As social media redefines what passes for communication and information today, companies are beginning to question whether they should continue to invest in developing high-quality content. Their thinking goes, “If we’re just tweeting or posting to Facebook and LinkedIn, we don’t need anything longer or more substantive.”

Our years of experience working with several leading consulting firms that embody the gold standard in content marketing tell us otherwise. These firms long ago recognized that superior content is the best way to enhance their brands, connect with prospective buyers and grow their revenues. They also know that while social media channels are valuable for staying connected with prospects and clients, they still need something of substance and quality behind the status updates and one-minute self-produced YouTube videos. We’ve not heard of any senior executives making a multimillion-dollar bet on a consulting firm because he was intrigued by a clever tweet.

What these consulting firms understand — and other B2B companies should, too — is that high-quality content is more important than ever. Here’s why:

1. Attention is harder to grab

More distribution channels for marketing messages mean more publishing and more competition for buyers’ attention. Bullet points aren’t the answer. Simply good content is the most effective way to stand out from the rapidly growing publishing crowd. Leading consulting firms have long known that to capture distracted executives’ fleeting attention, they must provide deep, valuable and concise insights relevant to the challenges those prospects are facing.

2. You can’t fool Google

Search engines are getting smarter and more proficient at sniffing out bad content, especially with Google’s Penguin algorithm. Why? By incorporating time spent on pages, bounce rates, sharing of pages with friends and other measures of how real people use websites, the new algorithm makes the quality of a site’s content much more important to search rankings.

3. Content lives longer and can have a lasting impact on a firm’s brand

Because of email and social media channels, it’s impossible for a company to fully control the dissemination of its content, good or bad. The risk associated with publishing poor content (i.e. not adding value) — and having that content live in perpetuity online — is greater than ever. 

4. High-quality content combats pressure on prices and margins

Customers today are more focused on price than they were before the recession, particularly for commodity-type offerings. High-quality content that demonstrates a compelling reason why customers should buy a particular product or service shifts the conversation from price to the overall value delivered by the product or service — and thus elevates the company and its offers above less-expensive (but also less-valuable) competitors.

5. You need something to say, and something else to say tomorrow

In our experience, one of the best ways to ensure the idea pipeline stays full is by investing in major pieces of high-quality content that can be “sliced and diced” for use in different channels over a longer time horizon. For instance, leading consulting firms produce major research studies, the findings of which they release in phases via LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook posts over several weeks or months to extend the content’s value while keeping their communication fresh.

6. Expectations increase for marketing ROI

As many companies’ marketing budgets have tightened in recent years, leadership is demanding a greater return from their marketing investments. Marketers must get the biggest “bang for the buck” from every collateral piece or campaign they create. By focusing on quality and not simply getting something in prospective buyers’ hands, companies can increase the chances their messages will resonate with target buyers.


7. High-quality content will increase your odds of getting new business

This is the No. 1 reason why high-quality content is more important than ever. Consider the IT services industry: According to a buyer survey by ITSMA, a service provider’s strong insights on a buyer’s problem and its best solution to that problem increase the odds the provider will win the work, even as a sole source. Great content also is an excellent way for smaller, less well-known companies to get on prospective buyers’ radars. This is especially true in the professional services industry, where executive buyers are intrigued by the strength of a firm’s ideas, not by the size of its marketing budget.

If high-quality content is so important, how can companies go about ensuring they produce it?  

In working with leading consulting firms, we have found a simple set of criteria is useful for ensuring content quality. We have used these “seven hallmarks of compelling content” to evaluate the strength of consulting firms’ white papers, articles and other marketing materials. But any company can use them to improve the quality of their own content — particularly documents that promote a specific product or service.

• Novelty: Is the content unique or does it break new ground?
• Focus: Does it have a single, overriding message that can be stated in a few sentences?
• Relevance: Does it meet a critical market or buyer need?
• Validity: Is the product or service being advanced supported with strong evidence of how it works and how it benefits the buyer?
• Practicality: Does the content demonstrate that the product or service can be used or applied by the buyer?
• Rigor: Does the content have tight, consistent logic throughout?
• Clarity: Does it use language and concepts the target audience understands?

By evaluating its content along these seven dimensions — for instance, using a simple 1-to-10 rating scale — a company can roughly gauge whether its content meets the high-quality standard or needs further development. For instance:

• Content that is weak in focus should be stripped of extraneous material that obscures the main message. 
• A piece that lacks rigor or clarity may benefit from the help of a professional editor who can tighten the logic structure and enhance the writing. 
• A document that is not especially relevant may need to be recast to more sharply address a particular buyer need (or, in more drastic cases, simply eliminated).

Content should score an “8” or higher on all seven dimensions to be truly “market ready.”

Want more content marketing inspiration? Download our ultimate eBook with 100 content marketing examples.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Content both motivates actions and resolves problems. As marketing communications practitioners, it’s natural for us to think about what it takes to get a little attention from a buyer. But are we doing all we should with our content to nurture those buyer prospects that are milling around the periphery of the sales funnel — gradually mitigating their concerns, soothing their anxieties, and building their confidence so that they are ready to advance through the sales funnel?

The nurture phase requires content that motivates inquiry

Content marketing strategy that targets the inquiry stage should try to establish credibility and confirm notions about the appropriateness of a product within the initial consideration set. It may also seek to establish the company’s authority in the category while influencing hierarchal preference. 

In a recent chat with Ruth Stevens, CEO of eMarketing Strategy and author of “Maximizing Lead Generation: The Complete Guide for B2B Marketers,” Ruth shared her point of view about the role content plays in lead development efforts: 

“Profitable action is all about hand raising. Top performing content products like white papers, primary research reports, video segments, and special guides or eBooks may each be used to motivate readers to offer their personal contact details in exchange for the information product.” 

And while basic data capture may provide little to no insight into the precise mental state of the prospect (i.e., where they sit in the buying cycle), the data is a precursor to any contextual activity that may follow — including nurturing. 

What nurtures prospect interest?

Stevenson notes that content takes a beefy role in forging and developing the relationship a brand has with an interested prospect. A brand can nurture that interest when it provides more advanced education and specialized insight in a non-threatening, approachable manner. Properly timed, content designed in lockstep with natural decision-making progression can solidify brand position and open gateways to more free-flowing communication. 

