5 Boston Experts Weigh In On Content Marketing For Business

This post was written by Boston Content committee member Juliana Casale, currently the Head of Marketing at Crazy Egg. You can follow her on Twitter @attackofthetext.

Content marketing has been around long enough now to have its own institute, spawn multiple SaaS platforms, thought leaders, and annual conferences.

While many companies are “doing content marketing” in 2018, what are their expectations? How are they measuring success?

WeWork recently hosted a panel of 5 experts, moderated by yours truly and organized by event planner Jed Hammel. The high-level goals were to:

  • Talk about how content has evolved

  • Talk about how content can provide value for businesses

Here’s what the panelists had to say:

Sarah Bedrick, Co-Founder & Head of Marketing at Compt and Co-Founder of HubSpot Academy

1. You co-founded HubSpot Academy to help marketers and small businesses thrive. In your experience, what are the various ways in which content marketing helps a company grow?

Woof; that’s a big question. Well first, it’s probably helpful to define content marketing. As I see it, content marketing is any type of content - blog posts, e-books, classes, guides, templates, FAQ sheets, webinars, emails, support content - that helps companies to grow and sustain their business.

Content is a powerful tool. Some business are built solely out of content - think about course websites like Udemy or Coursera where their entire business is built off of content. There’s so many companies like that today - so it’s easy to see how instrumental content is to a business.

When most marketers think of content, they think of the marketing funnel with top, middle, and bottom-of-the-funnel content, and that’s certainly right. However, there’s also content that supports a company’s customers. That content can help them see more value from the product or service, purchase more, or even turn them into an advocate or promoter of the business. Those customers who are raving fans are likely to be the ones who are sharing your product/service with others and are working as an extension of your team to tell the world about your company.

With my experience from building the HubSpot Academy team, one example of how a type of content can help at every at every stage of the Inbound Methodology was our certifications program.

Our free certifications attracted the marketing and sales professionals to the world of inbound,  and HubSpot as a software suite. After people watched our courses, they “got” inbound and were often ready to buy HubSpot. Then, the users who purchased HubSpot were better customers and stayed on with the platform longer. They also were some of our most amazing advocates out in the wild. Our content was some of the highest lead generating, best quality leads, best quality customers - and it also worked to decrease the typical funnel’s timeframes.

One last thought on how content can help help a company grow - obviously, not all content is created equal. However, if you find something that works think about how you can turn that piece of content from an ad hoc project, to a content product, and then a full-blown program. The difference between all of them is that as they become more impactful for the business, they become more intertwined with the marketing or business machine.

Eventually when I was leaving the HSA team, content was being used throughout many funnels that other marketers impacted, we had our content translated into five different languages, and people were integrating this into their sales funnel and customer success funnels. Our content and team went from being an experiment to being a core part of the company’s content offerings.

2. You are currently the Head of Marketing at Compt, which is in private beta. Often, marketers are handed down tools and reports when they join a company, so it must be exciting to be able to start from scratch in your case! What kind of tools will you be using to create, promote, and measure your content?

You mention tools and reports. Tools can be taken a few ways here.

For tools, we’re developing marketing tools like a calculator to help companies see how much they’re spending on perks and how much of that is actually going to something meaningful for the individual employees.

Another tool we recently launched is our Company Culture Index which is a massive database full of company culture initiatives for others to learn from and be inspired by. There are so many cool companies doing cool things but there’s no one go-to resource for business leaders, team managers, HR, and the culture-obsessed:

  • Marketers have reallygoodemails.com.

  • Marketers and sales have reallygoodchatbots.com

  • Product has reallygoodux.io.

  • Now business leaders have the Company Culture Index.

As far as tools like marketing tools to help me accomplish my job, that’s been a fun transition that I’m constantly navigating. I was at HubSpot for so long and am so proficient with that and their suite is so wide and deep, that was some of the only tools I used for a while.

I’m using GA, Hotjar, Databox, Drift, HubSpot free, Product Hunt, and WordPress and a ton of their plugins.

I feel like when you’re first starting out, you’re tracking the most basic funnel. At HubSpot we tracked many, many elements of our certification sign up from sign up for HSA, to watch first class, to take a quiz, to attempt the exam, to fail and return to pass later on, and eventually pass, then talk to sales, etc. However, we’re starting out simple with our basic funnel and building it out over time.

And as far as reports, I love Databox. Their reporting tools are incredible.

Reggie Woo, Content Marketing Coordinator at Vivantio

1. You’ve done a fair amount of freelance content marketing. How were you pitching your value proposition to potential clients in terms of measurable results?

