VIRTUAL DEMO: Successful Content Marketing Execution

A Sample from the MARKETING WORLD 2015 Executive MindXchange Chronicles:

MODERATOR
Katherine Burns
Senior Director
Frost & Sullivan

PRESENTERS

Lisa Goldson Armstrong
Vice President
Global Marketing & Sales Excellence
Pentair

Galyn Burke
Product Marketing Manager
Pinterest

SESSION

Today's marketers have their eye on content marketing as a vehicle to deepen customer engagement. What makes it a success? This session enabled participants to experience the content marketing strategy of two progressive organizations-Pentair and Pinterest—and to experience the journey as if you were a real world customer. Audience participation was encouraged as part of the presentation.

TAKE-AWAY

• Blueprint of a successful content marketing strategy
• What works, and what doesn’t, drawn from real world experience
• New insight and creative ideas

BEST PRACTICES

ROI-what's your philosophy? Data can be easy to drown in it, how do you use metrics?

Galyn Burke: There’s tons of data out there. You can test things and you will see data move quickly.

The most effective approach to measuring ROI is to have a baseline understanding of what marketing impacts are affecting your business. Know where sales are, average CPA, etc.

• Develop a baseline metric, and from that measure the incremental value of the platform and its lifetime value
• Use database marketing and marketing automation to test small groups, and measure their behaviors based of different campaigns
• Filter content, internally, through a central team to maintain consistency of message and optimize its value
• Continually evaluate content delivery based on technological advances and market variables
• To maintain engagement, modify content based on where individual customers are in the cycle.
• Best marketers will decide if building creative is worth it and determine lifetime value of customers

Content is different based on length of purchase cycle. How is content marketing different when you need to engage with a customer for an extended period of time?

Lisa Armstrong: Used to traditionally spend a lot of time at trade shows, but 70% of content is online now. Find ways to modify the type of content in front of purchaser. Cater to where they are in the buying/research process.

ACTION ITEM

• Brainstorm creative ideas on what content would benefit your customers
• Encourage enthusiastic employees to get involved with content creation

TAKE-AWAY FROM GALYN:
With built-in marketing tools, you need to have reciprocal capability; unless you make it as easy as possible to evaluate platform, you won't get customers to invest. Always think about it from the perspective of the marketer: how do I draw interest and how do I convert?

• Pinterest looks forward, Pinterest users are about planning for the future-- it's what you want to do some day
• Pinning is personal, the difference is you connect with people you admire and have things in common with
• 96% of pinners say they research and gather information on the platform = search is huge on Pinterest
• 73% of pinners agree Pinterest helps them discover new things = search is working
• Your brand is welcome & essential -- 2/3 of content comes from brands and products
• 87% of active pinners say they've actually purchased something with the help of Pinterest
• Back to the full funnel--how to connect the right pinners with the right content and drive business
• The full funnel aligns partner solutions to pinner activity

Put into three buckets: Awareness, Intent, Action

Bank of America--One of their most successful clients

• Focused on awareness
• They said, figure out what type of savings pinners want, what they're planning to save for
• They beat all the competition with engagement
• Used creative best practices, like vertical image, long descriptions are fine

Petplan Insurance

• Focused on intent
• Researched all pet topics on Pinterest and realized they had the content people were looking for (what kind of dog should I buy, how do I know my pet has cancer, etc.)

Adore Me--A jewelry company

• Focused on action
• When they implemented pins they had promoted on Pinterest, they saw that Pinterest referred new customers and high value customers
• Took methodical approach in testing a platform and scaling it after confirming success
• A great idea can come from anywhere and people close to customers, don't kill the excitement. Let everyone know where the central marketing team is to relay content to. Use central team to optimize distribution of content and value.

TAKE-AWAY FROM LISA:
B2B customers are people
So what does this mean for content? You can’t build a content base on B2B segmentation alone - that is not built around the people. Articulating your value proposition isn't enough, we need to connect our value proposition to the personal side of our customers

From her experience, Lisa has developed a set of common B2B overall customer archetypes: Each of these archetypes have varying content needs

• The status quo: Buyers who prefer not to switch, may have regulations to follow, they need content that explains “why” they should switch
• The risk averse: Even more of a challenge, because they want to see value proposition, testimonials, research,  this means more work on content creation
• The innovative/early adopter: This user is more about the placement and timing of your content, these are also potential partner to develop shared content with (helps both brands)
• The follower: They'll find your content through organic search
• Environmentalist capitalist: These people want to do something good for company but also good for the environment, third party content and references from non-corporate partners help

Connecting our brand and developing content foundation

• We wanted to focus on brand message of “inspired solutions for a changing world” which provides the world with safe water, abundant energy, and affordable food

Focus is on the archetype: ”Environmentalist capitalist” and therefore content is built around showing how our solutions impact and help our customers. “Profit, people and the planet.”  Compile a base set of foundational content that is approved by legal and then cascaded and shared with all marketing personnel as a basis to build additional content from.

