6. What you need
to know
Put the end-goal first
Build a content strategy around the key performance metrics
you’re accountable for—whether it’s sales, social sharing,
brand awareness or lead generation.
Map audience interests
Develop a keen understanding of your consumer’s needs.
What are they passionate about? What challenges do they face?
How can you help them live a better, more inspired life?
Keep it real
No matter what you do, be authentic. Your strategy should lead
with content, not product. Tell relevant, useful and entertaining
stories. If you don’t, your audience will see right through you.
8. What you need
to know
Build an editorial calendar and production plan. Set up a disciplined process
by clearly mapping out your content schedule and cadence, and you’ll be
able to churn out content with the speed of a real publisher.
Invest in talent
Hire a managing editor to oversee your editorial calendar and freelancers,
edit posts and ensure content embodies your brand and voice. Your editor
should be as much a marketer as a writer, and should be held accountable
for hitting KPIs, including: engagement metrics, social shares, leads or
closed deals.
Create content at scale
Scale your coverage by employing a mix of original and licensed
content. For example, the Huffington Post uses a rule of thirds: 30% of
content should be curated, 30% should be original, and 30% should
be experimental, comprised of multimedia, social feeds and innovative
platforms. Finding the right combination of original content, thought
leadership and licensed content is key to executing a well-rounded content
strategy.
10. What you need
to know
Identify what you want to prove. Set concrete performance metrics to guide you in
measuring your campaign’s success.
Target with content
Map out content against each distinct stage of the sales process. Breaking up the sales
funnel into stages allows for a targeted approach to how you publish your thought
leadership, using content to draw in potential clients every step of the way.
Work backwards
In order to accurately determine ROI, it’s important to think inversely, backtracking to
assess how each piece of content contributed to individual milestones, whether it’s a
spike in traffic, engagement or newsletter sign-ups or the inbound of a highly qualified
lead.
Think in quantifiable terms
Be sure to tie content directly to your company’s profits by thinking of each piece of
content as a percentage of your marketing efforts, rather than an abstract component.
Utilize extensive A/B testing
Improve conversion performance at all junctures. Test click-through rates at all points,
from blog post to landing page, and form completion rates on the landing page itself.
11. Chapter 2
Content Design
Images and video are quickly
becoming main drivers of how we
consume content on the web. Tumblr
is now the world’s most popular
blogging platform, and both Tumblr
and Pinterest see significantly higher
engagement levels than that of
Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+.5
A strong visual narrative is integral
to content curation; a site’s design
should be informed by the content
it houses. On-brand content design
allows consumers to identify your
brand from a visual standpoint, and
compels brands to create a clearly
defined style.
“It’s not that my
vision is better.
It’s having one
singular vision.”
—Jenna Lyons, President, J.Crew 4
13. What you need
to know
Lead with purpose
Design is much more than shapes, colors, and fonts alone. It’s about
storytelling, conversation and developing a meaningful consumer experience.
Leverage good design in order to bring emotion, creativity and purpose to your
brand.
Tie it all together
A choir sounds a lot better when everyone in it is singing the same tune.
Ensure that the look and feel of your content—from typography and color to
your site and collateral—is consistent across all of your brand touchpoints and
social platforms.
Fuel your social channels with visual content
Strong, arresting visuals are key to producing high-quality, viral content. Photos
are 200% more likely to be shared and liked than text alone, and videos are
shared 1,200% more than text and links combined.6
17. What you need
to know
Design for multiple screens
Responsive design guarantees that users have the same experience on
every screen and ensures publishers don’t miss out on a visit or view.
Put content before technology
Don’t overwhelm users with too many dynamic modules or special effects.
Make your site easy to use and intuitive. In turn, your users will stay longer
and consume more.
Encourage discovery
Thoughtful calls to action should suggestively lead users towards more
content, related information or applicable services. Layers of additional
content or product offerings allow for increased engagement and lead to a
more fluid experience overall.
20. What you need
to know
Align real-time content with a long-term brand narrative
Responding to events in real-time is not just about capturing attention in
the moment; it should be one piece of the marketing puzzle that keeps
your audience loyal for the long run.
Remember, real time is about more than being timely
Your content should be timely, but it doesn’t always need to be created
on the spot. When building your editorial calendar, plan for the events
you can anticipate and react quickly when you cannot.
Evaluate before you react
According to PR agency Edelman, brands must ask themselves three
questions before rushing to push content out. Is it relevant (does it align
with your brand’s values)? Does it resonate (map to audience interests
beyond your brand)? Is it timely (are these stories that drive interest and
conversation now)? 8
22. What you need
to know
Chose the right social channel for your brand
Citi generated incremental buzz by turning to a community they knew
contained their target audience. As the top social platform for work-related
discussions12
, LinkedIn was the ideal channel to spark awareness through
business-minded dialogue.
Nurture individual relationships through community
Allow the power of community to cultivate your brand’s relationship with
consumers. Citi successfully leveraged LinkedIn’s inherent notion of
community and professional conversation to organically grow their follower
base and influence, addressing timely financial issues important to women.
Get creative with distribution
When it comes to engagement, having strong content isn’t enough; how
you distribute that content matters just as much. By leveraging both
original and licensed content, Citi maximized the amount of content being
pushed out to users thereby increasing the likelihood of readership and
engagement.
24. What you need
to know
Merge online and offline content
Leverage multiple platforms and social networks to engage consumers in
unique ways. Take advantage of technology and real-time marketing tactics
to distribute content, via livestream or social channels, on a global scale.
Encourage consumer participation
Embed consumers within your campaign via calls to action that inspire
both competition and engagement. Augment your original media library by
calling upon users to help with the creation and delivery of content.
Use exclusive content as added value
Gating, or protecting premium content can be done in a variety of ways.
One way to do so is by making it an added benefit to conversion, whether
that comes in the form of downloading a white paper or purchasing a luxury
item. Withholding content allows for engagement to occur post-conversion,
or purchase, and encourages the consumer to interact with your brand for a
longer period of time.
25. In a world where
every brand is
a media brand,
quality content
sets people apart.
“Quality,” as John Ruskin once wrote, “is never an accident.”
Blending powerful technology, creative design, and a world-class editorial team,
NewsCred powers content marketing for the world’s leading brands.
At our core, NewsCred is about relationships. Over the past four years, we’ve built
steadfast partnerships with thousands of publishers, including the New York Times,
The Economist, The Guardian, Getty Images, and more. Our content library gives
business unprecedented, real-time access to millions of articles, images and videos
from every corner of the globe.
Our product suite includes end-to end content marketing solutions: the technology to
filter and curate relevant content; the publishing tools to design and build campaigns
with speed and scale; and the editorial teams that bring authenticity to every content
experience.