The document discusses AT&T's strategy to shift from traditional advertising to content marketing. It advocates creating and distributing original content to build relationships with customers and influence their purchasing decisions. The summary highlights that content marketing involves positioning the brand as an expert through things like articles, videos, and reports. It also notes the need to develop consistent messaging and distribute content across various channels to engage the right audiences.
1. AT&T Ad Solutions Content Marketing
January 2012
“Connected consumers are only growing in size,
magnitude and influence. Ignoring them is a step
toward digital Darwinism. Knowing your
customer is one thing. But, understanding how
they make decisions and participating in that
process influences behavior while building
meaningful relationships.”
–Brian Solis, Fast Company
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2. Inbound Marketing Isn’t Enough
… Welcome to content marketing
The average person is exposed to about 5,000
ads per day! (Research firm Yankelovich)
Buyers have tuned out marketing because
they can.
Businesses must respond by reaching
prospects in new ways.
Content marketing is the butter to our inbound marketing
bread.
It’s how a brand creates, delivers and governs original or curated
content to attract, retain and upsell customers, positioning the
brand as a credible expert to motivate a change in behavior.
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3. Where’s the Butter?
In our key players – the AdSolutions
team, marketing teams, sales teams and
our audience.
… and our ongoing, evolving story which
includes:
•A central narrative
•An editorial strategy including voice,
messaging, consistency and tone
•Audience participation - personalized
conversations will increase our digital
footprint.
•Content subjects and types to bait the
hook of our story
•Channels to distribute content to the
right audience on the right platforms
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4. Building a Network Through Stories
What we have:
• Sales collateral (Reports,
presentations surveys, market facts)
• Atti Local Insights Report (Seasonal,
infographics)
• E-newsletters from 1800-get-real
(articles)
• The Real Proof (video testimonials)
• Small business.att.com (articles,
stats, demos)
• Case Studies from ASCP
• Yp.com (blog links for pertinent
articles)
• Other Atti content (whitepapers)
• YouTube channel (videos)
• Flickr: photosharing
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5. What we need
To stop pushing. Start attracting. Stop interrupting. Start engaging.
1. Develop a consistent tone and editorial strategy.
A food court / programming mix of:
70% bread and butter
20% to innovate the stuff that works
10% high risk
an editorial and social media calendar with:
•Our own features and days of the week to promo feature content, ex:
– “A Day in the Life of” - profile pieces
•How-to-guides (below)
•“What X movie taught me about marketing strategy”
•“dos and don’t’s in __”
•Know Your SEO
•Marketing priorities from other depts. (sales) and seasonal promos
2. An arsenal of resources like small business bloggers, guest and expert
bloggers, and developing content types such as:
• live blogging, vlogs
• webinars
• our ‘greatest hits’ packets
• bundled data packets/pdfs to attract signups, playbooks
• piecemeal stats infographics, rotating modules
• product selectors/quizzes /checklists
• User and peer created content
• Guest blogger SMBs and experts
• Live chats and events
• Contests our SMBs will love and then use to attract clients
• Polls – not just in the newsletter
• Data visualization
• Virtual bulletin boards
• Foursquare 101
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6. Gap Analysis
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7. Appendix
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8. TheCONTENT
DISCOVER
Grand Roadmap
Jan-Feb Feb-Mar Mar-April April-May
Content readability ×
SMB research / segmentation ×
Stakeholder interviews and agendas ×
Inventory and audit all content ×
Content owners –processes ×
Workflow and timelines × x
Accessibility requirements, success metrics ×
DEFINE CONTENT
×
Core messaging x
Style guide x
Topics and transactions × x
Workflow design, resource planning,
training, hiring and budget × x
Roles and descriptions
x
Editorial calendars – blog and social media x
Content migration plans – establish x
categories/taxonomy
x
Message map
x
Governance plan
DEVELOP CONTENT
x
CMS Templates
x
Copywriting
x
Video/audio creation, PDFs, infographics
x
Refine editorial calendar
x
Establish messaging hierarchy, features
x
SEO implementation, metadata guide
DEPLOY CONTENT
x
Rolling inventory
8 x
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Editorial and metadata oversight
x
Metrics analysis
9. Launch Overview
Round 1: Research, audit, assign, create
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4
Jan Jan- Feb Feb-Mar Mar-Jun
Round 2: Build out the team and integrate new platforms
Phased approach allows for plan modifications as new information is discovered
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