THE B2B CONTENT CREATION MASTERCLASS SQUAREDOT A BRAND NEW STORY f you’re head of marketing in an Every initiative you oversee and every ambitious B2B company, you need to campaign you sign off is another stamp of generate a steady stream of qualified leads your ownership and direction. If you have big to your sales team and you need to keep ambitions for your own career, then you your current client base sweet and loyal. need to get it right every time. It’s never easy, That’s your job in a nutshell. and that’s a good thing. For if it was easy, sure everyone would be at it, and without the The problem with nutshells is that they are challenge there would be no rewards. really small. The perspective from inside is narrow. You may be missing the bigger So you are preoccupied with promoting your picture, for you have a bigger responsibility brand in the best light, in front of the right that you may be overlooking. people, at the right time, with the right message to ensure (among other things) a Because as head of marketing, you are steady stream of ongoing quality leads and brand guardian and your legacy will shape loyal customer retention. You’ve done your the perception of your company and its homework, weighed up your options and product lines or service offering. Your brand concluded that you need to get serious presence is your top priority because it about your content marketing. represents the trust, authority and consideration that people (potential customers) place on everything you’re selling. Without brand credibility, the leads will dry up regardless of your other activities. GOOD CALL 1 FIRST THINGS FIRST What do I am mean by ‘brand’? It’s a much maligned word, bandied about to mean all sorts of things, depending on who is saying it. For some, it’s just the logo. For others it’s the packaging. More often than not, it’s a semantics shortcut people use when they could be talking anything from PR, products, websites, stationary, designs, advertising to whatever other specific thing is top of their to-do list. So for clarity, when I talk about the ‘brand’ I’m taking the holistic view. Your brand content often forms a first We’ll talk how much of your budget you impression. Every time your audience see should be looking to set aside and how this any of your marketing communications, in all fits in with your other digital initiatives like whatever form and whatever context, display advertising, social media, PPC and Descartes once said “I think channel or promotion, this impression is SEO. further stamped. Are you a trusted brand? therefore I am.” Well in that case a Are you relevant? Do you solve specific We’re just going to assume that you’ve brand might respond, business related pain points? Do you have already completed all your persona an authoritative voice with an engaging and identification, strategy and planning work. If “I am therefore what you think of me.” informed opinion? not, don’t even think of writing a word of content yet. Down tools and download our Now that we’re on the same page with the “Intro to Inbound” instead. ‘brand’, we’ll drill down into the details about getting your content right to reflect the kind For everyone else, read on. of brand you want to steer towards. Content marketing comes in many forms, typically blogs, ebooks, websites, videos and so on and we’ll discuss them all. 2 3 Create Compelling Content pg8 4 3 ectly f er P ime it it ime T pg 7 get 13 pg r a T r ou Y w o n K CONTENTS 2 5 efine R pg 4 pg ew and lan lan P evi R unning unning C pg 15 vise a a vise e D 1 Devise a Cunning Plan How much of your budget do you The list of free content discovery and Worried that your competitors Next, you’ll need to go through each of these http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/07/10-real-time-content-discovery-tools/ http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/07/10-real-time-content-discovery-tools/ need to set aside for content marketing? recommendation platforms is http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/07/10-real-time-content-discovery-tools/growing all the one by one and review the content. What http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/07/10-real-time-content-discovery-tools/ have already got their feet on the http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/07/10-real-time-content-discovery-tools/ http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/07/10-real-time-content-discovery-tools/ http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/07/10-real-time-content-discovery-tools/ http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/07/10-real-time-content-discovery-tools/ http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/07/10-real-time-content-discovery-tools/ http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/07/10-real-time-content-discovery-tools/ http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/07/10-real-time-content-discovery-tools/time. But Google and and BuzzSumo are form dœs it take? Is it any good? How well http://www.slideshare.net/CMI/2015-b2b-content-marketing-benchmarks-budgets-and-trends-north-america-by-content-marketing-institute-and-marketingprofs?from_action=save http://www.slideshare.net/CMI/2015-b2b-content-marketing-benchmarks-budgets-and-trends-north-america-by-content-marketing-institute-and-marketingprofs?from_action=save content marketing ladder? Accordinghttp://www.slideshare.net/CMI/2015-b2b-content-marketing-benchmarks-budgets-and-trends-north-america-by-content-marketing-institute-and-marketingprofs?from_action=save to the Content Marketing Institute, good places to start. The latter specialises in is it presented? What topics are covered? in 2015, B2B marketers put aside an identifying the key influencers and How much of it is there? How frequently is it average of 28% of their total marketing best-performing content in your field. Most Don’t be. All their hard work - their posted? Is it recent and up-to-date? budget, but the most effective marketers put of these platforms place their emphasis on successes and their failures – will prove to aside much more: 37%. social shares and viral potential, helping you be an absolute gold mine of information and Ask yourself: is it readable/ watchable/ tap into trending content or chip in to the insights when you come to planning your listenable/ engaging, engaging, and easy to That’s nearly two-fifths of their total spend. conversation early on – you need to have own strategy. follow? Is it well integrated with social And for good reason. your finger firmly on the pulse. media? Dœs it give the audience clear Thanks to competitor content analysis, you pointers for what they should do next? Plus, curating takes the burden off you to not only have a means of catching up, you produce a constant stream of new and also have a guided path upon which to learn It works. original content. It allows you to benefit from from other people’s mistakes. someone else’s efforts in a way that actually promotes and supports them; a win-win It takes time and skill, and a fair bit of manual If you’re new to content marketing, you might situation that helps build up your industry labour, but it’s absolutely worth the trouble to want to ease your way in with content network and informs your opinion. get you off to a flying start. curation, rather than creation. A good way to stay on your tœs and on the First, pick a competitor and visit their Contenthttp://smallbiztrends.com/2015/02/content-discovery-tools.html discovery and listening tools help lookout for ways to up your own game, is to website. you find things your audience consume keep your ears to the ground on the more easily, picking out relevant stories and initiatives your peers are up to. And, of Then, figure out where their content is stored. ideas without having to wade through course, you can keep tabs on which stories Is there a link to a blog? Learning resources endless media. your followers like and share the most, or tutorials? Infographics, videos or white giving you invaluable insights about the kind papers? ebook downloads or podcasts? of content you should invest your time and Check the sitemap too, to see if there’s budget in creating. buried content. 42 Now that you have an idea of what you’re up against, get forensic. http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31619/How-to-Conduct-Competitive-Analysis-to-Step-Up-Your-Content-Strategy.aspx Rhttp://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31619/How-to-Conduct-Competitive-Analysis-to-Step-Up-Your-Content-Strategy.aspx http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31619/How-to-Conduct-Competitive-Analysis-to-Step-Up-Your-Content-Strategy.aspxesources like HubSpot’s Competitor http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31619/How-to-Conduct-Competitive-Analysis-to-Step-Up-Your-Content-Strategy.aspx http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31619/How-to-Conduct-Competitive-Analysis-to-Step-Up-Your-Content-Strategy.aspx http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31619/How-to-Conduct-Competitive-Analysis-to-Step-Up-Your-Content-Strategy.aspx http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31619/How-to-Conduct-Competitive-Analysis-to-Step-Up-Your-Content-Strategy.aspx http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31619/How-to-Conduct-Competitive-Analysis-to-Step-Up-Your-Content-Strategy.aspx http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31619/How-to-Conduct-Competitive-Analysis-to-Step-Up-Your-Content-Strategy.aspx Trackinghttp://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31619/How-to-Conduct-Competitive-Analysis-to-Step-Up-Your-Content-Strategy.aspx Tool offer great ways to analyse competitors’ traffic, social media fan bases, SEO and more.