success content marketing -...

H e l p i n g b r a n d s b e c o m e p u b l i s H e r s

9ExamplEs of thE bEst contEnt markEting from

aroUnD thE worlD

Content marketing success

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We were doing content marketing before the term was even coined. Ever since Bobbi Mahlab started the business in 1997 her mission has been simple: to help clients communicate with their customers more effectively than ever.

Our company has grown rapidly. More than 40 bright and inspirational content creators, strategists, designers, account managers and sales managers are now employed in our light-filled home in Balmain, NSW, and our new office in Melbourne.

We're experts in developing content strategies and creating content that is engaging and useful for your audience, and implementing it on the best channels for them; be it digital or print, video or audio, social media or private social networks.

Over the next few pages we've collected some of our favourite content marketing examples from around the world. We've chosen these examples because they have all solved problems brands commonly face and, more importantly, all demonstrate results.

Visit www.mahlabmedia.com.au

It’s the practice of publishing engaging, useful and shareable content on the most appropriate

channels to attract and retain customers. It’s content that’s aligned with your business plan to

strategically deliver your goals. It’s measurable and reviewable, and it evolves.

WHATis content marketing?

WHYMahlab Media?

It’s the practice of publishing engaging

and useful content on the most appropriate

channels to attract and retain customers.

“

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IPWEA

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Company: Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA)

Agency: Mahlab Media (Australia)

Background: The Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) is an association for engineers and public works professionals. These are the highly specialised people who maintain the roads, drains, parks and public buildings in local communities. It's a small association, with a membership of around 3,300.

Objectives: IPWEA wanted to increase its prospect database and website traffic, as well as awareness among non-members. It also wanted to ensure that members got value from the association, so increasing engagement was another key objective.

What they did: The strategy Mahlab Media and IPWEA put in place in 2012 included segmented enewsletters, private discussion

forums, and a bi-monthly print and digital magazine. This has been complemented by video and social media. All content is published on the website, with calls to action pointing people to the forums to discuss issues further.

A key reason for the success of the strategy, however, has been IPWEA's willingness to embrace non-members. Allowing non-members to access all content on the website, sign up for enewsletters and receive the digital version of the magazine has helped establish IPWEA in people's minds.

Non-members are also encouraged to join the forums and take part in the discussion, providing IPWEA with a pipeline of potential members. By providing content and services for the whole industry, and not just members, IPWEA has firmly established itself as the thought leader in public works engineering. Visit www.ipwea.org

A key reason for the success of the strategy has been IPWEA's willing-

ness to embrace non-members. Non-members are encouraged to

join the forums and take part in the industry discussion – providing IPWEA with a strong pipeline of

potential members.

“66 per cent growth in prospect database in past two years.

• 66percentgrowthinprospectdatabase,from9,300to15,400asofFebruary2014.• 318percentgrowthinmonthlywebsitevisitssincethelaunchofsegmentedenewslettersandadigitalversionofPublicWorksProfessional,from4,954visitorsinJune2012to15,800inFebruary2014.

• Rankedno.1forperformanceandvalueofmembershipintheBeatonsAssociationBenchmarksReport2013.• 13percentimprovementinoverallperformanceformembershipengagementoverthepastfiveyears.• 84percentofmembersseemembershipas‘veryvaluable’or‘extremelyvaluable’.• 95percentofmembersintendedtorenewin2013,upfrom90percentin2011.

66%

Outcomes:

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Company: Renault

Agency: Head Office (Belgium)

Background: Renault had a problem. It wasn't maximising the potential of its customers. Once a Renault's warranty expired, its owner didn't always bring it back to a Renault dealer for a service, preferring instead to take the car to local repair shops. Renault communicated with customers regularly, albeit through a non-segmented and rather expensive direct mail program, including a print magazine. By losing contact with Renault drivers, they were also missing out on potential repeat business when customers were ready to upgrade.

Objectives: The challenge was to increase Renault owners' loyalty to their dealer after the warranty period was over – with the aim of generating more business for dealers, and more repeat sales for Renault.

What they did: In 2010, Head Office pitched a revolutionary concept to Renault. Ditch the print magazine and other direct mail they were doing, and launch an exclusively online loyalty program, powered by rich content and designed to be of use to customers after they had bought their cars.

My Renault began to enable owners to plan maintenance, make appointments, and receive tips and discounts according to the model and mileage of their car.

The site proved a hit with customers, but they wanted more! So Head Office has since incorporated greater personalisation and interactivity to increase engagement even further. My Renault now includes polls, a YouTube channel, Facebook integration and a lifestyle section featuring customer travel stories.

