It’s almost 2024, this sh*t changed. Wake up from the 90s and 00s. You'll win back in the end from what you give away in the beginning.

→ ‘Content has become the heartbeat of digital-first, modern marketing practices. We invest significant time, budget, and energy in creating content, the purpose of which is to connect with our various audiences. And what do many B2B brands still do with these valuable assets?’ Amy Heidersbach in Contently

I get it that that’s B2B marketers’ dream, to collect as many email addresses and data as possible to shitty shine in reaching their KPIs.

These people and brands forget that gating the content also means missing out on claiming your leadership, and your expensive content doesn’t get seen.

Why it matters

If you want your content to be seen, you have to make the access as easy and frictionless as possible. The more people can educate themselves with your content, the more you can claim your leadership in the industry. Win-win.

Maybe you’ll collect a little less data – be honest, were you really going to use and monetize all that data?

Below, I’ll explain all about

• Dark funnel,
• Nobody wants to feel like a lead,
• Consumers want to self-educate,
• SEO, it's a thing,
• How this impacts shortening your sales funnel,
• And what I’m not saying.

Including an example.

Dark funnel

According to ChatGPT, the dark funnel is ‘the hidden, untraceable stages of the online customer journey where potential customers research and engage with a brand without leaving conventional digital footprints for tracking.’ In short, your prospects' activity is invisible.

That means you can’t track it; you can’t collect first-party data and follow up with email marketing.

Compare this to dark social; you share content directly via WhatsApp with your friends. Untraceable for brands, more convenient for you.

F*ck data

Marketers, please don’t get drunk on data and email addresses. Don’t fall for the pitfall to measure everything that can be measured and collect as much data as possible.

Nine out of ten, you’ll do nothing significant with that microdata except for shining in the boardroom where the one-eyed still is king on content. And if you have those email addresses, you have to set up a campaign to follow up and try to convert these super cold leads.

There is nothing wrong with not knowing everything. The so-called dark funnel, where your prospects' activity is invisible to the brand, rules big time.

And be honest, if you have all that microdata. What the f*ck are you going to do with it? If you have hardly enough budget to produce amazing content, I severely doubt that you have the budget to analyze this micro correctly and follow up with new content, funnels, and A/B testing programs.

Publish your knowledge openly, no gates. And share what you know with your audience. This is the way forward to claim your leadership and become the go-to brand in your industry.

No one wants to feel like a lead

The same goes for B2C, where no one wants to be marketed. As soon as you feel you’re going to be chased by the brand with obligatory emails that usually don’t add value to your life or inbox, you’ll pass and click away.

Make accessing your content as easy and frictionless as possible. Any marketer knows that every additional click causes a drop in conversion. In this case, the conversion is getting your content seen by your audience (prospects).

They want to self-educate

The B2B industry is all about education, information, and sharing knowledge. By claiming your leadership, you’ll be ahead of your competitors.

When you’re doing your online research and searching for information, you want to do this by yourself without the hungry, pushy salesperson chasing you down the digital aisle. If you wanted some not-entirely-unbiased advice, you would have hit the ‘contact’ button and reached out.

→ ‘Customers want to self-educate, and we should do everything in our power to make it easy for them by making our content easily accessible.' Asma Steward in Contently 

SEO

Gating your content also means that SEO can't access it. And that's bad for your ranking. 

For sure, there will be hacks and workarounds to give Google's spider access. That probably is advanced SEO work and not something you can DIY. So if you don't have the big boys' budget and have to play smarter, make sure the Google spider can access the content as easily as your audience can. 

Don't gate. 

Shorter sales funnel

I know this sounds quite contrary. Yet it’s true. Giving away your content for free does shorten the sales funnel in the end. 

Compare this with buying a laptop at MediaMarkt; you do your homework at home, yet you do want to touch and see the laptop before making the purchase. In the store, you just close the deal, and no need for the nitty-gritty technical details. 

By educating your prospects on how to solve their problem (first), preferably with your product (second), they’ll come a lot hotter in your sales funnel.

Once you claim your leadership in the industry by showing your care and your passion for what you do, they’ll come back to you for more information.

The chances you’ll get a hot lead via non-gated content are much higher than via boring newsletters. Or via a too-swift call by a sales rep. See above; if your audience wants some advice, they know how to contact you.

Keep your newsletter

Just for clarity, I’m not saying, ‘don’t do email marketing.’ I love email marketing when it's done right with the audience's best interest in mind, not the brand.

 I say, don’t gate your valuable content by asking for their email address and shoving them in the database.

Again, if they want to subscribe to your newsletter, they’ll find it on your .com.

Example Contently

If there’s one platform that gives away all their knowledge and insights, it’s Contently. Great website and an amazing newsletter that was actually the inspiration for this page.

Why they are good

• They know content 
• Great case studies
• Value-adding newsletter 

And yes, they have a sales funnel. And it’s quite pushy. And I get that as they need to drive business to be able to give us content. Quid pro quo.

I do know who I’ll call when I need a content marketing platform.

Summary

Please don’t gate your content. We are in a new content era. Gating your content to get as many leads as possible and push them into your email database is not moving the needle. Even more so, you miss out on reach, and your expensive content doesn’t get seen.

We are not in the 90s or 00s anymore. Make your content as easy and frictionless accessible as possible, claim your leadership, and the leads will follow if you’ve done your content right.

Remember, no one wants to be marketed to, no one wants to feel like a lead, and they do want to self-educate. And once they hit the ‘contact’ button, your sales funnel will be shorter (and cheaper).

Credits

Inspired by, and bits and pieces stolen with pride from Contenly. 

Check out their non-gated whitepaper ‘Mastering the Content Matrix Innovative CMOs Rewrite the Rules of Engagement’

To keep things simple (for me as well), subscribe via LinkedIn. Just one click to subscribe. And if you don't like it, just one click to unsubscribe. 

There's no need to receive a newsletter you don't read and for me to have another count in my vanity metrics. 

It's number four in the most asked questions about content; please, check the last paragraph for all five questions and the bonus on AI. 

Why it matters

All brands struggle, big and small. No matter your size, the lack of results is deadly. 

First and foremost, for your budget. 

Second, without results, is harder to get the content out of the organization. Vice versa, if you share the results with all employees and departments, you'll notice that content ideation will pop up like crazy. 

 First, let's define ‘results.’ 

These should be measured in business objectives

• Sales numbers and leads 
• A higher ranking on SEO for leadership and traffic

Second, the reasons, presuming you've got great content (are you sure?)

1. Too fast; keep your patience
2. Wrong metrics: vanity over business objectives
3. Lack of budgets: focus
4. You do have crappy content (told you!)

1. Too fast; keep your patience

This is the number one reason for not seeing the results of your content efforts. Content takes time. Much time. More than you think.

Content is not plug-and-play. It's not a ‘Start today; see results tomorrow.’ Or within a few months. 

It takes at least one year; two years is more realistic.

How to fix it

Well, duh, … be patient.

2. Wrong metrics: vanity over business objectives

The second most made mistake in why you’re not seeing results is that you're using the wrong metrics. Usually, the content reporting focuses on campaigns with vanity metrics. Not the overarching business results with the general sales numbers.

Below you find a recap of ‘Accountability of content.’ 

Report on what matters to management, don't bore them with death-by-powerpoint details on likes and engagement. Getting the buy-in from the board and senior management matters to lock in next year’s budget – or prevent loss of budget in the running year.

How to fix it

Choose the metrics for management that reflect the strategy. Your content strategy should be aligned with the business objectives; hence, so should the reporting.

Quarterly or half-yearly

• Content efforts plotted against overall sales 

• SEO performance 


Monthly, if desired by management

• 
High over content planning with campaigns and channels

• Budget reporting: production and media
• Team reporting: FTEs and external help

3. Lack of budgets

The final reason why you’re not seeing results is that you don’t invest enough. And double that budget for media buying to get reach. I know you want more content for less; I'll be the bearer of the bad news, that is not possible. Quality is really expensive. Penny pound foolish.

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. In your team and agency.

There’s no such thing as getting results while you’re not investing serious money. 

How to fix it

Please don't fall into the trap of wanting cheaper content, which equals more content for less budget. A better option is to focus and scale down in the amount of content you want to produce. And that what you produce, you're f*cking going to nail it top-notch, high quality, re-usable and long lifetime. 

I wish I could give you a ballpark number or percentage for your content. Unfortunately, I can’t. There are just too many variables that define how much you need to invest.

If you want to get a gut feeling, in a 15-minute call, you can chat about your brand and company; I can give you an indication of what you’ll need. Just drop me a DM for my number.

4. Crappy content

Honestly, this is the number one reason for the lack of results. Get your head out of your a** and be upfront. How is the quality of your content? 

Low-quality content is a real issue. The cause varies. It can be the management that's too focused on the brand and not on the customer. It can be the team with a lack of knowledge or focus. And I can think of many other reasons why your content is not what it should be.

If you have a firm belief in content and you invest serious budgets and, still, your content is crap – then you’ve got a whole other problem.

Final words

It s*cks if you’re not seeing the results of your efforts. Aside from annoying, it’s indispensable to get the buy-in from the board and senior management matters to lock in next year’s budget – or prevent loss of budget in the running year.

Need help with all this? I got your back. Drop me a DM, and we can jump on a quick call about how to get started and if I can help you or if you need something or someone else. 

The 5 most asked questions about content

You ask me the same questions over and over again. My clients. During workshops, keynotes, and calls. 

So, why not write them down? Here's my ‘They ask, you answer’ series on content and strategy.  The questions are in the most asked order. 

1. I want more content for less budget; what are the tips? 
2. What do I need to measure? I struggle with accountability.
3. It takes forever; how can I speed up the process and shorten the time to market?
4. I don’t see the results; what can I do? (this blog)
5. We struggle with ownership; where should content be?

• Bonus: How to prepare for AI; We have no idea what’s its true power; 33% cuts in teams are expected

Click on the links to read more (duh…)

The one thing that’s always missing is how content contributes to the business in overall numbers. And that’s the sh*t that really interests the board and seniors.

Why it matters

Getting the buy-in from the board and senior management matters to lock in next year’s budget – or prevent loss of budget in the running year.

Them wanting to know how content pays off for the business is a legit question. With an answer that got stuck in the vanity metrics and daily operational reporting.

Let me explain

• Vanity metrics: steering on reach and engagement. These are in no way a predictor of sales. And in the end, it’s the sales that count. Right?
   
• Daily operational reporting: usually, we report on campaigns. We jump from campaign to campaign with the vanity metrics. No step back to zoom out to discover how content contributes in the long term.

Managerial KPIs

Choose the metrics for management that reflect the strategy. Your content strategy should be aligned with the business objectives; hence, so should the reporting.

Quarterly or half-yearly, the reason for these long intervals is that these KPIs don’t change overnight; it takes time. Lots of time.

• Content efforts plotted against overall sales 

• SEO performance 


Monthly, if desired by management

• 
High over content planning with campaigns and channels

• Budget reporting: production and media
• Team reporting: FTEs and external help

Content efforts plotted against overall sales 


Plot your content efforts against your overall sales data for a minimum of three years. You need the long-term to get insights. Doing this over a 3 or 6-month timespan is useless. 

Vertical ax (left):  the overall sales 

Horizontal ax: all content efforts; e.g., ‘Campaign XYZ, ‘publication help content’, ‘SEO optimalisation content’, ‘...’.  Including an overview of when you added resources to the team, hired a new agency, or budget cuts. 

Are there any specific milestones or events that influence the sales? E.g., the big launch of a new product or a pandemic lockdown, include these as well. 

Vertical ax (right): budgets for production and for media. Mention both, as you need both to create impact. 


SEO performance 


This is an indication of your leadership and digital maturity. The better your content, the better your SEO ranking. 

Without jumping into the SEO details, as this is an expertise by itself, I suggest you aim for a top-five position on the keywords people use to search for your product - not your brand name. 


If you rank outside of the top ten, your content is crappy, and your www technology is outdated. This is signal you have a bigger problem than just your content.


High over content planning with campaigns and channels


This one is more for the monthly reporting. The objective is to keep the management and stakeholders involved. You give an overview of the campaigns you are running and how you are performing against internal and external benchmarks.

