BUILDING CONTENT STRATEGYThe tips, tools and advice you needto make content work for you

MarkMichaudSenior Vice President

BaronManettSenior Vice President

Welcome.

Your hostsfor today…

Make content:@ariadcomm

@bstat

@kieranmiles

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Kieran MilesSenior Strategist

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, ORBUY YOUR WAY TO INTOCONSUMERS’ LIVES

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CONTENT IS...THE ESSENCE ANDTHE SUBSTANCE OFYOUR BRAND’S CONVERSATIONWITH 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 message11

MICHELIN created guides to encouragea 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 functionalcontent and customers‘ love of its iconic brand

Meets a customer need

Is different

Is actionable

Is engaging

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EXERCISE 1Tell 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 numberof 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 forwardin a meaningful way.

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EXERCISE 2Establish 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

INFLUENCERSTHE PUBLIC

SUPPLIERSANALYSTS

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EXERCISES 3List your potential audiences.

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Profiles or personas?

“an archetypal representation ofan 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 4Create 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

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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 5Map your customer’s journey.

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2000 – 2012

Brad has questions…

?

?

?

? ? ? ?

?

…we have answers.

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CONTENTThis is where…

…comes in.

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THE HOLY GRAILis the RIGHT CONTENT

in the RIGHT PLACE

at the RIGHT TIME

EXERCISE 6Identify content opportunities alongthe 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.

audiencebudget

mandate

mobile

functionality goa

l

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 7Create 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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ESSENCEProvide real value toyour customers’ lives.

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SUBSTANCEDemonstrate how to engagewith the brand.

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EXAMPLE: IKEA

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“Better everyday life”

“Design for everyone”

ESSENCE:Provide real value toyour customers’ lives.

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SUBSTANCE:Demonstrate how to engagewith 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 8Define 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 thatcan come to life in multiple ways, in many formats, across many channels.

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What is a content territory?

RECOGNITION

AWARDSSUCCESS STORIES TESTIMONIALS

SAMPLING

COACHING/NEW

PRODUCTS

EVENTS/CONFERENCE

ROLE OF SALES FORCE ACADEMY

BORROWED TRUST

(EXPERTS)

“SWITCH ROLES”

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EXERCISE 9Explore 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 theyear 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 10Map 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 11Plan 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

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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