My Role:

I was responsible for the concept, planning, implementation and marketing of the closed community site. I worked closely with developers to design the information / content architecture, functionality and testing of features and usability. I designed the class structure, schedule and content. Wrote content for session overviews, marketing announcements and communications with partners participating as professors within the academy. Coordinated the participation and content development of 15 industry leaders within the space and created buzz and engagement with prospects, customers and media. through social media.

Magazines have always been good at creating content, re-purposing content, and planning ahead, but for B2B marketers this hasn’t always been the case.

Kristina Halvorson in her book, Content Strategy for the Web says “Content strategy will help you deliver content that inspires trust. Drives action. Builds loyalty. On time. One budget.”

With such a demand for content, how could you not have a strategy in place? I think ultimately a content strategy and marketing strategy will rival each other, or maybe merge. So much of our marketing strategy is dependent on the content we are creating, our marketing strategies have been shifting from talking about ourselves to truly arming people with the information they need to make better decisions regardless if they use our product or service or not.

5 Reasons for developing a content strategy:

1. Better Content

Developing a content strategy will enable you to create content that will be more engaging. In order to develop the strategy, you’ll need to do some research to determine a few things about your consumers. For example, where are they in the buying process and what kinds of content do they prefer to consume (video, blog posts, comments, tweets, etc). A content strategy will allow you to clearly identify the elements that will add more value and create more interesting experiences for your consumers, over time (allowing us to consider the BIG picture).

2. Consistency in Messaging

This is traditionally done within a marketing strategy, but the problem is that content extends beyond the marketing department. While they may be the ones responsible for most content right now, it’s really something that needs to be mandated company wide so that there will always be consistency. Within a content strategy you can outline guidelines,standards, quality control processes, branding, voice tone and messaging, so that anyone creating content of any format has some rules for the road.

3. Optimization

A content strategy will help you optimize your content as well as conversion. When developing content, it’s critical to identify user personas, and create individual content paths for each of them (all fitting into one content strategy). Since each has their own questions, concerns and interests, you’ll need to develop content around these specific characteristics. By doing so, you will optimize for search by using the right keywords, and you will also optimize your conversion rate because your content will be more relevant to those searching for it. The reason you need to consider this within your entire content strategy is because your content lives in various locations; your website, social networks, press, email marketing campaigns, etc. and you’ll want to have a system and plan in place for optimization over time. Like the strategy, optimization continues to evolve over time.

4. Limitation of Friction

A content strategy will help you avoid friction on your website and in other forms of content you are producing. You want to facilitate an engaging environment, so if there are disconnects between your messaging, information architecture or formats, you will create discomfort and stress for your consumers. You want to make sure their experience is easy and pleasurable. This ease will come from clearly defined goals, research, content paths, content, processes and the tactics that have been identified by the content strategy. This will also ensure that everyone responsible for content creation is on the same page, even if they are not on the same team or in the same department.

5. Improve efficiency

Ardath Albee likes to recommend the “Rule of 5” for content creation and marketing. She says, if you can’t think of five ways to use a piece of content then you shouldn’t start it. There are many ways to re-use content, like turing a blog post into a video or a series of tweets, or maybe an ebook. The idea is that you repurpose content to be consumed in various way, so you can always reach who you want while staying relevant and adding value. A content strategy outlines the thematic content and how it can be used throughout the year so you are not constantly trying to reinvent the wheel. It will help you organize an inventory and plan for releasing various kinds of content throughout the year, as well as streamline the internal processes needed to achieve the content goals.

Things to think about when developing your strategy:

There are many elements you’ll need to consider. For the purpose of not writing a book in a blog post, let’s assume you’ve already done your research, analysis and content audit. You already know what content you have, what content you’ll need, who your personas are, how they like to consume information and who will be responsible for what. All of these things will be important in developing a realistic strategy for your content. Here is a brief list of questions to ask yourself:

1. What content do we have? (that’s usable)
2. Who are the content sources?
3. What does the current content creation process look like? Is it working (probably not)
4. What are the content channels? External web: website, social media, partner sites, email, webinars. Internal: intranets, wikis, training sessions, seminars. Traditional: PR, print, events, outdoor, direct mail.
5. What are our competitors doing? i.e. Topics they cover, content formats, messaging

The reasoning behind a content strategy is to make informed recommendations about the creation, delivery and governance of content–web or otherwise (nurturing content for example). Your content strategy should outline the following:

• Current content, and what you’ll need
• How content should be structured–in various formats
• Long-term plan–starting point, ending point, and then where
• What will this mean in terms of business objectives

With the current proliferation of social media, and web based tools–including your website, it’s impossible to even consider not having a content strategy. Because so much of our communication, and now business is being done through content, it would be crazy not to clearly define the goals, objectives and plan for achieving those goals. It’s also important that everyone is on the same page. This is very difficult for most companies, but the development of a strategy and plan will only help things run smoothly, and actually have the business impact you are looking to achieve.

For more on content strategy:
Read: Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson

My Role:

As Inbound & Social Marketing Manager at Genius.com, I was the primary content creator for the blog and other social mediums such as video, presentations, and byline content on other industry blogs. My primary responsibilities included:

• Development and implementation of 2010 Inbound Marketing Strategy
• Managing Editor of the Connected Marketer blog
• Development and management of yearly editorial calendar
• Content strategist for the blog and social media channels
• Relationship building with industry leaders & media
• Responsible for all web-producing of site, functionality (features) and SEO (site re-design)
• Fostered relationships with prospects, customers and partners through content and consistent engagement via social media

Results

The primary goal was to build awareness, create substantial thought leadership content, and drive traffic and engagement through social media and content creation on the site. A big focus was also put on SEO and keyword-focused content and strategies to increase search rankings.