In this phase, a content strategy should build on the mental space the brand or product has come to occupy in the target’s mind through the use of discrete offers and variable communication formats, ranging from blog posts, videos, and opinion papers to case studies, webinars, and videos. A recent survey by DemandGen provides some insight into the content products potentially best suited for various stages of a buyer’s readiness. The appropriateness of your content for the need stage, for example, could influence whether your brand is chosen over the competition. 

Content marketing that nurtures leads 

“Having any kind of nurturing program is better than none at all, although of course systematic engagement is best.” Stevens cited a 2008 study by the Aberdeen Group covering B2B lead nurturing to prove her point. The study found that, “…superior performing organizations are two times more likely than their peers to leverage lead nurturing programs.” The survey also found that “Best-in-Class” companies achieve significantly higher performing lead to sales revenue, response rates, lead qualification rates, and average order values than companies falling into lesser “Industry Average” or “Laggard” categories. 

The implications of this study certainly give pause. And although there hasn’t been anything like it published in the past couple of years, it’s reasonable to assume companies with nurturing programs tied to strategic content marketing plans are creating better revenue opportunities than those that aren’t. 

Take heed of these common errors

If you’ve been nudging internal stakeholders to formalize a content planning process in collaboration with business development efforts, here are a few suggestions from the experts that you might find helpful:

• Map customer interest to your solution/product. “Philosophically, the biggest mistake is thinking that people are interested in your product or service. Rather, you should start from the mindset that they could not care less. Then, eventually map what they are interested in to your ultimate solutions.” – Paul McKeon, President of The Content Factor; 

• Have a grip on the buyer’s journey before embarking on a content audit. “The problem with most content audits lies in the execution. Existing assets have usually been created in an earlier era with a different mindset. They are frequently ‘solutions brochures,’ data sheets, case studies, and more that have been created within a ‘product push’ mentality. But today’s content marketing requires a softer touch with the focus on the prospect or customer’s interests, not our products.” – Paul McKeon 

• Don’t sacrifice inbound for outbound. “Inbound marketing alone can take a long time to identify prospects and decision-makers and, as a result, may not address very early and very late buying stages. Outbound calling has some benefits including that of a personal, real-time connection where a rep can make a deeper dive to fully understand the buyer’s situation.” – Dan McDade, President/CEO of PointClear. 

• Thought-starter:  Does your sales team have content resources that match up with common questions, rebuttals, or concerns? Are those resources well matched to human-to-human interaction (i.e., bite-sized length, narrowly focused, strong calls-to-action, etc.)? The best solution may differ from that needed by a self-directed buyer searching the web. 

• Measure everything you need, but report only what is important. “Design an analytics pyramid (a structure of measurement using a variety of metrics to surface specific insight for individual stakeholders) by identifying priorities. Define measurements that align with individual department goals and feed up into larger goals. You end up with a hierarchy of measurements that provides a clear view of what’s important and to whom. Give those folks the data that matters to them.” – Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi, from their book, “Managing Content Marketing”.

Want more content marketing inspiration? Download our ultimate eBook with 100 content marketing examples.

You know what’s “hot” in content marketing? It isn’t straight-up content! People love — and share — images, so marketers are trying to incorporate more visuals into their content marketing plans. 

This week, our Content Marketing World speakers answer the question, “With the popularity of apps like Pinterest and Instagram, how have you adjusted your content strategy (or the advice you give to clients) to incorporate visual content?“

The popularity of visually based content has given rise to social media sites like Instagram, Pinterest, and Path. Facebook and Google+ also allow for visually stimulating content. Our guideline is that every content piece should have a relevant image that is shareable. Curating visually relevant content from sites like Pinterest and Instagram is easy and effective at brand building. The challenge is to always have a visual appeal with every piece of content. A well written blog post is okay. A well written blog post with great, relevant images is much better. - Bernie Borges (@berniebay)

I would flip-flop this question. Frankly, it’s the importance of visual content that gave rise to Instagram and Pinterest. If a brand isn’t investing in visual content, the popularity of these channels should convince them of its importance. Great design finds a way to spread. - Joe Chernov (@jchernov)

Photographs are white hot this year. Use photographs as content in these three ways: Integrate photographs into your content. Add photographs to your text content, whether it’s your website, blog, or other communications. For online content, don’t forget to associate relevant search keyword text. Provide interesting photographs prospects, customers and the public want to share. Post photographs that have emotional appeal that others want to share or use in their content. Curate customers’ photographs. Ask readers to submit their photographs related to your product. It can be literal and show your brand or it can be a related topic. - Heidi Cohen (@HeidiCohen)

Apps like Instagram have made high-quality, artistically-stylized, imagery and photography accessible to anyone. It’s also easier than ever to create a consistently formatted image that you or your web designers can build around. We’ve taken this idea so far that every image on our website is an Instagram image. That’s right, every person in our office is armed with a cell phone and Instagram. Their images are intertwined in our posts and go a long way in promoting what we’re working on and thinking about. Creating a visual style that embodies our no nonsense approach to creating visual content that extends our brand. Give it a try — start using an Instagram image in every single blog post, it’s a low-barrier way to create consistently formatted, compelling imagery that tells your brand story. - Andrew Davis (@tpldrew)

While we haven’t adjusted our content strategy drastically, we have been focusing a bit more on thinking how we can make our content more visual in general. For example, we are thinking more about creating infographics in addition to reports and we are focusing on small steps such as ensuring every piece of content we create has a strong visual component. Ultimately both platforms grant the opportunity to have a little fun and showcase your brand’s personality, so we are starting to focus on taking and sharing pictures to showcase that and we have created profiles on both platforms for that very reason. - Amanda Maksymiw (@amandamaks)

While the channels may evolve, the same approach applies to building sound content marketing strategies. The key is to know what your prospects and customers want to achieve, and then generate content that meets their goals. Understand how your audiences consume information, and then choose the tools that speak to them. Blog posts, email newsletters, and video are the obvious choices, but consider the potential of press releases, original reports, case studies, white papers, eBooks, content curation, webinars, streaming video, photos, social-network status updates, podcasts, and infographics. - Paul Roetzer (@paulroetzer)