To be honest, a lot of my freelance content gigs were with established content teams that had strong guidelines and specific goals for their freelancers from the get-go. So, I often didn’t have to push myself for pitching, because I would either meet their criteria or wouldn’t. Sometimes I wish I had the opportunity to really dig deeper and pitch more value, because the success of these gigs were also often measured with purely arbitrary metrics, the most predominant ones being either number of articles or views/site traffic.

Having experience as a freelancer and one who manages a freelance team, I totally understand that setting the right expectations for success can be really difficult as a freelancer, especially since you can often run into situations where you don’t have full access to the context behind your content.

When you can, it’s incredibly important to remember to take the time to understand how your content is helping your client meet their business needs and set achievable goals around metrics that reflect those goals in order to provide the most value. For example, if the larger goal is to grow an engaged audience, try to propose measuring deeper metrics like new visitors, referral traffic, and subscriber growth.

2. You just landed a new in-house gig as a Content Marketing Coordinator (congrats!). I know that across my career, content has been expected to perform different functions depending on where I worked. What are Vivantio’s expectations for what your content will achieve or deliver?

Similarly to many other companies, Vivantio’s main goal is to cultivate a growing, healthy sales pipeline. Their primary expectation is that my content will identify and bring in qualified sales leads. However, we’ve also discussed how saturated the ITSM market is (especially in terms of content), so another goal that I have is to create content that will specifically differentiate ourselves and clearly communicate the unique value and identity that Vivantio brings to the table.

Marina Erulkar, Data-driven strategist and the Principal & Founder of Hampstead Solutions LLC

1. You’ve had a lot of in-house experience with marketing strategy over the years, and now you are helping your consulting clients grow their businesses.

What changes have you seen in the content marketing field over time? Are there any common misconceptions or assumptions that you’ve had to battle?

There was a time when each piece of content was highly targeted and highly considered. Marketing went through rounds of editing. Now the pendulum has swung the other way: Everyone is a writer and a publisher.

Because it’s so easy to publish and distribute content, often the assumption is that more is more. It’s a misconception I’ve had to address. More content is great if it’s created to serve a specific audience for a specific purpose.

As an example, I had a SaaS client who had no understanding of their customer and how purchases were decided. So, they created content for themselves. Content was increasingly more specialized. It certainly impressed colleagues but did nothing to drive engagement and sales. Revenue was on the decline.

We had to start at the beginning and create the greatest hits that were written to the needs of different decision-makers.

2. Talk to me about how you approach industries and business growth stages.

For all industries, I first work to understand the customer: what they need and how decisions are reached. It’s obvious, but the decision to buy gum at the register is different than the decision to buy a Sub Zero. The risk is different. So, for every industry the first step for me is:

  • What content will support a decision?

  • How can I de-risk the decision?

For startups, all resources are at a premium. So, team members typically can’t spend a lot of time writing and there often isn’t budget for outsourcing.

So, content has to effectively move a broad set of customers forward as much as possible to a purchase. Often, the decision process isn’t understood, so this is the time to test and refine.

As companies grow, their content can become more specialized. As an example, through analysis for a mid-sized client, I uncovered new industry targets. Analysis also revealed that these industries had different needs than those the client typically targeted. We had to retool the content to speak more specifically to these additional industries.

For larger companies that often have greater resources, the challenge becomes keeping the content relevant and brand-right. Again, because all of us now can distribute content, larger companies have to ensure that the breadth of messaging is relevant—and helpful.

3. Should content marketing strategy differ between B2C and B2B businesses?

It should! With B2B, content needs to reflect an understanding of business needs. There are often multiple decision-makers from different areas of the organization. Often those decision-makers reach decisions differently. For example, executives need to see ROI content first to appreciate the value to their organization. If satisfied, they will dig into the details. Conversely, technical audiences want specs first. Once they have determined that the technology is legitimate, they move on to the value-related content.

For B2C, content needs to reflect needs also, but on a personal level. To effectively establish relationships with content, you need to straddle a line: show that you understand without being intrusive.

4. How should strategy evolve as a startup reaches maturity?

Again, being resource-constrained can have its benefits. When startups have tested, measured and understand what content works, as they grow they can develop additional content that may speed a purchase decision, or complementary content that may serve a newly-recognized audience—whether that is additional decision-makers or new industries.

