Content as Value Creation Tool potx

content as value creation tool How content marketing can help your brand create lifelong consumer value... But, if there’s one thing to remember, one cardinal rule for brands to follow w

content as value

creation tool

How content marketing can help your brand create lifelong consumer value.

FEBRUARY, 2013

companies? How do brands know whether or not their content is driving business results?

This whitepaper will touch on all of these topics But, if there’s one thing to remember, one cardinal rule for brands to follow when starting a content marketing program it is this:

Content is often categorized as art or commodity, but for marketers, that misses the point First and foremost, it needs to be thought of as a tool for driving discovery, engagement and trial And, like all tools it has a purpose—to provide value to the consumer On that score, content can always be optimized to provide ever more consumer value, which translates into ever more brand value

Written by Craig J Heimbuch—award-winning journalist and author, best-selling ghostwriter and Senior Content Strategist at Barefoot Proximity—this whitepaper provides a framework for brands looking to stand out by creating lasting, even lifelong relationships with

CONTENT marketing

The Path to Lasting Value

All brands seek to connect and bond with consumers And most brands rely heavily on advertising to help achieve this But has there ever been a brand that has bonded deeply with consumers by just advertising its products’ utility? Has an ad campaign alone ever done the really hard work to create that special bond? Probably not Sure, there are those campaigns that strike a deep chord with people, but in general it’s not the things a brand says in its advertising that make the difference

Rather, it’s the qualities the brand embodies through content—which includes but certainly goes well beyond the bounds of advertising—that create real and lasting value And the world we live in makes this both harder and easier to do than ever

Think about it: We live in an iPhone culture Access to information is relatively

standardized—TV, radio, podcast, website, social media, print, etc But the technology that allows us to be connected makes it easy to create (you might even say )

a unique experience just for yourself We all have an iPhone—and an iPod, iPad, desktop

and laptop—but the chances that the media on any two are exactly the same is pretty slim Such media commonality no longer exists And herein lie challenges and opportunities.

The new content paradigm requires a fresh, consumer-first approach, and content can be

a key asset in developing lifelong consumer relationships in this ever-changing world This

is particularly so if your content seeks first and foremost to help and inspire consumers and aims to sell something second Focus on the former and the odds of the latter happening rise exponentially

CONTENT AS TOOL

Defining content is both simple and complex Literally, it’s the words, pictures, videos

or sounds that your user experiences when they come to your platform That’s the easy

definition The harder one doesn’t so much describe content, but the opportunity it affords,

which is a more difficult to speak to so succinctly, but necessary to cover

The content opportunity for marketers begins at a very important intersection where a

person’s desire for specific knowledge, insight and experiences meets a brand’s ability

to serve them up That service—and it is a service—is rendered through expertise, voice,

format, function and genuine authority, all of which make content valuable

You have probably heard brands, agencies and media companies talk about content and

noticed some differences between those who create it and those who procure it The former

views content as art The latter as a commodity The former believes they are creating

something of lasting aesthetic value The latter believes they are buying words in bulk,

much the same way that a company buys paperclips

Both points of view are sort of right, and sort of wrong More to the point, they’re both

missing the point

Digital content can be art or commodity, but it’s better thought of

as a tool And this tool’s primary purpose is to create value

for the consumer and the brand through a conversion

of some sort, be that from uninterested to

interested, from unregistered to registered, from

no purchase to purchase As such, with the

right approach regarding performance, the

digital content tool can, like most tools,

be calibrated, refined and optimized

to create more value for both the

consumer and the brand

Content

IS A TOOL

Depending on host of circumstances, content may or may not be art It may or may not be a commodity But it most definitely is a tool and should be thought of that way Content

is a value creation tool

THE MUTUAL

EXCHANGE OF VALUE

The Internet was created for communication, but it spawned a mass proliferation of choices, overwhelming most with the range of options (It is estimated that the amount of information created from the beginning of civilization to 2003 is now created every three days online.) The economy has moved from one based on goods and services to something else entirely

An information economy, which is really an attention economy And it’s a buyer’s market, not a seller’s, as is evidenced by the millions of websites, blogs, videos, news outlets and lifestyle sites all multiplying faster than Tribbles of Star Trek lore Information of virtually any and all types is but a Google search, a link or a ‘liked’ item away

But what if reaching consumers wasn’t just about having a product to sell and trying to find the right size, placement and creative approach for a banner ad? What if it were about taking what you know about your consumers—their lives, passions, interests, curiosities and problems—and serving their needs? What if brands focused on developing lifelong relationships based on a mutual exchange of value?

Content

IS A CHOICE

Unlike traditional push marketing—TV, radio, print

and online ad campaigns—the effectiveness of

content begins and ends with consumer choice

In order for content to be impactful, content

needs to be relevant to her life, it needs to

help her, be about her, entertain her or

provide insight into her life

These are the right questions for those intrigued by content marketing to be asking For marketers, content is, or at least should be, a service for consumers, not a ploy Content wins when it moves beyond the aforementioned metaphor of an intersection to one of a traffic circle, where a mutual exchange of value between the consumer and the brand spins

in something of an always-fluid, harmonious cycle

Don’t forget the foundational belief underlying this entire whitepaper: content has, or at least should have, a ton of value for the consumer, which means that they’re willing to

give something in exchange It’s worth noting that approximately 60% of all

shared content has a specific brand message in it Brands clearly aren’t an impediment to content value To the contrary

Consumers derive value from the information, entertainment and community that a brand provides through its content In turn, brands derive value from consumer actions, whether those be on the platform (registering and providing data), on social media (championing a brand) or, of course, action at the digital or brick-and-mortar store shelf (purchase)

Content IS A

CONVERSATION

What you publish is what you say, but like any good

conversation, the most important thing you can do is

listen A content program needs a solid plan for collecting

and studying analytics and user input Those learnings

should be used to optimize existing content and influence

future creation And your analytics strategy should be

mapped to your desired business results If you want

more sales - and who doesn’t - what consumer actions

can be measured and mapped to your path to purchase?

