BUILDING CONTENT STRATEGY

The tips, tools and advice you need

to make content work for you

Mark

Michaud Senior Vice President

Baron

Manett Senior Vice President

Welcome.

Your hosts

for today…

Make content: @ariadcomm

@bstat

@michaudmark

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EXERCISE GUIDE

Your chance to create

a content plan for

your own situation.

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What is content?

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CONTENT ≠ COPY

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CONTENT ≠ MESSAGING

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CONTENT ≠ MEDIA

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SORRY, BUT... YOU CAN’T BORE,

MANIPULATE, OR

BUY YOUR WAY TO INTO

CONSUMERS’ LIVES

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CONTENT IS... THE ESSENCE AND

THE SUBSTANCE OF

YOUR BRAND’S

CONVERSATION

WITH CONSUMERS

What is good content?

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Good content

• Meets a customer need • Nothing is more engaging than content the customer is

ALREADY looking for

• Helps rather than sells • Customers pay more attention when you are HELPING them

not SELLING to them.

• Is different from your competitors • Your brand wins when your content isn‘t just like your competitors

or any media outlet

• Is actionable • Good content should always show the customer WHAT TO DO NEXT

• Is engaging • A GREAT STORY, empathy for the customer, humour and humanity

all draw your audience closer to your message

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MICHELIN created guides to encourage

a love of motoring

Helps rather than sells

Is different

Is actionable

Is engaging

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RIMMEL brings its unique London brand

positioning to life with multichannel content

Helps rather than sells

Is different

Is actionable

Is engaging

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VOLKSWAGEN offers highly functional

content and customers‘ love of its iconic brand

Meets a customer need

Is different

Is actionable

Is engaging

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EXERCISE 1

Tell your own story.

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How do we build a content strategy?

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Define business

objectives Define and

document your

customer

Define their

content needs

Create a

strategy

statement

Do your creative

discovery

Create a

content plan

Consider

maintenance +

measurement

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Define business objectives

“What does content have to do with my business?”

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Why?

What are the objectives underpinning your strategy?

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Is this a good objective?

Getting more visitors to our website.

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A better objective:

Getting more visitors to our website.

Increase the number

of qualified leads

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The makings of a good objective:

1. Measureable. Within a reasonable degree of

accuracy.

2. Focused. Emphasizes on a single goal.

3. Business impact. Moves the business forward

in a meaningful way.

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EXERCISE 2

Establish your own

business objectives.

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Define and document your customer

“Who are we really trying to talk to?”

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Who?

Who are you targeting with your content?

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Define your audience(s)

CUSTOMERS

STAKEHOLDERS

EMPLOYEES

INFLUENCERS THE PUBLIC

SUPPLIERS ANALYSTS

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EXERCISES 3

List your potential

audiences.

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Profiles or personas?

“an archetypal representation of

an actual user group whose members

share similar needs and goals”

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Why profiles or personas?

• Understand your content from the customers’

perspective.

• Prioritize the most important needs of the most

important customers.

• Make content decisions based on research

insights.

• Filter out personal biases of the marketing and

creative staff.

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EXERCISE 4

Create a profile of one

audience member.

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Define their content needs

“Why doesn’t anyone seem to want our content?”

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2000 – 2012

This is Brad…

…he wants a new car.

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From here…

2000 – 2012 …to here.

?

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Brad’s journey

RESEARCH

VALIDATES

TESTSCONFIRMS

BUYS

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Why customer journeys?

• Customer experience matters like never

before.

• More complex: multichannel, multi-device,

mobile.

• Consumers are demanding more bespoke,

personalized and social interactions.

• Forces us to create content that truly serves

customers’ needs.

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EXERCISE 5

Map your customer’s

journey.

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RESEARCH

VALIDATES

TESTSCONFIRMS

BUYS

2000 – 2012

Brad has questions…

?

?

?

? ? ? ?

?

…we have answers.

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CONTENT This is where…

…comes in.

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THE HOLY GRAIL

is the RIGHT CONTENT

in the RIGHT PLACE

at the RIGHT TIME

EXERCISE 6

Identify content

opportunities along

the journey.

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Create a strategy statement

“What content should we prioritize and resource?”

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Where the strategy lies

Audience

Goals

Business

Objectives

Finding overlap

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Our brand will engage with first time homebuyers

by providing them with a comprehensive source of information

and advice on all aspects of home buying – integrating real estate

information with financing education.