Jed Hammel, Event/Video producer (Filmshift Festival, City Awake, Volta video productions)

1. You specialize in video production, and it seems like a lot of businesses are trying to produce their own selfie videos on LinkedIn these days. Why is clear, on-brand, and emotionally engaging content important? 

Any time you engage with your audience via video, you are sending a message to them about your brand. The key is to be mindful of how that message is expressed both visually and audio-wise. Everything in a video is part of that message. In the same way that a logo, tagline, mission statement, spokesperson, what you wear, what your office looks like, the level of diversity of your team, and so on sends a message to a potential customer, so does what a video looks and sounds like.

With professional video, there is a reason why directors choose certain angles to capture their subjects, why wardrobe picks certain outfits over others, and why the prop department chooses specific objects/settings for the background. The reason is that there is a direct effect on the viewer from how a video looks and sounds. A potential consumer may not be able to express the difference between a video that was planned carefully and one that is of you walking in a park as you talk off the top of your head and squint into the sun, but they will express this difference with their wallet. 

Beyond that, it’s a missed opportunity. Every object, color, sound, person, etc. in a video is a chance to communicate your differentiation in the marketplace, so being mindful of each element in your video is a must.

Video has become so available as a tool that people forget that a tool is only as effective as the person wielding it.

People spend hours choosing what they're going to wear for the day, what font to have on their website, and the perfect logo for their business, but somehow they're cool with a video that isn't on-brand and that has weird angles, bad lighting/graphics, and is as lo-fi as possible. 

There actually is a strong case to made for this type of video to be part of your offerings. I just see a dichotomy between people stressing over fonts or which business card looks the best, yet allowing a spokesperson who doesn’t best represent their brand talking without a script with a random or boring background distracting the audience.

Industry leaders can be effective with lo-fi videos for the very reason that they are the leaders. If you aren’t your industry’s biggest name, my advice is to do everything you can to differentiate yourself from the pack and to use every opportunity and medium you can to communicate your company’s message.

2. In the content world, video has typically been viewed as an engagement play. But can it be evaluated in direct response terms (i.e., someone took an action after viewing)? If so, how?

Good question! A majority of videos in your repertoire should have clear CTAs as part of them.  Some suggestions include asking folks to: “Decide to find 10 great things you love about your business or your team each day” to something more inbound such as: “Sign up to receive our e-book, additional video content.” Or even the usual such as: “Please leave a comment/ask a question/answer a question.”

Christian Jones, Brand Strategist at Neil Creative/Co-Founder at Flipping Bricks University

1. You’re the CMO/Branding Director at your new venture, Flipping Bricks University, and you have been a branding instructor at General Assembly. In your opinion, how does branding (or lack of branding) affect the way content is perceived?

Branding is about three things:

  1. Clarity

  2. Consistency

  3. Creativity

In this day and age we are inundated with information. Because of that, it’s about being able to properly distinguish the useful and relevant information from the bunch. By creating clarity with your brand (who you are, what you do, why you matter and ultimately your relevancy to your target market), you are lowering this access barrier because you’ve done half the thinking for them.

Consistency creates recognition and familiarity. Having a consistent content schedule is important because that drives the development of your brand reputation.

Lastly, we mention creativity. How do we make ourselves unique by the words we say and how we look? They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but in reality we do. Taking all these things into consideration, they will all help improve the effectiveness of all your content marketing efforts. Lacking in any of these areas will only get you lost in a flood of information that we get every single day.

2. As Crazy Egg’s head of marketing, I’m particularly interested in how website content and design play a role in customer acquisition (which is basically every company’s goal for their content, at the end of the day). As a brand strategist for business owners, can you speak a little about how you’ve helped map their content to the journey their buyers take to get to a purchase?

The magic question is always WHY?

Before they arrive… Why should they come to you?

When they arrive… Why are they here? And Why would they leave?

If they stay… why should they stay longer? Or why should they come back?

I believe in the power of THREEs to drive organized thinking. My objective is always to push towards a focal point. In most cases, there’s a lot of content that goes into customer acquisition.

 

Content Marketing by the Numbers: 49 Facts You Need to Know

From Boston Content's Executive Director, @KatieMartell

Oh what a night.

Earlier this week Boston Content teamed up with Pathfactory, LogMeIn, and Hubspot’s INBOUND conference to bring together over 200 content professionals for a night of research, trends, and networking.

Grab a seat and watch the full event recording here.

Words matter - but this night was all about the numbers. 

 

I’ll admit, I love research data. I love the way numbers tell a story in a way words alone cannot. (My sister has a PhD so some of that #nerdlife must have rubbed off on me.)

