Content Marketing Guide 2013

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2 Content Marketing Guide 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright Content Amp 2013 Content Amp, Queen Anne s Court, Peascod Street, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 1DG

3 Contents Introduction to content marketing Dale Lovell, Publishing Director and Co-Founder, Content Amp... 5 Content Strategy Think like your customer and create content that they want. Why do I need a content strategy?... 6 Formulating your content strategy... 6 Brainstorming content strategy... 6 Keyword and social research... 7 Writing a content strategy document... 7 Who is Responsible for content strategy?... 8 Summary: Content strategy... 9 Implementing your Content Strategy Build a content community where your brand doesn t disrupt the story, but is part of it. Creating a content hub Google+ Authorship Creating a content calendar Outsourcing content production Summary: Implementing Content strategy Amplify your Content Share your brand story and native content with engaged communities Social Media Blogger Outreach Native Content Advertising ebooks Summary: Amplify Your Content pg.3

4 Measuring Results Understanding the effectiveness of content marketing KPIs Use of Data to identify success In Summary: Measuring Results Help for Creating Buy In Make the business case for content marketing' Research Papers About Content Amp About Us/Contact Us pg.4

5 Introduction to content marketing You can t succeed online if you have nothing to say. Content marketing is currently one of the biggest online marketing trends. We think great content is what every brand and business needs in order to succeed online. We are genuinely passionate about that. It s not about pigeon-holing what you do online into search, social, PR and display anymore. The size of the digital landscape has blurred these boundaries. Now it s all about the creation of great content, amplifying that content and generating engagement. This is what we do at Content Amp. And we know it works. Content marketing is all about the creation of good content that attracts and engages with a target group; it is about communicating with customers without the sales pitch. It really is that simple. It is strategy being adopted by leading brands such as P&G, Coca-Cola and Amex, as well as by smaller businesses and even one-person entities. In a recent study in the US Ad-ology found that small businesses were spending a greater share of their budgets on content marketing than on social media advertising even. They have embraced content marketing because it works. Within this guide we have attempted to break content marketing down into three main sections: strategy, implementation, amplification. We ve packed this guide with lots of ideas about what you need to think about in order to succeed with your content marketing, as well as lots of practical tips, resources and advice, too. Of course we could have added a whole lot more, but we hope you find it a worthy introduction that assists in your efforts to plan and execute your future content marketing initiatives. Many thanks, Dale Lovell, Publishing Director and Co-Founder, Content Amp. dale@contentamp.com pg.5

6 Content Strategy Why do I need a content strategy? Your content strategy is the building block of your online marketing. Content strategy is the planning of how you intend to attract the right audience with interesting stories. For success it is important that you break everything down to basics. Think about what you want to say, who you want to speak to and what you want to achieve from the outcome. Think like a publisher. If you always put content at the core of what you do, then you are half way there to success. Think like your customer and create the content that they want. Formulating your content strategy So now you understand why content strategy is important, it s time to create your own. This is where you put away the theory of content, roll up your sleeves and dive in. It s ideas time. The easiest way to begin formulating content strategy is to actually try and think like your target audience. Armed with any data that you may have and competitor analysis it is time to try and formulate your content plan and create an over arching content strategy that will engage, inform, entertain and hopefully even wow those it is intended to wow. Brainstorming content strategy Whether you are a major corporation or a solo business, the process of brainstorming content strategy is fundamentally the same. To get started and to begin thinking you can break it down to answering a few simple but key questions: 1. Who do I want to target? 2. Is there a specific topic or niche where we want to excel? 3. What do I want those I target to associate with our brand? 4. What information are my customers looking for? 5. What type of content do my customers look at? 6. How can I keep existing customers happy? 7. How can I attract new customers? 8. What do we like/dislike about competitors content strategy? 9. Is there anything I do not want to highlight about our brand? 10. What overall business objective do I want to achieve from my content marketing? At the start of your content marketing brainstorming session ask these 10 questions. The answers should help paint a clear picture of what you want to achieve from your activity, who you want to target and what your target customer base is looking for in terms of information. Is it information? is it a narrative? Is it both? This is your brainstorming starting point. Keywords, content calendars, distribution channels; all of that stuff comes later. This brainstorming process is all about breaking your strategy down to a core level. It is only once you are satisfied that you have a core message and core values - a core set of content marketing principles - that you can build upon it. pg.6