At Barefoot Proximity, we call this analytical strategy

Content Efficacy

What if it were about taking what you know about your consumers—

their lives, passions, interests, curiosities and problems

Content Marketers

vS Brands as Publishers

Time was, publishing was defined by the person in control of the printing press, the one

who bought ink by the barrel and paper by the forest It was Guttenberg’s gift to Hearst and

Pulitzer But Steve Jobs and Bill Gates took it away by putting the printing press in every

pocket, every messenger bag and on every desktop in the world It’s a natural thought for

marketers—afraid of declining shares in the attention economy—to pursue the “Brands as

Publishers” model

However, few brands truly manage to do this well One notable exception is American

Express and their highly regarded Food + Wine and Travel + Leisure magazines But most

brands that pursue a publishing model find it to be beyond their budgets and, frankly, their

abilities, too, without some rather sweeping changes It also distracts from their primary

business objectives

This is why the content marketer model is, generally speaking, more inviting and promising

for a broader range of brands Content marketers, like any other marketers worth their salt,

Content

IS CURRENCY

Content is the best means of getting as close as possible

to consumers by providing non-product value to their lives A brand’s expertise in areas beyond the shelf can provide value beyond product claims It

is value given to the consumer with the hope that she will appreciate it—and

pass it on to her friends

Participation and Optimization

Publishers value exposure, content marketers value participation and conversion It’s not enough to know that your content is enlightening users, but encouraging them to take action – sharing,returning, opting-in and, ultimately, purchasing This is why optimization for content marketers is so vital It’s not enough to press “publish” in your Content Management System In fact, your only part of the way through the process when you do push that button The real work begins by measuring the level

of participation and conversion that piece of content is causing and optimizing against those desired actions If the first step is conception and creation, the second step publishing, steps three to five are related to analysis and optimization.

content marketing platform enhance our database, create deeper consumer engagement or move more pallets? Those are the questions you should ask at the start Not whether or not you should try to compete with the glossy magazines speaking to your key demographic

Content marketing isn’t about trying to duplicate a traditional publishing experience,

it’s about creating a user experience that engenders trust, that serves a consumer’s need for information and satisfies her curiosity in such a way that she bonds with your brand It’s about having the right information presented in the right way at the right time

And it’s about creating an experience that encourages discovery and exploration,

which enhances value for her

CONTENT IS NOT A CAMPAIGN

Obviously, relying only on the perfect ad campaign to build this new, sustainable and

mutually beneficial relationship is problematic Not only are campaigns fickle in terms of length of duration, but they are designed to pique curiosity, not satisfy it Once a consumer has tried a product, or decided not to, then what? What additional value can they gain from the campaign?

Content is not—and should not—be made subject to such temporary limitations Content, the always-on, always-searchable currency of the attention economy creates an always-

on opportunity to move from speech to conversation, from the hard sell to the often more effective softer sell

“The moment of truth” for any campaign is often defined by store-shelf decisions, when a potential consumer becomes a customer But the moment of truth for content often happens much earlier—and far away from the store shelf It happens in the Google search bar, on a

Content

IS A PROCESS

There’s no such thing as a perfect piece of content That’s

the whole idea So long as the consumer relationship can

be strengthened, the ability of content to bolster that

relationship can be improved It requires always-on

analysis, constant optimization, and diligence in

continuing to find meaningful opportunities

to create value for her

Success in content is not wholly determined by the number of cases you sell—though that

is certainly important—but in the number of consumer needs, questions or curiosities you identify and deliver against Take care of the latter and the former will take care of itself—perhaps even for a lifetime

SUSTAINABILITY NOT VIRALITY

While the desire and wish of every marketer, the virality of content is rarely, if ever, truly predictable It is not something that can be planned for with certainty or manufactured with complete confidence Virality is more result than strategy For instance, Judson Laippley had not even planned on filming his appearance at a university before his “Evolution of Dance” video skyrocketed him to fame He was an inspirational comedian, doing just another college gig It was students who filmed it and, after the show, asked if he would mind if they put the video up on YouTube Half a billion or so views later and the Toledo-based speaker

is still riding that accidental wave Yet, he’s still asked for his “secrets” of the viral video

He has none No one really does

Virality is as much a content strategy as lightning is an effective means of illuminating your living room Smart brands understand this Smart brands also understand that a good content strategy is about consistency and service Search authority—organic search authority—is derived from many factors, but one of the most important is how recently and regularly content is published Good content marketing is marked by consistency Can users reliably check the platform and find something new? Or do they find the same content time and again? Be consistent and aim to provide daily value, rather than going for the occasional big splash

• More content is better, provided that the content gets consumed and shared

• A lot of content does not necessarily mean better engagement

• Regularity of publishing is more important than quantity – it’s better to publish onepiece every day than to upload 500 new pieces of content every other month

There is an interesting relationship between quality and quantity when it comes to content and this relationship may serve as a guiding principle when establishing your content model Quality and quantity are both critical factors You can develop strong audiences and deep engagement by focusing on one above the other, though ignoring either one

is problematic

The Huffington Post, for instance, is one

of the internet’s largest and most

well-trafficked sites Every day thousands of

articles, videos, slideshows and other content

are uploaded by bloggers, media outlets and

all manner of content producers Every day, the

Huffington Post publishes content of every stripe

for every conceivable consumer And, as such, it

is able to serve the interests, needs and curiosities