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e3 insights“Stop interrupting me!”Re-discovering the art of attraction through content marketing

Global Insights Magazine

2 3 4 6Out-think your competitors instead of outspending them

And why should I be interested?

How to maximise

your content

How well does your

What is content marketing?

Interrupt vs interest

The content marketing matrix

Cross-border content

Issue 10 - Edited by Base One 2013

2 3 4 6

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY CONTENT MARKETING?And why should I be interested?

In short, content marketing means sharing information.

This may not sound like it is breaking any new ground, but the shift in buyer behaviour over the last few years has made it an approach to marketing that cannot be ignored – especially in the B2B sector.

It is well documented that virtually every business purchase begins with a Google search. What is often overlooked is that buyers are not always searching for products; they are searching for a solution. They want answers to their questions. Indeed, sometimes they don’t even know what questions to ask yet.

And at this stage, they don’t need product sales, they need expertise. Which is what content marketing is all about.

YOU’RE THE EXPERT

most expert people around. In the years that your company has been in business, you and your

colleagues have learned virtually all there is to know about it. You’ve spoken to customers. You’ve discussed the issues. You’ve seen what works, and what doesn’t and why. You’ve been to the conferences, you’ve read the books. So why not share your knowledge?

The reason, until recently, was that there was no easy way for you to publish that information, or for

came social media.

SOCIAL MEDIA: THE CATALYST FOR CONTENT MARKETING

Social media has created an information explosion, especially in the world of B2B marketing. Buyers can now get information, opinion, reviews and instruction from anywhere. From blogs. From YouTube. From each other. From around the world.

For some marketers this is terrifying because it means buyers now call the shots. For others,

it is an incredible opportunity, because it is easier than ever to show how expert you are. Talking about the issues that affect your customers is easy because you have the knowledge. It is cheap because sharing info online carries no printing cost. You just need to stop interrupting people and start interesting them.

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muscle, ie budget. The more

money you have, the more

power behind your message, the greater your chance of successfully interrupting.

DM or email, the effectiveness largely

Talking about

issues in healthcare

Infographics packed with facts and

Sharing success stories amongst customers

insight about public sector challenges

VODAFONESo Vodafone sells business telecoms, right? Yet, their content marketing works on a different level. Their expertise lies in helping

of working – so that’s what they talk about. Infographics, original research, videos and whitepapers all designed to help businesses with the bigger issues. And not a mobile tariff in sight.

2

INTERESTINTERRUPT

V

How the game has changed – and why the buyers are in control

1

3 4

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF CONTENT MARKETING

Content marketing is simple in principle: but there are many factors that govern the success of a content campaign. The matrix below works as a checklist, illustrating the four areas where marketers can improve returns from their content marketing campaign. In short, you can think in terms of quality or quantity, and you need to think not only about creating content, but also distributing it.

THE POWER OF THE INFOGRAPHICBusiness people are in a hurry. So they like information they can absorb quickly – hence the immense popularity and effectiveness of infographics as a content marketing tool. A picture is worth 1,000 words…

90%of information absorbed by the

QUALITY QUANTITYQUANTITY

QUANTITY

Increase the quality of the content you create. As content marketing becomes better established, it is harder to stand out. The most successful content is useful to the reader, but if every competitor is producing the same piece you share the spoils. Do something original, and you get the downloads to yourself. Be brave, be distinctive but, above all, be useful.

You need to spread your content as widely as possible across the web to maximise its effectiveness. But also think about how

your market, for example, will reap dividends. First use tools like Klout and Peer Index to identify the online personalities

friendliness to build a relationship with them. It will take time but it’s worth it. And remember, as long as you approach them personally offering something interesting (so they have something interesting to give their readers), they will thank you for it. Treat them impersonally and they will ignore you.

Content marketing can be seen as a numbers game. The more links you can place around the web, the more downloads you will get. Post links to your content on every appropriate platform – from your own Facebook

Dzone and Scribd. However, be aware that you will soon reach the point of diminishing returns. While every video should go on YouTube, for example, there are hundreds of other video sites that may or may not be worth your while. Using aggregation or auto-uploading tools can help, but the only way to know which sites bring the most downloads is to test and measure...

created it, get maximum value out of it by repurposing as much as you can. Turn the whitepaper into a series of blogs; interview the author for a video; record it as a podcast; get your designers to turn it into an infographic. Different people prefer different formats on a range of devices: your content needs to suit their needs but why spend hours recreating when all you have to do is repurpose?