7 Keyword and social research Researching what keywords are relevant to your customers and what keywords are actually generating a volume of searches is an important element to any content strategy. Also look at your social insights and see what s trending and what has produced social engagement previously. Your own data will give you some great insight. Content marketing is far more than simply creating SEO keyword pages; it s about giving a customer and potential customers something that they actually want. Understanding what keywords to use can play an important function. There are a number of keyword research tools available. A good general tool is the Google Adwords External Keyword research tool. This tool has its detractors in the SEO industry, but as a general tool for finding out average search volumes it can be a useful place for content marketers to start. Tip: In order to maximise its use, ensure that you tick and filter results on the Exact Match tab for the most accurate figures per keyword search when using the Google Adwords External Keyword research tool. While keyword research is important it is worth remembering that keyword research on its own does not constitute a content strategy. Always remember the key question to ask is: Is this relevant and useful to my customer base? Do not go chasing after keywords that are irrelevant to your brand just because they have volume searches in search engines. Writing a content strategy document After all the hard work, research and analysis, once you have decided upon a content strategy that all areas of a business can buy in to, it is highly recommended that you create a content strategy document. This doesn t need to be a mammoth 90 page content strategy blueprint; in fact it should be no more than 1-2 sides of A4 paper. It should outline your core target group, why you are targeting them and what sort of content you want to create in order to engage with them. If you want to include keywords, objectives and KPIs then you can, but you do not have to at this stage. Your content strategy document should not be set in stone forever. As your content marketing evolves and as you analyse and measure what works and what doesn t it is only natural that your strategy should shift over time. Reviewing it and updating it periodically will help ensure that you consistently deliver the content your customer base is looking for and the results you want to achieve. pg.7

8 Who is Responsible for content strategy? It is important to understand where content fits within your organisation. This is a crucial question within large organisations with different departments. There are many misconceptions about who owns the content process. Is content strategy the responsibility of your SEO team? Or perhaps your social media team? Or maybe your PR or corporate communication team? The answer is, of course, all of them and none of them. All of these marketing departments should have input into the process. The core of your content strategy should be what you want to say and who you want to speak to as a company. It s that simple. Your content strategy is not therefore a search or social or pr strategy. Let us review the different sections in more detail: 1. Search strategy Content is now at the heart of any search engine optimisation strategy. Search engines love unique, quality content that enhances the user experience. Keywords and content gap analysis are important elements of search and are welcome add-ons to your content strategy (keywords can help spark the creative juices for content ideas); but your content strategy is far more than just a list of keywords and landing pages. 2. Social strategy Content is the lifeblood of any brand s social platform. Whether a B2B approach on Linkedin and Google+, a consumer angle on Facebook and Twitter, or something that incorporates all social platforms; content is what drives brand engagement. But the content needs to appeal to the right people, as well as the right platform. Social strategy informs the overall content strategy, but it should not rule it. You need a content strategy in place to succeed with social media; but you don t necessarily need social media to succeed with content marketing. Your content marketing strategy should come first, followed by a social strategy that makes it easy for your audience to share it. 3. PR strategy Content marketing is not PR in new clothes, likewise content strategy is not identical to your PR strategy. They should share fundamental similarities, such as brand message and voice, but they differ somewhat, often, with their target audience. For example, some PR and corporate communications strategies are targeted towards journalists and government, rather than the consumers they may want to target with their content strategy. Relying on your PR strategy to become your content strategy is not always feasible or advisable. pg.8

9 Summary: Content strategy The benefits of creating a content strategy document at the start of your content marketing campaign are numerous, but are worth repeating, it: - Formulates an overall content strategy document for your business - Offers a reference for internal stakeholders within the business to refer to - Offers an overriding document for external agencies and partners to refer to in order to understand objectives Do not ignore your content strategy. It has been common for many brands and businesses to steam right in and create numerous social media channels and blogs, only to see them fail to ignite because they had actually failed to think about the content that was going to populate them. A good content strategy will inform all the activity that happens afterwards. It involves holistically thinking about your business marketing objectives and your target audience. Get it right and the rest of your content marketing strategy will fall into place; get it wrong and you can have a poorly implemented search, social and PR strategy that does nothing but put-off the exact group of customers you are looking to appeal to most. pg.9

