Download A 10-Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success

A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
A 10-Step Blueprint to
Content Marketing Success
© 2014 NewsCred / NewsCred.com / (212) 989-4100 / [email protected]
© 2014 NewsCred
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
© 2014 NewsCred
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
Table of Contents
01
Introduction
02
The Blueprint
03
Idea Generation
04
Sourcing Talent and Content
05
Workflow Management
06
Impact Analysis
07
Conclusion and About
© 2014 NewsCred
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
01
Introduction
Introduction
The Content Marketing Institute recently surveyed B2B marketers and learned that:
93% of marketers use content marketing.
Brands were 36% more confident about the ROI of content marketing last year than they were in the year before.
58% of content marketers plan to increase their budgets to create more content over the next year.
73% of marketers were producing more content at the end of 2013 than they were the year prior.
© 2014 NewsCred
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The Trust Transaction
01
Introduction
The secret to content
marketing is no secret:
it’s storytelling.
You know great content when you see it.
How do you create a brand newsroom within your
company? This blueprint will breakdown the tactics you
need to create content at scale.
© 2014 NewsCred
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
02
The Blueprint
The Blueprint
Idea Generation
What types of content should my company create?
Sourcing Talent and Content
How do I find writers and manage content creation?
Workflow Management
How do I keep everything organized?
Impact Analysis
How do I measure successes and identify areas for improvement?
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
03
Idea Generation
Idea Generation
Find questions that your brand
is excited to answer.
•
Find out what questions your customers and
potential customers are asking about your industry
or product. How can you find ways to answer
those questions creatively while improving your
audience’s overall experience? How can you be a
resource to them?
•
Talk to your sales team – learn what’s most inspiring
(and confusing) to your customers and prospects.
•
Reach out to your business partners, consultants,
and experts – your marketing team’s eyes and ears
– to figure out how your brand can add value.
© 2014 NewsCred
“
The value of content marketing
boils down to one concept –
reciprocal altruism. When brands
give something away for free,
they get much more in return.
”
Scott Roen
Vice President of Digital Marketing at American Express OPEN
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
03
Idea Generation
Figure out what’s missing – what pressing
questions are going unanswered? These
gaps will become your content pillars.
•
Look at search trends to understand what your
customers are looking for and then use programs
like Google Keywords to meet them in the search
process. You can also run customer development
interviews to figure out what audiences want to
learn. What questions do they have and how can
you answer them best?
•
What can you learn from influencers on your social
channels? What topics and questions are they
constantly revisiting? Once you’ve exhausted these
research channels, choose three to five major
issues in your industry and build your content
around those pillars.
•
Create content – blog posts, infographics, or
whitepapers – that speak to these tangible, specific
needs directly.
© 2014 NewsCred
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
Analyze your conversion funnel. Figure out
where each of your topics and content types fit.
•
Harness early-funnel opportunities to build
awareness and engagement among new audiences
who may not have heard about your brand before.
•
Focus on mid-to-late funnel opportunites to drive
leads and sales with higher quality, more in-depth
content.
03
Idea Generation
“
Success in content
marketing relies on
velocity, quality, and
volume.
”
Rishi Dave
•
Rely on content creation to re-engage past
customers and encourage repeat business.
© 2014 NewsCred
CMO at Dun & Bradstreet
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
03
Idea Generation
Create an influencer strategy.
•
Find existing discussion leaders in your
industry. Interview them or invite them to write
on behalf of your brand.
•
Read what your customers are reading. Learn
what they care about and who they trust.
“
Content isn’t king.
It’s the kingdom.
”
Lee Oden
CEO at TopRank
© 2014 NewsCred
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
04
Sourcing Talent and Content
Sourcing Talent and Content
Build your freelance network.
•
Even though the content creator or freelancer is
a ‘service provider,’ your brand needs to make a
great impression by offering the right incentives –
competitive pay and steady, ongoing work.
•
Share your editorial vision, brand strategy, and goals.
•
The longer you work together, the more efficient
you will become. Empower your content creators
to learn about – and care about – your brand. Give
lots of credit so that freelancers are recognized
for their work, with a byline where relevant. Many
content creators are looking for more than money
in their career paths. You can also work with
companies like NewsCred to find highly qualified
writers with built-in networks that overlap with your
audience.
© 2014 NewsCred
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
04
Sourcing Talent and Content
Keep your content network growing.
Practice the rule of thirds: One part owned, original content, one
part curated licensed content, and one part thought leadership
or user generated content.
•
Presenting a mix of content and content sources
gives your readers greater variety.
