The Ultimate Launch Kit: Thought Leadership Campaign www.tmsatoday.org © Copyright 2016 Transportation Sales & Marketing Association (TMSA) Contents 3 About the Launch Kit At-a-Glance: 9 simple steps for activating 4 a campaign in 90 days The Do’s and Dont’s for creating, reaching 5 and evaluating a campaign 8 A model for measuring ROI Case studies for putting your plan into 9 action Role Models for thought leadership in 14 Transportation & Logistics The Ultimate Launch Kit: Thought Leadership Campaign 2 About the Launch Kit he advice, recommendations and examples Tcontained in this kit were compiled from the “Thought Leadership in 90 Days” workshop held at the 2016 Transportation Marketing & Sales Association (TMSA) conference. Nearly 2 dozen marketing professionals in the transportation and logistics industry collaborated to produce its content. The workshop was facilitated by Chris Saynor, founder of eyefortransport (www.eft.com) and Jill Schmieg, chief strategist at Sol de Naples Marketing (www.soldenaples.com). The Ultimate Launch Kit: Thought Leadership Campaign 3 At-a-Glance 9 simple steps for activating a Thought Leadership campaign in 90 days Creating the campaign Conduct RESEARCH Define the AUDIENCE Establish ALIGNMENT 1 for intelligence about 2 you want to engage and 3 with stakeholders such audience, customers what is relevant to them as internal employees, and competitors management and external industry leaders Reaching the audience Find ways to Define a PRIMARY Execute 4 DIFFERENTIATE your 5 CHANNEL for 6 CONSISTENTLY AND message, perspective deploying your FREQUENTLY across and position on the topic content, then re-use multiple channels and re-purpose Evaluating performance Measure Measure LEADS & RE-EVALUATE and 7 AWARENESS with 8 REVENUE which can 9 ADJUST the campaign metrics such as # of be used to prove ROI regularly as your reach downloads, for campaign renewal and performance grows impressions and and expansion followers The Ultimate Launch Kit: Thought Leadership Campaign 4 Creating As a brand, people want to know about your tried-and-true experiences and the tips and tricks you’ve learned along the way. They want to get a behind-the-scenes look at your practices and how you’ve realized success, the challenges you’ve faced and what you learned from them. omnimaio dios quaerrorio. On nectis ea volupides nimendit explibus ulluptatia sediten ecatet - Elaine Ip, Content Marketer at Marketo The DO’s The DONT’s for creating a thought leadership campaign for creating a thought leadership campaign Do build employee-wide support and Don’t assume the depth of knowledge or understanding experience your internal and external audiences have Do get buy-in from high-profile people, such as industry leaders Don’t try to invent something you don’t know anything about Do align topic(s) to the company’s business, customer and brand Don’t keep your best secrets a secret; what is your competitive advantage could be the very Do research and development (R&D) on your thing that you recruit new customers with! topic and audience Don’t leave customers in the dark about your Do understand customer pain points plans or campaign Do understand competitors, and how the topic/position you’re developing is unique compared to them Do innovate in your area of expertise Do recognize that you likely know more about the topic and have more experience in the topic than your audience does Do create a content mission statement Do create a sense of urgency for your campaign The Ultimate Launch Kit: Thought Leadership Campaign 5 Reaching Quote TBD Before you create any more ‘great content,’ - tbd figure out how you’re going to market it first. - Joeomnimaio Pulizzi dios & quaerrorio. Newt Barrett, On nectis ea authors volupides nimendit of Get explibus Content ulluptatia Get sediten Customers ecatet The DO’s The DONT’s for reaching your audience with a thought for reaching your audiences with a thought leadership campaign leadership campaign Do identify your target market/audiences Don’t try to be all things to all people Do focus on how to monetize your campaign Don’t be self-promotional nor too modest but rather, make sure the audiences gets value from Do have consistency and frequency across all what you’re saying channels Don’t over-communicate or inundate Do identify the correct channels and mediums based on audiences preference Don’t bash your competitors Do differentiate the message Don’t use only one medium or channel Do share relevant content as a resource for your Don’t ignore CAN-SPAM or other critical audience regulations Do own your primary platform (that means it’s not going to be Facebook!) Do use your employees as ambassadors and spokespeople Do develop strategies to make your campaign go viral (ie. referral marketing) The