How NewsCred does content marketing

PowerPoint Presentation

How NewsCred does content marketing

What we learned and where were going in 2016Alexa BialeBrand Marketing ManagerLiam MoroneyDemand Generation Manager

INTRO recap of 2015

Business case LIAM Content strategy + creation ALEXA Distribution ALEXA/LIAM Measurement LIAM 1

Content is the core of our marketing strategy.Create content your audience actually wants.Deliver content the way your audience wants it.Content marketing success is all about consistency.Focus on retention just as much as acquisition. 1

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Agenda

@newscred | #ThinkContent

Where weve beenIn 2014 we realized we needed to educate the market and connect with people. So in April 2014 we made huge shifts in our content strategy. And the results showed.


Behind every tweet, like share theres a person like you and me.

From 2014-2015 we saw49% unique visitors increase from increasing our original content production800% ROI for just one whitepaper (400 leads and 3 opportunities )And once a client: 41% higher renewal rate, 33% more likely to be upsold, 24% higher MRR than average equaling to $72M in customer lifetime value


And todayMarketing drives 40% of NewsCreds revenue on a first touch basis, and influences 100% of deals.Content marketing is our most cost efficient channel. For every $1 we put in, we get $14 out.


This is of course keeping in mind our marketing KPIs and how they ladder up to our company OKRs. 5

Content is the core of our marketing strategy. 1


LIAM STARTS

1. Marketing is a revenue driver, not a cost center.

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Marketing is a revenue driver, not a cost center.


Paid vs. Organic Search TrafficRepeat VisitorsSocial Shares + LikesSocial FollowersOrganic Search Share of VoicePageviewsArticles ViewedMost marketers focus too narrowly on vanity metrics like followers and views.

= Hard Metric= Soft Metric


Most marketers focus on vanity metrics like pageviews, shares, traffic.While these things are important, they dont tie to the KPIs that your CMO or CEO actually cares about. 8

But really, they should focus on business goals.Paid vs. Organic Search TrafficRepeat VisitorsPaid vs. Unbranded Organic Search TrafficSocial Shares + LikesSocial FollowersOffsite SEO/PR mentionsOrganic Search Share of VoiceEngaged Time On SiteEngagement RatePageviewsArticles ViewedImportant PeopleCompetitor Share of VoiceBrand awareness and brand healthIs your content driving early-stage prospects to you? How do they feel about you?Cost per lead by channelLifetime Value of customerCustomer Growth% of Leads Sourced by CMCustomer RetentionContent JourneysSubscriptionsSite Traffic to NewsCred.com Leads by channelCost per opportunityCost per dealConversionsIs your content turning prospects into customers?RetentionIs your content driving retention and upsells?

= Hard Metric= Soft Metric

While you all know that Revenue is what you ultimately need to prove, the big question is: How do you work backwards to get there?

At NewsCred, weve built a simple framework that enables us to measure the right things, consistently, and figure out if our efforts are working.1- brand awareness and brand health2 conversions3- retention

Then, we go one step deeper and look at the metrics associated with each of those bigger business goals. The trick is to ladder up to KPIs, not stop at the metrics themselves9

IntentBehavioral conversions ActionSubscribesLeadsRelevanceMQLsOpps% pipeline sourced by content marketingROIDealsCost/opp (by channel)Cost/deal (by channel)For example, when thinking about conversions, we measure business impact across the entire funnel.


For example,

When we think about conversions one big KPI that helps us prove our revenue impact we look at conversions across the entire sales funnel.

Starting from intent are people taking actions that are a leading indicator of their interest in NewsCred?i.e. going from Insights to NewsCred.com or vice versai.e. repeatedly downloading or engaging with our content over time

ActionWe dont count newsletter subscritpions as leads. Instead, we require that subscribers have to fill out one additional form with more information on who they are. This enables us to ensure our leads have more engaged interest

RelevanceMQL do these people matter to our sales team?How does our content marketing channel compare to our other channels? Whether its events, adwords, sales outbound, referrals, etc?

ROINext we look at the number of deals and compare cost per opportunity and deal against our other channels. The trick is to measure content marketing effectiveness against your other marketing channels and how its growing and improving over time. 10

All this requires that you have the right tech stack...