10 Implementing your Content Strategy Build a content community where your brand doesn t disrupt the story, but is part of it. Now you have a clear content strategy in place, it s time to get down to the nitty-gritty and work out how you intend to implement this strategy. So you know what type of content you want to create - what content forms the basis of your content marketing proposition and what your customers are looking for. If you want to succeed with your content marketing, you have to publish content on your website. A few years ago you could get away with not publishing content on your own site. You could turn to your SEO agency and they d create some mediocre content and distribute it to even more mediocre sites, generating lots of valuable links back to your website as a result. This worked for a long time. SEO agencies loved it. Why? It meant that a lot of their work went unnoticed by their clients, they weren t heavily scrutinised. All they had to concentrate on was moving up the search rankings. Today, in order to make those gains in search rankings you simply have to be publishing good, relevant content to your website. Your competitors are doing it and the search engines are rewarding them for it. Again, this is why you need a content strategy document for your brand; publishing content on your own site will have lots of internal and external eye-balls reviewing it, commenting on it, analysing it. But how do you maximise the reach of the content you are producing? At a very basic level there are a number of things that you need to do to maximise the opportunities within the content you are publishing. The first thing to think about is: Creating a content hub You are going to need to create a content hub of some sort. These can take on many formats. Some brands like American Express ( have created standalone brand associated magazine style websites on distinct urls, where they develop a mixture of content styles. Others like Moneyexpert.com have created news sections on their sites, prominently displayed on their home page, which then links through to a dedicated news section. Meanwhile other brands have created large blog magazine sections to their websites, such as which sit under the same url, where they publish a range of content, including news, some company PR, longer features, image galleries and video. The options are many, but the logistics of getting set up are far less painful than many brands first think. There are many blog publishing platforms out there that can be set up and customised to look as you wish. Wordpress is probably the best known and most used blog publishing package available. You can download and self-host the program on your own servers. Even if you have your own Content Management System (CMS) for your existing website, but no blog publishing section, you can still pg.10

11 use Wordpress. If you are creating a blog or news section on your website Wordpress can work alongside it as a standalone CMS for adding content to these pages. Wordpress is super-seo and social friendly; you can download lots of plugins to make the publication and sharing of content easy. It is really simple to use. Any member of a marketing department can learn to use it quickly: if you can upload a photo to Facebook then you can publish content to Wordpress. If your development team are not happy with using Wordpress then other platforms such as Drupal and Joomla are available and easy to use too. Google+ Authorship Search engines such as Google have been looking closely at ways to add trust and value to links. One of the ways Google aims to increase the way it can verify a link is via Google+ Authorship. Google+ Authorship is a way for Google to verify that the content was created by a real person, with an interest in a topic, by pointing that back to a Google+ profile page. Crucially, this Google+ profile also links back to the website that you write for. When Google trusts an author they add more weight to the content that that person publishes, ranking it higher in search results. It verifies good content and ranks it ahead of unverified content. Not only does creating more content add value to your website, with Google+ Authorship in place it can generate lots of traffic to your website and increase your overall search rankings. All publishers of content need to seriously think about how they can incorporate Google+. Creating a content calendar Now you are armed with your content strategy and your publishing platform, it s time to create a content calendar. Whether you are going to outsource your content production or carry it out inhouse a content calendar is a really useful tool. It s a great place to add all of the ideas you came up with during your brainstorming sessions and is an area where you can flesh out these ideas into content concepts and schedule when they will be delivered and published to your content hub. An editorial calendar will connect content and themes for social media and your website it will help you plan ahead and will help you develop a coherent content marketing strategy. Your calendar can bridge together blogs, online newsrooms, web pages, offers, events and campaigns, and can then be linked to places such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Follow these tips on how best to structure your content calendar: Recognition Write your content down in an accessible place for everyone to see. Organise Set dates for when your content should be finished by. pg.11

