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Record: 1TOP TEN TAKEAWAYS from CONTENT MARKETING WORLD, SYDNEY.NZ Marketing Magazine; Jul/Aug2014, p24-27, 4pArticlePulizzi, Joe; Content marketing; Chief marketing officers; Business planning; Marketing --Planning; Social mediaThe article discusses content marketing tips and strategies. Topics explored include theinvolvement of chief marketing officers (CMO) in the business approach to content marketing,the need for firms to establish control over their selected marketing platform, and the statementissued by Content Marketing Institute founder Joe Pulizzi regarding consistency in marketing.The significant role of social media in developing content marketing plans is also acknowledged.16860111904496981938http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cookie,url,cpid,uid&custid=s8863137&db=ofm&AN=96981938&site=eds-live&scope=site&authtype=ip,uid<A href="http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cookie,url,cpid,uid&custid=s8863137&db=ofm&AN=96981938&site=eds-live&scope=site&authtype=ip,uid">TOP TEN TAKEAWAYS from CONTENT MARKETINGWORLD, SYDNEY.</A>OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson)

TOP TEN TAKEAWAYS from CONTENT MARKETING WORLD, SYDNEY CONTENT MARKETING

THE RECIPE IS SIMPLE

The initial buzz around content marketing is now a deafening roar. Anyone who thought it would be a passing fad only had to lookat the crowd attending the Content Marketing World Sydney 2014 event recently to know that it is not only here to stay, but it's onlygoing to become more important to your marketing activities.

The crowd was a diverse mix of marketers, chief executives, agencies, business owners, creatives and more, representing a widerange of industries and interests. But they all knew the importance of getting to grips with content marketing now and ensuringthey remain at the forefront of the 'content revolution'.

Cirrus Media was a sponsor of this year's event, and here are its top tips for content marketing success.

1 ENTICING the CSuite

WE NEED TO GET MORE CMOs ON BOARD

In the pre-conference workshop 'Growing your content agency', Robert Rose, chief strategist at the Content Marketing Institute,looked at who has been driving the recent changes in the marketing industry, especially the growth of content marketing.

Surprisingly, it's not CMOs. Yet. Instead, the push has come from social and brand divisions looking to prove ROI as they feel thegrowth and potential of these new opportunities, and it's the practitioners from within the business who are looking to prove theresults of these efforts and put forward the business case for content marketing.

But content marketing isn't just a pet project for your marketing and branding practitioners; something to help them use up the lastof their budgets. For a content marketing strategy to be really successful, it requires a whole business approach. And that requiresthe buy-in and support of your CMO and the rest of the C Suite.

2 DON'T NEGLECT your owned assets

For the past few years, too many marketers have been focusing their strategy and production efforts on third party platforms. Itwas a key message at this year's conference, with speakers Joe Pulizzi, Todd Wheatland and Jesse Desjardins hitting home thesame message: that paid media is highly valuable, but has to work together with your owned assets. Operating entirely on rentedland is dangerous and ultimately ineffective. And plenty of brands are now seeing the effects of this after neglecting their ownwebsite and other assets in favour of growing their Facebook pages.

Accruing 'likes' and showing engagement might look like an easier option than creating long-form content and steadily growingweb traffic. But these brands that have invested heavily in a Facebook page are now seeing a sudden and steep decline in reachand engagement as Mark Zuckerberg and his team slash EdgeRank. In order to have control over your content marketing, youmust own the platform you build on.

3 CONSISTENCY is key

According to the Australian Content Marketing: Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends 2014 report, 93 percent of Australian marketersare using content marketing. Yet only 33 percent believe their content marketing efforts are effective. What's going wrong?

We know content marketing works. We've seen the case studies, seen it in action. And yet the numbers tell the story that asignificant number of our content marketing campaigns aren't working at all. But why are they failing? There are several reasonswhy content marketing fails: a lack of strategy, poor understanding of your audience and not enough business-wide support arejust a few. But according to Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, the most frequent is a lack of consistency.Simply put, most content marketing fails because it stops. Marketers need to develop a long term, consistent strategy andunderstand that success won't happen overnight. The process of creating and distributing good content is like a marathon, not asprint. It's common for companies to see no return on their investment for 12 to 18 months, so don't give up.

4 Numbers MATTER

In the online world, numbers matter. That was the message from social media consultant Mark Schaefer in his discussion aboutcontent and power. The numbers in question include things like your Twitter followers, LinkedIn network and Klout score,otherwise known as 'social proof'. In fact, in the digital landscape, these numbers can be more important than what someoneactually does. Which is why a network strategy (and we're talking about people, not technology) can be so effective in conjunctionwith your content strategy.

