Webinar recap: 8 Content Initiatives You Need to Seriously Consider for 2012

Today I had the pleasure to attend a webinar “8 Content Initiatives You Need to Seriously Consider for 2012”.
 
Given that it was February 2nd 1 PM EST which was 2 AM the following day here in Singapore, I had an ample supply of black coffee on hand. Not that I needed it as the content was gripping enough to keep me wide awake right to the very end.
 
The webinar was hosted by John Sonnhalter of Tradesmen Insights (@SonnhalterB2T) with  guest presenter Joe Pulizzi, Content marketing expert and founder of the Content Marketing Institute (@JuntaJoe)
 
Joe Pulizzi began by reviewing the history and practice of content marketing and why it’s one of the fastest growing areas of marketing today. He then went on to discuss eight initiatives that all marketers need to consider now when it comes to corporate storytelling and social media.
 
Here is my recap of the webinar.
 
Update February 7, 2012: John Sonnhalter has kindly made the replay available to our readers.

Content Marketing has been around longer than you may realize

John Deere has been publishing “The Furrow” magazine since 1895. This publication can be viewed as one of the earliest representations of what is known today as content marketing or corporate story telling.

The purpose of the magazine was to educate farmers on, what was then, new technology.

Farmers were educated on the new technologies available presumably with the intent to get them into the mindset to buy John Deere’s farm machinery.

“The Furrow” still exists today, 117 years later, on the John Deere website.

Publishing

What we’re talking about here is publishing. Wikipedia defines publishing as “the activity of making information available to the general public.”

It is now both easier and harder to become an expert publisher.

Barriers to Entry are Gone

Things have changed since the early days of publishing. It took a lot of investment to be a publisher: targetting the right people, building the infrastructure.

These barriers are now gone. Customers expect and accept content much faster, as long as it looks good to them. There’s no need to be a leading newspaper or trade magazine to gain acceptance. It’s much easier now to find the talent to write and edit content whether it’s text or video. The technology is now readily available for anyone to create a blog in minutes, for example WordPress, Facebook and LinkedIn, and start publishing content.

Searching for Information

According to research by Google and Shopper Sciences, published in the free eBook “Winning The Zero Moment of Truth, the number of sources, i.e. content, engaged by buyers before making their decision has approximately doubled since 2010. This may increase to between 15 and 20 sources next year which represents a massive 300% to 400% increase on the 2010 figures.

Content Marketing

Joe Pulizzi defined content marketing as marketers being publishers who own the media, whereby the reader comes to rely on the marketer for information, rather than renting the reader’s attention by purchasing space in a third party’s publication such as a trade magazine.

It is the job of a content marketer to attract new, or retain existing, customers by consistently creating or curating content that is valuable, relevant and compelling. The end game of this is to get the reader to take action. What that action is depends on the desires and business aims of the marketer.

Corporate Storytelling

Corporate storytelling is at the core of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), lead generation and social media engagement. For these to work well you have to tell a compelling story.

SEO: to be found by the keywords you need to have compelling content that people link to and share.

Lead generation: whitepapers, webinars and eBook downloads are lead generation activities. If you don’t have compelling content then the lead is lost.

Social media: you have to talk about things that people care about and want to get involved in a conversation.

By being the best storyteller, i.e. content marketer, you become a magnet that attracts readers.

With the removal of the barriers to entry it has become easier to be a publisher. However, because of the increasing amount of content available, it has become harder than  before to get attention.  You have got to be the best storyteller in your industry and you have to make the on-line connections to get the story out.

Content Marketing Statistics

Joe shared a range of interesting statistics:

• Marketers Who Use Content Marketing
• Total Merketing Budget Spent on Content Marketing
• B2B Content Marketing Usage (by Tactic)
• Percentage of Marketers Who Use Various Social Media Sites to Distribute Content
• Content Marketing Spending (Over Next 12 Months)
• Biggest Content Marketing Challenge

Rather than repeat them here, head over to SlideShare where you can see them in all their glory (slides 20-27).

The Content Initiatives

The Niche Content Mission & Platform

When creating content, don’t be vague or try to go too large. Focus on your niche/persona, e.g. the mom/wife on the go.

Get SUPER NICHE

If you want to present yourself as the leading expert, you have to get as niche as possible to make an impact on your customers. Trying to be the leading expert on pets would be tough, but focussing on pet owners who like to travel with there pets is more achievable.

Define the Term and Flood with Great Content

Once you’ve figured out what you’re going do and flood that with great content.

“Defining the Term” – you can actually define the industry, e.g. “Workshifting” and, in fact, “Content Marketing”.

Produce consistent, relevant, very shareable content.

10 to 1 content … reimagine

Reimagine your content as you go, there’s not just one story, there’s not just one story platform.

Think “before” and “after” – What can the content become? A blog post, audio, video, Tweet, Facebook post, SlideShare, an eBook.

How do you seed it within your community? Share it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, RSS feeds, YouTube, Press Release  etc. There are more than 10 ways to sow your seeds.

Dominating a Category with Content Marketing and Social Media

Find your customers’ pain points:

• Ask your customer service, employees, sales reps.
• Use the Google Keyword tool to see what people are searching for, find opportunities in those that are being searched for but are not yet competitive.
• Take those keywords and use Google Trends to see if there is an upward trend, that will indicate an opportunity for your story ideas.
• Set a Google Alert to find out who is talking about the things that are important to your business. This will help build your “hit list”.
• Use tools like HootSuite or TweetDeck to monitor social media for your keywords.

Create content for key questions being asked.

Create pillar content e.g. eBooks, whitepapers and lists, which will attract people. This can form part of your lead generation strategy.

Social Media 4-1-1

For every 6 posts:

• 4 should be on other people’s content that you are sharing
• 1 should be your content
• 1 can be promotional.

Make sure that the influencer’s that you are highlighting know that you are sharing their content.

Have all the Sharing Buttons at the Top and Bottom of Every Article

Have at least the “Big Four”: Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

If you want your content to be shared, you have to set it up so that it can be shared.

Get Your Community Involved

Use your “hit list” and list of influencers. Ask them if they will create content for your site. If they do, then not only is your content shared with your community but also with the influencer’s community. This expands the reach of your content.

In Summary

Think Like a Publisher.

Whatever you want to sell:

• Choose a niche that you can become the leading expert
• Develop AND share the best multi-channel content
• Remove YOU from the story as much as possible.