Pinterest and Intstagram haven’t adjusted the way we advise clients regarding content strategy at all. They are simply new(er) properties that should fit into a broader content marketing strategy. If that strategy calls for the sharing and distribution of visual content, then we’ll certainly include recommendations on maximizing the impact of these properties. The strategy should drive social media property usage; the existence or growth of an individual social media property should not drive the strategy. - Michael Sweeney (@mjsweeney)

I wouldn’t say that I’m wholly committed to these, but I’ve been experimenting with both. For SAS Global Forum, the largest SAS user event of the year, Kirsten Hamstra, SAS Social Media Manager; Meg Crawford, Americas Marketing; and I ran a photo contest using Instagram. We wanted to encourage SAS users to post their conference photos on social media. To enter the contest, contestants needed to take the photo using Instagram and tweet it using the conference hashtag. We didn’t set a goal, but were surprised at the number of tweeted photos from an audience that is not normally vocal on Twitter during this conference. For Pinterest, I’ve been adding the videos and images from my SAS Users Groups blog to boards that I’ve created. The most important thing, once again, is promotion. Even though Pinterest has been highly successful for some audiences, it is not widely accepted by my audience. However, by tweeting and otherwise promoting each Pin, I’m slowly adding followers on Pinterest, too. - Waynette Tubbs (@waynettetubbs)

These sites are popular because we all love simple, visual things that convey an emotion or an insight into business, life or fun. We have looked at creating visual elements for all our content efforts. How can we turn our latest initiative into a slideshare deck, a scribd document or an infographic on Pinterest? All these sites present opportunities to force us to think visually in our content marketing efforts. - Michael Brenner (@BrennerMichael)

As a general rule, you should approach sites like Instagram and Pinterest with the same strategy you use for all of your content marketing. Develop your plans with your core audience in mind and then see if these channels would be a good for distribution. Our speakers also provide some specific ideas on how to use these channels when blogging, at in-person events, and more.  

Now it’s your turn: How have you adjusted your strategy to incorporate visual content? 

Remember that you can see all of these speakers live at Content Marketing World in Columbus, Ohio from September 4–6! We are looking forward to seeing you there!

This week, we have been sharing some ideas on how to plan your content marketing teams. Yesterday, I shared ideas on the types of people you need on your content marketing team, and today our CMI consultants talk about what skills are essential. If you are planning your team, this will help you find the right people. If you are a marketer looking to move up the ranks, change positions or find clients, this gives you ideas on what kind of skills you can work on. 

That is a rather large question and it depends on the role and the company, but there are certainly some skills they need. Whenever possible you have to find a good communicator. They need to be able to write and speak in a way that makes people feel welcomed and informed. You can always teach someone new technical skills, but it is really hard to teach this. A person either has it or they don’t. I also think they should look for people who love to create. I don’t care what medium they create in, but by having the desire to create and share in their blood, it means they will do well. This is why writers, photographers and theater people are great because they love being creative. Finally, and most importantly, I believe that they’ve got to have good all around business skills. Understanding how a company works, and what different departments do, is critical for long-term success. Plus, then they won’t go off only focusing on the creative and are usually grounded enough to balance it out appropriately. - C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman)

The biggest thing I suggest when clients are looking to hire for their content marketing team is versatility. The ideal hire needs to be well-versed in what makes for good content, have some writing skills, have some editing skills, manage an editorial calendar, and contribute to content strategy. Finding all that in one person can be a real challenge, and many clients end up prioritizing certain pieces over others. The key for many, then, is to have one person that can be centrally leading and accountable for the company content marketing program. Mike Sweeney made some great points about this in his post, 4 Reasons to Centralize Your Content Marketing Program – whether internally or externally centralized, you need that leader, internal champion, and accountable person most of all. - Will Davis (@willdavis)

Excellent writing skills are a must. Understanding of the various channels and types of content that are possible is almost a requirement as well. Then beyond that, you might want to look for someone who is specialized in one area of content — video production, webinar production, videography or photography, etc. - Jason Falls (@JasonFalls)

Look for a journalist obsessed with serving their community — leaning on them for story feedback, content ideas and subject matter; someone who has excelled covering the field your brand is in. With that you get familiarity with the subject matter in a profound, objective (and hopefully honest) way. Media live and die by their ability to enable audiences, build communities and have those communities speak to each other. Good journalists (and bloggers and writers) deliver audiences (and unique visitors) as part of their job. They do this by going where their audience is and being more interesting than anyone else in the space. And the best ones yield the influence over audiences interested in their niche, and this usually comes from a unique point of view, standing for something and getting their audience onside with that honesty. Now wouldn’t it be wonderful for your brand to wield such profound connection with your customers? Hire someone with the skills above and you’ll be on your way. - Tom Gierasimczuk (@gierasimczuk)

First, companies need content marketers who understand why the bigger story matters and how to discover, articulate and communicate it. Content without context is a waste of time; it’s critical to have this overarching perspective before taking any next steps. Second, content marketers need to think like investigative reporters, always looking beyond the obvious and continually asking “why.” Internal groups naturally have their agendas for the content they want to produce, but generally the reason they believe is important is a derivative of why something matters to a customer. Content marketers have to be comfortable asking why these reasons matter, and sometimes that takes five to seven iterations of hearing an explanation. “Because we need to generate more revenue through this channel” is not a reason. But helping retail CIOs understand the fundamental shift in buyer behavior is. - Carla Johnson (@CarlaJohnson)

Communication and storytelling skills are critical these days. I would much rather have a group of amazing communicators, who can understand the business, wrap compelling and engaging stories around that business and communicate them brilliantly, than someone who can help me grind out an extra percentage point on my calls to action. It’s not that those tasks aren’t important – but they can’t help me differentiate my brand. Great communicators will help me to be different. - Robert Rose (@Robert_Rose)

There are two main skills: The need to be solid writers and solid researchers – which is why I’m a big fan of hiring journalist types. Other than that though, you want people that have a very creative mind, that push thought outside of the normal “box” most are encapsulated by, and that are willing to make mistakes in order to achieve big. - Marcus Sheridan (@TheSalesLion)

There seems to be a lot of emphasis on writers, editors and to some extent, visual storytellers such as videographers, for content marketing teams. However, in my experience, project managers with backgrounds either in producing broadcast news programming or working as publishers in newspaper or magazine publishing, have skill sets needed to effectively manage content marketing initiatives. - Russell Sparkman (@fusionspark)

Storytellers. This goes beyond just having good writing skills. You need people who can take the mundane and make it interesting enough for a customer to take action. - Michael Weiss (@mikepweiss)

- Ardath Albee (@ardath421)

Understanding of the company and its products and services is overvalued. Unlike social media roles, where having thorough knowledge of corporate culture and processes is a must, in content marketing roles being able to look at the organization through the eyes of potential customers is a real advantage. Consequently, content marketers can be successfully hired from outside the company in ways that social media personnel typically cannot. Additionally, outstanding writing abilities, some technical and software aptitude, and exceptional organizational skills should be required among content marketers. Also, leadership skills. This is frequently overlooked, but content marketers need to cajole, convince, and coerce others in the organization to create outstanding content. That’s not easy, and content marketers need enough personality and leadership ability to create a “movement” about content in the organization. - Jay Baer (@jaybaer)

Of these skills mentioned, which do you think is most important? What would you add to the list?

