A Guide to Great Content Marketing by Jim Pennypacker

A Guide to

Great Content Marketing dancecommunications

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Contents » What is Content Marketing? 3 » Why Create Custom Content? 4 » Five Steps to Great Content Marketing! 5

» Explore 6 » Plan 7 » Create

» Content Strategy 8

» Writing & Editing 9

» Print Design & Production 10

» Online Design & Production 11

Dance Communications is a content marketing services company. We help firms create great content to build awareness, generate and nurture leads, and foster customer loyalty. Subscribe today to our new e-newsletter, B2B Content Marketing » Jim Pennypacker

President and CEO

» Deliver 12 » Measure 13

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hat is content marketing?

Content marketing is a technique for attracting and engaging an audience with valuable, relevant information that addresses their needs.

You use content to move your audience through the buying cycle:

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build awareness of your firm and generate qualified leads demonstrate that you clearly understand your prospects’ needs help your prospects evaluate your firm and make a choice support the purchase decision and implementation stage foster customer loyalty and drive repeat business.

Content marketing is accomplished using a variety of custom content—white papers, newsletters, books, blogs, social media, websites—that allow you to earn trust and build credibility and recognition. And because they trust you, they turn to you for help.

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Various forms of custom content DIGITAL » White papers & articles » e-Books & magazines » Social media & blogs » e-Newsletters » Websites & microsites » e-Mail marketing » Research reports » Case studies PRINT » White papers & articles » Books & newsletters » Magazines & journals » Research reports » Case studies » Event materials » Direct mail

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hy create custom content?

A poll conducted by Roper Public Affairs on behalf of the Custom Content Council showed that custom content influences purchases.

More than two-thirds of respondents say that companies that provide information about their products and services help them make better purchasing decisions. Overall, custom content is a preferred source of information with nearly threequarters of respondents agreeing that getting information about companies from an interesting collection of articles is more appealing than getting information from advertisements. 78% say that custom content indicates that companies are interested in building good relationships with them and most feel better about a company when they are reading content the company has provided. 70% like custom content because the content provides information targeted to the reader’s specific interests. SOURCE: “Americans’ Relationship with Custom Publications and the Companies That Provide Them,” Roper Public Affairs and Media, April 2009.

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Benefits of custom content » Generate sales leads » Nurture leads & support sales efforts » Foster customer loyalty » Establish a thought leadership position » Open new markets » Build awareness & credibility » Use as an SEO tactic » Differentiate yourself from the competition » Gain visibility with analysts/influencers

steps to great content marketing!

How can you implement a great content marketing program? Content marketing is a complex process that requires serious expertise to do well (and is absolutely worth

it). We’ve identified 5 steps that you need to clearly understand to implement an effective content marketing program: Explore, Plan, Create, Deliver, and Measure.

For each of these steps we’ve identified questions that

you need to be able to answer to demonstrate that you have the depth of knowledge you’ll need to succeed — from clearly understanding why you are developing content to how you go about determining whether or not you’ve met your content marketing goals.

Five steps to creating a great content marketing program

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Explore Plan Create Deliver Measure

How should you begin? Keep reading.

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Explore

Content marketing begins with the question Why?

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Why are you considering content marketing? What are you trying to accomplish — what are your specific goals and objectives?

Who is your audience? Are you targeting a specific audience? Have you identified them?

What are the informational needs of your audience? What do they need to know?

What are the underlying goals of your audience? What business issues keep them awake at night?

What do you want your audience to do? What actions do you need them to take to reach your content marketing goals?

Are you using content to differentiate your company from your competition? If not, how can you?

Do you understand your content marketing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats?

Have you formally documented a content marketing strategy? Do you have buy-in from executive management for your strategy?

Is your content marketing strategy aligned with your overall marketing and corporate strategies?

How will you know whether you’ve met your content marketing goals and objectives?

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Plan Now that you have your content marketing strategy developed, how will you implement it?

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Who’s responsible for managing the overall content marketing program, making sure that everything is planned for and seeing that everything gets done according to plan?

What exactly needs to be done, and what is the schedule for accomplishing each task?

Who will work on what, and are they available when needed? Who is responsible for scheduling and managing these people?

What will the work cost, how will it be paid for, and have adequate budgets been allocated to complete all the work?

If you need to rely on sources outside your organization, how will you select them? Who will manage them?

How is the quality of ongoing work evaluated? If not acceptable, how will you deal with it?

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What decisions need to be made and who will make them?

Are you able to collect data on the progress of your program? Are you getting the information you need to make good decisions?

Are there processes and procedures in place to help you continuously improve your content marketing program?

Are there plans in place describing how you would respond to any risks to your plans?

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Create Content Strategy

Now that you’ve developed your content marketing plan, how will you determine what content you need?

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Have you assessed your current content to determine what you need to add, update, or replace?

How will your custom content help your audience fulfill their needs and help you meet your objectives?

What should your content say — how will you use content to position your company in the marketplace?

What content must you have to fulfill the needs of your audience at each of the five phases of the buying cycle — awareness, knowledge, evaluation, purchase, loyalty.