I really wanted to put together a night that was all about new research in the field of content.

In preparation, I looked up the etymology of the phrase “by the numbers” – which refers to doing something precisely, in a strict sequence, or step by step. It goes back to the American Revolutionary War where a book containing numbered positions for rifle and bayonet practice was used to train soldiers. Each diagram was numbered.

By the Numbers

Looks fun.

 

In a way it’s kind of ironic, because right now nothing is precise in our world of content. From the job scope itself, to best practices, to which channels are the most effective, things are changing quickly. The best way to learn is truly to experiment, and build community around the profession to share what works – and what doesn’t.

(PRO TIP: That’s why Boston Content exists. Join here, it’s free.)

Here are 49 – YES 49 - facts shared by our speakers:

 

RE: Content Consumption Habits

Speaker: Daniel Waas, VP Marketing GoToWebinar

 

Photo by Katie Burkhart

Photo by Katie Burkhart

 

1. B2C Motivations for Consuming Content

  •  18% of consumers seek entertainment – an amusing escape to relax, take a mental break and a mood improvement
  •  17% of consumers seek to update socially – seeking relaxing info that will keep them updated on what’s going on, allow them to relax, or take a mental break
  • 16% of consumers seek to find – looking for answers, to research something specific, learn something new, get new ideas, or get support/advice.

(Source: Content Moments Study, AOL, 2017)

2. B2B Motivations for Consuming Content

  • To learn new knowledge or skills
  • To stay up-to-date with industry trends
  • To get fresh ideas

(Source: GoToWebinar Content Consumption Study 2018)

3. Most valuable topics for B2B professionals:

  • Best practices / educational topics
  • Stats & research findings
  • Industry news

(Source: GoToWebinar Content Consumption Study 2018)

4. What B2B professionals dislike most about content:

  • Too promotional
  • Too wordy
  • Too high-level

(Source: GoToWebinar Content Consumption Study 2018)

5. Why certain content keeps readers’ interest:

  • It’s easy-to-understand
  • It’s educational
  • It’s entertaining

(Source: GoToWebinar Content Consumption Study 2018)

6. What generations consume webinars at work:

  • 43% of baby boomers
  • 47% of generation X
  • 44% of millennials

    (Source: GoToWebinar Content Consumption Study 2018)

7. What generations consume video at work:

  • 39% of baby boomers
  • 48% of generation X
  • 57% of millennials

(Source: GoToWebinar Content Consumption Study 2018)
 

8. What generations consume blogs at work

  • 16% of baby boomers
  • 28% generation X
  • 37% millennials

(Source: GoToWebinar Content Consumption Study 2018)

9. What generations consume newsletters at work:

  • 57% of baby boomers
  • 54% generation X
  • 49% millennials

(Source: GoToWebinar Content Consumption Study 2018)

 

RE: The State of B2B Buyers and Marketing

Speaker: Katie Martell, On-demand Marketer and Exec Director of Boston Content (hey that's me!)

 

Photo by Katie Burkhart 

Photo by Katie Burkhart 

 

10. Information overload

We are exposed to as much data in a single day as someone in the 15th century would be in their entire lifetime.

11. No really, information OVERLOAD

Every day, Americans take in five times as much information as they did in 1986.

12. Buyers are being buried by email.

The average office worker receives 121 emails per day. (per Statista)

13. Our B2B buyers are distracted

  • They switch between tasks 300 times a day - RescueTime
  • They use 56 different apps and websites a day - RescueTime
  • They check email or IM 40 times every day (once every 7.5 minutes) - RescueTime
  • They check their phones 150 times every day (once every 5 minutes) - NBC News, Feb 2018

14. Marketers aren’t helping the matter

2,000,000 blogs are published every day – MarketingProfs
 

15. The volume is compounding

The amount of web-based content is doubling every 9 to 24 months. - Mark Schaefer in 2013

16. It’s created content-obsessed buyers

And a new diagnosis: “infomania” referring to the compulsive desire to accumulate news & information.

17. The impact of content overload is real

It creates a condition called “Continuous Partial Attention” which leads to higher levels of stress in the brain prohibiting reflection, contemplation + thoughtful decisions.