12 Inspiration Set yourself subjects or titles and then brainstorm each title for creative thoughts. Timing Break your calendar down month-by-month, then week-by-week to day-by-day. This will increase structure and regularity to your work. Topics For each month pick strong themes that can break down into sub-categories. Think about events that take place in any given month that you could write about. Seasonality - Think about the key seasons and trends in your business and think about what content you want to create in the run up and during these times. Publicise Share your calendar and collaborate across a team of writers and editors. If you do not have the staff in-house, think about outsourcing to a relevant company of content specialists to help they could even help with creating the calendar. An organised calendar will save you time by having a structured time frame to stick to which eliminates time wasting activities. Outsourcing content production Outsourcing your content creation to a content agency can save your business time and money too. Brands recognise the value of great content, but few marketers have the time to physically create the quality and volume of content required for success. Before you outsource your content production to a reputable agency there are a few things to think about in order to make the process easier for yourself and the content agency you work with. Briefing The most important stage of outsourcing your content creation is the initial briefing process. To really get the benefit out of outsourcing you need to be able to communicate what you want to achieve. Again, this illustrates just how important the initial content strategy document can be. It can feel a little bit slow to start off with, but once you are armed with this document you can share it with a content agency and really hit the ground running with the type of content you want to see. Of course, if you only have a vague idea of what you are looking for with your content a good content agency will be able to help you flesh out a clear editorial strategy. To help your outsourcing of content get off with a bang it is always good to highlight to your content agency what websites you like, what you like about your competitors and in a more general way what content you like too. This can include magazines, TV shows, newspapers, as well as online. Talking ideas through with your content agency is always advisable too. This way you can get a feel for their ideas, how they work and whether or not you feel comfortable outsourcing your content requirements to them. A good content agency should allay all of your concerns. If you are looking to outsource your content production at any point soon download this content agency outsourcing Q&A briefing sheet. It has some really useful questions to ask: pg.12

13 Summary: Implementing Content strategy Once armed with your content strategy and an idea of what you want to create, it s time to plan how you execute it. This involves establishing a platform to publish content on. As well as on your own website you will need to think about your social media platforms too. You will also need to in most instances recruit an external content agency to assist with content production. Follow the points above about what you need to do for success when finding the right content agency for your specific needs. You also need to plan a content calendar; but a good content agency should be able to offer this service and help structure this for you. pg.13

14 Amplify your Content Share your brand story and native content with engaged communities Content is great. You know this. As we ve outlined above it should be at the heart of what you do as a marketer. But amplifying the message within your content is equally as important. After all, there is no point creating great content if it doesn t reach your prospective customers. Amplify your brand message, share your brand stories and engage with as many of your customers as possible. This is powerful stuff. With so many possibilities for engagement and so many distribution points brands can really be part of their customer s lives like never before. It is a major opportunity once you are armed with the right content. Content distribution gives brands a real chance to speak to their customers and be part of the conversation, rather than an annoying interruption to it. So when it comes to amplifying your content and brand message there are a number of different options that you should look to explore. These include in summary: Social Media: Everything you create needs to be shared and promoted as much as possible on social media platforms. Everyone knows about Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google+: use them, share relevant content with engaged followers of your brand. Google+ is great for your search engine optimisation, particularly when tied in with Google+ Authorship. Google+ communities, although relatively new, are also extremely good places to share your content to an engaged community; you will be rewarded by Google too for doing so. In fact all social signals likes, shares and comments are rewarded in search rankings. Outside of the really big social media channels utilise image platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and Flickr with relevant image-based content. Youtube, Vimeo and Metacafe for video content. Social bookmarking platforms like Stumbleupon and Reddit are all powerful tools that you can easily utilise to promote the content you produce. If you use Wordpress there are plenty of social media plugins you can download to automate the process. Use platforms such as TweetDeck and Hootsuite to manage multiple social media accounts for your brand all in one place. Blogger Outreach: Bloggers are a key conduit to speaking to your customer base online. You should look to engage with as many key bloggers and quality independent publishers as possible. This way you can promote your brand message to key influencers and promote the content that you create. You can build these partnerships in a number of ways, including: guest posting, Infographics, video, blogger events and competitions. pg.14

