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Perhaps most reflective of this has been the award-winning juggernaut of REI's #OptOutside campaign, which won the Titanium Grand Prix on Saturday. If for some reason you weren't one of its 6.7 billion media impressions, essentially the company closed its doors on Black Friday, encouraging its employees and everyone else to get out into the outdoors. Beyond the ad, starring REI chief exec Jerry Stritzke introducing the idea from a wide-open office, the brand also created a helpful online guide to hiking trails and other outdoor activities around the U.S.
By encouraging us to drop out of the annual shopping day, the outdoor retailer aims for more sales and brand loyalty. The company said the brand's social media impressions went up 7,000%, with 2.7 billion media impressions in 24 hours, while overall the campaign attracted 6.7 billion media impressions, 1.2 billion social impressions, and got more than 1.4 million people to spend the day outdoors. Meanwhile, more than 150 other companies joined REI to close their doors on Black Friday, and hundreds of state parks opened up for free.
If Cannes is the ad and marketing industry's Oscars, than this is arguably Best Picture. The Titanium category is meant to honor work that breaks new ground, crosses boundaries, and pushes the industry forward. The win adds to the campaign's Media and Promotions Grand Prix, picked up earlier in the week, and its run of wins at other industry awards like the D&ADs, and Best of Show at the One Show awards in May....
To say native content has grown since last year would be an understatement. In 2014, Pressboard combed through 1,500 pieces of content for our "best of" list -- this year it was closer to 7,000. To give you an idea of how far the space has come, we had to buy VR headsets just to review a couple of the entries.
2015 was the year that native content moved from experimental to fundamental and nearly every major publisher and brand discovered the power of stories, instead of ads. Here are some of the best from the last 12 months...
Our biggest challenge and opportunity was to establish a connected marketing technology ecosystem that would deliver “seamless experiences in a complex omni-channel world” that would change “consumer behaviors” that we believed prevented our growth. So, more than just bringing a sleuth of enterprise and emerging marketing technologies, we focused on how we could “apply” them to address behavioral issues like “trust,” “stigma,” “trial” that would eventually maximize the life-time value for our brands.
The key to success for most brands is to shift the focus from channels and technologies to the human behavior and becoming customer obsessed, both in strategy and execution.
It was a fascinating journey for me, and my biggest takeaway has been a firm belief that, at the end of the day, it was always about the “human”, her needs, desires, and finally her behavior — and not about the technology or the channel. The key to success for most brands is to shift the focus from channels and technologies to the human behavior and becoming consumer obsessed, both in strategy and execution....
A content marketing strategy works as your guiding light when it comes to the planning, production, promotion, and measurement of content. Taking the time to create a solid strategy might seem like more work up-front, but it will reduce your workload over time and make your content more effective.
Now (before you start) is the time to think through your objectives and build a content marketing strategy that will elevate your social media efforts to the next level. We’ve put together a helpful walkthrough that will guide you through each step of the process...
The exponential growth of content marketing has revealed an interesting skills gap that is hindering the efforts of companies to transform content marketing from a promising set of experiments into an agile, scalable, strategic function in the business.
As brands expand their use of content and rich media assets to deliver engaging experiences to their customers, they are using a whole new lexicon and set of skills. Teams responsible for content planning, production, and measurement must be able to work together, speak the same language, and be focused on a common set of tasks even when geographically dispersed.
Brands create content marketing teams from different sources — in-house, agencies, and freelancers. This structure creates the potential for a modern-day Tower of Babel – people try to communicate with one another, but each speaks a different language and they differ on what content marketing is....
Our employees give us the opportunity to augment our licensed and community-generated content with original material that has the feel of exclusive, insider information. While our colleagues may not be as trained in effective Web writing as we are in marketing, their insights are nuggets of gold and can be efficiently turned into content.
In this column, I’ll describe three types of content programs and processes that represent different paths to get employees engaged in content marketing in a manner that both taps into their knowledge and respects the fact that content is not their day job....
83% of marketers cite lead generation as their top goal for b2b content marketing, but when the focus is on driving enquiries, it’s easy to get caught up with too much product promotion.
If you want to build a successful content strategy, it’s time to ditch the content you want to create and start producing content that fits with the concerns and interest of your audience using accurate, data-driven buyer personas.
By following these 6 steps you’ll build an effective, persona driven content strategy, and create lead-generating content in the tone and style your buyers want to see....