What kinds of content forms are possible — newsletter, magazine, white paper, book, blog … — and which should you use?

Are you planning an optimal content mix? If you have limited resources, how will you decide what to do first?

Do you have the capabilities and assets needed to create the content? If not, what will you do about it?

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What risks are possible in creating your content (or in not creating it)?

Is all your content aligned — similar messaging, style, positioning — and focused on meeting your content marketing goals?

Who in the organization do you need to involve in this content development? Who decides whether or not to develop the content?

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Create Writing & Editing

Now that you’ve developed your content strategy, who’s actually going to write and edit the content?

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What, specifically, are you going to write about — what is your editorial point of view?

What writing style is most appropriate to get the action you want from your audience?

Who is going to do the writing (you, a subject matter expert, an executive, a subcontractor)? How will you get them to write what you need and keep on schedule?

Can you aggregate content from multiple sources — content that’s been published for other purposes or content from a group of authors?

How should you structure your content for optimal results (short copy, long copy, keywords, well-spaced sub-heads, lists...)?

Do you know the difference between writing for print and online media? Are you prepared to write appropriately for different media?

Who’s going to check the writing for accuracy, consistency, copyright violations, grammar and spelling?

Do you need an editorial calendar? For how long a time period? Who develops and manages it?

Who in your organization needs to review and/or approve copy? How will you manage this review process?

Remember, all this work is constrained by a budget, a schedule, a scope of work, and a certain level of quality expected — who’s watching that you meet these constraints?

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Create

Print Design & Production

Now that you have the words you want, how will you use them in a print media format that will give you the results you desire?

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What is the best content form for accomplishing your goals — newsletter, white paper, magazine, book … other?

What combination of type, images, and page layout will lend itself to content that engages your audience?

Who’s going to provide the creative materials you need — designs, photography, illustrations …? Who will judge their quality?

Who’s going to put all this creative material together in the form you’ve chosen (you, in-house designers, subcontractors)?

Are there corporate style guidelines you need to follow? Do you need to create them so all your content is aligned visually?

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What content design and production tools will you use?

Do you know what print specifications are most appropriate for the form you’ve chosen, including paper and binding choices? Can you effectively communicate with your printer about these?

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Who’s going to review and approve your print proofs?

How do you select the best printer for the print form you’ve chosen, one who offers you the quality you need for the least cost?

How many publications will you need printed? What are the decisions you need to make regarding cost and quantity? How will you manage the inventory?

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Create

Online Design & Production

Now that you have the words you want, how will you use them in an online media format that will give you the results you desire?

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What is the best content form to accomplish your goals — website, blog, ezine, e-mail newsletter, e-book, microsite ... other?

What combination of type, color, images, audio, video ... will lend itself to content that engages your audience?

How much interaction do you want with your audience? How do you design for that?

Who’s going to provide the creative materials you need — designs, images, audio, video …? Who will judge their quality?

Who’s going to put all this creative material together in the form you’ve chosen (you, in-house designers/programmers, subcontractors)?

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What content development tools will you use?

Is all your content optimized for search engines? Who will maintain the content? How much effort will that entail?

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If you have technical problems, who will you turn to for help?

What technical aspects of online publishing do you need to understand — html, seo, ftp, cms, css, php, flash, java, blogroll ... ?

How will you manage the production workflow, from writers/editors to design/production? Who will have final say on the finished product?

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Deliver

Now that you’ve published your custom content, how do you get your audience to see it?

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How does your audience know your content exists? How do you market your content?

Do you know what delivery channels are available to you and which ones your customers use? Do you actively leverage your content across multiple channels?

Do you target your audience (can you?) and possibly deliver different versions of your content to different targets?

Do you sell your content or do you give it away? If you sell it, at what price (money, email address, detailed contact information …)? How do you collect? How do you evaluate customer satisfaction?

Do you mail or email it, send it by a delivery service, post it, share it, or just hand it out at trade shows or meetings?

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How do you manage your audience list, keep it current and accurate?

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Do you want to grow your circulation? If so, how will you do it?

Do you integrate the distribution of print media with your website (for example, offering the print publication if the online viewer provides information or money)? How much will all this distribution cost? How will you know which delivery method is best — in terms of image and delivering results as well as being cost effective?

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Measure

Now that your audience has seen your content, how do you determine whether or not it’s doing what you hoped it would do?

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Did your audience actually see your content … and have they read it?

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What do they think about it?

How has it changed their behavior toward your organization?

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How will you get the answers to these questions from your audience?

Are you meeting your content marketing goals? How do you know? What metrics will you use?

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What else do you have to do to continue getting the results you need?

How has it changed the way they think about your organization?

Have you built in ways for your audience to actively engage with you — using surveys, premiums, website integration?

Do you have the data you need, in the format you need, to provide information to others in your organization that shows the value of your content marketing program? Do you know how to improve your content marketing program?

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dancecommunications Dance Communications is a content marketing services company. We help firms create great content to build awareness, generate and nurture leads, and foster customer loyalty. Subscribe today to our e-newsletter, B2B Content Marketing

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