There’s no way around it: Content marketing takes a lot of elbow grease and time, but the rewards are great. And, as we’ve shown in this week’s series on productivity, there are plenty of ways to streamline your efforts and make them work more smoothly. Here are some of the most common issues content marketers face, with solutions for each. 

Are you spending too much time trying to figure out what to write about?

If you write with any frequency, I’m sure you have wondered, “What should I write about next?” In fact, as indicated by the 2012 B2B Budgets, Benchmarks and Trends research, producing engaging content is the biggest challenge for content marketers. Coming up with ideas is something our authors have covered a lot on CMI, so here are some ideas:

Do you need a better way to plan all of your content?

If there is one tool I think every content marketer needs to be efficient and organized, it’s the editorial calendar. While this document can be fluid, it provides the structure you need to know what content you need to create when. You can download a template that I created, or you can check out this recent post from Joe Pulizzi on Copyblogger about the components of an editorial calendar. 

Are you trying to get more focused when you write?

In his post, 3 Tips for Increasing Your Content Productivity, Roger Parker suggests two tools to help you stay focused: “Don’t assume that your current word processor is your only writing option. You may be thrilled, for example, to discover highly focused writing tools like IA Writer, with its uncluttered writing environment. Or, if you want to keep your ideas and online sources in front of you as you write, explore Scrivener, which uses an index card motif. “

Alternatively, if you don’t like looking at a blank screen, you can “talk it out” by using an audio recorder, a tip suggested by Brody Dorland. 

Do you need a way to break down all of the tasks associated with a project?

Dianna Huff provides this general framework for reducing “getting it all done” content marketing anxiety:

1. Keep track of your workflow
2. Determine your bottlenecks
3. Design your own system and processes

As an alternative, in a comment to Roger Parker’s post on increasing productivity, Howard Rauchl provides some great tips on how you can figure out how long it takes for content creation so you can have realistic expectations: 

In the productivity workshops I used to run at Folio, I chided editors because many assumed they were efficient. There are always shortcuts, and eventually they must be discovered. So, when it comes to content marketing, the premise in terms of content creation is that anyone supervising the process must know how long it takes to do everything.

Here is a simplification of how to start the process: (1) Break down the job into components; let’s say you end up with 12; (2) of that number, identify your three or four biggest time-eaters; (3) within the framework of a 20-21-day work month, estimate how much time is required to complete tasks involved; (4) then do the same for the lesser time-eaters; (5) you may find that your 20-21-day month has become a 25-40-day monster.

So now you know everything I know! Right now I am in the process of developing estimates for digital content workloads. The process is clearly diferent from content marketing, probably because the biggest time eater is e-news writing. Perhaps a good starting point for content marketers interested in this kind of stuff is to first identify key presentation categories… like white papers, webinars, newsletters, eBooks, etc. Then within each category, develop time-eater sub categories… and go from there. Enjoy!!!

Do you need a better way to organize and access all of the information you come across?

If you’re like me, you’re always finding ideas of things you want to try or getting inspired about things to write about. But, unless you centralize all of that info, this can be a time-consuming process. A great way to store, organize, and access your ideas is with Evernote. It’s no surprise that it’s been a very popular productivity tool for years. Here are some tips on how to set up Evernote to capture and store info, as well as ideas on how you can use it for content marketing.  

Are you feeling overwhelmed by all of the social media channels out there and unsure of where to focus your efforts? 

Instead of diving in to all social channels, Jayme Thompson suggests deciding which ones make the most sense in Cutting the Complexity of Content Marketing. She explains: “Our customers are probably much less aware of the newest, greatest content outposts than we are. If you do some listening and find the ponds they’re in, customers will find your content. And the No. 1 way to simplify? Start small, see how it goes (track it), and then add on when necessary.”

Are you looking for ways to automate distribution?

Once your content is created, you need a plan to get it out into the right channels. Brody Dorland wrote a fantastic post on 12 things to do after you have published a blog post with the updated 7 additional tips. Taking a cue from that, I developed a simple template for content marketing distribution. You can download and customize this template as a way to help you remember all the key steps when you want to get the word out. 

What other productivity challenges or tips do you have? Let me know in the comments. 

On its own, a single piece of content holds little value when you are trying to make a lasting impression. Only by understanding and harnessing the strengths of multiple, varying forms of content can you reach the gold standard of content marketing (as demonstrated in the infographic below).

Here is a rundown of the main strengths of different content types, and some examples of companies that are getting it just right.

Blogs

Regularly updated blogs provide a great forum for putting a personal face on an organization. People don’t interact with nameless, faceless brands — they interact with personalities. A blog filled with fresh, relevant content will boost engagement and help build a relationship with customers. Moreover, websites that have blogs report receiving 55 percent more visitors, according to Focus Research, and evidence shows they work in both B2B and B2C environments.

Here are two contrasting, but equally effective examples:

Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola has used its partnership with the Olympic Games to launch the Coca-Cola London 2012 mums’ blog. In this instance, the company uses the blog to highlight the experiences of parents whose children are involved in the Olympics and to help foster a sense of community around the brand.

 

Google: Google’s official blog provides a hub for its latest announcements, but recent posts that tied in with Mother’s Day and behind the scenes insights really injected the personality needed to bring this content to life.

 

Infographics

Many have already hailed 2012 as the year of the infographic. This visually appealing format engages web users and boosts the time spent on-page. Much of the appeal of infographics lies in their shareability and potential for quality backlinks. Forty percent of people respond better to visual information than plain text, according to Ecademy, and infographics reach out to this huge group.

