Date post: | 08-May-2015 |
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Business |
Upload: | marketingexperiments |
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5 Steps to Effective Content Marketing: How to extract the maximum revenue from your content
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Today’s team
Dr. Flint McGlaughlin Managing Director
Ninan Chacko CEO PR Newswire
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PART 1: A Case Study from the MECLABS Library
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Case Study: Background
Background: Sermo is the largest physicians-only social network that allows pharmaceutical companies to conduct survey research and promote products to its audience. Goal: To reduce cost-per-lead Approach: To leverage the power of Sermo’s social network and create a content marketing campaign to add to the company’s current direct-response campaigns.
Case Study ID: CS1067 Record Location: MarketingSherpa Research Library Research Partner: Sermo, Inc.
Research Notes:
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Case Study: Background
Homepage • Sermo is the largest online
community, exclusive to physicians.
• By leveraging its network of physicians, Sermo can allow companies in the pharmaceutical industry to conduct cost-effective market research for their products.
• Sermo utilizes multiple ways to drive people to its website.
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Case Study: Current Situation
Yellow Pages Ads
Direct Mail
Rented Email Lists
Lead Campaign
Could content marketing generate more qualified leads?
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Case Study: Content Marketing Strategy
• With the survey data from its network of more than 125,000 physicians in 68 specialties, Sermo was able to create custom content to be syndicated across multiple external channels.
Sermo Content Sample
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Case Study: Content Marketing Strategy
• Sermo began to syndicate its content through different industry publications like this FiercePharma Newsletter.
Industry Newsletter
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Case Study: Content Marketing Strategy
Landing Page
• People interested in the content clicked through and were given the opportunity to download the full report of a specific study.
• Visitors were required to provide their name and email in order to see the report.
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Case Study: Before and After
After: Content Marketing
Before: Direct Response
Before: Basic Lead Form
After: Content Focused Lead Form
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90% Decrease in Cost-Per-Lead The new content marketing campaign reduced cost-per-lead by 90%
Case Study: Results
Campaign Type Lead Cost Relative Difference
Direct Response $295* -
Content Marketing $30* 90%
What you need to understand: By moving from mainly direct response campaigns to a content marketing strategy, Sermo was able to reduce cost-per-lead by 90% and build a content asset for the company.
*Lead cost numbers have been anonymized to protect Sermo.
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Why does Content Marketing Work?
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Why does Content Marketing Work?
F Key Principles
1. There is a natural progression in the development of any relationship. Healthy relationships typically move through a series of transitional commitments.
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Initial meeting
Conversation
Exchange numbers
First date
Serious relationship
Engagement
Marriage
Relational Transitions
Icon Source: Icon Drawer
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Why Does Content Marketing Work?
F Key Principles
1. There is a natural progression in the development of any relationship. Healthy relationships typically move through a series of transitional commitments.
2. In a business context, there are generally three key levels of customer relationship/commitment:
1. Relational
2. Transactional
3. Contractual
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Relational
Transactional
Contractual
Webinars/Events
Newsletters/Emails/Publications
Website/Blog/Social
Product - Tier #1
Product - Tier #2
Product - Tier #3
Ongoing
Contractual Relationship
The Role of Content Marketing
For many businesses, content marketing can facilitate a smooth transition into a transactional relationship.
Content Marketing
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Two Common Errors with Content Marketing
Macro-Distortion: Some companies overlook/minimize the importance of the micro-decision in the overall conversion process.
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Webinars/Events
Newsletters/Emails/Publications
Website/Blog/Social
Product - Tier #1
Product - Tier #2
Product - Tier #3
Ongoing
Contractual Relationship
ERROR #1: Macro-Distortion
Some companies try to move past the relational stage before the prospect is ready.
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Two Common Errors with Content Marketing
Macro-Distortion: Some companies overlook/minimize the importance of the micro-decision in the overall conversion process.
Horizontal-Diffusion: Some companies spend more time attempting to move their customers horizontally and not vertically.
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Webinars/Events
Newsletters/Emails/Publications
Website/Blog/Social
Product - Tier #1
Product - Tier #2
Product - Tier #3
Ongoing
Contractual Relationship
ERROR #2: Horizontal-Diffusion
Some companies only focus on relational content and never actually drive people up the funnel.
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Today’s Focus
Today, we will discuss how to avoid these common errors and effectively use content marketing to build
profitable relationships with your prospects.
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PART 2: A 5-Step Framework for Effective Content Marketing
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Five Steps to Effective Content Marketing
STEP 1: Map your existing content across the funnel
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F Key Principles
STEP 1: Map Content
1. When mapping content, the goal is to simplify and sequence your content/product mix as clearly as possible.
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STEP 1: Map Content
Simplify
From this… To this…
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Relational
Transactional
Contractual
????
????
????
????
????
????
????
????
????
STEP 1: Map Content
Sequence
Content & Product Maps
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STEP 1: Map Content
Simplify
Not this But This
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Not this Sequence
STEP 1: Map Content
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Sequence
STEP 1: Map Content
But This
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F Key Principles
STEP 1: Map Content
1. When mapping content, the goal is to simplify and sequence your content/product mix as clearly as possible.
2. Often, our offerings can be clear to us but confusing to our prospects. As marketers, we must learn to see our offerings through the eyes of our customers.
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Five Steps to Effective Content Marketing
STEP 1: Map your existing content across the funnel STEP 2: Craft a biographical sketch of your ideal customer
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Marketing Practitioner
CE/MO
Agencies Academics
STEP 2: Conduct a Biographical Sketch
• First, identify the key prospects/audience that you intend to serve.
