Shafqat Islam founded NewsCred, a leading content marketing platform. He manages the strategic growth of the company, pioneering a new content ecosystem for brands and publishers. Shafqat will share how NewsCred uses content marketing to drive brand awareness, deliver qualified buyers and achieve higher conversion rates.

2. How NewsCred Does
Content Marketing:
Attract, Capture +
Convert
Shafqat Islam
CEO

3. Agenda
01 The Content Imperative
02 How Content Drives Value
03 How NewsCred Does Content Marketing:
Attract, Capture + Convert
@newscred | #ThinkContent

4. The Content Imperative
1

5. Content powers the
customer experience.

6. At NewsCred, we believe content marketing is the
single most effective way to deliver more engaged,
better qualified buyers into your digital experiences.

7. 84%of people expect brands to
produce content
Source: Meaningful Brands 2017, Havas Group

8. 60%of all content created by brands is poor,
irrelevant, or fails to deliver
Source: Meaningful Brands 2017, Havas Group

9. How Content Drives Value
2

10. Content marketing is the
act of delivering users
value at every interaction.
@newscred | #ThinkContent

11. WHAT
CUSTOMERS
WANT
CONTENT
MARKETING
BRAND
PURPOSE
It’s important to remember that the content you produce
needs to be valuable for both your brand and your audience
I AM
GREAT

12. “Content” Can Take Many Forms
● Blog posts
● Videos + motion graphics
● Infographics
● Podcasts
● Social media posts
● Email newsletters
● Events
@newscred | #ThinkContent

13. Drives Marketing-Influenced Revenue
Leverage content marketing to achieve increases in leads,
conversions, and upsell/cross-sell revenue attributed to marketing.
0
1
How Content Creates Value for Your Brand
Increases Brand Equity
Increase awareness, loyalty, and value of the brand
through effective content marketing programs.
02
@newscred | #ThinkContent

14. How NewsCred Does
Content Marketing:
Attract, Capture +
Convert
3

15. NewsCred’s Content Marketing Goals
Are Simple: Revenue Generation
Content
Marketing Revenue

16. Content Marketing Stages: Attract, Capture + Convert
ATTRACT
CAPTURE
CONVERT
Attracting the right audience:
How do we bring the right people to our site?
Keeping your audience:
How do we capture this engaged audience to
bring them into our ecosystem?
Moving them to a desired action:
How do we ensure our captured audience
moves through the funnel to become MQLs?

17. KPIs Used by NewsCred for Each
Stage
Attract Capture Convert
Site Traffic
Top Performing Sources
Top Performing Content
Newsletter Sign-Ups
Articles Viewed
Time on Site
Engagement Rate
New Member Sign-Ups
TCU Sign-Ups
Returning Visitors
Returning Traffic Sources
MQLs Generated
Meetings Held
New Opportunity Pipeline Created
Deals Influenced
Organic/SEO
News vs Returning

18. The average NewsCred prospect
reads 20 pieces of content before
becoming a customer.

19. NewsCred’s Lead Journey Through Each
Stage of Attract, Capture + Convert
SUBSCRIPTIONS
PAGEVIEWS
OPPS
LEADS
MQLS
New Visitors to Insights Content from All Channels:
Goal is to move this channel to subscribe or sign-up to Insights directly
Newsletter Subscriber + Upsell Opportunity:
Receives newsletter as normal, but also gets entered into stream to upsell to Insights
Scorable Lead:
Contains enough data to be scored by Everstring
MQL:
Scored by Everstring as A-rated lead
Opps:
Revenue-connected
2%
8%
33%
15%

20. ATTRACT
01

21. In our experience, marketers with a
documented content marketing strategy
are 5x more likely to succeed.

22. Key elements of a successful content strategy:
What are your marketing objectives?
What research do you have about the content your customers want?
Does your content meet their needs?
What internal and external resources are required to run your content
marketing engine? What process will produce the most effective results?
What conversations do you want to own? How can we curate incredible
content that drives towards your business goals?
How can we connect our content with the right audience at the right time?
How can we use performance data to optimize?
DEFINE
INSIGHT
PLAN
CURATE
DISTRIBUTE
MEASURE +
OPTIMIZE
ACTION ITEM:
Always continue to test
& learn!

23. At NewsCred, our vision is to publish
exceptional content that inspires content
marketers to tell great stories and drive business
results.
MISSION STATEMENT

24. Senior-level content marketers and
champions at enterprise companies.
TARGET AUDIENCE

25. We’re committed to quality over quantity.
@newscred | #ThinkContent

26. To provide our readers with value at every interaction, we create content
that is in-depth, long-form, data- and research-driven, and tactical.
Brand spotlights Actionable stories Trend pieces Thought leadership Industry News
@newscred | #ThinkContent

27. To hold ourselves
accountable, we
developed a content
scorecard that’s
integrated into our CMS.We fill it out for each piece of
content we publish – and if
something doesn’t meet those
standards, we don’t publish it!
@newscred | #ThinkContent