Include your lessons learned and how you will implement these in the following campaigns and content production. 

Please. Keep this high level, and don’t fall into the pitfall of vanity metrics. Detials don’t matter to management - they want to know how you are doing and moving forward.

Budget reporting: production and media

Another thing that matters is how you are doing moneywise. What is the allocated budget, and how are you performing? Are you on track, overspending, or understanding? 

This underspending may sound weird. However, I encountered a few brands that were underspending on their media budget due to the suboptimal setup of the campaigns and audience building: too narrow or too conversion-focused. Or your content is so crappy content that the social channels didn’t use all media budget - remember, if the content is crappy, the socials don’t push it as it has no engagement.

Also, include your lessons learned on the budget; it’s the process and how you are going to improve.

Team reporting: FTEs and agencies

The war for talent has started. More often than not, a brand has many vacancies in its content team. Therefore, this is a valid metric to include in the reporting. Do you have the team in place to perform, or are you understaffed, causing suboptimal results?

Next to the team, you can include your agency management. This goes for production and media agencies. With whom are you working, and how are they performing?

No details for management

Why senior management should get a high-level, long-term reporting

• The details are a matter of the team, not of management 

• The details usually are vanity metrics focused on engagement, likes, 
and clicks 

• The details overshadow the bigger picture 

• The details are mostly short-term focused 


Final words

That having said, reporting on what matters to management isn’t easy. It’s bespoke and depends on the organization and its maturity, and the maturity of the management.

I hope I made you think about how to report to get next year’s budget

Quarterly or half-yearly

• Content efforts plotted against overall sales 

• SEO performance 


Monthly, if desired by management

• 
High over content planning with campaigns and channels

• Budget reporting: production and media
• Team reporting: FTEs and external help

Need help with all this? I got your back. Drop me a DM, and we can jump on a quick call about how to get started and if I can help you or if you need something or someone else.

The 5 most asked questions about content

You ask me the same questions over and over again. My clients. During workshops, keynotes, and calls. 

So, why not write them down? Here's my ‘They ask, you answer’ series on content and strategy.  The questions are in the most asked order. 

1. I want more content for less budget; what are the tips? 
2. What do I need to measure? I struggle with accountability. (this blog)
3. It takes forever; how can I speed up the process and shorten the time to market?
4. I don’t see the results; what can I do?
5. We struggle with ownership; where should content be?

• Bonus: How to prepare for AI; We have no idea what’s its true power; 33% cuts in teams are expected

Click on the links to read more (duh…)

Why on LinkedIn? As I feel no urgency to manage and maintain two newsletters, one from my newsroom (here) and one from LinkedIn. Some call it ‘efficiency’; others call it ‘lazy’. 

Just subscribe on LinkedIn

Why it matters

Alan Sharpe shares what we can learn from the VW ads. These are lessons that you can’t read anywhere else. At least, I didn’t. Even though the VW ads are from the sixties and seventies, some secrets can be directly applied to today's content.

Why are these different? Alan unravels the VW secrets provided with clear examples. Easy to understand, practical, and therefore easy to implement. 

Headlines are today's social caption or title for a content item

Alan focuses on the headlines and the body copy. For now, I steal with pride the lessons learned in the headlines. 

Please note I copy-paste parts of his work. It’s written way better than I could ever do. Don’t fix what isn’t broken, and give credits where credits are due.  

Second note; in all secrets, Alan gives three to six examples to explain the magic. Be curious, buy the book, and unravel all copywriting secrets yourself.

30 Copywriting Secrets from the Best Ad Campaign of All Time by Alan Sharpe, or go to www.sharpecopy.com

• Secret 1: Write a weak headline if your visual is strong
• Secret 2: Your headline and your visual need to get married
• Secret 3: Your headline must compel the buyer to read your body copy. Period.
• Secret 4: Your headline better be a zinger if your visual is lame
• Secret 5: If in doubt, ask a question
• Secret 10: Headlines are for features, images are for benefits

Secret 1: Write a weak headline if your visual is strong

‘If you read just about any book about copywriting, you’ll hear that your headline is the most important part of your copy. You’ll hear something like this: “Eight out of 10 people who look at an advertisement read the headline first, so make sure your headline names what you are promoting and describes a benefit of using the product.” In other words, use your headline to sell. That is the common wisdom.’

‘Well, Volkswagen turned that wisdom on its head.’

‘Some of the headlines had only two words for crying out loud. The most famous headline in the campaign had only one word in it. Some headlines stated the obvious. Others were simply boring. And yet the headlines did an amazing job.’

‘This headline qualifies for the Oscar nomination for “Most boring headline of all time.” “Volkswagen’s unique construction keeps dampness out.” That’s the kind of thing an engineer would say.

That headline on its own would put most potential customers to sleep. And put car dealers out of business. 

But paired with a strong visual, it works.’

Secret 2: Your headline and your visual need to get married

‘Contrary to popular opinion, a picture is rarely worth a thousand words. And a thousand words usually need a picture or two. A picture usually needs a headline. And a headline usually needs a picture.’

‘Your goal as a copywriter is to write headlines that only work when they are placed next to the picture. Your best headlines only work when they work with the visual. If your ad has a visual, your headline should not be able to work when the visual is removed.’

‘As you write your headlines, always aim to achieve synergy. Synergy is the interaction of two things to produce a combined effect that is greater than the sum of the two parts.’

‘The rule for creating synergy is that neither your headline nor your visual should be able to work on their own.’

‘If you pay attention to what you’re doing when you read this ad, you’ll notice that your eye looks at the image first, then drops down to read the headline beneath, and then goes back to the visual again. Your eyes look at the visual, then the headline, then back to the visual again.’

‘What your eyes just did shows you how synergy works. You look at the visual. It needs explaining. You look at the headline. It refers to the visual. You look back at the visual. Aha, you get it!’

‘The secret to creating synergy between a headline and a visual is to make sure your headline is cryptic and your visual is just as cryptic. Contrary to popular opinion, you rarely want your headline to say everything that needs to be said in order for your prospective buyer to act.’

Secret 3: Your headline must compel the buyer to read your body copy. Period.

‘David Ogilvy once said that, “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”’

‘I disagree. Your headline is only effective if it compels your prospect to read your body copy. If your prospect reads your headline and then turns the page or clicks away from that website, you haven’t just spent eighty cents out of your dollar. You’ve spent the whole dollar, with nothing to show for it.’

‘Headlines serve one essential goal: Compel potential customers to read your copy. That’s it. No more. Interrupting people isn’t enough. Grabbing their attention isn’t enough. Your headline must motivate them, tease them, intrigue them and compel them to read what you have to say in your body copy.’

‘The ad agency for Volkswagen back in the 1960s was Doyle Dane Bernbach. Their creative team discovered that one of the easiest ways to get potential buyers to read an ad was to make the prospects ask themselves a question.’

‘One of those questions was, “Why?”’

‘Make the reader ask, “Why?”’

‘Take this famous ad, for example. The headline says the car in the picture is a lemon. Why? You have to read the ad to find out.’

‘Consider this ad. The headline tells you to think small. The image is of a small car. Why should you think small? Read the body copy and find out.’

‘Why is one of the nice things about owning a Volkswagen, going to sell it?’

‘You’ll notice that the secret to this tactic of writing headlines is that it arouses curiosity. Curiosity is one of the strongest drives that anyone can have. People will go to great lengths to satisfy their curiosity.’

Secret 4: Your headline better be a zinger if your visual is lame

‘Your first job as a copywriter is to interrupt people. No one is going to read your copy until you can first grab their attention and get them to pay attention to you. In print advertising and online, you only have two ways to grab people’s attention: a great headline, or a great visual.’

‘Of the two, visuals are better at grabbing attention than headlines are. So, if you have a funny or clever or quirky or intriguing image at your disposal, use that to grab your prospect’s attention. But what can you do if you don’t have a strong visual? What if your product is boring to look at?’

‘Here’s an example of what I mean. I think you’ll agree with me that the visual in this ad isn’t going to win any awards for creativity. But the headline, now that’s creative. You see, the one thing that was different about the Volkswagen was that the body didn’t change from year to year. If you bought a Volkswagen in 1967 the body looked just like the body of the 1957. All that Volkswagen changed during those ten years was the insides of the vehicle.’

‘This clever headline plays upon that theme in a creative way. A boring visual paired with a clever headline gets your attention.’

Secret 5: If in doubt, ask a question

‘Hey, want to know one of the easiest ways to grab the attention of a potential customer? Want to learn one of the easiest ways to write a headline? Ask a question. Putting a simple question mark at the end of your headline helps you take a straightforward feature or claim and make it a little more interesting and a lot more compelling.’

‘But a clever copywriter, especially one who had a deadline to meet, could take that basic fact and give it a tweak by putting a question mark at the end.’

‘Here’s another example. As you probably know, the engine in the Volkswagen wasn’t in the front. It was in the rear, mounted over the rear tires. This was a unique feature of the car that made the car lighter but gave it greater traction in the snow.’

‘But you can’t just write a headline that says, “The engine is in the back.” That simply states a feature of the car. Plus, it prompts the reader to ask, “The engine’s in the back? So what?”’

‘But turning the feature into a question piques your curiosity. “That’s a good question… Why IS the engine in the back?” you have to read the body copy to find out.’

‘Which brings up a vital point. Turning your headline into a question is an easy and effective way to persuade your prospective customer to read your body copy. No one wants to leave a question unanswered once their curiosity has been raised. They will read the body copy to satisfy their curiosity.’

‘By the way, headlines that are questions are not just for making product features more interesting. When Volkswagen wanted to make a point about its competitors or about its potential buyers, it often did so in the form of a question. That’s because posing an unpleasant truth as a question instead of as a fact softens the truth.’

‘With a little creative thinking, you can turn just about any statistic, harsh truth, boring fact, product feature or marketplace trend into a question that makes your potential buyers stop and think for a minute. And that, after all, is the main purpose of a headline, isn’t it?’

Secret 10: Headlines are for features, images are for benefits

‘One of your main jobs as a copywriter is to translate product features into benefits. People buy benefits, not features. Just so we’re clear: a feature is what a product does, a benefit is what that feature does for me.’

‘Your challenge, of course, as a copywriter, is figuring out how to describe product benefits in such a way that potential customers understand what you are saying. Your challenge is especially tough in print advertising, especially with headlines.’

‘In print advertising, one of the most effective ways to communicate product benefits is by demonstrating them with a visual.’

‘Take a look at this ad from the 1960s. It was created for the Volkswagen Beetle. Volkswagen wanted their potential customers to know that Volkswagens held their value. That’s a feature. The benefit to their customer was that they would earn more for the Volkswagen when they went to sell it.’

‘But how do you communicate that benefit in an original way? With a headline that states the feature and a photo that communicates the benefit.’

‘Check out that headline: “After three years, the car that costs the least costs the most.” That is the feature clearly stated. Volkswagens hold their value.’

‘Now check out the visual. It communicates the benefit of buying a Volkswagen. You earn more money when you sell your car.’

‘The headline states the feature. The image demonstrates the benefit.’

Some final words

Content and social is no humdrum magical millennial sh*t that needs a totally different approach. Grabbing someone's attention didn’t change over the years.

Be inspired and learn from what is proven. In this case, the Volkswagen ads developed by DDB and unraveled by Alan Sharpe.

First, what is a strategy?

Second, why your content strategy is not a spin-off of your marketing strategy. You should align the content strategy with the brand strategy to create impact. 

Definition of a ‘strategy’

My own definition is based on 'Good Strategy Bad Strategy' by Richard Rummolt. 

A strategy is a plan to get from point A to point B and how you allocate your limited resources to get there. In line with your objectives, you define the KPIs. Not to measure a ‘good’ or ‘fail’. You use the KPIs to measure your progress and know where to tune and tweak to improve. 

A: your current situation, where you are at. Including the definition of the problems you are facing. 

B: your desired situation. A.k.a. The objective and your ambition, where you want to be in x time. This can be in 6 months, a year or more long term like 3 years. 