NewsCred Content Marketing Cloud, marketing automation + CRMUTM parameters on our linksCampaigns for each effortTrack total cost + MQLsTrack conversion down the pipeline through deal and upsell


This kind of analysis wouldnt be possible without the right marketing tech infrastructure. All our data is connected / integrated between our content marketing software (newscred, duh), Marketo and Salesforce.

This enables us to understand how content impacts deals and how channels impact deals too. It also enables us to bring in cost information too

so that you can inform the rest of your DG strategy.

Leads that have engaged with content are twice as likely to accept a meeting with us.2X20The average NewsCred prospect engages with 20 pieces of content before they become a customer:2 white papers or slideshares1 webinar14 newsletters4 lead nurturing emails1 event


Having 1) the right tech infrastructure and 2) the right framework to measure ROI enables us to get some pretty cool insights.

For example2x.20 pieces of content. And we can do a lot with this information: for example, knowing that the average NewsCred customer engages with 20 pieces of content, enables us to figure out what content helps convert people at each stage of the funnel. 12

Create content your audience actually wants.2


ALEXA TAKES OVER 13

I AM GREAT

Your content strategy should sit at the intersection of what your brand stands for and what your audience wants.

Your brand purpose

What customers wantContent marketing


BEGINNER: Content marketing is all about the value exchange between your brand and your audience. The content you develop should align your brands purpose to your audience interests. This usually means being able to talk about a variety of topics that surround your brand or industry [insert an example.]

NewsCred customer examples include: ConAgra sharing recipes that just happen to include ConAgra products MorningStar sharing articles written by experts on the benefits of healthy lifestyle habitsHartford delivering advice in the form of articles relevant to each of the 7 industries they focus on

ADVANCED: Your brand already produces content. But do you know what to talk about? Can you tell if your existing content is resonating or not? Brands who already understand content marketing should be focused on answering how could my content be better?

Stop guessing what to write about. Build a framework to make the decision process easy.Brand pillarsTone of voiceBuyer personasProduct marketingSEO analysisPageview analysisEngagement metricsAudience analysisContent format analysis

Your brand purpose

What customers wantContent marketing


BEGINNER: Content marketing is all about the value exchange between your brand and your audience. The content you develop should align your brands purpose to your audience interests. This usually means being able to talk about a variety of topics that surround your brand or industry [insert an example.]

NewsCred customer examples include: ConAgra sharing recipes that just happen to include ConAgra products MorningStar sharing articles written by experts on the benefits of healthy lifestyle habitsHartford delivering advice in the form of articles relevant to each of the 7 industries they focus on

ADVANCED: Your brand already produces content. But do you know what to talk about? Can you tell if your existing content is resonating or not? Brands who already understand content marketing should be focused on answering how could my content be better?

For example

Tactical stories & best practicesi.e. How Fortune 500 companies build global content marketing workflowsData- driven stories: trends & research i.e. Infographic: How Consumers Really Use SnapchatExclusive interviews and profile pieces with CMOsHow Lego builds imaginative content marketing


Voice/stylePiece demonstrates an area of expertise - reader will view NewsCred as the go-to source on this topic Content is concise yet creative. We dont add word count just to hear ourselves speak we try to be as tight in copy as possible, yet demonstrate our creativityContent aligns with NewsCred brand pillars (irrationally optimistic, rule breaker, compassionate, against mediocrity)Our #1 test: Would I share this with my smartest friend?FormatPiece is backed by data and researchPiece is a profile of an influential leader or visionary that will inspire the reader and change the way they think Content has been optimized for SEOIncludes actionable takeaways that will impact how the reader behaves after readingTopic/contentContent aligns to one of our 6 topic categories (Management, Inspiration, Industry Leaders, Measurement, Audience, Strategy)Content is unique, and something that readers could only find on NewsCredContent has a strong POV and represents an interesting perspective that will spark new thinking


Quality content needs to support the customer journey and evolve as the customers needs change. NewsCred has the worlds largest content library. These are just some examples of the content we offer and how they support the customer journey.

