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Content Marketing and Thought Leadership

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Mark Lewis
Mark Lewis

Customers are increasingly serving them selves in the purchasing cycle. Content Marketing can help put your offerings on the radar and increase your lead generation. Here's few tips to how to get started.

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Why you need it, and how to get the ball rolling
Why Content Marketing?!
57% of the buying cycle is now completed before a sales person is contacted.! Source: The Digital Evolution in B2B Marketing, 2012
! So, make sure you have engaging content that can serve your prospects and customers.!
! It’s time to shift from promotional content to demonstrate a deeper understanding of your prospects’ and customers’ pain points.! Source: Content Marketing for Lead Generation, 2014
Need more reasons?! • Clients are more empowered, impatient and skeptical than ever before. • Content marketing supports trust, integrity, and credibility. • Socially shared content will increase brand awareness. • Content will drive organic search results. • Content marketing will increase visitor rates. • Content with highly targeted keywords will drive a better quality of leads. • Content marketing will reduce the costs of other areas of marketing such as public relations and advertising. • Content marketing will increase client awareness, making future sales cycles shorter.
Plan!
! ! To get started, ask yourself these key questions...!
• Why do we publish?" • Who will read our content?" " • How will our content differentiate?" " • What relevant topics and themes can we specialise in?" " • How will we use digital channels to promote our content?" " • How will we create, format, maintain, and optimise content?" " "
! ! ... You will find your answers here…!
• Set goals!" • Define buyer lifecycles and personas!" " • Consult your strategy & customer needs!" " • Talk to your Subject Matter Experts about industry needs!" " • Establish preferred channels and create a digital ecosystem!" " • Create x-functional teams that produce, distribute & monitor content!" " "
Some B2B goals for Content Marketing! 0 20 40 60 80 100 Brand Awareness Lead Generation Customer Acquisition Thought Leadership Engagement Retention/Loyalty Website Traffic Lead Nurturing Sales Source: B2B Content Marketing Trends, 2014
! THOUGHT LEADERSHIP CAN SUPPORT ALL THE OTHER GOALS.!
”! A thought leader is an individual or firm that prospects, clients, referral sources, intermediaries and even competitors recognize as one of the foremost authorities in selected areas of specialization, resulting in its being the go-to individual or organization for said expertise.
Thought Leadership benefits! Early stage Middle stage Late stage " More inbound inquiries" " More short listing" " Faster sales cycles" " Higher close rates" " Bigger deal sizes" " Increased customer loyalty" " Higher lifetime value" Source: Forrester, 2013
Organize!
! AT THE HEART OF CONTENT MARKETING IS YOUR ORGANISATION.!
Content Marketing and Thought Leadership
Pitfalls! • Make sure you combine people with strong knowledge of the business and people with strong knowledge of digital communication. • Tap into the Subject Matter Experts in your organisation and make them contribute. • Define the split between Global control and Local flexibility. • For example: At what level do you want specific conversions to take place: Global or Local? • Define what qualifies a “qualified lead” – you’ll want Sales to work with what you give them.
Create!
! ! WHAT TOPICS & THEMES WILL WE USE?!
Topics & Themes! • Where’s the business value? • Where’s our deepest industry knowledge? • Where’s the competition weak? • Where can we be Thought Leaders? • What keywords should we use? • What keywords should we avoid? • What context should we plug into? • Who are the KOLs?
! ! WHAT FORMATS WILL WORK FOR OUR CUSTOMERS? FOR US?! !
Formats that drive leads & sales! 0 10 20 30 40 50 Blog posts or articles e-newsletters or magazines Own community or forum Animated explainer videos Branded engagement Whitepapers/e-books Infographics Mobile apps Research reports Webinars Competitions Wizards Quizzes Games Source: Driving Content Marketing Success in 2014, European Edition
! ! VIDEO ON A LANDING PAGE CAN INCREASE CONVERSION BY 80%!! ! Source: B2B Video Marketing: B2B Benchmarks and Best Practices, 2014
! WORK WITH YOUR COPYWRITING. ! DO IT AGAIN. ! AND AGAIN.!
80%! of people will read and share a post before even ! reading the body text! Source: The Ultimate Guide to Content Distribution
Make sure you know your content’s! • Target audience • Target industry • Topic & theme • Formats • Keywords • KOL’s • Most Wanted Response • Most responsive digital channel • Performance
! ! MAKE A CONTENT CALENDAR – IT’S YOUR MAIN EDITORIAL TOOL.!
Optimize!
! ! There are 5 basic KPI dimensions for your content…!
KPIs for content! REACH! ENGAGEMENT! AUTHORITY & INFLUENCE! CONVERSION / ! MWR! ROI! Page views Pages per visit Shares by reputable users Your conversion A Net new opportunities Visits Ave. time per visit Inbound links Your conversion B Online leads Visitors Bounce rate SME references Your conversion C Rate premiums Unique visitors Return visits Authority rank of linkers Your conversion D Accelerated decision cycle Visitors from mobile devices Social actions (likes, shares, comments) Brand mentioning Your conversion E % leads with digital origin Visitors from direct traffic 2nd tier social actions (ecosystem engage) Keyword associated brand mentioning Cost per lead Visitors from branded search Visitors from unbranded search Visitors from social sources
! MAKE SURE YOU TRACK THE RIGHT KPI’S AND FEED THEIR PERFORMANCE BACK TO THE TEAM.!
Thhannkk yyoouu"!