•
Licensing content from the world’s top media
brands can help quickly scale your content strategy
and also share content that you don’t have the
bandwith to cover.
•
Influencer, UGC, or “earned content” boosts
credibility to your audience and offers the
perspective of a consumer or outside thought
leader.
© 2014 NewsCred
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
05
Workflow Management
Workflow Management
Don’t let logistics bog you down –
use technology to create a productive, fun workflow.
•
Think beyond spreadsheets. Reimagine your
content marketing workflow.
•
Focus on what you “need” rather than what’s “out
there.” NewsCred’s software workflows seamlessly
manage content for midsize businesses and
multinational corporations.
•
Talk to consultants, business partners, and fellow
content marketers to survey the entire market –
cast your net wide to find the tools that are right for
you.
© 2014 NewsCred
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
05
Workflow Management
Create an editorial calendar to manage assignments,
project due dates, and publishing schedules.
•
Ask your entire team for input, but designate one
person as the ‘owner’ of the editorial calendar.
•
Think of your editorial calendar as a ‘workflow hub’
to make sure that everyone on your team is synced
up on content, events, PR, and more.
•
Be open to criticism and feedback. Iterate. Look for
solutions to help your content team scale.
“
What would your marketing look
like if your customers signed your
paycheck?
”
Ann Handley
Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs
© 2014 NewsCred
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
06
Impact Analysis
Impact Analysis
Success in content marketing doesn’t happen overnight.
You need to test, measure, and build upon your strategy.
FOCUS ON THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
How effective is your content in connecting audiences with your brand?
• Measure social shares and referral traffic — who is sharing
How effective is your content in driving interest and engagement?
• Measure traffic, time on site, and pages per visit.
Is your content inspiring prospects to do business with you?
• Measure lead generation, quality of leads, and entrance and touch points.
How effective is your content strategy?
• Measure all these stats against your ROI.
© 2014 NewsCred
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
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Impact Analysis
Think like a journalist and a statistician.
Learn who’s consuming your content, why they’re interested,
and what next steps they’re taking with your brand.
•
Look for trends – over time, within, and between
content categories.
•
Track results systematically so that you can quickly
identify successes and areas for improvement. Test,
measure, scale, repeat.
•
Choose the right metrics to make sure that you
are capturing all stages of the conversion funnel –
website visitors, social media shares, newsletter
sign-ups, offer downloads, and sales.
“
Empathy is not what you do, but
what you do for your customers.
”
Ann Handley
Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs
© 2014 NewsCred
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
Iterate, scale, and repeat.
•
Figure out where you’re successful –
amplify those efforts.
•
Figure out where you haven’t met your goals –
don’t be afraid to switch gears.
•
Continuously invest in your team’s learning –
focus on building a scalable, high-impact content
program that audiences love.
© 2014 NewsCred
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Impact Analysis
“
As marketers, we should be
changing the mantra from always
be closing to always be helping.
”
Jonathan Lister
VP North America Sales at LinkedIn
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
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Conclusion and About
Conclusion
Your brand has the potential to be a newsroom –
a robust editorial operation and revenue source.
Three core ingredients will make your brand shine:
people, technology, and left-meets-right brain creativity.
Ready to turn your blueprint into the real deal? Get in
touch with NewsCred today to learn more about how we
can help you build your content marketing empire with
licensed content, original content, strategy planning,
and content management software.
NewsCred.com
(212) 989-4100
[email protected]
© 2014 NewsCred
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
07
Conclusion and About
About NewsCred
NewsCred is the leading content marketing platform.
Pairing cutting-edge software with world-class content,
NewsCred transforms brands into storytellers.
Through NewsCred, global brands like Pepsi, P&G, Dell,
General Electric, and AIG have seen explosive growth in
social sharing, engagement, and lead generation.
NewsCred’s Content Marketing Cloud© provides
the easiest end-to-end solution for content planning,
creation, publishing, and analytics. In one place,
brands gain unprecedented access to the world’s
largest content marketplace, including licensed content
from over 5,000 publishers and original content from
NewsCred’s award-winning journalist network.
Founded in 2008 by Shafqat Islam, Iraj Islam, and Asif
Rahman, NewsCred has offices in New York, London,
and Dhaka and is backed by FirstMark Capital, Mayfield
Fund, IA Ventures, Greycroft Partners, and others.
© 2014 NewsCred
Learn more at newscred.com and follow us on Twitter
@newscred.
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A 10 Step Blueprint to Content Marketing Success
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Conclusion and About
© 2014 NewsCred / NewsCred.com / (212) 989-4100 / [email protected]
© 2014 NewsCred
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