Forget metrics and marketing objectives. Ask yourself what business challenges the marketing team is accountable for solving. Then, set the content performance indicators based on the ultimate results you want to bring to the table. Not every type of content will resonate with all audiences at any stage in their buying journey. That’s why you need a strategy.
As you approach content marketing, set your priorities before you decide on formats or frequency. Ask yourself questions like: - Do we need to build more brand awareness, because buyers don’t even know who we are?
- Do we need to get more traffic to our website?
- Do we need to do a better job of engaging online visitors?
- Do we need more email subscribers, and more contact names for sales?
- Do we need to do a better job of nurturing our leads, or cross-selling products to our customers?...
“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” – Michael Porter
More than anything else, this quote has been in my mind lately. I think all of us content marketers need to be mindful of this.
As many of you know, I’ve been working with the team on my latest book Content Inc., which will be released at Content Marketing World 2015 in September. In the book, I’m working on dissecting the business models of enormously successful entrepreneurs who grew an audience through content before launching a product (my initial Content Inc. podcast is now available).
At this point, I’m not going to get specific about the individual companies (I’ll leave that for the book and podcast), but we’ve discovered something interesting. In almost all cases, these successful content marketing-driven companies put all their energy into one channel. It was just a blog, just a series of videos, or just a podcast. Then, after many months and years of success, they began to diversify the content offerings. There’s something about building a loyal audience on one channel before giving them additional options....
As CMI research shows, marketers with a documented content marketing strategy are more effective than those who don’t have a written strategy. Yet, only 27% of B2C and 48% of B2B marketers have developed a plan.
If you lack a written strategy, a one-page plan is a great place to begin. If you have a detailed strategy but struggle to gain traction, boiling it down to one page will make it easier. A one-page strategy can help you:
- Crystalize your content marketing strategy
- Gain stronger buy-in more quickly from executives or clients
- Keep content producers strategically aligned...
I’ve found that many brands pay for content and software and then realize they don’t know what to do with it. And that’s OK. Content Marketing is still relatively new to many of us and we’re here to help.
I have also seen many ominous signs from brands that showed they just weren’t ready for content marketing. And that’s OK too. Content marketing is a strategic solution to a strategic problem. Content should be an asset inside your company. One that provides a real and measurable ROI. Content is not a cost. And we are here to help show you how.
We created this document, and these 21 questions, to help facilitate the discussion and guide the journey towards a documented content marketing strategy....
According to a study by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs only 38% of B2B companies think their content marketing is effective. The same study also states that only 35% of the companies have a documented content marketing strategy.
My guess is that some of these companies do not even know whether they are effective or not. They cannot say what “effective” really is in regard to content marketing without goals, metrics etc. It would certainly help with effectiveness of content marketing to have a strategy at hand.
Here are 9 essential elements any content marketing strategy should include....
Content marketing can help grow your business in many different ways. We all know that because it has been repeated about a million times on the marketing blogosphere in the last 5 years.
But really, I’m always impressed with these two most common scenarios when it comes to companies adopting (or not) content marketing: Many companies jump on the wagon to just go through the motions of writing posts, without really knowing why, or having clear goals. Or companies that fail to see the benefits of a content-rich website rather than a virtual static brochure.
And this is why I loved this infographic from Neil Patel (QuickSprout), because it focuses on one clear benefit: Content marketing can help improve your search engine rankings. So I wanted to share it with you....
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You want to be writing the right content, right?
I mean, if you're not getting anything out of your blog, why are you (or your content creators) spending hours researching, writing and formatting?
This article will break down the 10 most important pieces of content and how they can be used in combination to attract readers, generate leads, nurture those leads into signups and those signups into upgrades....
To improve the impact of content marketing, companies need to put together a data-driven content marketing strategy, part of which includes looking at buyers’ personas and buyers’ goals.
Below are five steps to build a to connect buyers’ goals to your content marketing strategy.
Here are 5 steps you can use to connect your content to buyers’ goals....
B2B content marketers are intent on pushing their products/services in content pieces, whereas their audience is looking for substantive ideas, according to a recent report from the Economist Group and Peppercomm.
The report was based on data from poll of 500 global business executives who were asked about what they look for in content, and 500 global marketers who were asked about how they're building their content strategy.