• This objective is based on data from trends in society, industry insights, the SWOT of your brand, and your brand strategy. 
• And it is measured with 3 KPIs. Stick to 3 macro numbers for the management reporting. In the daily reporting for the team, go micro and very detailed. Why 3 and why macro? Management likes easy does it overviews, therefor take 3, maximum 4. If you have more KPIs, you go more micro, and it’s macro that matters. How the content contributes to the business objectives, not which posts got the most engagement. 

Limited resources
To get where you want to be, you need to allocate what’s limited. Usually, that is your team and other resources. Budget always is an issue. And the digital maturity of your organization is also a thing. If you want to have top-notch content and social distribution, you need to know the game. If you are just starting in the digital era, ‘you have to learn to walk before you can run’. That takes time. For this digital maturity, usually, it is the senior management that is the problem, not the working bees. Hiring a cheap social savvy millennial will not do the trick. 

How to get your content strategy

There are three options to get your strategy in place. 

Agency

First, hire an agency. There are many excellent agencies that can compose a very good content strategy for you based on your organization and data. However, you need to implement this strategy. And that’s the catch. If you have the great PowerPoint deck, who is going to run this show within your organization? 

Do it yourself

Second, DYI. A good option, yet you do need to have the senior resources and team in place. Hiring a ‘Content Manager’ who is going to develop the strategy, implement it and run the business is set up for failure. That’s like having three job descriptions in one. 

• A ‘strategist’ is a heavy senior with lots of experience and abstract data-driven knowledge — including excellent stakeholder management.
• The ‘implementation’ profile is a bit more hands-on and needs to have the experience to set up, build, and manage the team. And have the political skills to manage and update the stakeholders. 
• The ‘running the business’ is a different profile. They are safeguarding what has been set up and taking it to the next level. With excellence in team management and operational business. They lack the abstract level and overview of the strategist and the seniority for the implementation. 

Usually, a strategist gets bored once the strategy is in place. This should take about 3 to a maximum of 6 months if your brand and organization is very complicated. The implementation gets more operational and requires other expertise. There are a few strategists who excel in the implementation as well. However, these are hard to find. If you do find them, mostly they are independent consultants or interim managers. 

Go interim

There comes the third option, hire an interim manager to push the buttons and set up the team along the way. As mentioned above, you need two to three different profiles to get your content strategy, implementation, and the team in place. To hire a strategist, you hire someone for one maximum of two years. Usually, these people do not go for permanent employment as they get bored as soon as their job is done. To hire the ‘running the business’ you have a lack in the seniority you need to get the strategy in place. And you need this seniority in-house, not in the agency.

My advice

My advice is to go for the third option. Of course, I am biased, being an interim strategist myself. However, over the last 15+ years, brands hired me to make up for their mistakes and not move the content needle by options one and two. Yes, an interim strategist is far more expensive than an employee. These are the benefits, an interim…

• Has the expertise and seniority needed. And she or he has seen all pitfalls and mistakes made by others. 
• Hits the ground running and does not require extensive onboarding. Therefore your time to market shortens. 
• Has your agenda. Meaning no political interference or their own agenda. A good interim manager is there to solve your problem and make herself redundant as soon as possible.
• Is not needed full time. From experience, maximum 3 days a week, and if they do not deliver the content strategy in 3 months, you should reconsider. 
• Has no risk. If they don’t deliver, it is very easy to end the contract.  

Next steps

How to find that interim strategist? Ask around. Ask your network for recommendations and reviews. The best strategist is found via via, not via a LinkedIn search. Or go to your recruitment agency. They know the best people in the market. And still,  ask for a recommendation and review for the specific interim manager. 

Or contact me. Again not biased at all ;). If I am not available, I am always happy to recommend some of my excellent peers and other nerds in the content industry. 

Photo by Oyster Haus from Pexels

One of the reasons could be that you align your content strategy with your marketing strategy instead of your brand strategy. Your content strategy becomes a spin-off with rolling yearly planning – instead of a solid strategy that acknowledges your challenges and an approach to overcome them ('Good Strategy Bad Strategy' by Richard Rummolt)

Why is this marketing alignment sub-optimal? 

• Marketing is well, hmm, marketing-driven. Focus on sales, conversion, efficiency, and performance. With social the main channel of distribution. And especially on social, people do not like to be sold to. 
• Next to this, often marketing already has yearly planning. If content follows the marketing strategy, at most your content strategy becomes a rolling yearly planning instead of a proper strategy with a focus on effectiveness. 
• No integration of other silos in your content. Meaning, you are missing out on brand, PR, or CX content opportunities to compose an integrated brand story. 
• No content sharing content between the departments. HR creates content to attract talent. PR produces content to show and tell the brand. And CX uses content to pro-actively inform and answer questions from your audience. 
• Too much focus on micro and forgetting the macro. The main KPI for a marketing department is usually sales. With content, you have the pitfall of microdata attribution – you miss out on the macro to get insights on how content can help to build your brand and attribute to overall sales. 

The brand strategy defines your mission, vision, purpose, and your identity. Including how you want to grow. And how you are better, or different than your competitors. Next to all of this, a brand strategy done well, also defines how your product or service provides a solution for the problems your customer encounters. Focus on the brand. 

A marketing strategy defines how you market your product or service. Meaning where and how you sell your stuff. Detailing the message. Defining sub-audiences to target. What channels to use and promotions to run. Focus on sales. 

Align content with the brand, not marketing

My recommendation is to set up content as its’ own department, directly reporting to C-level with marketing, PR, CX, and HR as stakeholders. By taking it out of the marketing silo, you prevent the content strategy from being a spin-off of the marketing strategy. You take it a notch higher and align it with the brand, integration marketing as one of the stakeholders. And get ready to make some noise. 

Benefits

Without getting too detailed, an overview of the benefits

1. Integrated storyline: with this set up you balance brand building and brand activation in one strategy with the focus on the story and not on the sales. 
2. Efficiency in production and distribution: you can re-use the content over several departments. produce once, distribute often.  
3. Faster time to market: being your own department means you have your own approval processes and mandate. 
4. Accountability on overall business impact: instead of steering on marketing KPIs, you can use overall KPIs over a longer timeframe. For example, create a 3-year timeline where you plot your content efforts against overall sales in hectoliters or SKUs. 
5. Prepared for crisis communications: the last not least, having all content in one place means you are faster and more centered to respond to issues and escalations. There processes to align internally with all stakeholders are already in place.

Next steps

How to take content out of the marketing department is easier said than done. There is no quick fix. First of all, you need a Content Director. A senior who is used to communicating with other C’s and stakeholders. And set up a decent senior team of content producers, media buying, and analytics. 

Do you want to know more, need help, or pick my brain from my experiences? Please reach out. Happy to have a call,  all free of charge.  

Photo by Anastasia Zhenina on Unsplash

Perfect content is perfect all the way. Excellent English. Spotless grammar, not the slightest fault insight. Layout and formatting by the book as all the written and unwritten rules prescribe. Optimized for digital experience, reading on the mobile.

And your visuals or videos, perfect into the details. Professionally produced. Great script. High-res quality. Amazing music even if it is produced for sound-off. Top-notch subtitles. Everything as it should be. The format is vertical or square for optimal IG experience. 

Perfect content is invisible

All sounds great and a marketeers’ dream. It’s not. Perfection makes boring. Nothing that intrigues or stands out. Pixel perfect doesn’t get noticed.

Actual, perfection makes your content invisible. And that’s the opposite of your goal.

Add character and have fun

That little raw edge gives character. A slight grammar mistake shows you are not a native. And that you have a personality. Writing short few words -sentences gives rhythm. To be creative with whitespace and to give one sentence its own alinea, makes it stand out. Playing with language and formatting shows you care and shows you are human.

Having fun with visuals makes you stand out. Bend the rules. Use those filters. Dare to be blurry. Imperfect visuals create a more exciting picture. And make your content worth looking at. Stopping the thumbing and attracting attention.

If 2020 and 2021 have taught us one thing, it is that not everything has to be perfect to get noticed. Remember the first days of the pandemic when all agencies closed their physical doors? And everyone and everything jumped online – with their homemade content. That was fun, showing the true colors of a brand. Those who were creative kept going and showing their personality and passion. And those who felt behind due to their own perfection and were afraid to make mistakes. 

Show you care

There are a few non-negotiable requirements. Be a professional.

• Typos: triple check, especially the auto-correct by Google or Microsoft
• Big grammar mistakes: use Grammarly to your advantage
• Mobile optimized: copy and visuals. Produced on a laptop, final and last review on mobile

Don’t try to be perfect. Social media is to connect, engage, to add value for your audiences. And show your personality along the way. They might even like you. 

Inspiration and image credits

Open mindset

This all starts with an open mindset. What I mean is that content is not exclusive to the marketing department. My advice is to involve other departments in your content ideation, production, and evaluation. Content is holistic, about your brand and it travels through all silos and layers. Pretty much a no-brainer, yet in reality content still is silo’ed.

Purpose of your content

Secondly, before you continue to read, you should realize it all starts with the purpose of your content.  Are you a one-way broadcaster or do you want to inspire and interact with your audience to create some kind of relationship?

If you want to engage with your audience, involving webcare can make a huge difference. If done correctly, webcare can be the second engine of your content ideation. The first engine is the brand strategy and marketing calendar — obviously.

Customer-centricity

The third is your customer-centricity.  Do you practice what your preach, do you put your customer in the heart of all your communications?  Do you really listen to their feedback to integrate those insights into your content production? Or are you just broadcasting?

Be honest with yourself. When is the last time you asked for and listened to feedback from your customers? Your webcare agents do this on a daily basis. 

Why webcare

If you really want to create an impact with your content via higher engagement, integrate webcare into the editorial board. The main reason is simple, webcare is the first point of contact with your audience and customers. Webcare knows what makes them tick and what’s going on in their minds.

• Webcare can predict the buzz and the sentiment of the content: if and how are people going to react to this piece of content.
• Based on audience feedback on social posts, webcare can help with content ideation.
• Due to their close contact with the customer, webcare has an overview of your audience’s concerns.

You just need to realize that webcare is not there to pick up the garbage of the marketing and communications department. And they are not only there to fix what others have broken. They are your co-workers and have valuable insights and data. Integrate them in the content team and make them part of the production process.

Webcare and data

As webcare is in close contact with the customer care department, they have an overview of the complaints, concerns, and feedback of your customers. They should have a list of the frequently asked questions and a list of the top 10 complaints about your products and services. Use those insights to produce content to engage with your audience on social.

Next to this, webcare monitors and reacts to social posts, therefore they get direct feedback and suggestions. Use this feedback to create new content. E.g., you sell a natural deodorant, and a mother reacts this product also works amazingly for her teenage son.

Editorial board

This is also pretty easy. Invite the customer care and or webcare department to your editorial board and content meetings. In this meeting, you discuss the content already published, the new content, and the content ideation list.

No editorial board?

If you do not have an editorial board yet, and you just jump from campaign to campaign without any structure, I kindly suggest creating this immediately. If you want to connect to your audience, you need to strategize, plan, and evaluate your content. And this is done in the editorial board, not in a PowerPoint report with some doggy vanity metrics and vague KPIs.

More impact

How this creates more impact? Easy answer. Content that fulfills audience needs, answers their questions, or provides a solution for their problem, by default has higher engagement than broadcasting and boosting your production features and technological advantages. Don't overcomplicate, just create content that adds value and your audience will engage. 

Photocredits: Rachel Claire via Pexels

It is one line that explains what you do. Easy to understand and to remember in Sesamestreet language. Nothing more, nothing less. It actually exists in three parts and can be more than one sentence. 

Why you need it

Explaining what you do, is pretty difficult. Doing it in such a way that makes your audience curious and them wanting to know more… is even harder. Yet, I know a trick and it works like magic. Credits where credits due, stolen with pride from Donald Miller in storybrand.com.

Where you use it

Everywhere. From telling a new friend what you do, to use it in your bio on social, to the header on your website. As for everything goes, adjust the words where needed. Optimize for the channel. My oneliner in my LinkedIn bio is slightly different than on my resume or in the header of thinklikeapublisher.com.

My oneliner

'Most companies struggle to get content and social in place: how to tell your brand story, connect to your audiences and make it accountable. I have a roadmap to get and execute your bespoke content and social strategy, silo, and channel-agnostic. So you have an overview and you can measure the impact of content and social on your business objectives.' 