Visit www.headoffice.be/4kF

Retainingcustomers

• Injusttwoyears,Renault’sactiveonlinememberbaserosetoalmost105,000–animpressive25percentofallBelgianRenaultowners.

• MyRenaultachievedan77percentreductionincost-per-contact–from€1.50to€0.35.• Dealervisitsincreasedby20percent.• Turnoveraftersaleswasup25percent.• 31percentliftinturnovermaintenance.

The challenge was to increase customers' loyalty to their

dealer after the warranty period was over, with the aim of generating more business

for dealers and Renault.

“Outcome:Outcomes:

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Sun

Life

Fin

anci

al Fuelling your sales funnel Company: Sun Life Financial

Background: Sun Life is an international financial services company specialising in life insurance and investment management. It wanted to engage with new and potential customers, but faced the challenge of making a relatively dry subject engaging.

Objectives: Attract new customers by helping Canadians answer their money, health, family and career questions in an informal, engaging and no-pressure way.

What they did: Sun Life launched the website brighterlife.ca. The content-rich site provides information about money, health, family, working life and retirement.

New content is posted daily, with practical tips (such as 'Seven taxes on investments you should know about'), information ('Travel insurance, simply put'), opinion ('Has the financial crisis made us smarter?'), and

lifestyle content ('Should you retire early or retire late?') all featuring. Useful tools, such as a retirement income calculator, are complemented by features about understanding your credit score and getting your will in order.

Although the business goal of Brighter Life is to direct leads to Sun Life Financial’s product and service pages, the site focuses on education and information and keeps Sun Life's branding to a minimum.

This is a perfect example of a long-term content marketing strategy. By creating educational content, the site engages consumers before they are even aware they have a need that could be met by Sun Life. It enables people to better understand their problems and opportunities, while giving them knowledge and a sense of empowerment.

Visit www.brighterlife.ca

Although the business goal of brighterlife.ca is to direct leads

to Sun Life’s product and services pages, the site focuses on education and keeps branding to a minimum. In the first 9 months, it converted

4 per cent of visitors into leads, with more than 8,700 clicks to

Sun Life’s main product site.

“

• Inthefirst9months,thecontent-richsiteconverted4percentofvisitorsintoleadswithover8,700clickstoSunLife’smainproductsite.

• BrighterLife.caboastsmorethan25,000likesonitsFacebookpageandover6,000Twitterfollowers.

In the first 9 months converted 4 per cent of visitors into leads with over 8,700 clicks to the product site.

Outcomes:

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Probus South Pacific

Company: Probus South Pacific


Background: Probus South Pacific Ltd (PSP) is the head office and governing body for the Probus organisation in the South Pacific region. Probus is a community service activity of Rotary clubs and caters for active people in the over-55s market who no longer work full time.

Objectives: PSP wanted to rebrand its national publication Probus the Magazine to target more active retirees.

What they did: Probus already had a print magazine, Probus the Magazine, but this wasn't reaching beyond the current membership. The website was a static, information-based site, and was unlikely to be found by a non-member. In order to reach non-members, Mahlab Media launched a three-pronged approach.

1. A new print magazine, Active Retirees, was launched. A beautifully-designed, contemporary title featuring a range of travel, health and lifestyle content, as well as news from Probus clubs from across the South Pacific region.

2. A brand new website soon followed. Information from the old website was repurposed and rewritten for SEO, and complemented by a host of lifestyle content and contemporary, accessible design. Images used throughout the website and magazine are reflective of Probus's target demographic while portraying energy and vibrancy. Additionally, the benefits of being a Probus member are featured prominently.

3. A robust social media strategy was implemented, building Probus communities on Facebook and Twitter, and driving traffic to the website.

Visit www.probussouthpacific.org

Refreshingyour brand

The new website clearly markets the benefits of membership and showcases a younger image for the association.

• Webtraffichasmorethandoubledfromanaverageof3,979monthlyvisitorsbeforerelaunchto8,187visitsinFebruary2014.

• Memberfeedbackonthemagazineremainsconsistentlypositive,withcommentsincluding:"It'sanexcellentmagazine.Ireadandre-readituntilthenextonearrives."

Outcomes:

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K

raft

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ds Driving sales growthCompany: Kraft Foods Group Inc.

Objectives: Kraft wanted to drive sales growth by providing useful information to existing and potential customers in real-time.