18. Content plays a major role in the B2B sales process.

70.2% of buyers prefer to get a clear understanding of their needs before they talk with a sales rep (self-education.)  - CSO Insights 2018 Buyer Preference Study

19. But it isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Remember infomania?

“Buyers may be better informed than ever, but they’re deeply uncertain and stressed.” – CEB/Gartner

20. Buying takes longer than ever

65% of buyers spend as much time they’d expected to spend on the  entire purchase  just getting ready to speak with a sales rep – CEB / Gartner

21. And that means sales are decelerating

An 18% decrease in purchase ease is created, as content overload “pushes decision makers
into unproductive, open-ended learning loops” – CEB / Gartner

22. More content is not the answer

60-70% of all content churned out by B2B marketing departments sits unused by Sales – SiriusDecisions

23. The key is relevance.

There are 4 keys to relevant content for large B2B accounts:

  1. Educate on the space
  2. Contextualize to my business
  3. Prescribe a plan of action
  4. Experience the process and outcome

Source:TOPO

24. Breaking through requires NEW, ORIGINAL insight.

50% of B2B buyers want vendors to share insights that they haven’t considered - Forrester

25. Buyers are open to engaging with a vendor when the time is right.

Notably, when a business challenge is:

  • New and unfamiliar to the buyer
  • Perceived as risky for the buyer’s company
  • Perceived as risky for the individual buyer

Source: CSO Insights

26. Our buyers are stressed out, like all Americans

59% of Americans consider this the lowest point in US History. They are more stressed than during WW2, Vietnam, Cuban Missile Crisis, or 9/11.

Source: American Psychological Association’s report, "Stress in America™"

27. This creates a world of confusion and mistrust.

In 2018, the US saw the largest decline in trust in four major institutions (NGO, Business, Government, and Media) in 18 years.

Source: Edelman Trust Barometer Report

28. Businesses struggle to gain trust – the precursor to any meaningful relationship

42% of consumers don't know which companies to trust.

Source: Edelman Trust Barometer Report

29. But CEOs know it’s their #1 responsibility

69% of CEOs believe their top responsibility is to ensure their company is trusted.

Source: Edelman Trust Barometer Report

30. Buyers seek voices of authority

Technical experts, financial industry analysts, and successful entrepreneurs now register credibility levels of 50 percent or higher. (In previous years, peers had held higher levels of authority and trust.)

Source: Edelman Trust Barometer Report

31. Business plays a more visible role in society than ever

64% of buyers say CEOs should take the lead on change rather than waiting for government to impose it.

Source: Edelman

32. It’s time for all companies to step up and lead via thought.

15% of CXOs spend four hours or more per week engaging with thought leadership

Source: Edelman and LinkedIn

33. Thought leadership has direct business impact

  • 80% of business decision makers say thought leadership increases trust in a vendor
  • 48% of c-suite execs claim thought leadership has directly led them to award business to a company
  • 90%  of c-suite execs claim respect & admiration increases for a vendor after engaging with thought leadership

Source: Edelman and LinkedIn

34. Thought leadership done poorly has dire consequences.

30% of buyers say poor thought leadership “led me to decide to not award a piece of business to a company”

Source: Edelman and LinkedIn

35. And TBH, we’re not doing great

Only 14% of buyers say the overall quality of most of the thought leadership they read is “very good” or “excellent.”

Source: Edelman & LinkedIn

KATIE'S PRO TIP: Be strategic. Use content to set a bold vision for what could be, differentiate, galvanize, and lead through chaos.

SHAMELESS PLUG: My new book is all about this topic. I write about what makes transformative voices so effective in times like these. Sign up for my newsletter to be notified of its launch.

 

 

RE: The rise of on-demand content

Speaker: Elle Woulfe, VP of Marketing PathFactory

 

Photo by Katie Burkhart 

Photo by Katie Burkhart 

36. It’s an on-demand world

People now expect an on-demand experience in all aspects of their lives. Buyers want what they want, when they want it. They expect smart services that anticipate their needs.

37. The on-demand economy is growing

To be specific, to $57B by the end of 2018 as 78% of people now consume content on-demand

38. This trend applies to B2B

The on-demand experience in B2B marketing is about the journey through content. While B2B buyers don’t make purchase decisions at a moments notice – they do consume a lot of content along the path to purchase and the expectations they have cultivated in their consumer lives have carried through to their professional lives.

39. B2B buyers consume a lot of content

The average amount of content a buyer consumes before making a purchase decision is 10.4 pieces.

40. TBH, B2B Marketing doesn’t make it easy

The B2B buyer’s journey for most, is not the seamless, convenient experience they expect.

  • Not personalized - not tailored to their needs and responsive to where they are on the journey
  • Too slow – it moves at a pre-determined pace that is often far too slow for engaged buyers
  • Too hard - it is simply too complicated and difficult to navigate – leaving many buyers frustrated when they are researching B2B products and solutions

41. Content itself, though, is not the problem

Although we’ve seen a 300% increase in content creation, only 5% of content accounts for 90% of engagement.

