distribute content among topof-market publishers and targeted niche markets. With a
growing network of nearly 3,000 partners, relevant content
can be delivered to engaged audiences where they already
reside online, maximizing reach and impact.
3 Tips to Boost Your
Content’s Appeal
Studio One is also proud to have developed the first Content
Asset Management Platform (CAMP) that enables all of
the branded and unbranded content owned and created for
your brand to be optimized and reapplied to owned, earned,
and paid assets. This system manages across 18 languages
in 6 different formats across 3,000 partners.
Centralizing our systems allows us to capture the relevant
information to build an ecosystem of optimization. Consolidated data and content systems allow for agile improvements to content marketing plans, to remove inefficiencies,
and to target segments with accuracy. A granular set of
key metrics and exclusive access to real-time market data
allows Studio One to track the progress of campaigns,
delivering better content and measuring its success.
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The first step to content marketing is to
thoroughly understand your audience.
Research the driving forces behind their
actions. Spend time with them online. If
you are listening to what they are saying
on social media and other venues, you can
tailor content to their interests. The time
you take understanding your customer
personas will help create more relevant,
engaging, and valuable content that they
consume, share, and act upon.
Scalable Content Network
Business
Objective
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Audience
Profile
Digital
Landscape
Desired
UX
Reach your audience on an intrinsic,
relatable level.
Deliver value.
This can take many forms: Giving your
audience information they can put to use in
their everyday lives, delivering new information that they find interesting, or simply
entertaining.
Customized
Content
Website Network
3
Mind your P’s and Q’s — literally.
The quality of your writing, your tone, and
your style all play an important part in
creating popular and shareable content.
Over time, build up a library and style
guide so that your brand is consistent and
new content is easier to create.
4X ROI
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Conclusion
As paid media effectiveness decreases and digital platforms
rapidly evolve, it is important for brands to create and distribute relevant content at the right time. To capture your
audience, it must contribute to and not distract from the
conversation. Strategically adding content to your digital
presence, which is both targeted and share-worthy, builds
credibility and value. It is vital that content is placed in
the spaces your audience is already looking and that your
marketing dollars are not being wasted on messaging that
is never even seen. Now is a perfect time to invest your
energy and budget into a comprehensive content marketing strategy. Evaluate that strategy, measure its progress,
and adjust to your audience to amplify your brand and
maximize the ROI.
Marketing Interest Over Time
Source:
May 2015, Research and data
provided by Fractal and Moz.
About
Learn More
Studio One is passionate about content marketing and delivering high-quality,
interactive content. From news stories and apps to video and social engagement,
we are continuously inspired to find better ways of reaching targeted audiences wherever they are, whenever they want it. Our programs are sponsored by
corporate brands and offered at no cost to our publishing partners. Rather than
being fed advertisements, viewers engage with content that meets their interests
and needs. We are pioneers in the discipline of online content syndication and
excited to bring our expertise to help target and engage your audience.
Contact us to understand how
we can help reach and engage
your audience with content.
Studio One
(212) 863-4194
[email protected]
333 Seventh Avenue, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10001
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