Shared vision & shared content

• Showed videos as an example of client's impact on environment For example, https://vimeo.com/117178639 Content framed as endorsement of a cause and focus on impact
• You need to make sure to know where all your content is and know it exists. Ownership of content is difficult and so is getting people to share ownership

FINAL THOUGHT
Give your customers the information they want, and encourage anyone looking to contribute within your company to do so.

The Executive MindXchange Chronicles provide summaries and valuable take-aways on all sessions post-event. Other insightful sessions from MARKETING WORLD 2014: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange include: Rising to Brand Experience Excellence, Social 20120, Savvy Marketing: A New Way to Think About and Drive Value via Adaptive Analytics and many more.

A Sample from the MARKETING WORLD 2014 Executive MindXchange Chronicles:  ASK THE EXPERTS! PANEL DISCUSSION



Where Worlds Collide: The Evolution of the B2B Consumer

Consumer forces like mobile, 24/7 connectivity, customer empowerment, virtual communities and collaboration are spilling into the enterprise. In this interactive discussion, panelists explored the expectations of the new B2B consumer and looked at how marketing executives can creatively and strategically navigate the changing dynamics in the B2B and B2C consumer paradigms.

MODERATOR

Barbara Glasser,
Senior Vice President, Head of Marketing, Corporate

Communications and Product Management,
Astoria Bank

PANELISTS

Christa Carone,
Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Communications &

Events,
Fidelity Investments

Lisa Connolly,
Senior Brand Manager,
INVISTA

James Gross,
Vice President, Global Marketing,
Brady Corporation

Roseann Harrington,
Vice President, Marketing, Communication & Community

Relations,
Orlando Utilities Commission

Kevin Murphy,
Global Hair Care Industry Leader, Xiameter at
Dow Corning

Jamie Womack,
Vice President, Marketing & Branding,
CareerBuilder.com

TAKE-AWAY

In a lot of ways, B2C marketing is influencing how business is done on the B2B side.For example, there’s a greater push in B2B marketing to become more personalized. The panelists talked about some of the things they have learned from B2C marketing:

B2B customers now expect the same features the B2C customers get, said James Gross of the Brady Corporation. That includes ratings, reviews, personalization, selector tools, and advanced searches. All these things are blurring the line. Amazon is the fastest growing B2B company, or as Gross called it, B2E (business to everything). In this new environment, the key is having the right info at the right time and keeping messages consistent. B2B customers are trying to collect as much information prior to buying as they can, so you need to make sure they’re thinking of you.

A lot of it comes down to dialogue, said INVISTA’s Lisa Connolly. What’s the personal value in a B2B situation? You need to be able to have that dialogue to discuss problems and solutions.

Another key is the greater need for transparency in purchasing journeys, said Christa Carone of Fidelity Investments. After the economic meltdown in 2008, Fidelity’s phones were ringing off the hook. Customers were looking for help and asking for the company’s point of view about the situation. Customers put a lot of trust in Fidelity, and the company has built a whole division for planning and guidance for clients. Everything is based on transparency to earn the trust and confidence of customers.

BEST PRACTICES

According to an Ad Age survey of B2B marketing decision-makers, 52% of marketing budgets will increase in the next year. The top three channels companies that will focus on are digital, events, and direct mail.

Panelists agreed that content is king today. Companies need to have great content geared toward the audience and medium. The average buyer looks at 10 pieces of content before making a decision, so companies need to make sure they’re offering content that potential customers find helpful during that process.

B2B marketers are using all social media platforms to publish content. The group ranked the platforms in order of effectiveness:

1. LinkedIn

2. Twitter

3. YouTube

4. Slideshare

5. Vimeo

To use those tools effectively, messages must be short and sweet, panelists said. Mobile doesn’t seem to be part of marketers’ plans yet, but is shifting. One-third (33%) were using mobile marketing in 2013, while the number will increase to 49% in 2014.

One recommendation from the panel: Learn the language your customers’ companies use to communicate with their customers, and make sure you communicate with them in a similar way.

TAKE-AWAY

Many of the audience members said that their companies use customer personas as part of their marketing efforts. Panelists discussed their approach to personas: There are different viewpoints on what personas are for, said CareerBuilder’s Jamie Womack. Her team uses personas to humanize their efforts and keep the customer at the center. They’ve looked at what B2C marketers have done well to determine how to adapt that to the B2B world. The key is figuring out who the buyers are and what motivates them to buy.

The idea of the customer journey is also becoming commonplace in B2B, said Dow Corning’s Kevin Murphy. As his team maps the customer journey, they define it in two distinct phases. At every step, the company has an opportunity to be impressive or not.

BEST PRACTICES

Today, there’s a high-tech, high-touch paradigm; it’s easy to become overwhelmed by technology. However, it’s critical not to lose sight of the personal side of marketing. How can companies personalize their outreach in this landscape? Hosting and participating in events is one example cited.

In addition, create content that speaks to different personas. One big area to focus on now is finding messages that resonate with cross-generational audiences. Marketers must also make sure there is alignment between what the companies say and what they do. Content can be the bridge between the two.