QUALITY CREATIONDIFFERENTIATE

QUALITY CREATIONREPURPOSE

QUALITY DISTRIBUTION LEVERAGE CHANNELS

QUALITY DISTRIBUTIONLEVERAGE INFLUENCE

CREATION

DISTRIBUTION

DIFFERENTIATEAA

LEVERAGE INFLUENCE

REPURPOSE

LEVERAGE CHANNELS

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CULTURAL CONTENT MARKETINGThe magazine you are currently holding in your hands or viewing on your screen is itself a fascinating example of content marketing. Created in order to demonstrate the marketing expertise and innovation of E3 agencies to customers and potential clients, it has a potential audience that is spread as widely as E3 agencies themselves – ie across the globe.

So it also demonstrates another challenge that faces content marketers: the task of cost-effectively producing content that appeals to different geographical audiences. There are a many factors to consider:

LANGUAGE

English has long been the lingua franca for business. But as US commercial dominance yields gently in the face of new emerging economies, and with the acceptance of the idea of the ‘global village’, content marketers are adapting.

Remarkably, English content represents just 25% of the internet – and it is decreasing. Many business decision makers speak English as a second language. But content is more effective when delivered in the preferred language of the reader – and research shows that 85% of buyers are reluctant to make purchase decisions without information in their native language.

CONTENT DISTRIBUTION

As explained in the matrix shown in the centre spread of this magazine, the way you distribute your content is as important as the content itself. It is essential to take local advice on the typical web-browsing habits of the local audiences. Which websites do they visit? Which social media channels do they use? How do they search? Facebook is everywhere – but content marketers should use Xing in Germany, Orkut in Brazil and so on. A little local knowledge – from E3 partners, for example – can go a long way.

CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC

As marketers have always known, different markets respond to different messages. Global campaigns take messaging variations into account – and content campaigns must do likewise. In addition, there are cultural considerations that may well limit the uptake of generalised, global content. Again, the answer is to take local advice. The smarter content marketers also know that it helps to make local references whenever possible: use local spokespeople as content authors, and refer freely to the target country in the title, imagery and text. The example opposite shows how marketers can rise to the challenge of cross-cultural content marketing.

GET YOUR CUSTOMERS TO CREATE THE CONTENT! Creating content takes time. So the smartest campaigns create an incentive for others to do the work. Schindler Parent’s award-winning Black Box campaign is an ingenious example where designers were inspired to create materials which, in turn, promoted the brand. Read more in Issue 8 of GIM.

and customers, but it had one problem: all content was created with a US or

messaging, which allowed us to create three broad messaging bands that would guide future content creation:

Established markets (eg US): These regions are also currently experiencing little economic growth and the principle of workforce management is well

Accelerating markets (eg Mexico): Because of low labour costs and a number of

content in line with the messaging, whilst also translating where necessary

CONTENT FOR THE WORLD: GIVE YOUR CONTENT WINGS

E3 N

ETW

ORK

E3 networkThe E3 Agency Network is a closely integrated

coalition of independent brand strategy and

marketing communications firms from around the

world. With access to this wide pool of talent,

E3 agencies give clients a real chance to make an

impact nationally and internationally.

Find out how the E3 perspective can help you.

www.e3network.com

Administration: veerle@e3network.com

Stop interrupting me!As a close network of independent agencies,

the E3 Network can plan and manage cross-

border content marketing campaigns more

effectively than any single national agency.

If you would like to talk to us about this,

please email:

contentmarketing@e3network.com

Base OneThis issue of E3 Global Insight

Magazine is edited by Base One. For

more information, please contact:

hello@baseonegroup.co.uk or

am@baseone.co.uk

Base One

Harlequin House, 7 High Street,

Teddington, TW11 8EE

Tel. 020 8943 9999

E3 Global Insights:

With each issue of this magazine, we are demonstrating the experience and knowledge of our member agencies. Because our clients and prospects value the content, they want to invest time in reading it –

through conventional advertising.