• Increased blog traffic 500% (from 2,000 to 11,000) in 4 months
• Increased “social reach” from an average 1,300 to 500,000 weekly impressions via social outlets
• Increased brand mentions & sharing by 20x
• Tripled commentary on blog and increased traffic from inbound links & referring domains by 6x
• Gained industry recognition as a thought leader with in the space
• Built valuable blogger and media relationships
• Increased visibility (through SEO) – moved from position #14 on second page to #6 on first page of SERPS (search engine results pages) for targeted keywords
• Two BMA Awards (June 2010) Awards of Excellence for Best Corporate Blog & Integrated Marketing / Communications Strategy (which incorporated social elements into Genius’s complete presence)
• Received two industry blog accreditations  (Junta 42 & AdAge Power 150)

Popular Posts

As a primary content contributor I had the opportunity to discuss a range of topics. Some of my most popular were on topics such as content strategy, content mapping and lead nurturing. Here are a few great examples of the thought leadership content I created for the site.

• Do I really Need a Content Strategy?
• How to Build a Socially Armed Team (eBook)
• Content Mapping 101: Building Personas
• To Create or Aggregate? That is the Question.

A content map in the context of buyer personas will help you organize content to answer questions at various stages of the buying cycle, and create a blueprint for content distribution through multiple channels, so that you are always delivering the right content, at the right time, on the right channel.

For example, earlier stage questions might be best answered on the blog, while a mid or late questions would be more appropriate to answer via a nurturing campaign, or on your corporate website.

A content map is paramount when developing a long-term content strategy for your website, blog, direct marketing, nurturing, sales materials or other communications and content. It’s the foundation you need to optimize relevance and the flow of content for personas’ consumption at various stages of the buying cycle. Remember, a content map can also serve as a your primary content inventory so you always have a place to reference and even re-work content into different formats to keep your content development efforts efficient.

My original post was published on the Connected Marketer

My Role:

Conducted a full content audit, was an integral asset to the definition, research and development of user personas for the web site, blog and marketing content. Worked closely (managed relationship) with SEO team to ensure optimization of the site, and constant development of content strategies to drive and support search efforts and rankings for specific keywords.

Results:

• Went from #14 on second page to #7 on first page of SERPS (search engine results pages) within 6 months for targeted keywords.

How to Build a Socially Armed Team eBook

This short eBook will help point you in the right direction of where to start, what to think about and how to get organized when building a socially armed team. It’s not only the responsibility of the marketing department to engage customers anymore, it’s the entire organizations responsibility, and social media has made consumers even more accessible. This ebook will walk you through the steps of preparing, planning and team building. It covers the roles and responsibilities, as well as how you should train team members. Written for and originally published on the Connected Marketer

Intro: What My Father Taught Me About Social Media

My father owns a small business in California. Since I was very young I’ve been learning about supply and demand, customer relationships and integrity in business from my dad. I would say his approach to business and sales is very “old school” and by that I mean, brick and mortar. He sells the way that a general store owner would sell groceries, by getting to know his customers on a deeper level: he saw them once a week and truly cared about them and their success.

I think it’s safe to assume that store owners–back when things were simple–would ask how each of your family members were, or if something remarkable happened they would know and be interested in the outcome. Until recently, it seemed that businesses had lost this sense of connection, they had lost the genuine curiosity for their customers, and they relied only on “messaging”, “direct marketing” and flashing lights and sounds to almost hypnotize people into becoming their customers, rather than taking the time to get to know them. Thankfully things are changing.

Social media presents a tremendous business opportunity to build trust and relationships (like my dad did) in the digital age. But it needs to be managed across functional lines to ensure that you don’t send mixed or confusing messages to your customers. This book is a guide to help you navigate your way through the complexities of integrating a company-wide social media mandate, to enlist and arm your team members of your social media army so they can engage your prospects like real people. In the end, you will humanize your company to build better, stronger customer relationships, in this brave new media world.

One major misconception people have is that social media is something to be tackled solely by the marketing department, but that’s really doesn’t have to be the case. It’s true indeed that Marketers have been early to adopt these new social ways of communication for business purposes, but in reality it’s evolving them as marketers, not marketing itself. So as technology is changing, the behavior of marketers is changing as well. Their function is shifting from marketers to publishers, from talkers to listeners, and  from selling to adding value.

Even though marketers are on the edge of the social media front, they are not the only ones who should be fighting in the name of better business (as a social media evangelist, this is what I fight for). In fact, many companies have leveraged social media for customer support, then parlayed that success to sell broader adoption to the executives, and bring more people on board.

It’s more obvious everyday that social media is a business tool, and not just for marketing communications. Companies are already using social media to communicate and collaborate internally, and adoption and use will only expand. Future generations–the ones growing up “friending” everyone they know–a harbinger of things to come and critical dynamic to their success in business.

Social media has indeed had an enormous affect on marketers, I think for the better. It has forced us to think about things differently, to think like a general store owner, to care about the well-being of our customers, and to genuinely want to help them solve business problems. Today, the marketer has de-evolved from a mad scientist testing new technologies like “neuromarketing” that will brainwash you, to someone that listens to what you want, then acts in your best interest.

Download How-to Build a Socially Armed Team