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Content Marketing Basics
Joe VargoInteractive Marketing Strategist
Experience Columbus @Joe_ExpCols
The State of Content
There are 27,000,000 pieces of contentshared online each day.
(Nielson/AOL)
What Does Content Marketing Really Mean?
Production and Distribution
• Telling your own story in a way that resonates positively with potential
customers• Getting that content in front of the right
potential customers at the right time.
Why Content Marketing Works
• Many products are commodities. Stories make them experiences
• Customers want to spend money with brands that make them feel good
• Increasingly savvy and easy-to-use marketing tools help get your messages to very specific audiences in the right timeframe
How Content Marketing Works for Experience Columbus
• Situation: ExperienceColumbus.com was losing site traffic to Google
• Action: We started telling our own story better, through blogging
http://experiencecolumbus.com
How Content Marketing Works for Experience Columbus
• Result: Over the past year, blog traffic now represents 1 out of 2 visits, aggregate visitation is up 40%
• Future Steps: Integrate blog content deeper into the full site
Content Is a Piece of the Strategy
• Content needs distribution, so don’t forget everything else:
– Public relations– Advertising– Web site– Search engine marketing– Social media– Email
Content Strategy
• Questions to consider before you jump in– Who is your audience?– What are your key messages?– What are your sales/marketing goals?– What keywords are you most interested in?– What timing/frequency is right for each
message?– What is your voice?
Effective Storytelling
• What stories can you and only you tell?• What stories can you tell that no one else
is telling?• What stories can you tell in ways no one
else is telling them?• What stories contribute to your underlying
marketing messages and sales goals?
Content Formats
• Blogs• Photos• Video• Infographics• Web Sites/Micro Sites• Podcasts• eBooks
Content Types
• Evergreen – You are the publisher, and it will always be valuable/ relevant
• Curated – Reviews, user generated content, news articles, etc.
• Co-Produced – Guest bloggers, influencers, team collaborations
*Don’t forget to repurpose
Editorial Calendars
• Excellent tool to plan content strategically• Can be simple or techy
Distributing Your Content
Promotion
• Even small advertising budgets with mass social media networks can make a big impact.
• These can all be done in-house with a little training in 5 minutes or less– Facebook – any cost– YouTube – any cost– Twitter – higher cost to start campaigns– Paid Search
Distribution Exercise: Facebook
• Goal: Promote a new blog post about kids’ menus in Columbus to interested consumers, using Facebook
• Budget : $100
Measurement: Content Auditing
Purpose: verifies that your content is getting engaged with, helps prioritize future contentTools: Google Analytics, social metrics
Experience Columbus’ Content Audit
What we learned:• Our blog has seen a 200% increase in traffic year-over-
year. When we looked deeper we found:• Posts about a single attraction or restaurant
underperformed• Posts written by guest bloggers were among the least-
read• Posts focused on lists and tips were the most-read• 25% of our content brought 60% of our site traffic • The worst-performing 30% of posts brought just 7% of
site traffic
Experience Columbus’ Content Audit
How we changed gears:• We are extremely selective and hands-on with guest
bloggers• When partners ask for a feature, we incorporate their
message into a post with a broader theme – less content, but many more readers
• We write more evergreen content so we can promote it longer
• We plan editorial calendars quarterly to capitalize on trends and focus efforts
Example: Whole Foods
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blog/whole-story
Example: Whole Foods
Questions?
Joe VargoInteractive Marketing Strategist
Experience Columbus @Joe_ExpCols
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