NewsReach: The Gold Standard of Content Marketing: Infographics must have a strong central message, backed up by a clear narrative and all the essential information. In its Gold Standard of Content Marketing infographic, NewsReach likens the creation of content to the mining of gold. Just as gold must be sourced, mined, processed, shaped, and hallmarked to become desirable pieces, so too must high-quality content.  

White papers

White papers act as a great brand-building tool and offer a chance to reach out into the C-suite. Decision makers want the facts in an easily digestible format. According to Eccolo Media, 65 percent of U.S. business purchasers believe white papers are either very or extremely valuable when making purchase decisions. For the company producing them, white papers are a golden opportunity to collect leads and showcase their thought leadership. And don’t forget the social media buttons. White papers are valuable content that have high shareability potential, particularly on professional networks such as LinkedIn.

HubSpot: HubSpot has built up a reputation as an industry leader when it comes to white papers and eBooks. The Content Marketing Institute has built up a similarly well-stocked library of materials, securing its status as a go-to source of information in the industry. Those with a less well-known brand may want to stay clear of such a hefty form at risk of putting visitors off with a clunky downloading process. Trust needs to be built up before people are willing to share that much information. Like CMI, ensure you offer a tantalising teaser and concise description on the landing page to ensure your content doesn’t fall at the final hurdle.  

 

Video

Where to start? Each week 100 million social actions are taken on online video — think of the buzz created by Kony 2012. Video is 50 times more likely to appear on the first page in organic rankings than plain text sites, according to The Video and Image Optimization report by Forrester, as search engines look to return more blended results and, in part, due to less competition for top rankings. It is engaging, shareable, and allows a brand to really showcase its creative side.

This example from Tipp-ex really says it all.

Tipp-Ex: The interactive element to this video is what helped it rack up over 8 million views on YouTube alone. The lesson here? There is always room to be creative, and if you succeed in entertaining your audience and drawing them into your brand story or experience, you’re onto a winner (warning: the video below contains some language that is NSFW).

 

Analysis/Thought leadership

B2B brands have long known the importance of thought leadership, but the internet has taken it to a new level. Businesses should not be restrained by traditional tried and tested methods — such as white papers and reports — and should also embrace the new tools made available that can really showcase their expertise to build their brand. The top use of B2B social media is now for thought leadership.

IBM’s Institute for Business Value website offers one of the best examples on the web.

IBM: Full of great content in a variety of formats — reports, newsletters, even a mobile app — and designed with simplicity in mind, the Institute for Business Value allows IBM to showcase its expertise without the theatrics. It is the first port-of-call for those looking to expand their thought leadership.

 

FAQs/ How-tos/ Guides

Whether you’re in the B2B or B2C sector, FAQs and guides help turn your website into a valuable resource hub. Impartial advice builds trust with potential customers and helps forge relationships, while pages also perform well in SERPs. With Google also indicating that it plans to place more of a focus on semantic search, FAQs could provide a valuable SEO boost when the changes sweep in.

Here are two examples of how to get it right:

Amazon: When it comes to FAQs, simplicity is key, as Amazon demonstrates here. Ensure you perfect your navigation, and give clear, concise answers to the common questions consumers are likely to ask.

 

B&Q: U.K. DIY retailer B&Q has created an information hub with its Ideas and Advice section. It’s a way of saying, “We don’t just care when we’re trying to sell you something,” and offers the chance to get some great searchable terms on the site.

 

Only by adopting a targeted and integrated approach to content in all its forms will content marketing efforts succeed. Share with us your experience with using different types of content to engage audiences and meet your marketing goals.

Want more content marketing inspiration? Download CMI’s ultimate eBook with 100 content marketing examples.

Content marketing is like the quiet kid who sits in the back of the class to whom no one pays attention. Yet, below the surface lies a superhero who can transform your content marketing into a powerhouse via its integration with social media, search, and sales.

So how can content marketing supercharge your social media, search, and sales?

Content marketing super power: Social media 

Content marketing helps fuel social media interactions in many ways, such as: 

• It attracts prospects, customers, and the public with engaging, useful, and entertaining information: Place content on social media platforms to lure your target audience in.
• It provides currency for interactions through information and entertainment in a variety of media formats: Think comments, photographs, graphics, videos, audio, and presentations. Prospects, customers, and the public can consume content on any device, including computers, smartphones, tablets, and e-readers, so be sure to tailor your content so they can access it on their terms.
• It helps you interact with prospects, customers, fans, and the public: At its core, social media is about a public conversation. Content marketing provides the basis to start a dialogue, as well as help you respond to prospects’ and consumers’ questions.
• It extends your reach through sharability. Regardless of where you place your content — whether it’s on your owned media, social media, or third-party media — add easy-to-use social sharing buttons to expand your reach and make it easy for consumers to spread it around while they are already engaged. 

Content marketing super power: Search 

Content marketing provides a relevant environment to support search optimization (Here’s additional help from 15 SEO experts.): 

• It offers context for appropriate keyword phrases: Relevant content supports keyword use on your owned media, since it enhances the meaning of the words used — which will improve its search rankings.
• It functions across various media formats: Integrating non-text media into your content provides additional entryways to help searchers (and search bots) to find your content. Be sure to add relevant keywords for non-text content (photos, videos, etc.), as well.
• It attracts inbound links: Offer useful information your target audience and the public seek, such as checklists, resources, and round-up posts to increase your inbound links and social shares.
• It supplies links to appropriate areas of your owned media: Include links to relevant content on your owned media to help prospects and customers with their pain points and questions. These links also put your content in context for search bots, so you will want to link to pages that are as close to the purchase phase as possible. 

