Content marketing - the latest new idea to hit to world of marketing, or just an old idea rebadged? I argue that although content marketing has been around for years, it nevertheless deserves attention because it encourages companies and brands to think more clearly about content, audiences and measuring performance.

1. Content Marketing
A new introduction to an old
marketing idea
http://gapingvoid.com/2006/05/09/if-you-talked-to-people/

2. New! Content marketing
Source: http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=content+marketing&year_start=1970&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=

3. New! Content marketing
“71% said they would be
increasing spend on content
marketing. Last October, 90%
said the discipline would
become more important over the
next 12 months.”
Source: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/61964-71-of-businesses-plan-to-increase-digital-marketing-budgets-this-year-report

4. …it’s the only marketing left.
Seth Godin

5. A BRIEF HISTORY OF CONTENT
MARKETING
But how new is it?

6. John Deere in 1895
John Deere launched The Furrow in 1895, with the aim of
gaining American farmers’ trust and helping them navigate
the complex world of agricultural technology.

7. •Print, web editions
•1.5 million circulation
•Distributed in over 40
countries
The Furrow
Source: http://contentmarketingworld.com/videos/john-deere-media-company/

8. McKinsey & Co in 1964
The McKinsey Quarterly, run for almost half a century. Known
as “Vainies”, the McKinsey proposition depends on persuading
clients to focus on both their culture and advice.

9. •Print, web editions
•55,000 print circulation
•Limited to CEOs, Top
Managers & Academics
McKinsey Quarterly
Source: http://gulib.georgetown.edu/newjour/m/msg02897.html

10. Red Bull in 2007
Red Bull Media House launched the Red Bulletin in 2007 to
bring a fresh focus to the quality of the content it produces to
sell energy drinks. It aims for under 40% branded content.

11. •Print, iPad, Android app
•3.1 million circulation
•English, German, French,
Spanish
Global Red Bulletin
Source: http://www.redbullmediahouse.com/products-brands/print/the-red-bulletin.html

12. ABC magazine stats (UK 2012)
• Top 10: half are customer mags
• Top 3: Tesco, Asda, National
Trust
• 9.5% circulation growth ‘12
Source: http://www.the-cma.com/news/customer-magazines-circulation-increases-by-95-whilst-consumer-magazines-circulation-sees-a-decline

13. Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co 1941
Companies and brands have understood the power of content
marketing for decades. Prior to government rules on tobacco
advertising, customer magazines were commonplace.

14. Media companies
It turns out one class of
businesses has been
particularly good at turning
out content that is designed
to foster loyalty, advocacy
and improved revenue per
user (RPU).
BBC Magazines published 40
titles aimed at six market
segments. This was spun off
as Immediate Media Co,
boasting 800 staff, 34
websites, 50 magazines
reaching 11 million
consumers in the UK alone.

15. Boundary-crossing content
Media companies have also been at the vanguard of those
turning on digital content streams in the past decade. CNN
joined YouTube in November 2006.

16. Interactive content
Some brands have invested
heavily in breaking down the
barriers between different
types of content, to great
effect:
• Static vs dynamic
• Branded vs UGC
• Education vs fun
Skittles has consistently
rewritten the rules and a
visit to the website is always
eye-opening.

17. Our lives as content
Nike+ has grown over seven
years to 6m users, who are
engaging with themselves
and their friends through the
medium of products and the
brand.
The Fuelband, launched in
2012, joins up a set of
connected services,
monitoring, measuring and
sharing your active life. This
is content built into the real
world via devices and apps
Source: http://vimeo.com/50167919

18. “Words are, of course, the
most powerful drug used by
mankind.”
Rudyard Kipling
Source: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/words

19. Content evolution
Content is a fluid concept.
No matter how much you
pay attention, it has the
capacity to wrong-foot you.
The nature of content has to
be driven by the audience.
Between 2006 and 2010,
social media gained traction
and written content came to
mean short bursts of
characters. Then came long
reads, which are now
classified as a specific type
of content.
Interest in: Long reads
2004 - 2013

20. We’re all media companies now
“Brands are continually
advised to start acting as
publishers online. That every
company is a media company
online is now a truism.”
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/mar/05/brands-hype-content-marketing

21. Getting content marketing right
Benefits: good
• Primary factor behind
50% of buying decisions
• Blogs on company
websites drive 50%
more visitors
• 70% of consumers
prefer getting to know
companies by articles
than ads
Risks: bad
• Content ≠ content
marketing
• Easy to slip into SEO
spam
• Curate content and you
risk becoming a
multiplier for other
people’s content
Source: http://contently.com/blog/2012/03/22/content-marketing-benefits-infographic/ Source: http://www.ragan.com/Main/Articles/8e1382eb-19bd-4ddf-9c99-88b7eb945939.aspx

22. 7 content marketing tips
1. Know your customer. Spend time with
them, actively listen to them, speak
their language
Whether they are teens who love
make-up or grizzled IT BDMs, once you
get onto their wavelength, anything is
possible. But you must get them there.

23. 7 content marketing tips
2. No hard sell. Content marketing is not
a short-term win, but a long-term
relationship
In a world of weak ties and fleeting
attention, the big winner is the one
who people recognise as trustworthy,
helpful, or simply pleasant.

24. 7 content marketing tips
3. Commit to excellence. Great content
leads to great respect, nothing less will
do
Creating great content is increasingly
within reach on every budget. Ever
heard of thewritersforhire.com,
writingassist.com or copify.com?

25. 7 content marketing tips
4. Email is still key. No matter how much
people like the idea of subscribing,
they love receiving a letter.
The role of email in a world of pull
marketing was unclear for a while.
Now it is back with a vengeance, and
the tools now exist to make it
fantastic!

26. 7 content marketing tips
5. Make sharing easy. Increasingly, your
content will spread at the hands of
humans, so don’t hold them back
Sharing is a basic human behaviour
and it has driven the growth of social
media. {Contextual sharing tools take
that to the next level.}

27. 7 content marketing tips
6. Stop obsessing about channels. You
don’t need a Facebook strategy, you
need a content strategy (Mark Ragan).
For two reasons:
a) great content transcends channels
b) the audience pick their favourite
channels anyway

28. 7 content marketing tips
7. Plan measurement. Before you plan
content, consider how you will
measure performance.
You can measure almost anything.
Select channels and pick content that
give you a glimpse into the mind of the
audience. Then iterate.

29. Getting creative
Three main sources of creativity in
content marketing:
• The product: great storytelling is key
• The audience: you can reflect what they
say, how they say it
• The channel: photography, for example

30. Using the network
Search turned
us all into
professors.
Network
analysis turns
us all into nosy
neighbours.
Source: http://www.33-digital.com/

31. Challenges
Three things that often go wrong for
content marketing campaigns:
• Quarterly cadence: marathon, not sprint
• Corporate integration: no more siloes
• Bottom-up decision-making: be
prepared to make mistakes and amend

32. Recap
Take aways:
1. Know your audience
2. Create a story that could have come
from their mouth
3. Know how you’ll measure before you
start

33. How do you choose what type of content to create?
We’re here to help you decide