why your content marketing is failing (and how to fix it)

Why Your Content Marketing is Failing

(and how to fix it)

customerjourneymarketer.com

Throughout the presentation, click the twitter icons to tweet anything you find interesting!

@gdaz customerjourneymarketer.com

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of drivingprofitable customer action.

“Traditional marketing and advertising is telling the world you’re a rock star.

Content Marketing is showing the world that you are one.”

-Robert Rose, Chief Strategy Officer, CMI

Content is the Fuel of our Digital Marketing Engines

Content is the Fuel to our Digital Marketing Engines.

But Not Everyone Gets the Same Mileage out of it…

41% of marketers say

content marketing has positive ROI

B2B Marketers are Increasing Spend on Content Marketing

And 70% are not effective?!

EVERYONE FAILSAT CONTENT MARKETING.

(some just more often than others)

Some more positive ways to look at failure…

Why is your Content Marketing Failing?

not working?

What can we learn?

People & Process

Personas, Customers

Planning & Strategy

Production & Design

Publishing & Promotion

Performance& Metrics

rePurposing& Refining

People & Process

7 P’s of the Content Marketing Life Cycle

customerjourneymarketer.com

Personas & Customers

Planning & Strategy

Production & Design

People & Process

You Take an Inside-Out Approach

You’re not driving qualified traffic

Target audience

Find “Triple Threat” Topics

Business objectives,

Value props

Customer Needs

Customer Interests Priority 1 topics

Priority 2 topics

Your Content Sells More than it Educates

We see 3,000-20,000 brand messages a day

You pull a “Trojan Horse”

Outside:Looks like free educational content (to help me)

Inside:Selling the product/service(all about you)

Your Content Doesn’t Answer Your Customers’ Questions

27% of search queries

are questions

70% growth in “how to”

searches on youtube72% of buyers turn to

Google in the “awareness” stage

research

What Questions are Your Customers Asking?

You Don’t Understand Your CustomersIndividual

Job titles

Key responsibilities

Motivators

Top priorities and concerns

Pain points

Common objections

Role in purchasing process

Consumption preferences

Terminology & language

Organization

Industry vertical

Company size

Business model

Org structure

Technology stack

Geographic locations

How do customers solve the problem before they come to you?

Manually

“Low-End” Competitor

Free Tool

Homegrown Solution

“High-End” Competitor

Not doing anything

Outsourcing

Identify and Capitalize on Buying Triggers

What common events set customers off in search of a solution?

Planning & Strategy People

& Process

Planning & Strategy

Production & Design

People & Process

Random Acts of Content

You Don’t Have A Documented Plan & Strategy

READY! FIRE! AIM!

90% of the buyer’s journey is

self-directed

11.4the average number of pieces of content consumers engage

with before making a B2B purchase

ROAD TO ADVOCACY

Your Content Strategy Isn’t Aligned with the Customer Journey

Click here to learn more about this customer journey stages model

You think Customer Journeys are Linear

Engagement Content 1

Education Content 2

“First they get this content then they get that, next they this…”

Research Content 3

EvaluationContent 4

JustificationContent 5

This does NOT work.

@gdaz customerjourneymarketer.comDon’t try to play God.

@gdaz customerjourneymarketer.comSmartBear Confidential and Proprietary

“Why do I have a problem?!"

“What solutions are available?What factors should I consider?”

“Does this product solve my problem(s) & meet my needs/requirements?”

"Why should I choose this? How can I get my boss and team members on board?”

“Hello, brand, do I like you, are you relevant to me?”

“How do I get it? How difficult will it be to implement and change current process?”

Just focus on answering your customers’ questions at each stage

Make Sure Every Piece of Content is a Door, Bridge and Ladder

to more relevant content at same stage

Find you and enter the funnel at any stage

to later stages in the journey

Content Planning Process

Goals & Objectives

Themes Research

Content Audit

Topics FormatsTimelineBudget

Resources

You Didn’t Define Business Objectives & Goals

TrafficFree tool downloads

Leads GeneratedContent Downloads

Qualified LeadsTrials

Trial ActivationsOpportunities

Opportunities WonRenewals

Upsell, Cross-sell

Metrics

You Didn’t Do Your Research

Customer Competitive Keyword MarketPersona

Development

Problems/Pains

Conversion Obstacles

Interests

What questions are they asking?

Messaging

Strengths & Weaknesses

What topics are they talking about?

Competitive Rankings

Long-tail opportunities

Existing/New keywords

Skyscraper opportunities

Trends in marketplace

Goals & Objectives

Themes Research

Content Audit

Resources

You Create New Content Without Understanding What You Already Have

Content Audit: Identify Opportunities and Gaps

Number assets / stage Types of assets / stage Performance of assets Age of content Location of content Distribution strategy Optimization, enhancement,

and re-purposing Keyword research

Goals & Objectives

Themes Research

Content Audit

Resources

Experiment here

500250100501

Don’t roll the dice here…

You Allocate Resources Improperly

Production and Design

Quality

Quantity

Planning & Strategy

Production & Design

People & Process

Quality Content

Not Quality Content

Quantity > Quality

Santorini

Long-Form Vs Short-Form Content

2,400+ average words for position #1 and #2 ranking content

Your Content Doesn’t Deliver Enough Value

You Don’t Focus Enough on Titles

Title Tips Google displays 50-60 characters of title

Keep titles under 55 Characters, 95% will display properly

• Lists• Numbers and data• How to’s• Why• “You”• Emotional words• Surprising• Questions• Problem/solution• Strong statements• Clear, specific• Scream Value!• Align with content