How to create your oneliner

First, you need to have your brand storyline. Follow the seven steps from the (1) hero, not you, to their (2) problem, with you as (3) guide, who gives them a (4) plan and (5) calls them to action to create (6) success and avoid (7) failure.

This defines your identity, what you do and why you matter. In a nutshell why your audience should buy your product or service — reasoned from their perspective, not yours.

Watch the video for a 20mins deep dive by Donald Miller. Or read below for the shameless copy-paste-edited transcript.

Get started

To get started, you grab a piece of paper and divide it into three columns: problem, plan, happy ending.

• Start writing in bullet points the struggles your target audience faces, what you do to help them and what they get. By writing in bullet points, you are bound to keep it short and simple.
• Find the common elements in each column.
• Just write those down in an 'ugly first draft' sentence per column. And polish.
• Thread all three columns together.
• Read it out loud. Polish again.
• Now you have a solid concept to test with strangers for further fine-tuning.

The problem

The first part of the oneliner is the problem your audience/character/customer faces. You have to identify your customers' problem. And you to open your oneliner with their problem, not with yourself as a guide with a solution.

Your audience is triggered by content that is about them and that adds value to them. They are not triggered by content that is about you and you trying to sell them something. Remember, we all hate ads.

A few tips

• Start your sentence with ‘most business struggle with... ''you know a lot of people ….’.
• Be very specific. Do not be vague. Avoid using jargon. And do keep it very simple and to the point. As if you explain it to a 5yr old kid.
• Make sure it is a pain point that is recognized by your audience with a 'Ah! That's me, I have that’.
• Create it like a soundbite: make it short and snappy.

Some examples

• StoryBrand: Most businesses struggle to talk about what they offer.
• Pet food supplier: Pet owners are concerned about what their pets are really eating.
• Financial planning: Most people can't get their heads around their future.
• Used car dealership: Nobody likes to haggle with a car salesman.

Your solution

In the second part of the oneliner, you explain your plan to help them fix their problem. Like a ‘here is what we do that solves your problem'.

More tips

• Start with 'we have the product' or ‘we + verb’..
• If you are stuck for words, start your solution with ‘so…’ or ‘that’s why…’.
• Make it feel like a new idea, do not use the usual expressions or wordings.
• Make it understandable. Use simple actionable words. And again, avoid the jargon.
• Make it brief. No blah blah, no buzz. Stick to the core.

• StoryBrand: We have a process that helps them clarify their message.
• Pet food supplier: We source our pet food from trusted, local vendors.
• Financial planning: We created a financial map that puts all your info on a weekly dashboard.
• Used car dealership: We removed the salesman entirely. You can choose and test drive a car hassle-free.

Happy ending

The last part of your oneliner is the happy and successful ending to the short story.

Some more tips

• Make it the 'controlling idea' of your business. The motivator of the company, your why. This is also your ‘license to operate', the reason for your existence within 5 or 10 years.
• If you are stuck for words, start your happy ending with ‘so…’
• Make it about the benefit. And make it tangible.
• Make it something they want.
• Again, make it brief.

• StoryBrand: So their companies start growing again.
• Pet food supplier: This ensures your pet stays happy and healthy.
• Financial planning: Giving your peace of mind about your finances.
• Used car dealership: So you have a peaceful experience getting the car you want.

Thread it together

Next is to thread all three together. Polish your sentences and fix the rhythm. A simple sanity check is to read it out loud. If it's easy to pronounce: stick with it. If it's difficult and do you stumble upon your own words, rework it.

Practice it with strangers. Tell them your oneliner and ask them if they understand what you do. There is no better way to get unsalted feedback.

Add a CTA

Where applicable, you can add a second part to your oneliner. Add a call to action or offer some more explanation.

My oneliner on LinkedIn with a CTA

'Do you also struggle to get content and social in place: how to tell your brand story, connect to your audiences and make it accountable? I have a roadmap to get and execute your bespoke content and social strategy, silo- and channel-agnostic. So you have an overview and you can measure the impact of content and social on your business objectives.

Let's be honest, content and social ain't no rocket science. Fix the basics with the strategy, team, tools, and processes, and excel along the way. Start with the fundamentals, be distinctive and create an impact for your audiences and for your brand.

• 📝 read all my secrets on www.thinklikeapublisher.com
• ☎️ or send me a message to schedule a free 30 min video call for a bespoke deep-dive into your content struggles' 

My header for thinklikeapublisher.com

'Get grip on your content and social, and let them contribute to your business objectives.'

Next steps

Memorize it. Practice it a bit more. And do not forget to have fun with it. Passion and happiness in your profession and what you do is irresistible.   

Credits where credits due: 'Building a Story Brand' by Donald Miller.

Speaking for myself, for years I struggled. Until I read one of the best brand strategy books ‘Building a Story Brand' by Donald Miller. His seven steps help you to clarify your message and to tell the world what you do. Stolen with pride and giving the credits, a summary of his work and applied to 'Think like a publisher'.

The seven steps for your storyline

1. Character: surprise, it's not you! The ‘hero’ of the story is your audience. What do they want?
2. Problem: what is their struggle? From the evil villain to their external, internal, and philosophical problem.
3. Guide: this is you! Show empathy for your character and their problem. Show authority that you are the one to help them.
4. Plan: show how you help them with a process and an agreement.
5. Call to action: take your character by the hand to make the next step. The easier you make it, the faster they act. From a direct CTA to a transitional CTA, give away something for free.
6. Success: link this to the problem. What does your character has if they work with you, how do they feel? Describe the before and after.
7. Avoid failure: give an overview of what happens if they don’t work with you.

Storyline ‘Think like a publisher’

To make this more tangible, the storyline for my book explained. I hope this inspires you to create your own story brand. And you to get better content that connects with your audiences.

This process is easier than you think. Just watch the video, read the book, grab a piece of paper and some sharpies to start writing. There is no right or wrong. Do what works for your brand and your story to differentiate yourself from the competitors. The only thing that matters is to be honest, keep it simple, and do not use buzz words and jargon. 

Character

This is my audience. What do they want? What is their struggle? Thinking of all my assignments and projects for the most amazing brands, they have a few things in common:

• They want content, yet do not know how to get it in an accountable and sustainable way. Getting a marketing campaign in place is not the issue. The issue is that it is complicated and overwhelming to get the overarching brand story and connect to the audiences.
• They also want social. Again, getting the campaigns is easy. Getting it on long-term and integrated feels like rockets science.
• They struggle with the accountability of content and social. How to measure the value of the investment in resources, budget, and time? Is it worth it? We are past the time that 'content and social is a belief'. The C-suite is accountable for every euro they spend. And they need to prove it with data. 
• They are looking to get a continuous flow of high-level on-brand content and social in an efficient and cost-effective way.

To keep things simple, your character is an individual. Pick one, not two. In my case, this is the Marketing Manager, CMO or CEO. For further simplification, create a persona. My character is a female CMO, derived from one of my former assignments.

Please notice, my ‘hero’ is not perse the only reader or target audience of my book and this blog. Writing for senior-level does not exclude the content and social nerds to read and learn from it.

Problem

This is in line with the needs of the character. Donald Miller divers the problem into four sections.

• Villain: to give focus and a conflict. ‘The villain should be a root source. Frustration, for example, is not a villain; frustration is what a villain makes us feel. High taxes, rather, are a good example of a villain.’ For my storyline, the villain is the expensive agency for (short-term) content production. My CMO pays them big bucks without knowing if the content works to get (long term) more business or sales.
• External problem: ‘If we own a restaurant, the external problem we solve is hunger. It’s usually pretty obvious.’ My CMO needs to tell the brands’ story to compete in today's market.
• Internal problem: ‘The purpose of an external problem in a story is to manifest an internal problem.’ My CMO is already convinced of the urgency, yet she doesn’t know how to do it. She struggles with the ‘how to’ tell their brand story with content. Where to start? How to make it a success? What do I need? How to keep the production as cheap as possible? How not look like a fool?
• Philosophical problem: ‘this can best be talked about using terms like ought and shouldn’t. ‘Bad people shouldn’t be allowed to win’ or ‘People ought to be treated fairly.’ In my case ‘brands ought to stand out and be different than their competitors.

Guide

That’s me! :) Two simple elements to fill in and boost my ego.

• Empathy: show I care. ‘I get it can be complicated and overwhelming to create content and use social. And explain your budget spend to the board’. ‘In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king’. It is pretty difficult to differentiate between content marketing and social media cowboys in today's market.
• Authority: me being me. My track record speaks for itself with 20+ years of experience for 35+ top-notch brands and agencies. Great recommendations on my LinkedIn, word of mouth in the industry, keynote speaker on amazing international events, and me being a jury member for WARC and AMMA. For that last part, being asked as a freelancer to participate in a jury, is pretty amazing. Normally only the big agencies with great clients, or the great clients with big budgets are asked for a jury.

Plan

‘Content is no rocket science’ sums it up for me. I explain how I work, describing the steps I take when working for a new client. As there is no golden nugget, this is not set in stone. It is bespoke, and it all starts with a coffee and a deep dive into the issues the CMO faces. Accordingly, keeping things simple I develop a clear roadmap on how to use content to stand out and connect to their audiences. From strategy to execution with team, tools, and processes to secure it for the long term.

CTA

Taking my CMO by the hand. There are two CTAs.

• The direct is ‘call me now for a coffee and free 30 mins session’ Me giving away my knowledge and experiences for free. You have to seduce and make them curious before you can sell.
• The more indirect, the transitional CTA is to give your knowledge away in a download or a sample. For me, free content on thinklikeapublisher.com and the PFDs with the content collected.

Success

If the CMO works with me, she gets a feasible and realistic content and social strategy. Clear and simple, no rocket science, understandable and comprehensible for all. Silo and department agnostic and that honors the brand and reflects the identity. The separate content and social campaigns add up to the bigger picture. And they individually contribute to the overarching brand story and identity.

She feels in control by having an overview in planning, and able to measure success and progress by receiving reports on KPIs. And easy to explain to her peers. Her fear is vanished: off-brand content or unintended touching on reputational issues.

Avoid failure

If you do not hire me to help you with your content and social strategy, you will…

• Have no overview of planning: what content is published when by what department using which channel
• Have no overview of budget: how much money are you spending for production and distribution
• Not be accountable: you cannot measure the ROI on your efforts
• Become invisible with sub-par more-of-the-same content. You do not stand out compared to your competitors
• Hire expensive agencies jumping from campaign to campaign without an overarching story
• Not being sure all your content is on-brand according to the brand identity and guidelines

Next step

Now you have your storyline and you are ready to tell the world in one catchy oneliner what you do. This oneliner is your marketing message, your elevator pitch, your explanation of what you do. This actually exists of three elements: their problem, your solution, and their success. 

Want to know more

Credits were credits due. Get the book ‘Building a Story Brand’ by Donald Miller or go to stroybrand.com to buy his seminar. He applies his own techniques pretty good and I almost bought his services. Reason for not buying, COVID-19. After 2020 my financial resources for educations are pretty much evaporated.

Content is no rocket science

Let's be honest, content is no rocket science. It's all a matter of common sense, keeping it simple, focus and planning. With a few basic principles: 

• it is about your audience, it is not about you
• it is about balancing brand content and activation content
• it is about having an overview of how all your digital channels work together
• it is about what content do you like yourself; on what content do you click, and what do you skip
• last not least, define what you want to reach with producing and publishing your content: KPIs, 2 to 4 maximum

Add some macro and microdata. Set up your stakeholder management and keep them on board with easy and frequent reporting. 

Act now

Deep dive into this website. Or let's schedule a video call for a free 30 minutes content consultation to discuss your struggles and possible solutions. Don't hesitate and send me an email right now. 

Help wanted! May I pick your brain? Lots of us are struggling with the organizational setup. The 'howto' with the team, the roles, the responsibilities, and managing expectations. Having central ownership with the mandate to secure quality in production and distribution.

I am doing research amongst the most amazing top-notch brands and agencies. Humble and hungry, I am looking for more and more input. Could I kindly ask you to share your knowledge, experiences, and pitfalls?

