Page 10 - ENGAGE -- Issue #10 -- Fall 2017

08 Fall 2017 COVER STORY
leader in delivering content to whomever.
That is not a strategy. A strategy sets goals based on where we are now, picks a direction, and makes a set of integrated choices. There will be things you say no to. Companies that are evolving in this space have taken time to research and challenge their own assumptions. Marketers don’t like to say no. They fear missing the next big thing. Innovation doesn’t always mean doing new stuff. Sometimes it means reinventing yourself as a company that prioritizes the holistic customer experience. It could also be the super-unsexy stuff, such as fixing the checkout experience online or killing your Facebook Page because only 100 people look at it. Evolving is what sets people apart.
I like unsexy marketing. I like the pragmatic stuff, the good stuff that will help support the customer through all stages of the buying cycle.
Q: So, what does it mean to create a content strategy as a brand?
KH: Content strategy guides planning for creating, delivering, and managing useful, usable content. And the useful, usable part is about putting the customer in the center. Content strategy takes into consideration brand strategy. It’s not about driving brand awareness—that’s advertising. It’s making the content useful and usable for the customer through their life cycle.
Q: Can you tell us some of the reasons a brand might want to start creating content itself?
KH: There are a number of reasons creating content might be the right approach for your business—shaping brand perception, improving your SEO standing, building out email lists, or
generating qualified leads. Those last ones are pretty concrete. If you are going to say how content will do those things, you better have metrics in place.
Q: Once a company has set those goals, who should lead the charge?
KH: That depends on what your editorial mission is, where your content will live, and what your point of view is. Cruise companies and brands such as L.L.Bean, for example, have been creating lifestyle content for years via email and other channels. Their idea of treating content as if it’s a magazine is different. If you commit to something like that, you better have some sort of editor, or a beat reporter called a content marketing specialist. If you want to set up a content marketing team, look at a magazine and draw parallels between how people working in print translates to a digital environment. At Brain Traffic, we are just now readying to launch a podcast as a new form of content with different goals. We have a content marketing manager,
and our subject matter experts are creating the content. We have a proofreader and outside support for web and podcast production. It all depends on what works with your infrastructure.
Q: How should marketers build a successful business case for a content strategy budget?
KH: You have to ask yourself what any marketer should always be asking: How do I sell this product to this audience? And it depends on who the audience is, of course. If you have a boss who
is super into eyeballs on his or her advertising, focus on the opportunity in SEO and on driving people into learning more about products and services, then put teeth behind it by proposing numbers. If you have leadership interested in brand perception, go that route. If you have leadership interested in the competition, do some research
on what your competitors are doing and how you can get to that level. Having said that, if you think content marketing is a huge opportunity for your organization, you have to challenge that assumption. I have asked CMOs why they are doing a content marketing push, and they have said it’s because experts told them to. That’s a bad reason to do anything. So, we went back and looked at what their goals and needs were and
Overcoming the
Common Roadblocks to E ective Content
Strategy
Lack of Support — People are always asking me how to win support from higher- ups for investing time and money in content strategy. My advice: sell to their pain points or hot topics. Figure out how to tie the results of what you want to do to things leadership cares deeply about. Skip the fancy “here’s what CS is and how to do it” decks. Go straight into the why.
Lack of Research — It’s always shocking to nd out how little companies invest in actually talking to their existing and potential customers. We nd that marketers often make big decisions based largely on their own assumptions. That’s unnecessary when there are so many ways to connect with your audience. Start by asking them to talk to you—on the phone (gasp)! Alternatively, run a survey on your website; go listen in on social media forums discussing your industry, product, or service; check SEO keyword trends to see how people are searching for your product or service; and talk to your customer service and sales reps. I could go on and on.
Lack of Strategy — This is a big one. We’ve been told that a content marketing strategy essentially consists of guring out what your business goals are and who your audience is, then making a plan for how you’re going to communicate with them. That’s
a very tactical approach. A strategy has to de ne “where you’re going to play and how you’re going win” (to borrow from business-management thought leader Roger L. Martin). So you have to be di erentiated, you have to say no to certain things, and you have
to understand your audience, vertical, and editorial approach. Know those things and understand their interdependencies before you ever start planning your editorial calendar.
Kristina Halvorson