Content marketing super power: Sales 

Content marketing provides information to answer questions and support sales at every step in the purchase process: 

• It enhances a brand through a 360-degree view across different media formats. While many firms have branding guidelines, few if any consider how to present their brand in today’s multi-media environment. In other words, when creating your content, make sure you consider how your brand talks, what sounds it makes, how it should look in photographs and other images, and how it should act on video or in real life. 
• It tells memorable stories about your products, brand, and company: Stories with a beginning, middle, and end are easier to remember than a bunch of facts loosely tied together. Enhance your brand and products with stories that engage consumers at every step of the process, whether it’s explaining why your product is important for them or showing them how to use it.
• It supports purchase by answering questions at every phase of purchase. Content marketing provides information that helps consumers evaluate and choose products, as well as enhancing product usage after purchase. Don’t underestimate the need to create content that helps customers post-purchase — which can help sell related products.
• It offers customer reviews to provide a sense of reality for customers: Consumers trust other consumers more than they trust marketers. Providing this user-generated content to your customers helps them overcome potential impediments to making a purchase. Invite customers to give you their feedback post-purchase as another way to get them engaged — and to give you a reason to extend the relationship. 

Like any super power, content marketing needs to be used properly to achieve the maximum benefit. To this end, consider how you’ll use content marketing to support your social media, search, and sales marketing efforts and to integrate them into your editorial calendar. 

How do you use content marketing to give your social media, search, and sales super powers?

Need help getting started with Content Marketing? Attend Heidi Cohen’s Content Marketing 101 at Content Marketing World.

Photo credit: Flickr

Chances are the CEO, CMO, and other executives in your organization know at least a little something about how to deliver a message to customers — that’s why they make the big bucks, right?

But the marketing game is always evolving, and now that content marketing has emerged as one of the most vital components of any marketing plan, what they know about our discipline may not have kept up with the times.

Part of the content marketer’s job is to champion the value that content has on the bottom line of any business, and explain its benefits in a clear, compelling way in order to get the sign-off and budget necessary to move projects through the execution.

If you’ve ever found this to be a challenge, you’re not alone. The content experts who work with the CMI Consultants program have all been there. Here, they share a few tips to help you make the case to the C-suite — so your business can start reaping the rewards of deeper audience engagement. 

The first thing you need to think about is how to tie the impact of content marketing to business priorities. The C-suite doesn’t care about clicks and opens, they care about increasing revenue and decreasing costs. Content marketing has plenty of research and use case examples available. Search them out and build a business case for it within your organization. Why not create a persona-driven content strategy to convince your executive team? Find out specifically what they care about that content marketing can address and create a series of emails to convince them. It also doesn’t hurt to include examples of content marketing done by competitors to make your case. What if all the engagement from this new eBook could be ours? Look how we’ve slipped in the search results because our competitor keeps publishing fresh content… Get the VP of Sales on your side and have him/her go to bat for you. Work together to forecast what the impact could be to revenue if salespeople are able to increase close rate by X% due to having more highly qualified leads. - Ardath Albee (@ardath421)

Near-universal internet access has created an era of self-serve information. Google’s Zero Moment of Truth research shows that consumers digest more than 10 pieces of online information before making a purchase decision (up from just five a year ago). Companies must provide comprehensive content assets that inform, educate, persuade, and retain customers. While resource-intensive, content marketing is fortunately quite efficient, as every piece of content creates an information annuity that continues to generate visibility and persuasion indefinitely. This is in stark contrast to advertising, whose benefits fade quickly if the media buy stops. - Jay Baer (@jaybaer)

I explain to them that there no longer is another option. Every customer of theirs is now online, and if they do a web search for the company’s product or service they need to find them immediately or they might lose them. The only way to insure that this happens is with content that is appropriate for them. They have to have a strategy to make sure that all departments are talking to each other and that what they are creating is the right sort of content. The truth is that some C-suite members don’t want to hear this. They want to keep doing things the way they have been doing them for years. I always let those sort of people in on a little secret — that they are dinosaurs, and when they realize they don’t have much longer to call me back, we’ll work on making sure they survive. - C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman)

When explaining content marketing to the C-suite, I typically like to paint a broader picture to start. I ask them to imagine that they could keynote the best event in their industry with all of their best clients and prospects in the audience, with the opportunity to deliver their best message. Would they want to do that? Then I explain that a content marketing program, when properly executed, gives you this opportunity every day of the year, without having to hop on a plane, stay overnight out of town, or even put on their best suit. Best of all, the content that you create now can have staying power, continuing to drive opportunities for you years after you initially create it. Once we have heads nodding on the emotional side, it’s time to break down the investment, cost-per-lead, typical close rate, cross-sell opportunities, and the other financials in the big spreadsheet to win the hearts and minds of the C-suite. - Will Davis (@willdavis)

Content marketing is simply using your company’s expertise and creativity to attract an audience to you. Once they’re interested, we have a chance to help them buy our products. - Jason Falls (@JasonFalls)

In an increasingly commodified marketplace, what sets brands apart in the consumer’s mind is purpose and an interesting point of view communicated in an honest and human way. A content strategy puts your audience at the heart of everything you do and sets parameters and rules for your people to communicate with customers in a way that’s consistent in scope and tone. Content marketing has the ability to focus your proposition (and save you money on disparate, one-off campaigns that never really get tied back into your long-term marketing goals). It also, all of the sudden gives you stuff to tweet about, post on your Facebook page, pin, and Instagram. Your brand is incredibly interesting. Content marketing lets you find those stories and share them with your customers in a way they care about… and recall at the moment of truth. Additionally, content marketing is a way for brands to duplicate the success of a good media company, where communication is always tied back to a mandate the audience has bought into, the stories are fresh and better than the competition’s, and not everything is always vanilla and safe. These stories keep people paying attention and show that there are people behind the messages. When done right, weaving your brand’s story consistently into ongoing, fresh conversations with your audience can become the connective tissue of all your marketing by giving you a direct line into what your customers want. Are you finally going to splash out for that paid media campaign? Don’t dare do it without mining your content marketing team for insights… and content! - Tom Gierasimczuk (@gierasimczuk)

Today’s marketing environment has made a fundamental shift away from the traditional 4 Ps: Where we used to focus on promotion for what we deliver, successful companies have made the transition to education, and content marketing serves as the foundation for this. The best way to attract and retain customers is to educate them about the industry in general, where it’s headed, pain points and solutions that address them, and how company offerings fit into this mix. This is the path for companies to shift away from the price-sensitive selling and become trusted advisors and strategic partners.What executive wouldn’t want to sit in that seat? - Carla Johnson (@CarlaJohnson)