5 CONTENT THAT MOVES creates power

Another indicator of power online, according to Schaefer, is the ability to move content. For your content to have an impact on youraudience it needs to "ignite", and that fire needs to spread in order to spread your message.

Can you identify the people in your industry who have the ability to move content around their networks? The easiest place to startis the people within your own organisation (hint: it's usually not your sales team). Your staff are your biggest asset in this regard.

6 FOLLOW Coca Cola's LEAD

Coca Cola's overarching content marketing goal is to have a disproportionate share of the popular culture conversation. Andsuccessful content marketing in a crowded marketplace is about having a disproportionate share of the conversation around yourindustry, audience or chosen subject matter. Listerine encountered this very issue, discovering that 75 percent of the conversationabout oral care was taking place on blog platforms. Yet 80 percent of the conversation about Listerine was taking place on Twitter.They needed to better align these two conversations and shift the conversation about Listerine to the right platform.

7 FACTS don't change beliefs emotions do

It's an unfortunate shortcoming of human nature, but presenting people with facts won't change their beliefs. Emotions will. Weonly have to look at politics to see this in action. And as Robert Rose explained in his presentation 'The four archetypes of contentcreation', if you don't engage your audience's emotions, you'll never change their beliefs.

And that's why comedy can be so valuable in content marketing. You don't have to be dry and boring just because you have aserious product. Comedian and social media lead for Cisco, Tim Washer, summed it up perfectly: "If you can make someonelaugh, it's the most intimate connection in business."

Marketing author and speaker Bernadette Jiwa raised a similar point when discussing the challenges of today's marketingdepartments: people don't make decisions with their heads, but with their hearts. Yet marketing efforts generally appeal to ouraudience's heads. Customers buy how a product makes them feel. So we need to make our customers feel happy, successful andvalued.

8 THERE'S TOO MUCH UGLY BABY SYNDROME

The premise of 'ugly baby syndrome' is that people who have created something (i.e. a baby or a piece of content) aren't oftencapable of stepping back to see that other people don't love it as much as they do. As lamented by Outbrain's Ayal Steiner, toomany people think that by producing something great it will automatically go viral. But just because it's great doesn't mean it will beeffective. You can't make something go viral, and you certainly can't do it with any consistency (unless you're Jimmy Fallon). Tosuccessfully engage in content marketing, you need to carefully consider your distribution strategy, and you need to invest indistribution.

9 THERE ARE FOUR PILLARS OF A SUCCESSFUL content strategy

If you're unsure how to approach a content strategy, content and communications strategist Kevin Cain provided a simple andeffective content matrix that can be applied to every business: context, conversion, contact and content.

Context is about taking the time to understand your buyer and their buyer journey. In B2B marketing especially, think: what's thisperson's role in the buying process? Where in the process do they get stuck? Clear and defined buyer personas should informyour content strategy, not be the end goal.

Conversion relates to the path you want your customers to take. Do you want them to subscribe to a newsletter, download awhitepaper or sign up for a free trial? Whatever it is, this conversion path needs to add up to a purchase.

You then need to think about how you will make contact with your buyers, whether that's outbound (emails), inbound (searchengines) or through others (other buyers or colleagues). Most importantly, always keep your conversions in mind when decidingon the best form of contact. You'll need to make contact in multiple ways.

When deciding on the type of content you could create, consider what content is most relevant for your audience based on whatyou already know about them. Your content needs to be useful, valuable and optimised for search. If it's not easily discoverable,it's wasted.

It should also be customised for your buyers and drive conversions. Generic content isn't going to cut it.

10 SMEs CAN DO CONTENT MARKETING TOO

It's a common feeling in the industry that content marketing is too hard for small business, or that only marketing giants like CocaCola and Red Bull do content marketing well. But the reality is quite the opposite. In their Q&A session 'The Content Opportunityfor Small Businesses', Joe Pulizzi and Jeff Bullas shared their experiences of SME content marketing excellence.

The key is consistency, and to not expect results before the first six to 12 months. SMEs have to move fast, building an asset(whether that's a blog, enewsletter or ebook series) that will earn your audience (rather than buying them with an ad). An emaildatabase in particular is crucial, and you need to keep building that database and marketing to that database continuously. That'syour audience. This approach gives you the chance to build your own data, allowing you to hedge your bets against Google.

"Don't tell the story better, tell a different story!" said Pulizzi. There's no point in brands telling their version of the same ol' story asevery other brand is spruiking. Find the micro niche that your company can be the expert on and tell that different story captureattention and build your audience.

Source: NZ Marketing Magazine, Jul/Aug2014, p24, 4pItem: 96981938