Only the participants receive all detailed insights. An edited version for external publication, something with confidentiality. As this is a research on the personal title, by participants and by me. 

Client-side insights and agency input is very welcome.

Content organizational setup topics

A few of my questions and food for thought:

• In which silo is your content and or social department? Marketing or comms, global or local, central or decentral, own or allocated budget, etcetera. 
• Where in the hierarchy is your department? Directly reporting to the board of somewhere down in the line? 
• How is the setup of the content and or social team? Names and numbers. 
• What are the roles and responsibilities of your content team? And how to claim, maintain and manage these? Being a pirate, devil's advocate, or an implementing entity without a mandate? 
• How to manage those ‘disobedient’ co-workers? Call out those who produce and publish content at a varying level of quality.
• How to enable the continuous education of the team in our fast-paced content and social industry? You never have enough time. And keeping track and staying up to speed in our industry is a very different ball game than for marketeers or comms people. 
• Your tips and tricks for team management. My so-called “Coffee & Content” sessions. This is a check-in with your team for personal and professional happiness.

Share your insights

Wanna join and share your insights? Please email me at fleurwillemijnvanbeinum@gmail.com.

The interview is informal, takes about 1h via video call.

A little disclaimer

This research is on a personal title. It is not related to my current assignment. Nor is there a commercial perspective. The output is not sold to any company. I am doing this to collect and share knowledge to help each other on topics we all are struggling with. If I do write a public content item, the participants review the piece before publication. And they can decide to have their insights published anonymously.

Photo credits: Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

Do your visuals create curiosity, do they tell a story by themselves, do they pop from the screen, and are they irresistible to take another look and maybe even click on it? 9 Out of 10 times, the answer is 'no'. Most brands excel in predictable, dull, boring, not distinctive visuals. You actually are invisible to your audience. The branding department is the only one who is delighted and ecstatic -- mostly because they created these visuals. 

In the meanwhile, the marketing team is looking for more variety, diversity, and a bigger stock. For visuals, more actually is better. Having a lack of enough visuals for content is one of the biggest frustrations, at least what I heard.

And even worst, some marketers still rely on the copy to grab the attention... they could not be more wrong. Let alone the reviewing of the social post on desktop or in word, and not 'in situ'. Meaning, not in the same flow as when your audience thumbs through their social timeline on mobile. Fast and vertical on a very small screen. 

How to fix this? A few pointers to create more impact on social and look professional at the same time. 

Visual requirements

First things first, a reminder for the requirements for great visuals to be used as a companion for the copy. No rocket science, we all know these, yet we tend to forget them in the daily business. 

• Thumbstopping power: is this something you yourself would click on during the endless scrolling on social.
• Evokes curiosity: sparks an 'I wanna know more'. 
• Tells a story by itself: looking at the visual makes you curious and or inquisitive. You get a feeling 'I want to know more', especially in combination with the caption or title. 
• Is emotional. All content must add value: emotion or knowledge. If the visual is just there for decoration, rethink. 
• Enhances the title or caption. This is all about the combination between the copy and the visual. The visual should add value to the title, and vice versa. It is about the teamwork between these two that creates magic. If the title is merely describing the visual, it's boring. If the visual is just a visual representation of the title, it is equally boring. 
• Easy to digest: on mobile you have 1.5 seconds to grab the attention in the social timeline. 

Thinking out of the box, a visual can also be a text, a meme, or a statement. Or an infographic. Play with your title or caption and see what works best for your post. A visual doesn't always need to be an actual visual.  

How to get your visuals

The next step is to create your own database. And you do not always need to invest big budgets. 

Produce your own

The most expensive option. A professional photoshoot is expensive. Not only in budget for the photographer and editing. Also, the time needed to think about what kind of visuals you want to produce and how and where you are going to use them. Please do not forget to include the specific social formats in the briefing: vertical, square, and adorable on a small mobile screen. 

If you are a smaller company with less budget, think about producing your own visuals. A visual doesn't always need to be produced top-notch to be engaging. In 2021 a bit more raw, authentic, and DYI feeling can spark more than the professional version. 

Stock

Please, step away from the usual stock images. Be creative in your search. Invest the time in your quest. The world is crowded with boring stock stuff. Yet stock can be an amazing source for visuals if done correctly. 

Take a deep dive down the rabbit hole. Expand your search with the synonyms of your brand values. Search on colors. Try combinations.  And if you find a photographer you like, check their portfolio. 

You can go paid, like Getty. 

Free stock and a great platform for amazing talent: Pexels, Unsplash. 

A complete overview of 16 free-to-use stock websites.

Make them your own

Once you have your (stock) visuals, make them your own. Customize. Adjust. Crop. Focus. Play and have fun. Be distinctive and make sure you stand out. 

Be inspired

Easier said than done to be creative. Once you are drowning in the daily business and down to your neck in the brand you will have a hard time looking outside in.

My fix is to turn to social to be inspired. With all the brands and influencers wanting my attention on Instagram, this is also an amazing platform to be inspired by how others excel with their visuals. Equally for the other social channels like LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, Snap, Twitter, and even Facebook. 

When I stumble upon a visual that grabs my attention, I save the post. Once I need inspiration and to step out of the brand comfort zone, I scroll through this section. In the meanwhile, I have over 1.000 posts saved and growing. Time over time again it makes me smile, I always get new ideas and insights to improve my own content. 

Once you got some of these posts saved, you can also turn to the 'search' section. The social algorithm serves you with more content like what you already saved. 

Next hack, in the search you can use # to discover more content. Try it out, click, be inquisitive, and be surprised. Save it and repeat. 

Recommendations

Me being a fan of IG, a very small selection of my favorite inspirational handles worth following. Click on their posts and check out them having fun with words and images (or videos). 

Emotional. Passionate. Proud. Engaging. Enthusiastic. Authentic. On brand. Sometimes a bit raw. From the big commercial brands, top chefs to the influencers.

instagram.com/siredmondgin/ can you discover their themes? And how they have fun with stock? At the same time promoting their Gin without being pushy. It's is the lifestyle, not the product. 

instagram.com/baileysofficial/ how a big commercial brand knows how to share their passion for their product and inspire me to have fun with Baileys. 

instagram.com/jamieoliver/ His passion for food is just mesmerizing. 

instagram.com/nigellalawson/ Same as for Jamie. Her engaging passion for food and preparing the food. At the same time, she inspires me to be creative in the kitchen. 

instagram.com/natgeoyourshot/ Just great visuals from all over the world. The visuals all tell a story by themselves. 

instagram.com/thomas_iceberg/ He makes me want to go climbing. At the same time, he is pretty commercial as an influencer. Yet his content adds value by giving me an aspirational sneak peek into the mountain life. 

instagram.com/ortovox/ Great brand with a passion and pride for their product. Yet, their story is about mountaineering and sustainability and not the commercial side. 

instagram.com/fuckologyofficial/ Great examples of how copy can be visuals as well. Don't be offended. 

Credits for the visual in this blog

instagram.com/lindameixner/. This girl knows how to produce great engaging visuals and share her passion with the world. I kindly suggest you follow her if you love skiing and the outdoors. 

Before diving into the three differences, first two observations. 

Fact: we are too slow

‘Compared to the East, we are too slow in capturing the opportunities ecommerce offers.’ 'We need to speed up to implement the available technology.'

There is no need to explain people buy more online. Not even to mention the exploding sales numbers of Asian mobile commerce, in value and in volume. Asia is leading the way, notably China.

In the west, you need many different apps, and the experience of seamless shopping is frankly quite broken: inspiration, information, actual sales, fulfilling the payment to finally the confirmation. Nothing compared to the all-in-one-experience in WeChat. Where content and commerce offer much better integration.

Fact: ecommerce still stands alone

In 2020 we continue to define ecommerce as a separate silo, not at the core of the business processes.

Sounds fuzzy, to be more clear: in many cases, there is no integration between the marketing department that is responsible for the content, and the ecommerce department that is responsible for the sales. Instead, there is a focus on short-term marketing campaigns with (vanity) KPIs. We jump from campaign to campaign. We still do not measure the relationship between the content on the year-on-year overall sales impact. 

In short, there is no inter-departmental KPI to measure the success of the content efforts, measured in the most important business metric: sales. There is no long term holistic view of how the content production budget and allocated media budget actually contribute to the business objectives. Of course, there are companies that get it right. But these are far and few between.

Three opportunities

Jacco continues, ‘there are three differences that hold us back: the company silos, lack of integration, and suboptimal usage of data.' Just being aware of these differences, is the first step to fix it.

Unfortunately, there is no quick and easy plug and play fix. The change is in the mindset and it takes time to build a new organization and the processes that go with it. 

Null the online and offline split

In line with the observation that e-commerce still stands alone. This is a mindset in the business processes and organizational structure. ‘There still is a split between online and offline. Between digital and non-digital.’ How often do we see a job posting for a ‘Digital Marketeer’? As if not all marketers are digital these days.

I would like to add from my own experience that ‘we, the slightly older generation', who were the pioneers in internet and e-commerce, embraced ‘online’ as a new exciting and separate channel. Our current generation does not know these pre-internet days, they do not differentiate between online and offline. And they don't care. 

We try to bring the ‘offline’ towards the ‘online’ by starting a ‘digital transformation’. Yet as long as we use the term ‘digital’ for this ‘transformation’, we have a long way to go. Using these words, we still make the split between ‘digital’ and ‘non-digital’.

And that split is exactly what we want to eliminate to transform into and seamless integration.’

This digital non-digital split is also noticeable in commerce. Having ecommerce as a separate entity from the commerce / offline sales doesn’t help in speeding up the processes nor shifting the mindset. You need to think about consumers and journeys in an integrated way. Not in the on- and offline department.

Integrate content and commerce

Nowadays brands easily can bridge the gap between product research, product design, product content, and the consumer. Using data we have real-time insights into what content they consume and what they buy. Add the feedback loop with their reviews and recommendations and you have a golden circle with the ecommerce platform in the middle.

• Data-driven content from brand to the platform: e.g. branded content at Amazon
• User-generated content from users to the platform: e.g. product reviews

Consumers go to these ecommerce platforms to be inspired and informed first, to buy second: the gap between entertainment and transaction is getting smaller and smaller. Think about Facebook Shops or Instagram commerce as our first gentle steps to integrate content and commerce.

More simply said: as a brand, develop content directly related to your point of sales. Feed the e-commerce platform, help them to close the sale. Develop content to inspire the consumer, to explain your product in the benefits for the consumer. Be more creative than boring product pictures and the standard product description. 

And use data to feed that creativity: what are the consumers' content needs, what works, what doesn't: first, second and third-party data tell you all if analyzed and interpreted correctly. 

Better usage of data

‘How we use data is in many cases only related to the activation of content: usage, performance, optimization, etcetera.' Jacco mentions.

The opportunity lies in using that same data for content strategy, defining audiences, and the production of creative content assets. ‘Data is information and information provides insights. And you should use those insights to your advantage.’

‘We are missing a tremendous opportunity, as we are simply not integrating and combining these different data sources. Due to scattered ownership and to the costs of analyzing. We should break the silos of the data ownership between brand, agencies, and media to collect the first, second, and third party data. Analyze to get those insights. And only then write the creative brief for the agency. Not vice versa.’

'This is an opportunity, with costs companies need to pay. It requires resources, and money, to optimize your data strategy and use it for strategy, audience definition, and creative ideation. Yet, if a brand doesn’t operate in the ‘now’ they probably will not be here in a few years.

Integrate the customer insights to stay connected to the customer needs. Customer insights based on that first second third party data in real-time to define content.'

Next to this, I (Fleur) would like to add that using data in the right way, is a skill. Interpretation in the right way, and using these insights for creativity (to solve the problem) is specialized work and should be done by the specialists (at the agency). 

As a final nugget, Jacco adds…

Content is still too focused on faster and cheaper

We value quantity over quality. And that is a burden. In 2020 producing content gets easier, faster, and cheaper. Content isn’t that magical rocket science anymore. Simply said, any nitwit can produce content with the current apps and available tutorials. All you need is some (low-end) technology and some guts and you can get yourself out there. As an influencer or as a brand.

