1. Success, failure and making
content work in the long term
By Tom Elgar – CEO, Passle
The Content Marketing Show
Friday 8th November, 2013

2. Success

3. My brother Adam set up a
conference company called
Streaming Media in the late
nineties and asked me to code the
website. Doesn’t look like much
now. But the clever bit was…

4. My brother Adam set up a
conference company called
Streaming Media in the late
nineties and asked me to code the
website. Doesn’t look like much
now. But the clever bit was…

5. My brother Adam set up a
conference company called
Streaming Media in the late
nineties and asked me to code the
website. Doesn’t look like much
now. But the clever bit was…

6. So instead of:
1. Buying a mailing list
2. Printing flyers
3. Sending them
4. Hoping for the best
San Francisco, 2000

7. So instead of:
1. Buying a mailing list
2. Printing flyers
3. Sending them
4. Hoping for the best
San Francisco, 2000
Streamingmedia Inc. created a community.
We spoke to THE RIGHT 25,000 people each day.
The competition spoke to THE WRONG 100,000
PEOPLE twice a year.

8. Nowadays it’s called ‘Content Marketing’.
We just thought it was very clever indeed.

9. Nowadays it’s called ‘Content Marketing’.
We just thought it was very clever indeed.
Either way, Streamingmedia won.

10. Nowadays it’s called ‘Content Marketing’.
We just thought it was very clever indeed.
Either way, Streamingmedia won.
Streamingmedia Inc. sold to Penton
Media for $100m in late 2000.

11. Failure

12. Then we set up Serverside Group,
which puts pictures on payment cards

13. I thought it would be great for small business
logos, but actually it was mostly dogs and kids

15. But there are lots of dogs and lots of kids,
and we started to do lots and lots of cards

16. But there are lots of dogs and lots of kids,
and we started to do lots and lots of cards

18. And we signed up lots
and lots of the world’s
leading banks.

19. We wanted to make Serverside
the content hub for our niche

20. We wanted to make Serverside
the content hub for our niche
We had a great topic and very
clever people across all functions.
Everything was set up perfectly

21. We wanted to make Serverside
the content hub for our niche
We had a great topic and very
clever people across all functions.
Everything was set up perfectly
But writing content was always the second priority
for the senior management and sales guys.

22. We had loads of great stories to tell, but lacked
the the time and writing ability to bring them to
life

23. We tried to outsource our content
writing, but the agency didn’t really
understand our weird little niche.
So the content was BORING.

24. We tried to outsource our content
writing, but the agency didn’t really
understand our weird little niche.
So the content was BORING.
One day we walked our
little blog out in to the
snow… And shot it.

25. We tried to outsource our content
writing, but the agency didn’t really
understand our weird little niche.
So the content was BORING.
One day we walked our
little blog out in to the
snow… And shot it.

26. Passle Research Shows:
There is Lots of
Failure

27. We went to 525 websites and found …
80%
of Businesses do not
have a blog

28. We went to 525 websites and found …
35%
of Businesses with a blog
have a ‘dead blog’*
* Less than 4 posts in the last year

29. We went to 525 websites and found …
only
1 in 8
businesses have
an updated blog

30. This was confirmed with an online survey of 401 B2B Marketers …
13%
said that they keep a
company blog (1 in 7.7)

31. This was confirmed with an online survey of 401 B2B Marketers …
and only
1 in 5
said they use
social media

32. Another piece of research of 200 B2B Marketers found that:
just
18%
say they have even heard the
phrase “content marketing”

33. So there are 2 issues:
1. For the SMEs – no time, skill or help to
create a meaningful blog presence
2. For the Agencies – cannot get the
expertise from the client onto paper

34. But … our research also told us:
70%
of businesses understand
the value of a blog

36. That’s why we built Passle

37. That’s why we built Passle
So the other 7 in 8 businesses can
also keep an updated blog presence

38. And so agencies can …
… create exceptional content by
getting ideas, news and
opinions from the heart of their
client’s business

39. Here’s how …
1
Invite all the key people at your client’s business

40. 2
Everyone adds the Chrome Extension/bookmarklet
button to their browser

41. 3
Any time they come across interesting news, they
highlight the key part, hit the button and add in
their thoughts

42. 4
All of these content ideas land on your dashboard
where everyone can comment, debate and
discuss them

43. 5
Create informed, interesting content and stories
using this constant flow of ideas from within your
client’s business

44. 6
Once you have got your client their coverage, use
the button to capture and display it all in one
place

45. 7
Passle even pulls in all the Twitter chat on each
piece of coverage

46. Conclusions (for B2B)
1
If your primary business is content, data,
knowledge etc… then having Content at the
core of your marketing strategy also makes
great sense.
2
For everyone else, use content to enhance your
site - to attract the Search Engines, to prove
competence and make sales. But it is a
supplement not primary marketing activity.

47. Thanks