Ultimate Launch Kit: Thought Leadership Campaign 6 Evaluating In God we trust. For all others, bringomnimaio dios quaerrorio.data. On nectis ea volupides nimendit explibus ulluptatia sediten ecatet - W. Edwards Demming American engineer, statistician and author The DO’s The DONT’s for evaluating a thought leadership for evaluating a thought leadership campaign campaign Do create a data framework to measure the Don’t assume an immediate correlation to communication effectiveness and reach, such revenue as: # of downloads, impressions and followers Don’t expect immediate returns from the Do use Google analytics to measure online campaign engagement Don’t assume what worked in the past won’t work in the future Do track your revenue stream both before and after the campaign occurs Don’t assume what works for competitors will work for you Do analyze ROI and use the findings to build the business case for campaign renewal and Don’t measure too quickly or too soon before expansion the campaign has a chance to take off Do measure lead generation Do measure brand awareness Do measure customer satisfaction Do re-evaluate your results regularly The Ultimate Launch Kit: Thought Leadership Campaign 7 A Model for Measuring ROI Major components of the campaign plan: • Target audience Thought Leadership research & definition • Content strategy & Campaign development plan • Goals & objectives • Budget & investment • Channel execution plan (see Channels below) Channel 1: Channel 2: Channel 3: Channel 4: Advertising Events Digital Other $xyz $xyz $xyz $xyz Leads Marketing Automation Marketing Technology enablers Technology $ Sales Pipeline Generated / Proposed Sales CRM Sales $ Won / New Business The Ultimate Launch Kit: Thought Leadership Campaign 8 Case Studies for putting a thought leadership campaign into action The Ultimate Launch Kit: Thought Leadership Campaign 9 Case Studies Introduction Now that you know the do’s Scenario 1 and don’ts associated with a Thought Leadership You are a small campaign, take a moment to trucking company imagine these two scenarios, with a 1 person which are the (fictitious) marketing team circumstances in which your company operates. Scenario 2 What should you do for your Your CEO just thought leadership campaign gave you $150,000 in light of these scenarios? for your campaign, and you can Select ‘case study’ responses to leverage the entire this question can be found on 80 person the next slides. marketing team The Ultimate Launch Kit: Thought Leadership Campaign 10 Scenario 1: Small trucking company | 1 person Case Study 1: marketing team For planning, be sure to: Safety • Set the objective and ensure its aligned to the business plan. • Identify the audience/target market. • Identify the topic • Identify an internal thought leader/ Scenario 2: subject matter expert. $150,000 budget | 80 person marketing team For the tactical execution, suggestions include: Further actions to expand are: • Social Media (Facebook, LinkedIn, • Paid Media such as billboards, radio Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat) and TV • Industry Events (Leverage the CEO • Banner ads on industry websites to speak at events as thought • Wrapping trucks with leader/expert branding/messaging • Association engagement (Join the • Holding events such as a user summit association’s board of directors) or conference • White Paper series • Give away free, branded items (ie. in • Video series campaign (hint: use the case of a safety campaign, bikes humor) and helmets The Ultimate Launch Kit: Thought Leadership Campaign 11 Case Study 2: Driver Recruiting Scenario 1: Scenario 2: Small trucking company | 1 person $150,000 budget | 80 person marketing team marketing team In the planning phase: Diversify and expand content with a team of • Define your audience and topic area writers and doing more market research • Develop a content mission statement Topic tracks could be day-to-day driver lives, • Research the channels where you can trucker likes, driver wellness and safety. find your audience • Develop content (remember, consistently Expand content delivery options with and frequently) videos, webinars, professional photos, etc. • Internal approvals Expand into more channels • Social – expand with ads and boosting In the reaching phase: sponsorships • Leverage user (ie. driver) generated • Website – update the driver section content • Create a dedicated blog for drivers • Contest w-hashtag • Advertising in truck stops, trade • Incentive programs publications and other magazines for • Employee ambassadors/advocates, drivers including corporate employees • Industry associations and tradeshows • Pictures and videos like American Trucking Association • Channel focus is: (ATA) • Company website • Email Invest in more ways to evaluate by