To ensure they can access this resource when they need it,

we will provide it on the web and through a mobile/tablet app.

They will be able to customize it and store info on their specific

situation so it acts as an essential tool to facilitate the purchase process.

Spell it out in a statement

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Our brand will engage with first time homebuyers

by providing them with a comprehensive source of information

and advice on all aspects of home buying – integrating real estate

information with financing education.

To ensure they can access this resource when they need it,

we will provide it on the web and through a mobile/tablet app.

They will be able to customize it and store info on their specific

situation so it acts as an essential tool to facilitate the purchase process.

audienc

e budget

mandate mobile

functiona

lity goal

The detail matters

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Why a formal statement?

• Defines the scope of your content strategy.

• Identifies the implications for budgeting,

planning, resourcing and governance.

• Provides a yardstick to judge all content

initiatives.

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EXERCISE 7

Create a content

strategy statement.

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Do your creative discovery

“Why is our content just like everyone else’s?”

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Content is…

THE ESSENCE AND

THE SUBSTANCE OF

OUR BRAND’S CONVERSATION

WITH CONSUMERS

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ESSENCE

Provide real value to

your customers’ lives.

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SUBSTANCE

Demonstrate how to engage

with the brand.

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EXAMPLE: IKEA

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“Better everyday life”

“Design for everyone”

ESSENCE:

Provide real value to

your customers’ lives.

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SUBSTANCE:

Demonstrate how to engage

with the brand.

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EXAMPLE:

KNORR

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“For the love of flavour… Because cooking delicious and

nutritious food should be within

everyone’s reach”

ESSENCE:

Provide real value to

your customers’ lives.

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SUBSTANCE:

Demonstrate how to engage

with the brand.

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EXERCISE 8

Define the essence

and substance of your

brand’s conversation

with customers.

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What is a content territory?

An aspect of the brand’s conversation that

can come to life in multiple ways, in many formats,

across many channels.

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What is a content territory?

RECOGNITION

AWARDS

SUCCESS

STORIES TESTIMONIALS

SAMPLING

COACHING/

NEW

PRODUCTS

EVENTS/

CONFERENCE

ROLE OF

SALES FORCE ACADEMY

BORROWED

TRUST

(EXPERTS)

“SWITCH

ROLES”

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EXERCISE 9

Explore content

themes or territories.

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Create a content plan

“How do we get more out of the content we have?”

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What is a content plan?

A formalized way to translate all the content

opportunities and possibilities into doable,

fundable, compliant, sustainable plan of action

…that is aligned with business priorities.

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Why a content plan?

• Creating one allows you to be realistic about

resourcing and sustainability.

• Ensures that content is spread across the

year for business impact.

• Allows you to align with other in-market

activities: product launches, promotions,

events, etc.

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Story ideas and channels

• Each story idea can be examined to identify

the best channels and formats.

• Look for ways to alter and extend the idea so

that it is applicable for a number of channels.

• These ideas should then be evaluated against

the profile to ensure they are likely to be

valued by the target audience.

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EXERCISE 10

Map story ideas to

different channels.

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Content plan/calendar

Planning the frequency of your content projects

on a calendar helps in several ways:

• Coordinate with aspects of your full plan:

promos, marketing, communications, events

• Spread out the activity for reach and efficiency

• Ensure that the plan is doable with the

resources available

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EXERCISE 11

Plan out your content

calendar (two lines).

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Consider maintenance and measurement

“What we do we after we launch all of this?”

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The “day two” problem

• Measurement: how will you ensure that your

content is performing against business

objectives?

• Maintenance: what is the sustainable work

process for ongoing creation, review, launch?

• Did you budget for day two? Take 20% of

launch budget off the top for ongoing efforts.

• If you have “real time” content like social, how

do you create and react quickly?

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Let’s summarize

“How does this all fit together?”

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Define business

objectives Define and

document your

customer

Define their

content needs

Create a

strategy

statement

Do your creative

discovery

Create a

content plan

Consider

maintenance +

measurement

71

Good content

• Meets a customer need

• Helps rather than sells

• Is different from your competitors

• Is actionable

• Is engaging

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QUESTIONS?

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EXPLORE MORE…at ariad.ca

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THANK YOU