What they did: Kraft decided to create a bank of recipes featuring its products. The recipes are not only easy to cook, but easy to access – anywhere, anytime.

Driving behaviour in people that results in sales as a secondary effect is a content marketing approach that's as old as the hills – think the Michelin Guide. But it's supremely effective.

Kraft distributes recipes in a simple way via daily email, mobile app and a user-friendly website. People receive meal-time inspiration daily and are prompted to cook something they would not have thought of – and coincidentally need Kraft products to do so!

All of their channels are easily accessible online, too, so when people are supermarket shopping, for example, they can pick up the correct ingredients.

Julie Fleischer, Director of Media and Consumer Engagement at Kraft Foods, told the Content Marketing Institute: “We’ve developed approaches that enable us to measure the actual sales impact of our different efforts and channels. The ROI on our content marketing work is among the highest of all of our marketing efforts.”

“We spend a lot of time understanding who [our customers] are, what they have on hand, what kinds of things they like to cook," Fleischer said. “To us, that’s really the most important thing. We’re trying to give them solutions, not just something to read and pass along.”

Visit www.kraftrecipies.com

“Our paid subscription magazine in the United States, called Food & Family, is big-ger than Food & Wine Magazine — in fact, our audience is about the size of the Food

Network’s. Our subscription renewal rates are about twice the industry average, and our consumers tend to hold onto back is-

sues for years.” - Julie Fleischer (http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2012/11/

mining-data-content-marketing/)

“

• 1millionpaidsubscriptionstoFood&Family.• 1.14millionFacebooklikes.• kraftrecipes.comisoneoftheweb'stop20foodsiteswithover85millionvisitsperyear(asofNov.2012).• Themobilesitecontinuestogrowat100percentperyear.• Kraft’semailprogramreachesabout5millionopt-inconsumersweekly.

kraftrecipes.com is one of the top 20 food websites on the web with over 85 million visits per year.

85milliOn visits

Outcomes:


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NIBA

Company: National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA)


Background: NIBA is the national trade association for licensed life and general insurance brokers in Australia.

Objectives: Support sales of NIBA’s products and services, including its annual convention, training programs and membership.

What they did: NIBA has invested in a cross-platform approach to its communications since 2009 and its persistence is paying dividends, with increased registrations to its annual convention and higher overall customer engagement.

Central to the communications strategy is the website www.insuranceandrisk.com.au. Here, insurance brokers can find useful articles and videos on topics that matter to

them, at any time, from anywhere. A print magazine provides a longer read, and a fort-nightly enews drives traffic to the website.

For the 2013 NIBA National Convention, Mahlab Media and NIBA executed a content marketing strategy to boost convention numbers. The previous year, 700 people had attended – a figure that disappointed NIBA.

The multi-channel content approach provided the audience with many reasons for attending the event. Over the course of the nine-month lead up, a number of pieces of content were published, including interviews with speakers in the print magazine, fortnightly enewsletter Broker Buzz, and on NIBA's video channel, NIBATV. News from events was featured heavily, ensuring the whole industry was aware of what was happening and, more importantly, what they would be missing out on if they didn't attend!

Visit www.insuranceandrisk.com.au

Boostingevent attendance

114 per cent growth in annual convention registrations in 2013 – from 700 to 1,500.

114%

NIBA saw a 114 per cent growth in registrations to its

annual convention in 2013, from 700 to 1,500 – an

outcome achieved with the help of an extensive, cross-platform content strategy.

“

• 114percentgrowthinregistrationstoannualconventionin2013–from700to1,500.• 12percentincreaseintotaladvertisingrevenueoverthepastyear.

Outcomes:


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The

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Com

pany Content

on a budgetCompany: The Goulet Pen Company

Background: The Goulet Pen Company manufactures and markets a broad range of fountain pens and writing instruments, bottled ink, writing paper and accessories.

Objectives: Increase awareness of a small, start-up business by engaging with customers. Generate a loyal following and sell products online.

What they did: Brian Goulet, the company owner, decided to create content based on his products, so he launched an energetic blog called Ink Nouveau.

The blog’s aim, according to Goulet, is to “provide product education (with a bit of entertainment, as well) and to bring together fountain pen enthusiasts from around the world to share in a common passion”.

He has averaged four posts a week for the past four years. He is also prolific at producing ‘How to' videos – low-budget, simple produc-tions that are highly useful and feel personal.

Goulet says the company’s video efforts have played a pivotal role in its content marketing success. “It's hard to produce high-quality content in video form on a regular basis, and this has been one way that Goulet has been able to stand out from other retailers, as well as other bloggers,” he says.