I believe it’s about making a business case — not in promising some kind of immediate ROI. Content marketing is inherently an innovative new process for most organizations – and so by definition is new. So, the key is to build a case for WHY an innovative new process may help solve a business goal. It might be more leads, a more efficient funnel, or simply a decrease of customer service costs; but whatever the goal, the case should be made that a content-driven strategy will help to achieve it (but not without some risk and, certainly, fine-tuning over time). Ultimately, I find one of the best ways is to identify a particularly “ripe” part of the funnel to approach first. It might be your biggest pain point — or one that is new — but identify some tactic (let’s say building leads through pay-per-click) and then applying a content marketing process on top of it to see if we can improve those results. If you can, then use that savings to try another tactic – and then another. Slowly build an economic model that makes a content-driven strategy make sense. - Robert Rose (@Robert_Rose)

This may sound odd or unbelievable to some, but my greatest success has stemmed from explaining to CEOs how Google actually works, how search works, and how we, as humans, search for content in the first place. Once someone understands these principles, a light bulb will often come on, and then magic happens. Everything in this world is information- and content-based. If organizational leaders see this vision, content marketing just makes sense. - Marcus Sheridan (@TheSalesLion)

I’m convinced that before content marketing strategy and tactics can get C-suite buy-in, they have to be first convinced of the value of content (both created and curated) as a wise investment. Naturally, that means convincing them of what the return on those investments will be. I generally begin by explaining that any other flavor of marketing tactic they may be currently using, whether it be social media, or email, or inbound, word-of-mouth, and so on, isn’t worth a plug nickel without good content. I then deliver my Content is Gold analogy, drawing the following comparisons to characteristics of gold: Content is an INVESTMENT that not only holds value, but increases in value over time. Content is highly CONDUCTIVE, in that it’s the medium through which awareness is moved (think of “share” and “like” buttons, retweets and embeds, for instance). Content is very MALLEABLE. For example, a series of blog posts becomes the basis for a video, and so on. Content is CURRENCY, in that it can be used as a basis of exchange (such as my participation in this crowdsourced CMI post in exchange for access to an audience). Content provides STATUS & INFLUENCE to the holder, in that whoever has the best content wins. Content RUNS IN VEINS throughout an organization, and those veins can be mined and tapped for resources, and for ideas. Content is a brand’s BLING in the way it “accessorizes” a brand’s core products or services. - Russell Sparkman (@fusionspark)

Content Marketing is nothing new. What’s new is the way your customers interact with your organization. They are more savvy now and they have high expectations. The consumer of old would sit back and listen to what you had to say. The consumer of 2012 fully understands that they manage your brand; they don’t just sit there and do what they are told. They are aware of the market and your competitors. With content marketing you can create compelling, educational, and inspiring content that engages the consumer to create a relationship. This is how you gain and retain customers in today’s rapidly changing market. - Michael Weiss (@mikepweiss)

Like most things in the marketing world, good communication seems to be the surest path to success. Do you have additional ideas for communicating the value of content marketing with executives, your colleagues, and your other marketing peers? Tell us how you do it in the comments below. 

Want more guidance to meet your content marketing challenges? Our CMI Consultants would be happy to help. You can also learn more on how to get executive buy-in for your content efforts when you attend Content Marketing World on September 4 – 6 in Columbus, Ohio, where you can listen to and meet many of our consultants. 

A web design company illustrates how to court “old media” with grace and gravitas. 

Blue Fountain Media operates in a cut-throat, crowded field: website development and design, and online marketing. From 2007 to 2010 — years that were downright cruel to most U.S. businesses — revenues at Blue Fountain Media grew 620 percent.

The company was named an Inc. 5000 high-flier in 2011 —reaching number 541 on Inc. Magazine’s annual list of fastest-growing U.S. companies — and executives write columns for among the most recognized media properties in the world, including the New York Times, American Express OpenForum and Inc. Magazine.

Despite appearances, the Blue Fountain Media’s publicity engine is fairly young. “Just five years ago, the world didn’t know much about us,” says Jon Gelberg, chief content officer. “We created a content marketing strategy because we felt people wouldn’t take us seriously until we were recognized by the media as experts in our field.”

And it’s obviously doing something right; the company has a growing roster of high-profile brand-clients, including, Walt Disney Resorts, Procter & Gamble, Oppenheimer Funds and the NFL.

How does a web marketing company stand out from the tens of thousands of companies offering similar services? According to Blue Fountain Media’s chief content officer: gravitas. (We’ll get back to that in a moment.)

Using content to fuel a heady climb.

Gelberg joined the company in 2009 and recounts that Blue Fountain Media was producing very high quality web designs and online campaigns, but little promotion was in place to build momentum and brand recognition.

The first move was to pre-fill an online learning center with more than a dozen articles on popular marketing topics, such as “What Should My Web Design and Development Project Cost?” and “How Social Media Marketing can Enhance your Bottom Line.” With a solid — but very small — library in place, Gelberg began an intensive campaign to pitch stories and expertise to the media. He explains, “We would contact a newspaper or magazine and say, ‘We see you’ve been writing about how to use Facebook. We have that area of expertise.’ Then we linked to an actual story with ready-made quotes for journalists to use.”

Slowly and steadily, the combination of digital content plus PR campaigning began to pay off. Blue Fountain Media gained access to smaller, regional media companies, publishing columns and winning interviews. Those stories in smaller publications were picked up by aggregators like Yahoo, and before long, Blue Fountain Media executives-turned-authors were climbing the media rungs, reaching bigger and bigger media properties with bylined articles, interviews and regular columns.

When asked how the company measures the results of its PR offensive, Gelberg is decidedly circumspect. “I can recount for you the number of clicks or calls to our office mentioning our press coverage,” he explains. “But as a company we also get a big boost from the respect or gravitas of our content marketing program. Our column in the New York Times, for example, bestows a lot of credibility and respect on us, particularly when anyone can call themselves a web designer or SEO guru.”

Don’t bother if you don’t actually possess real expertise.

“Content has gotten a bad name for a good reason,” says Gelberg. He’s referring to what many call “content farms,” or agencies and technology companies that staff up blogging platforms with hundreds of writers who are paid-per-click for branded media sites. He explains that if you hope to get the attention of media companies, you need to have something valuable to share (i.e. insightful expertise) and high-quality writing, not SEO-stacked cotton candy. Without value and quality, your public relations push, no matter how hard you work, will amount to nothing.