---Note----Images are across every stage since we believe in the power of visual content.

70 % OF THE BUYERS JOURNEY HAPPENS BEFORE THE DECISION MAKING STAGE. YOU NEED CONTENT TO GUIDE THAT INFORMATION AND PURCHASING PROCESS

The Snapchat Story




This story received 20 PR features and over 6K shares!Top media coverageAdWeek/Social TimesMarketingProfsHubspotBusiness InsiderCMO.comRaganSocial Media TodayIndustry/otherColumn Fives BlogDashburstVisual.lyWebProNewsBusiness2CommunitySmall Biz TrendsMarTech AdvisorTech InsiderBuzz PlantDIY MarketersDigital Information WorldSelling OutCreation Agency BlogSocial mediaMarketingProfs (Ann Handley) Tweet331K followers + 18 RTs / 26 favoritesMarketingProfs (Ann Handley) Tweet again331K followers + 23 RTs / 22 favoritesDashburst Tweet140K followers



Deliver content the way your audience wants it.3


Most companys say: meet your audience where they are. We say: own your audience.

And create a completely unique and differentiated offering that is really tailored to your audiences content consumption and learning style.23

Your highest performing channels might surprise you.


LIAM TO UPDATE

Consider content creation costs, too24

Your highest performing channels might surprise you.Time of sendWeekdays are the best days to send, mid-morning the best timeSuperlativesPhrases like "the best", "X most important", "X essential" and similar phrases clearly grab attention better than more modest languageSharable ContentInfographics and other consumables consistently perform at the top endThe Ultimate [Something] to [Something]Subject lines that contained 'ultimate' made up 3 of the top 20 performing subject lines, but only works with conservative useWhat/WhyAnswering questions that marketers are asking performs strongestName RecognitionEmails that contained posts about brands that would align well with content were very successful, such as Birchbox, BarkBox, Anthony Bourdain, Intel, The Oscars


LIAM TO UPDATE


Webinars are the most effective nurturing tool for bringing blog subscribers further down the funnel.Your highest performing channels might surprise you.

20% of all webinar registrants are new contacts


LIAM TO UPDATE


Structured learning is important, as long as its actionable.Offer structured lessons to some degree, while making it easy for people to change paths and preferences at any point.How will we deliver a one-of-a-kind experience?While the tone should be encouraging, the experience should never feel like work. Create a sense of community without relying heavily on participation.Consider ways to bring the offline and online worlds closer the Academy could promote events and conferences, as well as have rewards to offline events.Provide ways for people to apply learnings after they engage with content.Community is a feeling, not a feature.



Self guided

Personalized

discovery


Self guided

Personalized

Discovery

-- Think about discovering content like youw ould on a spotify playlist

Content marketing success is all about consistency.4


NewsCred, 2015Theres a compounding effect of content. The more we publish, the greater ROI we get.


Content marketing is a marathon not a sprint. Results take time but the diligence of delivering a regular cadence of content pays off in a big way. We analyzed our own customer base and found one consistent insight: There is a compounding effect to content marketing. This means that if you publish consistently everyday, month over month, the value of your content, your ROI, will increase over time.

Looking at this graph from our client, The Hartford, the white color represents the number of articles published every month. Youll see that their publishing cadence is consistent over the months. However, the total number of articles viewed increases over time. This is because articles published in early months continue to drive traffic over time due to SEO and building up a bank of evergreen content that continues to drive visitors. In addition, the number of pageviews also increases over time, showing that even if publishing cadence remains consistent, youll see a compounding effect to engagement and traffic. Bottom line: the ROI of content marketing increases over time.

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What is the difference between Articles Viewed and Pageviews?Number of articles viewed is the number of unique articles that people visited in a given month.Pageviews is the total number of sessions that visited any article in a given month. If a user clicked on Article A, then Article B, then back to Article A, Article A would have 2 pageviews and Article B would have 1 pageview and the number of articles visited would have been 2.

ProsYou own the trafficIt builds on itself and becomes larger than SEM over timeConsRequires great content to workLower ROI at the startTrafficTimeTimeTrafficProsFaster ROI at the startPredictable costs and volumeNo reliance on great content-creating talentConsMuch more expensive over time

Content marketing allows you to earn your audiences attention versus buying it. This metric measures just that. It measures how many visitors your site has earned by providing great content versus spending money to buy their traffic.