Source: Beckon, Marketing Truth or Marketing Hype?, 2016

42. More distribution isn’t helping

281B emails are sent per day, along with 40B targeted ads delivered.

Source: Radicati Group, Email Statistics Report, 2018

43. The key is quality (and relevance) over quantity

The key to solving this problem in B2B comes down to one thing and it’s something that B2C vendors have known for a long time.

Think of the relevance of Netflix. You are served a set of highly curated recommendations that reflect your past viewing habits and preferences. Netflix knows everything about what you’ve watched and what you like and they use that insight to power a highly relevant recommendation just for you.
 

44. Netflix is not guessing

Netflix knows a lot about you to tailor the experience:

What Netflix knows:

  • When you watch a show
  • Where you watch it
  • On which device do you watch it
  • Do the nature of shows vary with the device
  • When you pause a program
  • Do you re-watch any portion of a program
  • Do you skip the credits or not
  • The ratings
  • The searches
  • What to recommend next
  • What content to make

45. That data drives a personalized, curated experience

80% of Netflix’s viewing is driven by the recommendation algorithm, and the success rates for Netflix’s original shows are 80% vs. 30%-40% success rates of traditional TV shows – without pilots.

46. Designing an on-demand B2B experience operates under the same parameters:

In a B2B content experience, you collect data like:

  • Which pieces of content a buyer found most useful
  • What the content was about
  • Which topics they’re most interested in
  • Who they are, and if others from his company are engaged
  • Where they are in the buyer’s journey and if they’re progressing
  • What they should see next
  • What action you should take


47. But, marketers struggle to create those experiences today

Only 23% of marketers are satisfied with their ability to leverage customer data to create more relevant experiences.

Source: Salesforce, State of Marketing report, 2017

 48. Although it’s what buyers have come to expect

“B2B consumers expect that the brand experiences they encounter in their professional lives will have the same sophistication and consistency as those they experience in their personal lives.”

Source: The Birth of the B2B Consumer, Forrester Research, 2017

49. Our value as marketers depends on providing this kind of insight.


Passing better information about accounts and prospects is now the #1 ask for sales and marketing teams  

Source: InsideView: The State of Sales and Marketing Alignment, 2018
 

 

--- 

Phew. Talk about information overload. 

Thank you again to our speakers, partners, and all who came out for Content Marketing By the Numbers at INBOUND 2018.

Click here to view the entire event on-demand.

How to Get Internal Thought Leaders to Create Content

Suman Sridhar recently graduated from Boston College's full-time MBA program. She is currently seeking new content marketing opportunities. Before grad school, she held several content marketing positions at B2B brands in Boston and New York. You ca…

Suman Sridhar recently graduated from Boston College's full-time MBA program. She is currently seeking new content marketing opportunities. Before grad school, she held several content marketing positions at B2B brands in Boston and New York. You can follow her on Twitter @SumanSridhar.

96% of B2B buyers want content with more input from industry thought leaders. This isn’t a surprise. After all, wouldn’t you rather read about building UX teams or platform migrations from people who have actually done the work?

To find the right people, all you need to do is look around you at work. Your company is full of knowledgeable staff who have deep experience in at least one subject. As a content marketer, you can harness that knowledge and channel it into your company’s content.

Of course, it’s easier said than done. Internal thought leaders will have other responsibilities. There are projects, meetings and fires to put out. People might be working remotely. Not everyone is a writer or creator, and some may not consider content creation a priority.

The following tips are best practices on how to get internal thought leaders to create content. I’ve based these recommendations on my own professional experiences working with internal subject matter experts (SMEs) at a distributed UX company and a software company.

1. Lock down executive buy-in. Having management support from the beginning will set the stage for content marketing success from the top down. Companies that haven’t embraced or implemented content marketing are missing out on a key competitive advantage, and will surely be left behind. Consider the following statistics:

  • As of May 2018, 87% of B2B companies in the U.S. engage in content marketing. [MarketingProfs]

  • Content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less. [Content Marketing Institute]

  • Content has been proven to be a powerful revenue driver. One brand, Crazy Egg, has reported that content marketing efforts generated more than seven figures in revenue per year. [FlightMedia]

At the UX and software companies I worked for, management was already well-aware of the importance of content marketing and needed someone to execute it (me!). If you don’t have organizational support, particularly at the top, it’s time to start building the case for content marketing. Having supportive leaders made it clear to internal SMEs that creating content was a priority.