And that is the danger. Because it is so easy to develop content, mostly based on vanity KPIs, we over-focus on quantity and not on quality. Resulting in a landfill of content that doesn’t contribute emotionally to your brand, establishes your brand values, or even contributes to the business objectives. Yet another hook for a holiday or an event isn’t working anymore. We have been there and done that.

We need to think about the role of the brand at a specific moment for that specific audience: something with the right message at the right moment. And comes data into play. Again. And strategic seniority at the client-side. Yet this is a completely different topic.

About Publicis Groupe

Under the heading of a little bit of Jacco-marketing and credits where credits due... some more information about Publicis Groupe. For transparency, I am not affiliated with them and there is no financial relationship. I just adore Jacco as a professional, an expert, and as a human being, ever since our first cooperation in 2007. A copy-paste from their www:

'Publicis Groupe believes in the power of creativity, intelligence, and technology to pioneer change and become a driving force in the market.' '8 Disciplines under one roof: Commerce, data, technology, media, digital, creative, PR, and production. Thé place for powerful partnerships. Our modular setup allows our clients to have access to our expertise and tools. This way, we are able to build personalized customer experiences based on an impactful big idea. We combine creativity and intelligence to pioneer change.'

'Publicis Groupe has transformed itself from a holding company to a platform company. With one P&L, one CEO, and from one location. Organized by scalable client teams with one client lead.'

Upfront my apologies for my bold direct Dutch approach writing down the problems exactly as they are, without any softening or mitigation. 

My personal biggest frustration is that content strategy is no real rocket science, yet more often than not, done wrong and missing the point. The majority of the marketers do know the overall potential of content and fail to get a real strategy in place. They are bamboozled in the details by the fast-paced changes in the industry and the lack of short-term measurable attribution to sales.

With an apparent lack of real importance in the C-suite (read: budget) the marketing department is restricted, with the senior content people ruled out. As a consequence, they leave the strategic part to the mediors or even juniors in the team.  Which results in so-called 'content strategies' that actually are rolling yearly campaign plannings. 

Why it matters

Being accountable for your marketing budgets doesn't need any explanation. To have insight into 'why' you do content, invest media and production budget, and how the content efforts contribute to the business objectives, is quite essential. This all is secured in the content strategy. 

The unknown makes unloved. To directly improve your content strategy, all you have to do is to take these four pitfalls into consideration. 

What you will learn

A short outline of this long read with the four windows of opportunity 

• Pitfall 1: It ain't a strategy
• Pitfall 2: Mindset: silo'ed, inside-out, social only, and no end-to-end
• Pitfall 3: No data 
• Pitfall 4: No combination of media and content 

Pitfall 1: It ain't a strategy...

It is campaign-to-campaign planning in line with the Marcom calendar. Mostly an extensive bullshit loaded PowerPoint with too many slides, accompanied by an excel sheet with detailed content planning: divided into a matrix of campaigns and themes. For convenience, this is called a strategy. Recognizable for anyone? 

If you don't grasp this directly, I strongly recommend you read 'Good Strategy, Bad Strategy' by Richard Rumelt. An excellent book that feeds the mind on why good strategy matters.

In a nutshell, a strategy is: 

• How to get from the current status, the now, [point A]
• to the desired status and ambition [point B] 
• and how to allocate scarce resources, such as employees and budgets, to get there [the actual strategy]

What brand-problem do you want to solve by producing and publishing content? What is the sense of urgency? What is your ambition or objective? All evidenced by data, research, and insights. More about data in a later paragraph. 

Pitfall 2: Mindset

Silo'ed mindset

Don't know where to start to describe this... this is so common, and yet so easy to see if you have the right mindset.

Marketing produces marketing content. Sales produce sales content. Corporate communications produce corporate content. Public Relations produces PR content. Human Resources produce content to attract new talent. And last not the least, Customer Care produces webcare content. And all these silos operate on their own, with their individual planning and objective and send out their digital message to... right, exactly the same audiences. 

The customer doesn't notice let alone cares if the content is from whatever department. The customer sees 'brand' and that is about it. Place yourself in their shoes and stare at their mobile screens for all content fired at them via social, CRM newsletters, and google search. A tangled stream of messages without any cohesion and consistency. 

Solution: central planning

How to fix this? Quite simple: plan. Have central planning to align all departmental messages with a firm quality check.

This central planning is owned by an Editor in Chief or Content Director. The sole objective of this role is to publish the best content provided with media budgets to make an impact and to contribute to the business objectives (KPIs).

The 'Heads of the Departments' are the stakeholders, together with the Editor in Chief they decide what gets published when to whom with what objective. 

The quality check by the Editor in Chief provides consistency in brand identity, secures the right call to action, and is the final proofreading for any of the slightest mistakes such as technical malfunctions or typos. Next to this, she or he can be responsible for the testing and data collections to improve all content assets campaign over campaign. 

Inside-out mindset

It is very logical and in human nature that you reason from yourself, or the brand you work for. Excited about the products, you are proud to tell the features and the specs.

Yet, what we often forget, is to reason from the customers' perspective in the content. 'What is in it for them'. What is the problem your product solves? What is their need for information or to be inspired?

Solution: add an external view

Most brands claim to be outside-in, however, in their content, they speak about themselves and how great and wonderful their products are. Sucked up and blinded by the daily business you sometimes need an outsider to switch the perspective from inside-out to outside-in. An agency, a freelance consultant, or a new and fresh employee. 

From product features - to problem-solving
From descriptive - to inspire
From 'we recommend ourselves' - to user reviews 

Social only

In all honesty, the customer doesn't give a sh*t about where they stumble upon your (digital) content: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, search on Google or YouTube, or via a newsletter. 

If they don't care, why do we marketers think in channels with the focus on social as the main driver for exposure and traffic? With social being the sexiest channel, most content efforts are spent here. 

Solution: content eco-system

A content eco-system. Not another buzz word and worth to spend your time and resources to get it. The benefits are proven time over time for my clients.

It is a visual overview that helps to align all your touchpoints with a consistent and integrated message. 

• In the center is your 'content house': your owned channels: www's, apps, organic SEO. The central place where you (should) publish all your content. From branded stories to commercial activations and campaigns.
• Surrounded by an overview of the channels to get eyeballs and to drive traffic. From social to search, to performance, to CRM, to the e-shop, and to your offline touchpoints as TVC, DOOH, brick and mortar shops with POS and product packaging.

Read more on the benefits and how to create it: 'Content eco-system'.

End-to-end

How many marketers go through the entire process from content to inspire up to the actual receiving of the products bought in the webshop? Gut feeling, under 10%, maybe 5% or even less. Yet this is quite an indispensable process. End to end. From the beginning of the journey with the inspirational social content to the product on your kitchen table. 

Solution: buy it yourself

No rocket science, you yourself go through the entire process with the start of every campaign you develop. Yes, it takes time and effort. And yes it brings those ugly inconsistencies to the light. For example, selling a new sustainable t-shirt in your e-commerce shop, resulting in delivery in plastic - that is a no go. 

As a backup, you can use the content eco-system to check all touchpoints per campaign. This is an excellent overview to use your common sense if it all lines up. From the beginning with the sexy post on Instagram to the end with unpacking the goods.

Pitfall 3: No data

As everyone drools on data, it is striking this often isn't used to define the content strategy. Yes, we got tons of (micro) data on campaigns, on reach, likes, clicks, and much more. However, the 'other' more macro data with insights in the market and trends are left out. Let alone the usage of Google and YouTube data on what the customer actually is searching in relation to your industry, brand, products, and competitors.

Both a precious source of insights and indispensable to develop content that answers the information needs of your audiences. If you combine this data with your brand strategy, your 'why', and with an old school SWOT analysis, you have a strong fundament for your strategy.  

Another advantage, if your 'objective', the desired outcome of your content efforts, is based on data, you can derive your C-suite KPIs quite easily. No need to explain this reporting on main KPIs is quite essential to keep your stakeholders involved and onboard. 

Solution: search and research

Dive into the market research, the trends in your industry, keep a close eye on your competitors, and combine this with Google data. This Google and YouTube research will cost you roughly between € 7k for local and € 15k for global. Read more on 'Data for content': 'With smarter usage of Google, you can produce content your audience actually wants to read.'

Sources for market insights and trends vary per industry. Some familiar names: Forrester, Gartner, WARC, Nielsen, etcetera. 

Pitfall 4: No combination of media and content

To get the most bang for your buck on social, please combine your media buying with your content assets productions. Where most marketers and some agencies stop to hurry on to the next campaign, the game and the fun actually just begins. 

Made simple:

• Facebook knows what type of content your target audience prefers to see based on their behavior: in the hurry of the morning a short video or ani gif of a few seconds, in the more relaxed evening some longer videos and extended stories.
• Facebook knows if your audience reacts better to a blue button, a pink one, a yellow one, or even a green one.
• Facebook also knows how long your audience watches a video and if they are ready to be taken down the funnel immediately or that there needs to be a re-show of the initial add.
• And Facebook knows, based on the behavior who is more eager to click or to buy or who developed an absolute ad-blindness.

Use these insights to let the algorithm work for you. All you need is a crystal clear measurable KPI for Facebook to chase, accompanied by a huge pile of content assets. You enable Facebook to select those content assets that work the best for your KPI.

About audiences... don't be too narrow

Another thing to keep in mind when you are setting up your campaign based on a KPI: don't be too narrow in your audience selections. Let Facebook help you reach the right audience for your KPI. If you set your audience targeting very narrow based on your inside-out rationale, you could be missing out on a valuable audience that's eager to buy your product. 

Made more tangible:  Nuud is a vegan deodorant. You should presume they target only on vegans. Not. They have very broad targeting and let the algorithm select what works best. With the mindset 'if it is good enough for a vegan, is for sure is good enough for me' they found (additional) audiences like athletes, moms, and adolescents. Next to the vegans.

Read the interview with Nuud on their smart usage of the Facebook algorithm for the audience selection and how they use reviews to broaden their targeting. 

KPIs

Remember, Facebook is happy if you are happy. Because if you are happy, you will continue to advertise with them. And the only way for you to become happy with your Facebook advertising is if it contributes to your objectives. And that closes the circle, it comes back to your KPI and content assets. 

The last not the least on KPIs... please do not use the vanity metrics to steer your campaign. Step away from likes, engagement, or comments. Do your homework and make yourself familiar with the KPIs on Facebook and Instagram. Next is to consult your media agency and together you define that suits best for your campaign. More on KPIs for FB campaigns

Solution: a threesome

I do get this is quite complicated, with continuous changing details due to the fast-paced innovations in social. Please don't stick to the traditional process with the media procuration and have the content assets created accordingly.

Setup a threesome. You connect the media agency to your content production agency, 1:1 with yourself in the driver seat with your KPIs guiding the way. Set up an extensive testing plan to figure out what works best when for whom. With current technologies, the development of that huge pile of content assets to test is a piece of cake and can be done at a very low budget, and super fast. 

Final thoughts

More often than not, a brands' content strategy still is yearly planning in line with the Marcom calendar. It is a pity. Being aware of these four pitfalls in your content strategy gives you an advantage over your competitors. And to get more bang for your content buck in media buying and in production. 

If you do know your content objective and you have a strategy on how to allocate the scarce resources, you are on your way to success.

Because knowing what you want to establish, being able to keep track of the success, and be accountable ensures timely adjustments and interventions when you are getting off track. 

My Emerce talk

Unfortunately, only in Dutch available... watch my talk on the four common mistakes in content strategy. 

https://emerce-digital-marketing-live.heysummit.com/talks/think-like-a-publisher-voor-lange-termijn-content-strategie/

As the origin of this type of broadcasting comes from a passion and not a commercial perspective, podcasts are all about sharing knowledge, experiences, insights, and visions. It is about the content and not the euros. It gives you a stage to go full-blown nerdy on your niche. A unique way to build a relationship with your audience in their own personal time. 'Your podcast is selected by themselves to be consumed at a scarce and valuable moment of their not-working time.' This side effect is creating a community of like-minded listeners. Up to you to set up and use the feedback loop for inspiration or for new episodes.
 