An always-on content strategy is only possible with a strong process + infrastructure.





Optimize old posts that have high engagement but low(ish) pageviews.Focus on posts that have an SEO pagerank of 4 or 5. Moving these posts to a pagerank of 3 will make a massive difference.Look for posts that get a lot of search traffic but arent in your top 50 100 posts. Make them better, longer, more valuable.

Dont reinvent the wheel: make your content work harder.





Focus on retention just as much as acquisition.5


Okay, the last point.

We believe the content marketing has a huge opportunity to increase retention, brand loyalty and upsell revenue. In NewsCreds case, because we work with global enterprises, the ability for us to grow our relatioships is hugely important. 36

Too many businesses focus on transactional customer value and forget to invest in the experience post-sale.Source: For Entrepreneurs, Startup Killer: The Cost of Customer Acquisition

Cost to acquire + retainRevenue


In addition, we know that increasing the lifetime value of our customers not only increases revenue but drives down our acquisition cost.37

The lifetime revenue of a customer should be 35X the cost to acquire and retain them.

RevenueCost to acquire + retainSource: For Entrepreneurs, Startup Killer: The Cost of Customer Acquisition


Like this. The lifetime revenue of a customer should be 3 5 x the cost to acquire and retain them. Our attention must shift to the customer experience post deal. 38

Inbound marketingFree trialsTouch-less conversionsInside salesStrategic partnershipsCustomer referralsField salesOutbound marketingHigh churn ratesLow customer satisfactionAcquiring bad customersSlow/ineffective onboardingRecurring revenueScalable pricingCross sell/upsellProduct line expansionWhat can impact the balance?

RevenueCost to acquire + retainSource: For Entrepreneurs, Startup Killer: The Cost of Customer Acquisition


For exampole, when looking at this chart, strategies like inbound marketing and customer referrals drive your customer acquisition cost down. Field sales typical drives in up.We wanted to focus on what can negatively impact revenue once a prospect becomes a customer high churn rates, low customer satisfaction, and slow or ineffective onboarding.

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Integration + ImplementationEmpower customers to ramp up faster, cutting down on your own organizations investment in time and resources.

TrainingTechnical Support

Kick Off

Go-LiveOnboarding timeline


Thats where we had our big idea. Knowing that retention is largely decided in the first 30 days, we thought we could have the most value by making our onboarding process incredible. 40

___Higher renewal rate41%___More likely to be upsold33%___Higher MRR than average24%Content marketing directly impacts our customer retention, upsell, and cross-sell value.


The sales process isnt over by the time a deal closes. In fact, you can make the argument that you need to focus on retention equally, or even more, than selling. 41

Introducing NewsCreds #ThinkContent University


And so we launched #ThinkContent University. This is a brand new initiative available for free to people who sign up today. Its a premium training course. ALEXA PLEASE FILL IN42

Self-paced learning on our customers terms.


Consider content creation costs, too not just distribution43

Customers track progress & pick up where they left off.


We enable our customers to track progress and pick up where they left off. This is just another way that we are aiming to personalize our learning experience to our customers needs and give them the flexibility and free to grow their skill sets in the way they want to44

Events are an extension of your content strategy.In 2015, NewsCreds marketing team held 95 events, and our organic and event channels represented 76% of all marketing driven opportunities.#ThinkContent University1530 people

Hands-on workshops + thought leadership dinners

#ThinkContent Tour150300 peopleLocal speakers + hands-on discussion groups

#ThinkContent Summit1,000+ people over 2 daysAttendees all hand-selected


Consider content creation costs, too not just distribution45

2016 #ThinkContent Summit registration open!


To wrap it all up.


Content is the core of our marketing strategy.Create content your audience actually wants.Deliver content the way your audience wants it.Content marketing success is all about consistency.Focus on retention just as much as acquisition. 1

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Questions?


Thank you!


How NewsCred does content marketing

Marketing

Transcript of How NewsCred does content marketing