Content Marketing is a Movie & Strategy is the Script - Are You Ready?

If you like the movies, and I am definitely a fan of movies, then the movie / content marketing metaphor is an easy connection to make. 

For both movies and content marketing there are many moving parts and formulas for success with different genres, audiences and stories to be told.  

It takes a great script, a production plan, actors, staff, producers, and a director with vision (and a lot of money) to create a blockbuster hit. I don't know of any movie that was a success without a script and a plan. 

So why do so many content marketers produce content for marketing without a strategy? According to the latest Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs study, only 35% of B2B marketers and 27% of B2C marketers have a documented content marketing strategy. That means 65% and 73% respectively, are essentially "shooting from the hip". 

We've all experienced a bad movie and I'm sure you've experienced bad content too. That's why this collection of advice on the "big picture" of content marketing strategy is so timely. 

Think of this post as a trailer featuring expert content marketing advice from a sampling of content marketing stars from 3M, Brain Traffic, Cognifide and Copyblogger - all as a preview to "The Big Picture of Content Marketing Strategy" and the upcoming Content Marketing World conference coming up Sept 8-11 in Cleveland.  

Who knows, this advice might just be the ticket to your own next content marketing hit!

Who is the Hero in Your Content Marketing Movie?

Carlos Abler - @Carlos_Abler
Leader: Content Marketing Strategy at 3M

Attain stardom by becoming your customer’s hero and help them achieve their goals. But from what type of peril are they suffering? What kind of hero do THEY need YOU to be? Use the archetypes below to explore which best fits your audience’s needs. Your content may combine one or more of these, but typically one will be dominant.

Thought Leader: Transcend buzzwords or meme-jacking with a new model for interpreting their world that generates continuous new value. Provide the next “4Ps” or paradigmatic language driving discourse for years to come.

Diagnostician: Help them find the right solution by better understanding their current situation then deliver paths forward to transform it. Think solutions selling.

Journalist: Keep them up-to-date by presenting information that helps them develop an informed perspective.

Mentor: Help your customers achieve Jedi-like mastery of a skill. Beyond competence lies excellence.

Assistant: Help them get from A to B, install a TV, plan a vacation, be alerted or reminded.

Spiritual Advisor: Help them find life’s ultimate purpose and explore the deeper meaning behind things.

Storyteller/Entertainer: Feed the human need for novelty, wonderment, humor, love, tragedy, aspiration, the mythic and other worlds.

Friend: Listen, love and support. Anticipate needs with personalized attention. This one may be a delivery mode of the other archetypes. Friends are often our greatest heroes. 

Customer Satisfaction = Box Office Success

Kristina Halvorson - @halvorson
CEO and Founder at Brain Traffic

Marketers need to advocate beyond the delivery of content, and focus on building the customer relationship. This involves taking some steps back and finding out what the customer really wants from us.

In order to find out that information, we need to be brave and ask our customers questions and be willing to hear what their answers are. First and foremost, we need to find a way to:

1. Understand our customer’s business goals
2. Practically execute content strategy
3. Measure effectively

Understand Customer Needs
Content marketing is about building and deepening the relationship with customers. Content marketers are aspirational, creative and curious - and are looking for an outlet for brand expression.

There is no replacement for talking to customers. The number one reason that we don’t talk to our customers is because we’re afraid of what they’ll say, or that they’ll tell us they don’t care.

Take a Practical Approach to Content Strategy
The role of a content strategist is to ensure that business goals and user needs are very clearly articulated. Once there is an understanding of what needs to get done, we help identify scalability, internal capacity and how the strategy will be executed. Ultimately we need to help corporations make decisions about what they’re going to do, and not going to do.

Measurement of Content Strategy
The shared metric across the board is customer satisfaction. To measure up to our content success, we must also take into consideration customer feedback and sales support.

A Fullscreen Approach to Content Marketing

Cleve Gibbon - @cleveg
Chief Marketing Technology Officer at Cognifide Limited

Tactics without strategy is noise before defeat. We have to think big, but start small. Believe success is easier done than said by approaching all content marketing strategies TACTically:

• Test: Build your (small) hypothesis that will explain your expected outcomes.
• Audience: Define who your target audience is and understand why and where you need to reach them.
• Content: Be clear on what on you need to say and why it’s relevant to your audience at that point in their lives.
• Technology: Use technology to best deliver the message to its audience.

Apply copious amounts of TACT to your content, because campaigns come and go but content lives on. Effective content marketing needs content to be managed as a product. Start with what you make then move to what you manage and monetize.

Effective Content Strategy: Mapping the Buyer’s Storyboard

Brian Clark - @brianclark
CEO at Copyblogger Media

Thanks to the Internet, the buyer begins the journey alone and empowered with information. A smart content marketing strategy allows you to show up early, provide valuable assistance along the path, and become the only logical choice at the time of transaction.

The Buyer’s Shoes: Can you truly feel your prospect’s pain or experience their desire? Step one is to put yourself in their shoes and truly see things from their perspective.

Walking the Path: Standing in their shoes and seeing the world as they do is critical, but it’s only the beginning. Now you need to walk in those shoes and experience the journey, once again from their perspective.

The buyer journey metaphor is perfect, but only if you truly know the terrain. Then you can create the right content, to be delivered at the right touch points at just the right time.

Below is a SlideShare deck showing the full collection expert advice on the Big Picture of Content Marketing Strategy, a project my agency at TopRank Online Marketing created in collaboration with Content Marketing Institute. 

To see these content marketing stars and more (200 of them) live and in person, make sure you check out the Content Marketing World conference coming up Sept 8-11 in Cleveland.

I'll be presenting as well on September 9th at 2:30pm.

Participation Marketing: How to CoCreate, Optimize & Socialize Content With Influencers

Admit it. You love the promise of content marketing, but maybe you’re also challenged to create a variety of engaging content on a consistent basis? We all strive to create quality content, but the reality is, content isn’t really great until your audience discovers, consumes and engages with it.  

What if you could combine keyword optimized, influencer activated content with info-taining creative and inspiring messages that connect with buyers emotionally? Your content marketing would unstoppable! 

That integration is exactly what this presentation is about. In it, Lee Odden will provide you with a framework for partnering with internal and external influencers to co-create content that’s optimized for search, shares and influencing customer action. 

Takeaways:
1. How to identify, qualify and recruit influencer content partners
2. A modular approach to co-created content 
3. How to optimize, socialize and repurpose co-created content  

If you want your content to be great, ask your community and influencers to participate!

I hope to see you there!

Top photo: Shutterstock