2. Know that you’re going to have to wear many hats. When you’re trying to extract content from internal SMEs, you’ll assume a variety of roles: creator, writer, teacher, coach, project manager, designer, and journalist being a few. Remember, you’re dealing with busy people who are likely not as experienced at content marketing as you. If you’re more writing-oriented like me, you could be working with people who hate writing, and you have to find ways to help them out.

One professional challenge that I faced was when people were new to the idea that content marketing was about providing information and thought leadership, not sales pitching in content form. Bringing up data and pointing to the activities of successful brands helped me navigate through this issue without coming across as patronizing. 

3. Make it easy for them. I often extracted content from SMEs by recording GoToMeetings, Skype calls and presentations (with permission). This was because one of the companies I worked for was distributed, meaning that most of the company was not in-house. There’s no need to go out and buy a recorder — just use your iPhone. This way, the thought leader can just speak about their subject. After recording, I could transcribe a draft and show it to them so that they could give feedback and make edits. This was especially useful if the SME was too busy or didn’t like writing.

Screen sharing is also a useful mechanism. During phone meetings, I could create outlines and bullet points, and the SME could look at it in real time. The same applied when I drove survey and video projects at a software company. I would project questions onto a screen so people could examine it, and jot down notes and answers in real-time. The thought leaders could correct any mistakes or suggest additions on the spot.

4. Be polite but persistent. This is where you’ll have to wear your project manager hat, since working on content with SMEs is a duty that’s dependent on other people. Be sure to SET DEADLINES with the internal thought leader, and mark the deadline in your calendar. Suggest that the SME blocks off a couple of hours or so during the week to work on the content project. When people couldn’t stick to their deadlines, I tried to never make them feel bad, since other priorities come up. Instead, I tried to do whatever I could to help them actualize the content, like recording and writing a draft for them to react to.

If getting people to deliver remains a constant problem, gently remind others that you’re doing this because you have certain numbers and targets to it. Ask people on your team and your manager how to get around this issue.

5. Incentivize SMEs and tap into their talents. For many SMEs, participating in marketing content creation could be enjoyable, or at least different. The content item would be a useful addition to their portfolio. When it’s completed, share it internally, and it can help with their internal visibility and show their managers they’re engaged with the company. I’ve also heard of companies who provide bonuses to non-marketers who participate in marketing activities.

If you have the resources, try to see if you can provide tangible incentives, like gift cards. Using a gamification tool like GaggleAMP can be a fun way to drive employee engagement. For example, it could show whose content has the most social shares. This could inspire friendly competition.

Also, maximize your internal thought leaders’ talents. For example, at the UX company, we also had a talented visual design team on hand. This meant they could create cool custom content for marketing like infographics or blog graphics at no extra cost. Maybe your CMO is a fantastic speaker, or you know of a product manager who presents well on camera. Loop them in!

 Though sometimes working with internal thought leaders to create content can be tricky, it can also be a rewarding experience. It’ll improve their external and internal visibility, and infuse your content with credibility. Your company’s content marketing efforts need to go beyond just having a blog where every post is authored by the marketer. Getting internal thought leaders to create content will help cement your company as an expert source in its field.

Boston Content Hacks Away At Top Brands’ Content Challenges: Hackathon 2018 Recap

On June 20, over 50 members of Boston Content’s community convened for an evening of creative, content collective innovation. After kicking off the evening with pizza and networking, the event began with a keynote delivered by Boston Content co-founder Jay Acunzo.

 

 

Attendees then split into teams to help solve pressing content challenges for some of Boston’s top brands, including Mendix, Wish Route, Cuseum, Resilient Coders, RainTaps, Charitable Confections, and Horizons for Homeless Children. The sky was the limit as attendees flexed their creative muscles to solve tough problems with fresh insight.  

After a one-hour “hack,” attendees reconvened to present their ideas to brand representatives and the rest of the group. Below, check out some participating brands' biggest pain points going into the hackathon, as well as what strategies they plan to use as a result of being content hacked.  

Special thanks to our host, Joanna Cohen and Fidelity Labs and drink sponsors, Drift!

Charitable Confections: paying it forward

The challenge:

“We applied as a two-pronged entity that includes the Haiti Scholarship Association, which is our partner organization ("charity du jour") in Haiti and currently has a nonfunctional website. The success of every program that we implement in Cite Soleil relies directly on the functionality of HSA, and how well potential volunteers understand what we are trying to accomplish. We would like to get to a point where the content on both of our sites have a cohesiveness that reflect our joint programs and projects.”