More Related Content

Content Marketing and Thought Leadership

  • 1. Why you need it, and how to get the ball rolling
  • 3. 57% of the buying cycle is now completed before a sales person is contacted.! Source: The Digital Evolution in B2B Marketing, 2012
  • 4. ! So, make sure you have engaging content that can serve your prospects and customers.!
  • 5. ! It’s time to shift from promotional content to demonstrate a deeper understanding of your prospects’ and customers’ pain points.! Source: Content Marketing for Lead Generation, 2014
  • 6. Need more reasons?! • Clients are more empowered, impatient and skeptical than ever before. • Content marketing supports trust, integrity, and credibility. • Socially shared content will increase brand awareness. • Content will drive organic search results. • Content marketing will increase visitor rates. • Content with highly targeted keywords will drive a better quality of leads. • Content marketing will reduce the costs of other areas of marketing such as public relations and advertising. • Content marketing will increase client awareness, making future sales cycles shorter.
  • 8. ! ! To get started, ask yourself these key questions...!
  • 9. • Why do we publish?" • Who will read our content?" " • How will our content differentiate?" " • What relevant topics and themes can we specialise in?" " • How will we use digital channels to promote our content?" " • How will we create, format, maintain, and optimise content?" " "
  • 10. ! ! ... You will find your answers here…!
  • 11. • Set goals!" • Define buyer lifecycles and personas!" " • Consult your strategy & customer needs!" " • Talk to your Subject Matter Experts about industry needs!" " • Establish preferred channels and create a digital ecosystem!" " • Create x-functional teams that produce, distribute & monitor content!" " "
  • 12. Some B2B goals for Content Marketing! 0 20 40 60 80 100 Brand Awareness Lead Generation Customer Acquisition Thought Leadership Engagement Retention/Loyalty Website Traffic Lead Nurturing Sales Source: B2B Content Marketing Trends, 2014
  • 13. ! THOUGHT LEADERSHIP CAN SUPPORT ALL THE OTHER GOALS.!
  • 14. ”! A thought leader is an individual or firm that prospects, clients, referral sources, intermediaries and even competitors recognize as one of the foremost authorities in selected areas of specialization, resulting in its being the go-to individual or organization for said expertise.
  • 15. Thought Leadership benefits! Early stage Middle stage Late stage " More inbound inquiries" " More short listing" " Faster sales cycles" " Higher close rates" " Bigger deal sizes" " Increased customer loyalty" " Higher lifetime value" Source: Forrester, 2013
  • 17. ! AT THE HEART OF CONTENT MARKETING IS YOUR ORGANISATION.!
  • 19. Pitfalls! • Make sure you combine people with strong knowledge of the business and people with strong knowledge of digital communication. • Tap into the Subject Matter Experts in your organisation and make them contribute. • Define the split between Global control and Local flexibility. • For example: At what level do you want specific conversions to take place: Global or Local? • Define what qualifies a “qualified lead” – you’ll want Sales to work with what you give them.
  • 21. ! ! WHAT TOPICS & THEMES WILL WE USE?!
  • 22. Topics & Themes! • Where’s the business value? • Where’s our deepest industry knowledge? • Where’s the competition weak? • Where can we be Thought Leaders? • What keywords should we use? • What keywords should we avoid? • What context should we plug into? • Who are the KOLs?
  • 23. ! ! WHAT FORMATS WILL WORK FOR OUR CUSTOMERS? FOR US?! !
  • 24. Formats that drive leads & sales! 0 10 20 30 40 50 Blog posts or articles e-newsletters or magazines Own community or forum Animated explainer videos Branded engagement Whitepapers/e-books Infographics Mobile apps Research reports Webinars Competitions Wizards Quizzes Games Source: Driving Content Marketing Success in 2014, European Edition
  • 25. ! ! VIDEO ON A LANDING PAGE CAN INCREASE CONVERSION BY 80%!! ! Source: B2B Video Marketing: B2B Benchmarks and Best Practices, 2014
  • 26. ! WORK WITH YOUR COPYWRITING. ! DO IT AGAIN. ! AND AGAIN.!
  • 27. 80%! of people will read and share a post before even ! reading the body text! Source: The Ultimate Guide to Content Distribution
  • 28. Make sure you know your content’s! • Target audience • Target industry • Topic & theme • Formats • Keywords • KOL’s • Most Wanted Response • Most responsive digital channel • Performance
  • 29. ! ! MAKE A CONTENT CALENDAR – IT’S YOUR MAIN EDITORIAL TOOL.!
  • 31. ! ! There are 5 basic KPI dimensions for your content…!
  • 32. KPIs for content! REACH! ENGAGEMENT! AUTHORITY & INFLUENCE! CONVERSION / ! MWR! ROI! Page views Pages per visit Shares by reputable users Your conversion A Net new opportunities Visits Ave. time per visit Inbound links Your conversion B Online leads Visitors Bounce rate SME references Your conversion C Rate premiums Unique visitors Return visits Authority rank of linkers Your conversion D Accelerated decision cycle Visitors from mobile devices Social actions (likes, shares, comments) Brand mentioning Your conversion E % leads with digital origin Visitors from direct traffic 2nd tier social actions (ecosystem engage) Keyword associated brand mentioning Cost per lead Visitors from branded search Visitors from unbranded search Visitors from social sources
  • 33. ! MAKE SURE YOU TRACK THE RIGHT KPI’S AND FEED THEIR PERFORMANCE BACK TO THE TEAM.!