You totally buy in to the fact that content IS the new marketing, but you are struggling with getting your executives to understand it and approve the time and funds for that content strategy. How can you present the business case to them? How can you get approval for something beyond a 30-day test? Check out this presentation to see real case studies demonstrating the ROI for content marketing, including a systematized approach that it is repeatable and scalable. This presentation was given at Content Strategy Applied USA on November 17-18, 2014

1. Arnie Kuenn, CEO, Vertical Measures
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
How to Convince Your
Boss to Invest in
Content Marketing

2. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
About Your Presenter…
• Vertical Measures is a 50 person content marketing
agency with an SEO foundation
• Instructor for the Content Marketing Institute &
Online Marketing Institute
• Columnist for Marketing Land, Chief Content Officer
& Relevance

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VERTICAL MEASURES
about VM stuff
goes here

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“Arnie, I just can’t get our
management to see the potential
in this. Getting buy-in seems to
be impossible…”
After 2,000+ students in our content
marketing workshops, the most
common thing we hear afterwards…

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“I really think we should be
doing more social media…”
(said by no one that ever got buy-in)

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“I really think we should be
blogging…”
(said by no one that ever got buy-in)

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“I really think we should be
doing content marketing…”
(said by no one that ever got buy-in)

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What if you went back to them with a
presentation and never used these words:
• Blogging
• FAQ’s
• Content Marketing
• Inbound Marketing
• Social Media Marketing

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• Learning Center
• Listening
• Being Helpful
• Communicating
• Teaching
• Coaching
Instead you used words like:

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Buyers are searching for
information that helps them
make an informed decision.
Businesses that provide
that information - will win.

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“When prospects visit our website, do
we want to help solve their problems
better than anyone else in our
industry?”
“When they “Google it”, are they
going to find US or our competitors?”

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Companies, large & small, that truly
understand these principles are the
ones doing incredible things online
– and will win in the long run.

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Educate Them

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“Content Marketing”
Google Trends

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What Is Content Marketing?
• Content marketing is the art of providing relevant,
useful content to your customers without selling or
interrupting them.
• Instead of pitching your products or services, you are
delivering information that makes your customers
more informed before they buy.
• If you deliver consistent, ongoing valuable
information to your customers, they ultimately reward
you with their business and loyalty.

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Today, relationships are
created with information –
not people.

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THIS IS NOT A 30 DAY R.O.I.
BUT THE LONG-TERM PAYOFFS
CAN BE HUGE

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Travel Niche
5 months

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Health/Nutrition Niche
4.5 months

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Entertainment Niche
6.5 months

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You Will Probably Fail In The Beginning

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It Takes Courage…
• It takes courage to give away
something of value without the
expectation of immediate return
• It takes courage to trust that your
customers and prospects will reward
you with sales and loyalty at some
point in the future
• It takes courage to play the long
game, not the short game

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ROI On Content Marketing
Source: Content Marketing ROI (Kapost – Eloqua)

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Courtesy of The Sales Lion

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Because most of our clients are not the NYY, we
strongly suggest playing MONEYBALL
1 in 4 at bats = hit (a success)
1 in 36 at bats = home run (a big success)
1 in 1,691 at bats = grand slam (viral success)
THE ODDS OF HITTING A GRAND SLAM

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(
In order to play content MONEYBALL, you need
to come up with hundreds of ideas so you can
create fresh, useful content on a frequent basis.
Here’s how we do it…

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ASK YOUR
STAFF!

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Research Tools
Google Keyword
Suggest
Relate
Searches

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KeywordTool.io

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More than 410
questions about
More than 3,400
using broad match!
“visit the grand canyon”
(exact match)

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Long tail searches are
like hitting those
singles.

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Come Up With a List of Content Ideas

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Put TogetherAn Editorial Calendar
VerticalMeasures.com/calendar

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Create Useful Content

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Search and SEO are Critical
More than 80%
of people click
here!

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of all consumers use search
prior to making a purchase
Source: GroupM
of searchers conduct non-
branded queries
of buyers click on organic
links vs. the sponsored ads

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Most Common Problems We Find?
• Unintentional duplicate content
• Duplicate title & meta tags
• Over optimization of anchor text in
backlinks and footer
• No image optimization
• Blocked pages or site

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Sharing New Content Can Be Very Simple

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Budget for Some Ad Spend
Pay Per Click (PPC) and Native Advertising

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Don’t Get Hung Up On Social

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This page had more than 2,000 views.

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On Base Percentage Is The Key Factor

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The Results…
• Yale’s traffic has grown from
40,000 visitors to 150,000
annually
• Leads have grown from 800 to
2,300 monthly!
• Revenue is up by 40% since
starting their content marketing
program.
• And according their president
Steve Sheinkopf: “Profitability
is up way more than that,
because we eliminated
marketing expense.”

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Once In A While You Will Hit One Out Of The Park

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You MUST Measure

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What Really Matters To Your Business?
• How many people visited your website this
month compared to the previous months
• How many people filled out a form to
download a piece of content you provided
• How many new subscribers to your blog
• How many qualified leads you’ve gained
• How much has your revenue increased

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The best time to start
a content marketing program
is 5 years ago.
The second best time is NOW!

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We can bring our
content marketing
workshops to you.
Get everyone on the
same page.

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Contact: 888-476-1881
www.VerticalMeasures.com
More Traffic. More Leads. More Business.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!