The outcome:

“During the hackathon, my group discussed tactics that would help my nonprofit and our Haitian partner organization implement a new tutoring idea, called "Pay it forward," that would rely on having guests at a Port-au-Prince-based upscale hotel -- where one of our Haitian volunteers works -- come to our center in the slum village of Cite Soleil to do a one-time volunteer teaching stint. That guest would then find another guest to visit our center to pick up on where the previous tutor had left off in the lesson plan, thus continuing the cycle of benevolence.

What I really appreciated about the input was that it addressed the issue from multiple angles that included both website and flyer content as well as how to conduct follow-up exit interviews to gain a better understanding of how we could continue to improve our methodology. The suggestions were also broad in scope as far as dealing with potential outcomes, ranging from the most aspirational (having the hotel feature our nonprofit's work on their site) to the bleakest (having none of the guests care enough about the plight of the children to feel any motivation to help)."  

Mendix: CLOSING THE TALENT GAP WITH CONTENT

The challenge:

“We need help developing a content plan to grow readership in different regions: the U.S., Netherlands, the U.K. and Germany. We have year over year growth in the U.S. but in our other regions we don't have consistent growth. We also need to figure out how to gain blog subscribers without having people unsubscribe from our blog.”

The outcome:

“Our team focused on the theme of career growth and career transformation for how Mendix can help close the talent gap -- making it possible for non-developers to seek new career paths, for professional developers to accelerate their careers, and for CIOs to develop their teams. As a result of the brainstorm, the content team at Mendix is going to develop content that highlights the trajectory of a person's career when they use Mendix. We hope to empower others about what's possible with low-code application development.

Another challenge we face at Mendix is delivering content that is engaging for people in different regions. As a result of our brainstorm, we are going to develop blog posts for our international partners to post on their websites to raise awareness of Mendix in local markets across Europe.

Many thanks to everyone at Boston Content for all the great ideas!”  

RainTaps: international beer day? heck yes.

The challenge:

“My top challenges with content are:

  • Generating consistent content

  • Finding content partners

  • Creating a clear message for the blog. Because of the breadth of the possible content (fashion, beer, tap handles) and limited number of posts, the blog doesn't have a clear message.

The current goals for the business is to develop a small base of loyal customers and have consistent sales. I'm looking to form a group of customers that will bring repeat business and will also be advocates for the product(s). Along with that I'd like to have some steady sales through the year.”

The outcome:

“My team came up with the brilliant idea of doubling down on Instagram engagement with followers and brewery partners by doing a series of giveaways leading up to International Beer Day on August 3rd. For each day of the campaign, I'll give a follower a cool piece of merch to promote one of the breweries. I've already selected a couple of the breweries and I'm about to start ordering some of the merch.

Another idea was to create visually informative pages around popular beer regions. This is to make my site more engaging when visitors are browsing around. For this, I'm going to take some of my existing content around individual breweries and use it to build out the regional pages.

Really excited to see what the results of the new strategies are!”

Wish Route: leveraging partnerships

The challenge:

“Wish Route promotes and curates content for our users, rather than creating original content. One challenge is understanding opportunities and strategies for cross promotion: If we promote an exercise video, article or recipe to our users, is there an opportunity to ask that content creator to consider promoting Wish Route? How would they go about that? What is the shareable moment? Another set of challenges is the time it takes to find and vet content -- this includes tracking content we have vetted and capturing the right information (tags) about each piece of content so we can match it to a specific user. Currently we use excel spreadsheets but assume there are better ways and technologies we could use.

We are also manually testing the exercise- and nutrition-related wishes with a sample of test users as we refine/develop the service. Feedback thus far is awesome! We are looking for the right tech savvy team member who can help us build a web application to support the Wish Route process. This will allow us to add automation/AI and scale to a larger beta test and ultimately to a product we can go to market with. We aim to have a product to market early 2019.”

The outcome:

“The incredible group of content hackers came up with really fun ideas for a partnership program. To list a few: Interview the experts and create panel events -- we can post to our YouTube channel and the interviewees  may share the interview with their followers too. Create a “seen on Wish Route” badge that bloggers can add to their site. Share feedback we get from our users with the content creator and create awards for content that is most impactful to our users. Everyone likes to win awards and knowing your content had a big impact is even more powerful. Thank you to Boston Content and all our hackers. Can’t wait to roll out many of the ideas that come from our session!”