Your Content Isn’t Visually EngagingVisual content is more than 40Xmore likely to get shared on social

CTR: 0.632% CTR: 1.302%

Your Content Isn’t Easily Consumable

Legible Organized structure Readability Section headers Bulleted, numbered lists Images, diagrams Bite-sized chunks

Optimized for Mobile

57%users say they won’t

recommend a business with a poorly designed

mobile site.

Your Web Experience is Outdated

Your Content Isn’t Shareable

Planning & Strategy

Production & Design

People & Process

You don’t focus enough on SEO

Your Content is Inconsistent

CadenceMessaging X-

Channel

You Don’t Focus Enough on Distribution

Your Distribution Strategy Isn’t Aligned with the Customer Journey

Engagement Education Research Evaluation Justification PurchaseAdoption -Advocacy

Social

Email & Lead Nurturing

Paid Advertising

Web: Search & Conversion

Content Strategy

You Don’t Leverage All the Channels at Your Disposal

You Don’t Leverage All the Data at your Disposal

Behavioral(Implicit)

Demo, Firmo(Explicit)

Search Terms+how +to +soapui, +soapui +tutorial, +soapui +guide

You Don’t Think About User Intent

Aligning Web Properties and Communities with the Customer Journey

Blog & Social

Resource Centers

Product Sections

Community & Support

Informational Learn Section

Product SectionCommercial

Transactional

Data -> Customer Journey (Remarketing)Product Section

eBook Trial

Learn Section Open Source

Automated Nurture and Lead Scoring

eBooksInfographics

WebinarsBlogs

Slideshares

DocumentationChecklistsTutorialsGuides

Weekly trainingFAQ

Case StudiesTestimonials

ROI CalculatorsSell your Boss

Analyst ReportsProduct Demos

TOFU TRIAL BOFU

You Don’t Capitalize on Conversion Opportunities

Article -> eBook eBook -> Trial

Use Secondary CTAs

You Haven’t Built a Content Network

Internal Teams

External Experts, Influencers

Industry Publications

CustomersPartners

• Follow• Share• Comment• Quote• Link• Contribute

Writers, bloggers

I hope I get invited to a webinar today…

…said no one ever.

You Promote the Format > Topic

Performance & Metrics

Planning & Strategy

Production & Design

People & Process

• You Don’t Have a Clear Definition of Success

• Focusing too much on just conversion sales-driven metrics

• Forgetting about SEO factors • Not taking promotion effort and

reach into consideration• Not taking time into consideration

Common Content Metrics Mistakes

Measuring Content Performance

Traffic, SEO

• Organic Visits• Traffic by

Channel• Page Rank and

authority• Inbound links

Engagement

• Social shares• Time on page• Pages/Session• Bounce Rate• Comments

• Net new leadsgenerated

• Qualified leads

Sales, Pipeline

• OpportunitiesInfluenced (#, $)

• Downloads /Opportunitiesinfluenced (%, $)

Repurposing and Refining

Planning & Strategy

Production & Design

People & Process

Your Content Isn’t Designed for Repurposing from the Start

It’s a lot easier to make a car eco-friendly if you design it that way from the start….

Will this be relevant next month or next year? Three years from now?

NOT EVERGREEN

• News stories• Annual reports• Event, holiday or season• Pop culture fad

Your Content Isn’t Evergreen

Designing Content for Re-purposingeBook OutlineI. Stand Alone Topic

a) Stand alone Sub-topicb) Stand alone Sub-topicc) Stand alone Sub-topic

II. Stand Alone Topica) Stand alone Sub-topicb) Stand alone Sub-topicc) Stand alone Sub-topic

III. Stand Alone Topica) Stand alone Sub-topicb) Stand alone Sub-topicc) Stand alone Sub-topic

IV. Stand Alone Topica) Stand alone Sub-topicb) Stand alone Sub-topicc) Stand alone Sub-topic

Keyword Research

Organic/SEO article I

Blog Posts

Cheat Sheet, one pager

Infographic

Template, worksheet

Organic/SEO article II

Blog Post

Organic/SEO article IIIClick here to read more about this approach

@gdaz customerjourneymarketer.com11+

Webinar Transcriptions

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People & Process

Personas, Customers

Planning & Strategy

Production & Design

People & Process

You Don’t Have the Right Talent, Skills and Roles on your Team

• Content Marketing Manager(Editor in Chief)

• Writers (Internal and External)• Technical SEO Expert• Technical, Product, Domain

Experts• Web Team• Graphics and Design Team• Operations Team• Promotion Team• PR team• Business leader

You Don’t Have an Efficient, Repeatable Process

Agile Marketing

You thought you would have overnight success

It takes time. Don’t give up!

Thank you!

Gary DeAsi@gdazhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/garydeasi

CustomerJourneyMarketer.com

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