Some 75% of executives say their primary purpose for seeking out content is to find ideas, the survey found. However, 93% of marketers say the intent of their content is to directly promote products/services....
In a simplified way, this plan template asks who, what, when, where, why, how, and how much questions that any good plan answers.
But it also details interesting brand dilemmas like the specific business case, how much branding your content hub should have and where it should live. It goes through the team, topics, and customer paths, and forces you to think through which metrics you can measure and how you will optimize....
Brief-writing is the unsung art of content marketing. Get it right and you dramatically increase your chances of hitting a home run. Get it wrong and you’re more likely to win the lottery (it’s possible but don’t hold your breath).
And since most marketers aren’t the ones actually writing or designing or producing the content in their editorial calendars, the brief is the most important place to exert leverage and make an impact on the final product. It all starts here.
So what goes into a great content brief? The usual stuff plus six critical extras you don’t see in many briefs....
Creating a marketing plan without performing a proper digital marketing audit can cause you to invest in unnecessary initiatives and to overlook gaps in your current strategy. Many marketers forgo performing an in-depth audit because it can be an intimidating and time-consuming process.
Being so closely involved with your marketing on a daily basis often makes it hard to have an objective idea of where you stand. This article will attempt to outline a plan to help you objectively examine your online presence across multiple platforms and help you optimize your efforts using the latest tactics and best practices....
How is it possible that in an age where data is as available as fast-food and Google knows you better than you do yourself, organizations still manage to create impersonal stories and dull content that nobody wants to interact with?
For instance, if you’re a carpenter you should create content that your target audience already is searching for and engaging with. People love DIY, so why aren’t you recording tutorials on how to make birdhouses instead of showing some plain pictures of your recent realizations? Because the carpenter started from the source’s point of view instead of the receiver’s....
A much-ballyhooed Gallup study uncovered some ugly “truths” about social media, including a reputed inability to influence purchasing decisions. According to the study, 62 percent of Americans say Facebook, Twitter and their ilk have no influence on whether they purchase a product.
Although asking consumers to accurately recount the advertising methods that ultimately drove them to purchase is likely a fool’s errand, many marketers who have attempted to correlate standard social metrics to sales and other conversions have struggled to make a connection.
As a result, in many marketing shops the number of likes, shares and retweets a brand receives daily is lessening in importance. But that doesn’t mean social media offers nothing of value — advanced marketers are leveraging social data for reasons beyond direct marketing tactics....
Whether you’re starting a social media marketing plan from scratch or redefining an existing social media strategy, we’ve found that taking a moment to reflect on some key questions can be a really valuable exercise.
These Big Important questions—capital “B,” capital “I”—can help point you down the best path with your social media efforts and ensure that the time you spend is aimed at the right places and toward your top goals.
I’ve listed here 25 of the questions that I’ve found most helpful when coming up with social media strategies for my personal brand and for sharing with Buffer. Plus, I’m happy to share how I think about answering these questions as well. It’d be great to hear your thoughts and experience on the topic, too!...
When I went rock climbing for the first time, I had no idea what I was doing. My friends and I were complete newbies about ropes and rappelling and every other bit of jargon and technique that goes with climbing.
Developing a social marketing plan is sort of like rock climbing. Here's a basic checklist to help you get started....
Here are 25 of the questions I’ve been asking to B2B companies about content marketing. Maybe some of these will make you think about your own content marketing program and opportunities to expand, enhance, and optimize it. I sprinkled throughout some of the tools we often use and recommend. I’ll work on a full tools blog post for early next year.
These are listed alphabetically, but I’d love to know which of these are most interesting and relevant to you, so please vote up the ones you like best on this Listly
The 16-page guide Content Marketing Institute published on documenting your strategy can certainly help you get started. But, once you’ve gone through the initial documentation process, you’ll need to know how to implement that strategy — and keep it updated on an ongoing basis.
While you will want to follow your strategy closely in order to keep your content marketing focused on your organization’s goals, it should also be flexible enough to account for new insights and information you receive as time goes on. There is no specific template you can use to build a strategy; but below, we share some guidelines you can use to determine what elements should stay consistent and what will likely evolve:
Your goals and mission should be sticky
The first two things you need to identify when building your strategy are the goals and mission of your content marketing program. Coincidentally, these are the same two that should change very little....
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Good story. Great campaign. Exceptional content marketing results!