15 Native Content Advertising In its simplest form native content is a form of media that s built into the actual visual design, where the ads are part of the content or the content itself. They are essentially sponsored posts, video seeding and interactive advertorials. Facebook s sponsored news stories, Twitter s promoted Tweets and Outbrain's related articles are forms of native content promotion. They give an opportunity for brands to promote their content and their brand message in a far less intrusive way than traditional banner adverts, while also encouraging engagement, likes and shares among a target customer base. Native content ads are likely to be a powerful medium as more brands create and publish content. They offer a great way for brands looking to amplify their brand story and interact with their customer base. More on native advertising: ebooks The popularity of ebooks is growing significantly. Whereas once it was an expensive and time consuming enterprise to publish a book, today brands can tap into this growing platform and publish relevant content for their customer base to consume. If you are already creating content for your brand, you may find that you can also turn this content into an ebook too. Essentially this is another place to amplify and engage your brand message by utilising content, or similar content, that you have already created online. Summary: Amplify Your Content You need to promote the content that you create and publish. Build engagement with key influencers. Experiment with different approaches to maximise opportunities for sharing your story. With so many distractions online for your customers an old fashioned advert just looks like an unnecessary interruption to the online experience.. Amplification of your content message gives brands a real chance to speak to their customers and be part of the conversation. pg.15

16 Measuring Results Understanding the effectiveness of content marketing Now that you have your content marketing in place and you have implemented it, the important aspect as all marketers know is how to measure results effectively. Return on Investment is crucial, but unlike some forms of traditional advertising and pay-per-click search advertising, the metrics can sometimes be confusing. In order to successfully analyse the success of your campaign you first have to know what you deem success. For some brands it might be an increased search ranking, for others more social media followers; others still will only be interested in picking up relevant influencers and key partners to work with. Others will only be interested in how many sales it leads to. They are all valid criteria. But in order to measure effectively it is important that you determine from the outset what metric you are going to use to measure success. KPIs Set in advance quantifiable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and a timeline for delivery. Use of Data to identify success Marketers have a feast of data they can look at when it comes to content marketing. This is extremely important as without it you will not know whether all your hard work and investment was a failure or not. Look at your website analytics; compare where you were before you started any content marketing activity. Have you increased your website visitors? Has the average time on site increased? Have your page views increased? All of these can signify a measurement of success. Also look at where you are in search engine rankings for your main targeted keywords. This is another great measurement for success. Look at your social platforms. How many new followers and likes do you have? How many retweets, comments and shares have you managed? Compare against before your started any activity to determine success or failure. You can check this data yourself of course, using the myriad different tools at your service, but one of the best ways to accurately measure success of your content marketing is to use a social listening service. Services such as Radian6, Statsit and Sysomos can help you monitor your brand mentions and sentiment across online platforms, including social media. In Summary: Measuring Results Set key KPIs from the outset that you can use to measure success of your strategy. Analyse all the relevant stats and look to invest in social monitoring in order to effectively analyse the earned media reach of your content marketing activity. pg.16

17 Help for Creating Buy In Make the business case for content marketing You know your organisation needs to adopt a content marketing strategy. But do your business leaders? It can be difficult making the business case for content creation and amplification services. But there is considerable research out there highlighting trends in marketing and how content can significantly increase the opportunities for brands Below are some content marketing reports that supply all the industry trends and data that can aid marketers in making a case for content marketing within any organisation. The below research papers and case studies, as well as this guide itself, all add weight to making the case for investment in content marketing. Content Amp can assist with more information and costings in more detail. Research Papers The Content Marketing Institutes 2013 B2B Content Marketing econsultancy Survey Report 2012 sponsored by Outbrain Further Reading/Website Resources: : Brand focused, UK trade publication highlighting the best in marketing. : Great for everything SEO related : Great for all things Search and the changing shape of online marketing : Keep up to date with the latest trends and Google changes. : Content marketing tips, analysis, ideas, news and more from a leading content marketing agency. : Interesting tips, examples and best practise guides for undertaking successful content marketing strategies. : One of the leading resources for information on successful content marketing campaigns and the digital landscape. Creative Content Marketing Google+ Community : For all the latest in creative content marketing techniques, debate, ideas, news and more. pg.17

18 About Us/Contact Us Content Amp is the new name for Search News Media, a Windsor based content agency launched in From inception we have had content at our core. The team behind Content Amp have over 12 years online content and marketing experience. It s this expertise that tells. Content Amp works with leading brands and agencies to develop content strategies that deliver results. Our native content network and distribution services amplify that content to create powerful brand engagement and drive significant ROI. For a no obligation discussion around content and amplification contact us now: Tel: info@contentamp.com Website: Facebook: Google+: Join one of the fastest growing content marketing communities online with Google+: Creative Content Marketing community on Google+. pg.18