* What to expect in this blog *

First: requirements for success
Second: business case and costs
Third: behind the scenes by Wayne Parker Kent

Requirements for success

Almost every brand is jumping on the bandwagon of podcasts. How do you create your own podcast and have an impact?

• Find your niche. Set your strategy and define your topic and sub-topics in line with your brand and values. Claim your leadership and display a different sound. Publish your own sonic magazine.
• Have one ‘golden nugget’ per episode. Meaning, one topic. And give a heads up on the catch in the intro so your listeners know what to expect.
• As all content, a podcast must add value for the listener. Why should your audience listen, what is in it for them. Keep in mind, people don’t like to be marketed. The podcast is not about you, it is about sharing knowledge, experiences, or to entertain. 
• Have a logical fit with your content on your website. Even better, provide some long read background information to create a consistent experience and emphasize your leadership claim.
• Stick to a format. Steal with pride and cherry-pick what works to create your own format. Do a few dry-runs, test it, ask your listeners for feedback, and improve continuously. Great read on formats, unfortunately only in Dutch available. 
• Create a detailed playbook. It becomes easier to stick to your format and to speed up the production. Start with the preparation of the episode, how to invite guests, and prepare them, up till the end of the evaluation of recording and the feedback from listeners and the guests. 
• Set up your distribution using your own channels, your guests, your employees, and the obvious podcast channels. Also think about partnerships with thought leaders in your industry, such as a marketing blog or publisher. 
• When developing the format, keep all distribution channels in mind. Meaning, make sure you can cut sound snippets or use written quotes to be used in social for the seeding. 
• Create an introduction champaign. The first impression counts and there is only one opportunity to launch. 
• Yet, give it time. Creating an audience and build your listener base takes time. A podcast is not a campaign asset, it is part of your long term content strategy. 
• Circle back around and close the loop. Get feedback from your listeners and guests for new topics and episodes. With your podcast you create a community of like-minded people, use that for inspiration and ideation. 
• Have fun! It is always nicer to listen to people who are passionate and who have fun, instead of taking themselves overly seriously.
• Last requirement. ‘A job well done speaks for itself’, there is absolutely no need to have your own commercial sh*t in the podcast. If you really really need to, do it where your listens expect it. In the intro when it is easy to skip. Or even better, at the end. Please don’t have any call to actions or ‘subscribe now’s in the middle of the script. Rule of thumb, don’t mention it more than two times.

I repeat... Don’t use a podcast as a disguised way to promote your product or brand. People listen to a podcast to be entertained and educated, not to be marketed to. No exceptions.

Business case and costs

The business case of a podcast is simple. Don’t expect to generate direct sales. There is no direct attribution. You create reach by sharing your knowledge and insights that add value for your listeners. And you claim your leadership along the way.

Be there for the really long term to see a revenue. That's why you need to spend serious time on your strategy and map out your topics. 

Strategy first

As goes for all content: the more effort you invest on the strategy, you more effective and efficient you can produce the actual assets.

Take your time to develop your strategy, set up the format, and define the topics. My gut feeling, you should spend a minimal two months figuring out the details and to do a dry-run. The rule of thumb for the topics, create a list of about 25 to ensure that long term commitment. 

Once you have that in place you can produce fast with a short time to market.

Budget for facility

You can start your own podcast facility for a fairly low budget. A detailed breakdown of an in-house production room is about € 1.850 for sound quality: 4 microphones, 1 audio mixer, and sound isolation materials to turn an office room into a studio. Next to the euro’s, they had an intern to buy and set up the equipment and installation of the isolations materials.

Wayne Parker Kent is a hands-on agency. When they started with 'The Brief' they were still housed in their former undersized office building. Their so-called ‘studio’ was a random office and keeps its office functionality, only during recording hours this office is converted into a studio.

They strongly advise to 'invest in a good facility from the first moment as this will improve the quality of your show. Substandard or even worse bad sound quality is absolutely killing, no matter your content excellence.' In the meanwhile, they built a professional studio where they do all recordings, for their clients and their own podcast.

Budget for production

An agency can produce your podcast, the minimal costs per episode will be roughly around € 3k. Add another minimum of € 5 to 10k for the strategy, format, and setup.

Wayne Parker Kent advises developing the concept and format together with your agency. Let them run about 10 episodes. Once you got the show on the road, move the production in-house, and save on budgets.

For their own podcast per episode, they spend about 20 hours, divided over 3 employees and the intern.

• 12 hours for research and editorial work. The key elements are to balance the topics and the outtakes over all the episodes. To be diverse and inclusive for their guest speakers. And to prepare the guests.
• 8 hours to produce: record, edit, and publish.

Please notice these budgets are indications and can vary in line with your podcast; the brief, the format, the presenters, adding music, and the complexity of the topics. In short: the usual agency budget disclaimer.

Distribution

First is to embrace all common publishing platforms, expending this in line with feedback from your listeners. Next, use your own usual channels as www, social, and email. Last, ask your guests to publish and promote their episode.

Already mentioned in the requirements for success; 'When developing the format, keep all distribution channels in mind. Meaning, make sure you can cut sound snippets, or use written quotes, to be used in social for the seeding.' 

For Wayne Parker Kent their most brilliant move is the exclusive cooperation with a leading marketing magazine. Podcast content in exchange for reach. Unnecessary to say, this can be done if the podcast truly adds value for the listener.

Behind the Wayne Parker Kent podcast scenes

A unique behind the scenes and great insights by the award-winning podcast of Wayne Parker Kent. Their podcast launched in 2016, the early adopters. They aim to give a stage to the most influential peers, biggest thinkers and disrupters in the content industry. With the sole focus to add value for their listener, not to promote Wayne Parker Kent as a content agency.

Their main reasons to start a podcast are based on research and insights in the market:

First, there was an opportunity to be the first business podcast on content marketing. The year 2016 was between the first wave and the current second wave of podcast popularity. Not one agency claimed this ‘content domain’ and Wayne Parker Kent grabbed this opportunity.

Second, the belief ‘to practice what you preach’. ‘Do not trust a content marketing agency that lacks its own content strategy’. You cannot be credible if you do not have your own content in place.

Third, their target audience of senior marketing management is hard to reach. Wayne Parker Kent defined a gap in their agendas and time allocation, the commute between home and the office. This daily hour can be used to entertain and educate their audience on the content industry. A podcast is for that specific commute the most accessible and easy to consume content format.

Last, not least. They themselves are huge fans of the podcast from the very beginning. For their format, they did their homework: have a top 3 favorite podcasts, analyze and dissect to cherry-pick the elements for their own. Their recommendations: Joe Pulizzi, Joe Rogan, and Tim Ferris.

Time spend

On and off thinking and brainstorming about the concept, finetuning, developing the actual format, and getting all the details in place, took a runtime of about four months. The actual production of the first episode was one week.

Last advice

If you are going to produce a podcast, do it well or do not do it all. Get the creative agency on board and please do not do any DIY. ‘Sounding shitty never looks pretty’.

My own experience with Wayne Parker Kent

It was great fun to be a guest in their podcast in 2017 on ‘how to develop your content strategy’. They nudged me a few weeks upfront and send me a list of questions. Nerdy as I am, I prepared all my super-detailed answers to the exact questions. Never could I have guessed they asked me totally different questions in the recording. Yet, by being prepared and their way of interviewing me, we had a natural flow and a real conversation instead of a stiff ‘talking heads’ interview.

Your first time recording is a bit exciting. Big headset, impressive microphone, three guys around me in a small studio: one to interview, a second interviewer and to moderate, and one guy for technical stuff. You do not know whom to face in the beginning. Gentlemen as they are, they helped me with tips and tricks. With the test run, they put me at ease before getting into the actual recording. Though, in all honesty, I still haven't listened to the recording as I am still anxious to hear my own voice :).

Being a guest in their podcast was a party and I loved to share my knowledge and experiences. Businesswise, I had some great feedback, and still, after 3 years people are reaching out to me.

https://soundcloud.com/thebriefpodcast/012-fleur-van-beinum-over-het-ontwikkelen-van-je-contentstrategie

Sources

With thanks to the insights and knowledge from Matthijs Tielman Head of Strategy at Wayne Parker Kent, an ‘audience-first content marketing agency’. For transparency, I am not affiliated with Wayne Parker Kent. I like them as an agency and I have worked with them a few times. In my opinion, they are one of the best content agencies out there and really put the audience first and brand second.  https://www.wayneparkerkent.com/.

Other sources
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/10/12/why-are-podcasts-gaining-in-popularity/#166c6ac75321
https://www.podcasthero.com/what-is-a-podcast/
https://mnykstudios.com/why-podcasts-are-popular/
https://discoverpods.com/why-are-podcasts-popular/ 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeirevzin/2019/03/21/podcast-trends-in-2019-that-you-should-know-about/#94805fc53e8a

Data supports creativity

Quite an open door, yet MediaMonks brings this into practice with two hands-on tips on how to get there. They speak from almost 20 yrs experience, working for top class brands and recognized by some impressive 131 Cannes Lions and 250+ FWA awards. You better take their advice and listen to them. 

First: Trust your agency

'If there is no trust, there is no relationship, and that magic will never happen.' As a brand provide your agency with your internal confidential data and those insights. There are used in your benefit. And this facilitates your agency to produce content that is way more relevant, to the point, and contributes to your business objectives. Win-win. 

Sicco explains 'this (strategic) data does in NO way hamper creativity. It is used to create a dynamic framework where flexibility and creativity are fed by data to create “bespoke” expressions -- the content assets.’ ‘This is where (content)marketing and business meet the interests of consumers.’

Second: Continue to use data

'Use this data-driven-way-of-working not only for the strategy but also for your content production. To be effective and efficient, it is important to adopt a performance-driven approach that recognizes the context in which users interact with the brand. With the note that 'it’s vital that the (content)message is designed from the ground up, to best fit its (distribution) platform.'

This performance and best-fit are measured in KPIs and real-time data. This data continuously feeds the dynamic framework to improve content assets. 'Be cheaper, faster, and better by using data to strengthen your content.' 

Not affiliated

Small side note for transparency. I am not affiliated with MediaMonks, I just like the agency. In my humble opinion, they are one of the best agencies out there. I have been working with them since 2008.  Back in those days, they saved my ass by going 24/7 to launch the website for my client within a few days. And in 2020, my clients and I are still going strong with them. Sure they got their flaws like any other agency, yet when they say they deliver, they deliver. 

MediaMonks, the content practice of S4

• How to structure content
• Data for content
• Analyse your competitors content
• Minimum viable content pages
• How to measure your goals and progress

In these blogs, you learn how you can use (free) data for your content strategy. From a reversed research on Google and YouTube to discover your audience need, based on their search queries. To analysing your competitor's content on the H1 and H2 to have a better ranking in SEO.

Including how you can be smarter with your budgets. Produce content and boost media only for those content pages that actually work. 

This data is almost for free, or at a relatively low investment. A search query on Google and YouTube will costs you a ballpark of 10k to 15k. Making a competitor analysis will cost you about 1h per keyword. Creating minimal viable content pages just takes time and effort. 

Get more bang for your buck using data.

Flipping the perspective, start with cheap minimal viable content. Use data. Then expand and scale up with expensive content for what works. It sounds simple and it is simple if you consider a few steps. 

SEO to start

Your biggest friend is data. First, you start with SEO as the main traffic driver. SEO is for 'free', no media budget needed.

Keywords

Get your main keywords in line with your content structure. Read more in 'Data for content' how to get them. 

To start, focus on one keyword or a specific combination of keywords for your pilot project. Then 'Analyse your competitors content' for better SEO ranking. Steal-copy-paste-and-adapt with pride.

Build a bunch of SEO optimized pages around this specific keyword.

Content pages

Create about 5 to 10 different landing pages for that one keyword. Each page with a different setup, different angel, different content. Variation is key. At the same time, you use 'cheap' content. The bare minimum text and visuals to answer the search query by your audience.

Minimal viable content

Meaning, do not produce expensive videos, go overboard in extensive long reads, create whitepapers, set up sales funnels, inspiring infographics, etcetera. Use an excellent copywriter and get great non-stock visuals. And you are good enough to start.

