Content Marketing

10 STEPS TO SUCCESS

1 Aim
Set your goals and objectives. Without these, you do
not know where you are going and what defines
2 Understand
Who are you talking to? What are their pain points,
channels of consumption and areas of interest? One
3 Decide
This is the crucial part – the strategy. It stops
content being churned and gives clear orientation
success. They should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, method is developing persona of your ideal customers. like a roadmap on how you will reach your goals.
Achievable, Realistic and Timed. Above all, objectives From first touchpoint to purchase to support, you What is your key proposition, your differentiator
should support business goals to avoid creating should understand what information customers want, and what does this mean to your customers?
content for content’s sake. and how they consume it.
Content is at the heart of B2B
75% of CEOs think Marketers 90% of business buyers say marketers’ top 3 goals – lead
misuse the ‘real business’ when they’re ready to buy, generation, market education
definition of ‘ROI’. they’ll find you. and brand awareness.
Source: The Fournaise (2012) Source: *DemandGen Reports, 2012
Source: B2B Content Marketing Trends (2012)

ROI

Waffle Piffle Nonsense Guff Content

Lead Brand
Generation Awareness

8 Amplify
Once your content is created you now need to
amplify your story. Promote, publicize and socialize
9 Measure
Reporting performance is vital. What content
items are key, what channels were these consumed
Market
Education

across all selected channels. As a rule of thumb, at on, did prospects move along the buying cycle?
least the same amount of time should be spent on This knowledge helps to improve future activity,
this aspect as the actual production of content. performance and ROI.

Social media (79%) and article 74% of B2B CEOs want

posting (78%) are the most used
tactics for content usage.
Source: Marketo (2012)
Marketers to become 100%
ROI-focused.
Source: The Fournaise (2012)
4 Review
The next step is to see what existing content
you have that matches their needs and
address pain points along the buyer journey.
Where is your content daylight? Consider if
there is any way you can repurpose content
to make it more engaging and digestible.

Only 39% of respondents

align content with the
buying cycle.
Source: MarketingProfs (2011)

10 Learn
This is key in closing the loop. In analyzing past activity
and performance, decisions can be enhanced based
upon better insight and understanding of your

7
audience. Resource and effort can be focused on
Produce generation of this content for these channels, helping
you to increase efficiency, effectiveness and ROI.
Content should always give value to the reader – it is not
advertising. Tone, context and content should reflect this. Inbound marketing
Think informal storytelling that has a beginning to entice,
organizations achieve
5 Plan
middle full of value and an end to provoke next action. Your
reward comes in the form of thought leadership, increased a 61% lower cost per lead.
credibility, enhanced brand equity and touchpoint creation. Look at the gaps in your content and develop an
Source: Hubspot (2012)
editorial calendar to help you prioritize. This helps
41% of B2B marketers report to clarify activity, timelines and responsibilities of
the greatest challenge is Inbound stakeholders. Use this as a tool to maintain alignment
with your objectives and as a framework to structure
‘producing the kind of content activity into smaller, manageable sections.
that engages prospects and Outbound
customers’. On average, B2B marketers
employ eight different content
Source: Content Marketing Institute
and MarketingProfs (2011) marketing tactics.
Source: Content Marketing Institute (2011)

6 Communicate
Senior buy-in and alignment is key in the success of
your content initiative. Colleagues also play a role in
developing the content. Communicating internally
engages and mobilizes resources as you may
require specific input from different departments
and personnel so the earlier they buy-in, the better.

Of best in class
content marketers,
only 8% cite
Exec Buy-in as
a challenge.
Source: Content Marketing
Institute and MarketingProfs (2011)

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