28. Using licensed content, we’ve established a publishing cadence that
allows us to publish quality content every weekday.
Each week we publish:
● 2 original stories
● 1 industry roundup
● 2 licensed stories
But only if the stories meet
our editorial standards.
@newscred | #ThinkContent

29. The customer journey is more complicated than ever. There are
countless touchpoints, on and offline, where users can interact with
brands.
@newscred | #ThinkContent

30. For their content to be effective, brands
must meet audiences where they are.

31. All of our distribution channels lead back to NewsCred Insights.

32. SUBSCRIPTIONS
PAGEVIEWS
LEADS
MQLs
OPPS
Measuring content performance starts with a quality content experience.

33. We use these KPIs to measure the “Attract” stage of the buyer
journey.
Attract Capture Convert
Site Traffic
Top Performing Sources
Top Performing Content
Newsletter Sign-Ups
Articles Viewed
Time on Site
Engagement Rate
New Member Sign-Ups
TCU Sign-Ups
Returning Visitors
Returning Traffic Sources
MQLs Generated
Meetings Held
New Opportunity Pipeline Created
Deals Influenced
Organic/SEO
News vs Returning

34. The Gift that Keeps on Giving: NewsCred’s #ThinkContent
Awards: 50 Best Content Marketing Brands of 2017

35. CAPTURE
02

36. We wait until readers are highly engaged – 50% scroll.

37. A 50% page scroll triggers a pop-up lightbox.

38. The lightbox outperforms all other CTA placements by 10x.
of all subscriptions
70
%
NewsCred’s email newsletter subscribers come both through static
subscription forms on the sidebar, and a lightbox pop-up which appears when
page scroll length is at halfway. This lightbox represents 70% of all sign-ups.

39. SUBSCRIPTIONS
PAGEVIEWS
LEADS
MQLs
OPPS
Newsletter subscriber rate provides the first step of the funnel journey.
2%

40. CONVERT
03

41. NewsCred sends out 4 newsletters per week, which feature no promotional
messages, except for footer links to high-value content. This creates return
visits and generates trust for upsell.
We deliver a pure content email experience – without self-promotion.

42. Email Newsletter Performance Results
Conversion Rate
3x
Visitors from the newsletter
convert into high-value goals
for NewsCred at 3x the
average site conversion rate.

43. Building a newsletter database also lowers your program costs.
● Email makes up nearly 44% of all NewsCred’s traffic
● Result: Less dependence on paid spend, plus a more sustainable
program

44. We signpost at every user journey point.

45. We signpost to direct users to more content.

46. Journey leads to high-value gated content

47. Converting Customers via Email
NewsCred sends out 4 newsletters per week, which feature no promotional messages, except for
footer links to high-value content. This creates return visits and generates trust for upsell.

48. 66%of all NewsCred’s high-value leads are
created through our email channel

49. We make an effort to create pillar content, then
scale and distribute it across our ecosystem.
Blog post Social media posts Email newsletter
WebinarVideo
Gated content
collection

50. SUBSCRIPTIONS
PAGEVIEWS
MQLs
OPPS
NewsCred’s Approach to Conversions:
2%
LEADS
8%

51. Lead Source is Assigned Based on the High-Value Content Upsell
● Example case here:
subscriber became a lead
from the webinar
● Marketo trigger assigns Lead
Source based on this high-
value action and syncs with
SFDC
● Any further deal attribution will
refer back to this lead source
to tie the deal back to content
marketing

52. 40%of all NewsCred’s revenue is directly
attributed to content marketing.

53. 100%of NewsCred’s revenue is
influenced by content.

54. Published: October 20, 2016
Pageviews: 2,463
Readers: 1,573
Engaged Time: 1:07
Engagement Rate: 46%
Our ROI analytics give insights into posts that are driving business
results – even if they don’t appear to be high performers on the surface.
Leads Reached: 448
Leads Generated: 9
Deals Influenced: 6
Revenue Influenced:
$950,378

55. NewsCred’s Lead Journey through each stage of Attract, Capture +
Convert
SUBSCRIPTIONS
PAGEVIEWS
OPPS
LEADS
MQLS
New visitors to Insights content from all channels
Goal is to move this channel to subscribe or sign-up to Insights directly
Newsletter Subscriber + Upsell Opportunity
Receives newsletter as normal, but also gets entered into stream to upsell to Insights
Scorable Lead
Contains enough data to be scored by Everstring
MQL
Scored by Everstring as A rated lead
Opps
Revenue connected
2%
8%
33%
15%

56. Key Takeaways
@newscred | #ThinkContent
● Attract: Build a quality audience that is truly engaging with your content.
● Capture: Get your audience to opt-in to more content so you can control the conversation
and drive them towards conversion.
● Convert: Drive your captured audience towards intentional high-value conversions that can
be connected to a business value.
● Attribute: Work with your tech stack and acquisition teams to follow attribution best
practices to get reportable credit at the bottom of the funnel.
● Influence: Look at the the full value of content marketing across all lead sources and
touchpoints.

57. Questions?

58. Thank you!