Ultimately, catching the attention of top media outlets takes more than great content. It also requires a bit of grace when developing and executing on the all-important pitch. Gelberg offers a few pointers for content marketers with PR aspirations:

• Craft your pick-up line: Remember top media editors receive dozens of pitches per day. How will you break through the clutter? Do you have an insight into a current problem that is unique, practical and valuable? 
• Focus on the editor’s needs: Don’t babble about yourself. Show you are interested and knowledgeable about them — both the publication and the reporter. Point to a specific story and offer an additional insight for a future story on the topic.
• Keep your chin up: You will be rejected. Repeatedly. Get over it. Be persistent; if someone doesn’t answer a call or e-mail but you’re convinced it’s a good fit, follow up multiple times, stopping just shy of pestering.
• Give and take: Be specific about what types of insights and information you have to offer. After a media outlet has relied on you, become a trusted resource by saying “thank you” and keeping in touch with additional insights and story ideas. Follow editors and journalists on Twitter and LinkedIn to see their latest bylines; keep up the social banter to ensure your name is top-of-mind.

What’s ahead for Gelberg and Blue Fountain Media? Consistently executing more of the same. “In our business, staying on top of technologies and trends, and studying online user behavior is the most important thing we do across the company,” explains Gelberg. “By keeping up with and growing our expertise, we serve our clients well and produce intelligent, high-value content.” Touché! 

This article originally appeared in the May 2012 issue of Chief Content Officer. Sign up to receive your free print subscription.

Every day we are flooded with information about the latest and greatest social and mobile platforms where people hold conversations, voice opinions, or influence others. Whether it’s Instagram, Google+, Path, or Pinterest, people are flocking to these new social networks.

But companies are now left trying to make sense of which ones they should be paying attention to, what they need to be doing in these channels to gain a competitive advantage, and how it all ties into their overall content marketing strategy. 

On today’s rapidly shifting web, it’s essential that companies start to take a more holistic approach to content marketing and connect more effectively with their various stakeholders across a number of web and social channels. This “pressure to extend” has created a new strategic online content life cycle that is imperative when competing on today’s unpredictable social web — especially in light of recent changes in Google search algorithms and how they might affect established SEO strategies. 

The new content life cycle

In a business climate that’s moving at “web speed,” new technologies, media channels, platforms, and social networks continue to pop up and present new challenges for businesses. These demands require a renewed focus on holistic content models, and strategies that scale and optimize the right content to the right channels while measuring its impact. 

This necessitates a shift from the old, linear “Create, Approve, Publish” model of moving content to just the corporate site. Marketers and content owners now require a model that extends in either direction. 

The new content life cycle is, in fact, a virtuous circle: 

• The process, conceivably, starts with planning, before moving into the management phase of content creation.
• From there, content still needs to be created, approved, and published, of course, but our jobs do not end there.
• Once published, the value of that content needs to be measured and (based on that measurement) further optimized.
• Of course, the strategy will likely need to be adjusted based on the relative success (or failure) of that content against its original goal, before being fed back into the planning process for the next wave of content. 

Once a plan like this is put in place, there is no longer a beginning or an end to the content life cycle. Of course, a particular piece of content has to start somewhere, but the overall content strategy needs to be constantly in motion.

Although the corporate website remains critical for establishing a strong, recognizable brand, as we move forward, the process of creating meaningful and engaging conversations across the social channels where your constituents are interacting has a growing impact on whether or not you will achieve your business goals. 

Content strategy in action

Lancaster Bible College (LBC) is an example of an organization that is thinking about its content strategy in ways that will increase business results. When you consider the staggering number of colleges and universities on the web, recruiting efforts can be challenging for a small, faith-based college in Lancaster, Pa. To remain competitive and ensure that prospective students are attracted to the school, it’s crucial for LBC’s marketing team to have control over the delivery of fresh, timely, and interactive content that they can push through the content life cycle and make accessible across various web channels.

LBC’s old web content system had many limitations that prevented the school from powering content quickly to its site and building a presence in the social channels populated with prospective students. LBC needed to revamp its content life cycle and empower content owners to react nimbly to the rapid changes of the web. By empowering the marketing arm of the organization with new web content management technology that removed the historical content bottlenecks, LBC’s marketing department and administrators can now create new content and publish it instantaneously without IT involvement.

LBC has extended its content ownership to more people at the school, enabling them to stay timely and competitive, while removing its reliance on limited IT specialists and/or outside consulting services to publish and make changes to the site. 

LBC is capitalizing on this new strategic approach to marketing on the web by streamlining many of the costly and time consuming phases of the content life cycle, and focusing on what matters most — creating meaningful and relevant content to broaden its online reach, enrich social engagement, and improve business results. 

Four content imperatives for the new content reality

As we awaken to the new realities of content, here are four ways to rethink your content execution, and take advantage of the new content life cycle. 

1. Structure your content marketing strategy as a holistic system that allows you to connect more effectively with various stakeholders across a number of social channels, drive conversation, and influence customers. 

1. Open up content contribution to more users across the organization, providing more opportunities to connect with and engage customers in social channels, and extend your online reach. Be sure to remove any technology or process roadblocks that inhibit the expansion of your contributor pool — the more people who are able to contribute easily, the more content you will have to push across your channels. 

1. Deliver fresh, compelling and timely content that engages users and keeps visitors returning to your site, and then be sure to extend that content into your social channels. It’s no longer required to use your corporate sites as the centralized point of engagement; push your content out to the edge of the network and transform your website so that it serves as another node on that network. 

1. Be sure you are listening to the online conversations of your target audience, and optimize your content and content strategy based on the insights you gather from them. Set goals for expected outcomes with your content, just as you would with a traditional marketing campaign, and track and measure the results fervently. To complete the cycle, constantly test new ideas, and dump what doesn’t work while further optimizing what is working. 

If your organization is still questioning whether you should be doing more on the social web, it’s time to step back and look at your content life cycle through this new strategic lens. As more companies start to adopt a more holistic approach to their content marketing strategies — by ensuring delivery of rich and engaging content on both their site and to social channels — they will drive results, and be better equipped to handle whatever comes next on the web.

Taking even one of these four simple steps outlined above will better position your content and instantly make your content strategy more valuable. But don’t wait to get started! The faster you get rolling, the faster you will start to see results.

Want more content marketing inspiration? Download our ultimate eBook with 100 content marketing examples.