One of the key tenets of content marketing is to be useful. Most of the content Goulet produces is just that: tips, tricks and information. He also publishes customer comments received via social media, and answers them for all customers to read.

Visit www.gouletpens.com and www.inknouveau.com

• Goulet’sQ&Avideosattractregularaudiencesbetween2,000and3,000.• Otherinstructionalvideoshaveattractedupwardsof40,000views.• Thecompanyhasmorethan22,500socialfansacrossYouTube,Twitter,Facebook,InstagramandPinterest.• Thecompany’scontentmarketingsuccesshasseenthecompanygrowfromonepersonto21injustfouryears.

Outcomes:

The success of the content marketing strategy has seen the company grow from one person to 21 in just four years. The blog's aim is to provide

product education with a bit of entertainment, and to bring together fountain

pen enthusiasts from around the world to share

in a common passion.

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Four Seasons Hotels

and Resorts

Developbrand loyalty

Company: Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

Agency: Paceco, USA.

Background: Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has 92 properties in over 38 countries.

Objectives: Position Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts as the number one luxury hotel group worldwide and drive traffic to the websites of its individual hotels to generate bookings.

What they did: Four Seasons currently has 92 properties in 38 countries and maintains social pages for the individual properties, as well as for the Four Seasons head office in Toronto, Canada. They produce thousands of pieces of content every week, and half the marketing budget is spent on social media.

Four Seasons focuses on the experience of travel, not just details of room rates and

pictures of boring hotel rooms. Things to do and places to visit feature heavily.

The content is useful; it includes, for example, a step-by-step 'how-to' guide to standing up on a paddleboard. This is a great example of content that's not going to directly contribute to Four Seasons bookings, but encourages and develops brand loyalty.

In a somewhat risky move, Four Seasons embeds customer reviews from TripAdvisor, Facebook and Twitter into the websites of its hotels. While this could result in negative reviews being published, it demonstrates the brand’s confidence that most reviews will be positive. It also enhances its credibility – it’s not just the hotel itself saying it’s good, but its own customers too, in real time.

Visit www.magazine.fourseasons.com

• TheFourSeasonsreceivesmorethantwomillionimpressionsaweek.• Almost220,000Facebookfollowers.• 108,000Twitterfollowers.• 3,000YouTubesubscribers.• 38,000Pinterestfollowers.• 11,000Google+connections.• 32,000Instagramfollowers.

Outcomes:

Four Seasons produces thousands of pieces of content every week.

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CIS

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c. GeneratingleadsCompany: Cisco Systems Inc.

Background: Cisco Systems is an American corporation specialising in computer networking products and services for both enterprises and small businesses.

Objectives: Cisco had a lot of content on its website but wasn't generating leads. It decided it needed to revamp its content strategy to provide content that was useful to potential customers at any point along the buyer’s journey.

What they did: Heather Meza, the Head of Digital Media Solutions at Cisco, shook up the company’s drab website by conducting a content audit. She found that only 5 per cent of the content on the website was commonly looked at or even remotely useful for a potential customer.

She removed most of the content and started again, with clear editorial guidelines to put the customer first. She also created a number of downloadable ebooks to generate leads.

Her team mapped the content to the buyer’s journey so they could make sure it was as useful as possible.

Cisco’s content is now fascinating and insightful. They’ve even produced a documentary-style series of videos called the Network Effect. The videos highlight how a cellular service provider in rural Africa set up local offices in donated shipping containers, and how the organisation helped Latin American microbusinesses solve connectivity problems.

Visit www.cisco.com

• Almosttrebledtrafficonkeypages.• 23percentincreaseinwebsitevisits.• Uniquevisitsup99percent.• Proactive,on-sitesearchup30percent.• ThankstoMeza’sebookstrategy,thewebsiterecordeda29percentincreaseinfiledownloads.

Outcomes:

Almost trebled traffic on key web pages and achieved a 29 per cent increase in ebook downloads.

29 per Cent

After conducting a content audit, Cisco found that

just 5 per cent of its website’s content was

commonly looked at. It was failing to provide audiences

with any tangible value.

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H e l p i n g b r a n d s b e c o m e p u b l i s H e r s

•Contentstrategy

•Contentcreation

•Contentdeliveryandamplification

•Articles,blogsandwhitepapers

•Websitecontentanddesign

•Socialmedia

•Videoproduction

•Enewsletters

•Digitalandprintmagazines

•Communicationsaudit

Formoreinformation

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