• Next, list the key traits and behaviors of these prospect categories.
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STEP 2: Conduct a Biographical Sketch
• She/he is a well-educated marketing practitioner.
• She/he strives to be honorable in a notoriously dishonorable profession.
• She/he is tired of marketing advice that is not backed up with evidence that it works.
• She/he is laser-focused on achieving tangible ROI for marketing efforts.
• She/he understands that “adequacy is the enemy of excellence.”
• So she/he works hard to achieve that ROI.
• But she/he struggles against market forces and management that doesn’t share his/her vision.
• And she/he desperately wants to hit his/her numbers in the meantime.
Biographical Sketch of a Marketing Practitioner
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STEP 2: Conduct a Biographical Sketch
• Copywriting on Tight Deadlines: How ordinary marketers are achieving 103% gains with a step-by-step framework
• Subject Lines Tested: How to write subject lines that double your clickthrough rate
• Quick Win Clinic (Part I): The 5 easiest changes to make to your landing pages right now
• 263% Higher Conversion Rate: How reducing anxiety helped one company improve conversion rate three-fold
• Discovering Your Value Proposition: 6 ways to stand out in a crowded marketplace
• Five Steps to Better Metrics: How one marketer leveraged Web analytics for an annual revenue increase of $500,000
Sample Content (Webinars)
• Finally, connect content to the biographical sketch of your customer(s).
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? How do I write content that applies to multiple customer segments? Do I always have to write separate content for each customer type?
STEP 2: Conduct a Biographical Sketch
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Five Steps to Effective Content Marketing
STEP 1: Map your existing content across the funnel STEP 2: Conduct a biography sketch (profiles and path) of you ideal
customer STEP 3: Identify distribution channels in which you have the
greatest potential influence
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STEP 3: Identify Influential Channels
Content Channels
By identifying key distribution channels in Sermo’s space, Jon was able to maximize the influence of its content.
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STEP 3: Identify Influential Channels
1. REACH – How many are people are we influencing?
2. INTENSITY – To what depth is our influence on each person?
3. CAPACITY – To what degree can each person we have influenced enact change?
One can measure the potential influence of a channel with three criterion/factors:
F Key Principles
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Five Steps to Effective Content Marketing
STEP 1: Map your existing content across the funnel STEP 2: Conduct a biography sketch (profiles and path) of you ideal
customer STEP 3: Identify distribution channels with the greatest potential
influence STEP 4: Create a clear connection between relational content and
transactional and then contractual decisions
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STEP 4: Connect to Decisions
Marketing only exists where choice exists. Marketers influence choice. Indeed, any marketing effort (even content marketing) that does not influence choice is waste.
F Key Principles
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STEP 4: Connect to Decisions
Transactional Connection
Content connects to an incremental transaction: the lead capture.
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? Is it better to put my content behind a registration “wall” or give it away for free?
STEP 4: Connect to Decisions
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Five Steps to Effective Content Marketing
STEP 1: Map your existing content across the funnel STEP 2: Craft a biographical sketch of your ideal customer STEP 3: Identify distribution channels in which you have the
greatest potential influence STEP 4: Create a clear connection between relational content to
transactional and then contractual decisions STEP 5: Optimize the message of transactional and then
contractual transitions
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Experiment: Background
Background: After the success of the content marketing campaign, Jon wanted to test on the landing page to extract more leads from the Fierce Pharma traffic. Goal: To increase lead rate on the content marketing landing page Primary Research Question: Are users more likely to convert with only one article featured or multiple articles? Approach: A/B multifactor split test
Experiment ID: TP1483 – SMO Barrier Page Test Record Location: MarketingExperiments Research Library Research Partner: Sermo, Inc.
Research Notes:
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Experiment: Control Control
• The control followed many so-called “best practices” of landing page optimization.
• But Jon and the researchers at MECLABS decided to add multiple CTAs for Sermo’s many other reports.
• They hypothesized that the perceived value of the individual reports would increase when presented alongside a larger selection of content.
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Experiment: Treatment Treatment
• Note the additional surveys (content) provided in attempt to broaden the potential appeal of the offer.
• Note the option to search through specific topics.
• Note the sidebar that
gave visitors the option to learn about the main offer directly.
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Experiment: Side-by-side Control Treatment
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Experiment: Results
Design Lead Rate Relative
Difference Statistical Level of Confidence
Control 18.2% - -
Treatment 54.1% 197%
197% Increase in lead rate for returning visitors The landing page’s lead rate increased by 197% for returning visitors
99%
What you need to understand: By increasing the number of available reports, the perceived value of the individual reports may have increased which offset the increase in friction on the page for returning visitors.
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Summary: Putting it all together
F Key Principles
1. When mapping content, the goal is to simplify and sequence your content/product mix as clearly as possible.
2. Often, our offerings can be clear to us but confusing to our prospects. As marketers, we must learn to see our offerings through the eyes of our customers.
3. One can measure the potential influence of a channel with three criterion/factors: 1) Reach 2) Capacity 3) Intensity.
4. Marketing only exists where choice exists. Marketers influence choice. Indeed, any marketing effort (even content marketing) that does not influence choice is waste.
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F Key Steps
Summary: Putting it all together
STEP 1: Map your existing content across the funnel STEP 2: Craft a biographical sketch of your ideal customer STEP 3: Identify distribution channels in which you have the
greatest potential influence STEP 4: Create a clear connection between relational content and
transactional and then contractual decisions STEP 5: Optimize the message of transactional and then
contractual transitions
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