This 'minimal viable content' concept is stolen from the MVP in agile product development. If it works for products, for sure it can work for content. It is the philosophy and mindset that makes you nimble and fast to iteratively learn what works - before investing all of your budgets.

Data

Analyze weekly or monthly which pages are visited the most. Ergo, which page answers the search query and information needs by your audience. Rank the highest number of visitors, and score on the call to action.

This analysis takes time. After about 3 to 6 months you have a trend. Delete what doesn't work. Expand what works.

Now is the time to create that really kick-ass unicorn magic sparkling content. Spend serious time and money to produce this. Now it is worth the investment because you already know what works and what doesn't.

Rinse wash repeat

Do it again for the same keyword. SEO is a continuous process and does not end. Due to changes in your audiences' needs, changes in SEO, and changes in society, you always need to be monitoring and analyzing to learn and improve.

And do it again for your other keywords.

Expand to paid channels

Once you know what works, expand the distribution. From SEO to other channels as social and SEA. Now is the time to invest your media budget for boosting. 

Use your content eco-system for the overview. 

Budget savings

By producing and boosting 'expensive' content for what actually works, you can save yourself a lot of budget and time.  

SEO placeholder strategy

Very nice 'how to' by Klik Proces. Unfortunately only in Dutch available. 

• Why this works
• Requirements
• Cases
• How to implement this yourself

Don't be ancient. Do your homework before you start producing content. Three easy steps:

1. Research: Google data and other data
2. Plot the outcome on your themes
3. Competitor SEO analysis

* Warning: this is a long read *

Research: Google and YT data

A simple, cheap, and excellent check to gain insights into what your audience actually wants. In a nutshell: discover the Google and YouTube search queries related to your industry, brand and products. I promise you, you will be surprised by the outcome.

Having done this research for several clients, time overtime again, the top 3 searches revealed content needs the brand never imagined.

They all have in common that the searches relate to the ‘help’ content, the bare basics of your products. None of them had this specific content in place. The good news is, neither had their competitors…. From the different roasting processes of coffee beans, the how-to booze recipes plus hacks, to the specific details on the local road-taxes and warranty related to electric cars.

More on reverse search and the four main benefits

1. Reveal the top 3 of their concerns: what is your audience searching
2. Discover the unknown topics: you think in features, they look for solutions
3. Use the search intent to give them your solution
4. Know the volume to prevent producing unread content

Use reverse search to create relevant content

This Google and YouTube research will cost you roughly between € 7k for local and € 15k for global. With the condition, you have a crystal-clear and tight briefing for your agency. This can be your media agency or your creative agency. You can also hire a specialized data agency. Keep in mind it takes more time to brief a new agency as they do not know your brand and are not familiar with the organization.

Speaking from experience, my advice: use your creative agency. As the media agency is more inclined to develop an SEO and SEA strategy. That is exactly not what you are looking for. You want to gain insights into the audience's needs to use in your (creative) content strategy.

How to brief your agency

As this type of research is quite new for agencies, a few suggestions for what to include in the brief. Drill down the desired output and make sure they get your objectives and what you are looking for. Your executive brief should fit on 1 A4 in simplicity. If you need a death-by-powerpoint-deck, you have to learn to brief. The better your brief, the better the outcome.

• Objective: insights for content strategy
• Themes: list of topics you want to be found on
• Keywords: industry, brand, and product
• Competitors names: stick to main competitors
• Countries or region: stick to the most important
• Language(s)

Don’t include the details of your audience or personas. Keep it open to discover.

Ask the agency to do broad research. The goal is to find out if there are more keywords or specific combinations used. Can these be grouped, is there a common theme, is there a trend? What are the top 10 searches for your industry, brand, and your competitors?

Research: Google Analytics

Do a scan of your website and deep dive into the GA. What are the most and least visited pages? Include the origin of the traffic in this overview, the internal and external sources. This gives insights into how your www is actually used and what generates traffic.

This research often reveals a dis-balance between your content production and the actual audience behavior. If the majority of your content is on product features and the top 3 pages are ‘sustainability’, ‘marketing campaigns’, and ‘contact’ — then you have some amazing opportunities to stand out and to be distinctive. And you have some work to do.

Research: Google content needs

Research by Google and Kantar (2018) reveals the needs of the audience for the content. In a nutshell, there are six categories: ‘surprise me’, ‘thrill me’, ‘impress me’, ‘educate me’, ‘reassure me’ and ‘help me’. Note these are consumer-focused and not product or feature focused.

Plot your existing content and planned content against these categories. Do they line up or are you way off track and too much inside-out focused? Again, to create an impact with your content, your audience's needs are central. That defines what they actually want to read. It is not about you as the brand and about your products.

As Vogue wanted to increase their online readers base and their reach, they flipped their perspective. Research amongst their readers revealed their content needs. No surprise these align with the Google categories.

With some local differences in the order of importance:

1. Inspire me: the minority of actual content — most wanted
2. Teach me
3. Entertain me
4. Keep me up to date: 38% of actual content — least read content by the audience
5. Make me socially responsible: 2% of actual content — 53% of the audience wants this
6. Connect me

Easy to change category

There is no direct need to produce new content once you know the preferred categories. It is easy to adapt the ‘keep me up to date’ to ‘inspire me’ content. First, write a more inspiring title, and second, showcase different perspectives and points of view in the text itself.

Please view the talk by Sarah Marshall, head of audience growth by ‘Vogue International’ to get all the insights and details.

Research: Customer care and webcare

This department has the first line of (social media) contact with your audience. They know as nobody else what triggers them, their questions, and frustrations. Use them as a source to define what content is needed.

A few years ago, I was responsible for the setup of the new in-house webcare department for an insurance company. As sitting next to the boys and girls, I was reading and listening in on their conversations. Noticing the majority of the cases were questions by pregnant women on the insurance coverage.

Presuming our clients preferred to be independent and actually not wanting to chat with us, and presuming we do have these insurance conditions and fine print online… we concluded that our www-information was too hidden and scattered on several pages. And when the content was found, it was not clear enough. Hence, we did the content audit and rewrote the existing content. Furthermore, we created a merged overview-page with all pregnancy-related information. Provided with a short url and a targeted social campaign, we decreased the workload on the webcare team by significant numbers.

Plot the outcome on your themes

Pretty much an open door, you should use these insights to (re)define your themes to structure your content.

Imagine, you are a coffee company and the research shows your audience wants to know the difference between arabica and robusta, light roast, and dark roast. This could be your first theme to explain the basics of coffee beans. 

The same goes for when your audience is looking for how-to and recipes for a cappuccino. And they want to know the difference between an iced coffee and a cold brew, or a ristretto and espresso... here you have your second theme.

Read more on 'How to structure content'

Competitor SEO analysis

Once you know what content to produce, check out your competitors, and how they rank on SEO. 

Sneak preview how-to:

• Open an anonymous window in Google,
• type in the keyword and
• make a list of the first 10 content items.
• Check these pages on their H1, H2, and url,
• use these insights to produce your own content accordingly.

Me-marketing

If you want to hit the ground running with content strategy or do data research, don't hesitate to nudge me for help. With over 20 years of experience and helping great inspiring international clients, happy to share my knowledge and experiences. 

• 📱+31 6 245 03 999
• 💌fleurwillemijnvanbeinum@gmail.com
• or check my LinkedIn

Source and credits

All on the Google research with the six audience's needs and the Vogue example is stolen with pride from Cor Hospes in 'De zes contentbehoeften van jouw publiek' hope it Google translates. Next to the Vogue example, Cor also explains how BBC World Services nailed it and an interesting SXSW talk by BuzzFeed. Great read and he is worth a follow.

With mobile first you presume your audience grabs their phone and visits your website. With social first you flip the perspective from your 'end' to their 'beginning', from your website to their timeline. From a rather egocentric 'outside in', to a customer-centric 'inside out' mindset.

Produce content with their 'beginning' in mind, social content on their mobile. That is where your audience is triggered to come to your website. Create your content based on those expectations and preferences. 

Mobile first is still an illusion

We claim we are mobile first, yet the common process is still to focus on the desktop. Mobile more often than not is still derived and the adapted version. Flip this process to become more audience focussed. 

By default, develop your mobile website first, then followed by desktop optimization. On a more operational level, this means that all concepts and sketches for UX and visual design should be in iPhone or Android format.  

Social first content eco-system

Data tells about 60 to 80% of the traffic is on mobile. From a marketing perspective, most of these visitors come from organic and or paid in, uhm, social. Check out the content eco-system for this website and how I publish and distribute the content of my book. In the heart is the iPhone, not the desktop.

As I seduce and drive the traffic on LinkedIn, Twitter and Medium, I know most of the visitors are on mobile. Social is fast and easy. Hence my content also should be fast and easy in line with the rhythm and characteristics of social.

Social drumbeat

Social savvy content on a mobile website means sticking to the social drumbeat. Short reads, easy to scan and digest, fast-paced and pleasant on the eye with clear formatting and bold writing. Short. Simple. To the point. No fuzz.

High-end versus low-cost

These days of the corona crisis learns us that it actually is about the message, the content, you produce. The low-cost content that is pushed out there right now, beats the high-end professional produced posts. It is not about how beautiful you content looks, it is about what you want to tell. And if that is a bit more unpolished, a bit more raw and authentic, it actually adds to your credibility as a brand. 

Long reads

You can have long reads, just stick to the same formatting and writing style as for the short reads. When the content is relevant and adds value, people keep on reading. There is no rule about a specific number of words, the only golden rule is relevance and easy to digest.

Read more on 'Long-form content on the rise'

Visuals

The visuals enhance the message and merge seamlessly with the headlines. Exciting composition, clear and crisp colors and no boring stock. The main message and promise of the content in the headline and subtitle. The important stuff first followed by the fluff.

Read more on 'how to find great visuals'

By the way, having social first content also has benefits for the not-social visitors. The easy to digest and fast-paced requirements for social first content assets also work for visitors coming from Google or newsletters. 

In reality

This all sounds pretty common sense and clear. In reality, more often than not, brands and agencies still develop for desktop first, mobile second. And they do not combine the production of the content with the social drumbeat that delivers the traffic. The fix is easy, start with social and finish with mobile. It is the pace you adopt, not your message.

Explained by example

Let me explain the concept first before going into the theoretical details. With something almost everyone personally can relate to 'how to lose 15 pounds'.

All the credits to the podcast 'Chasing Excellence, '#116 Turning broad goals into concrete action' by Ben Bergeron. Stolen with pride. I have written down a part of his show, edited to improve readability.

Turn a broad goal into concrete actions

'How can you turn a broad goal into what you can do today to achieve it? How to have a system of accountability that allows you to be effective on a regular basis?'

'One of the solutions to make things happen is accountability.' 

First step 'Why'

'You begin with the higher level ideas. the ‘why’ behind it’. For example: ‘I want to get in shape’. Ask yourself 'Why do you want to get in shape?’

‘You have to answer that question first. You can’t leave it at that. Because what happens is that, if your 'why' doesn’t hurt enough, you are not going to do it.'

'You have to figure out, what it is you are trying to solve. How important is that to you? If it is something like ‘I need to get in shape because if I don’t …' or 'I need to change my lifestyle, if I don’t, the doctor said, I am going to die in six months.’ That’s a pretty big why. Most people in that situation change what they are doing.'

'You have to start with a really big thing, with a big why. If the why is not big enough you will not be as successful as you could be.'

'You need a big why to withstand some struggle and adversity along the way. And you are going to be excited to be held accountable along the way.' 

Second step 'get specific'

'From there you need to get specific. From motivational qualitative specific metrics (mission and vision) into specific objectives to narrow it down to one thing. What fires you up and gets you out of bed. From there, break it down into smart, measurable key results.'

'Have between 3 to 5 goals (and key results).'

'Then you break these goals into quarters, as landmarks. You can hold your attention for about three months. And at the end of these 90 days, you have a quarterly check-in and you ask yourself how you did. Schedule this in your google calendar en hold yourself accountable.'

'This is the magic. This is the accountability everyone else is missing when they make New Year's resolutions goals. They start and they are going for ten days and then the end of the year comes up and ‘I don’t really remember what they were…’

'Every single quarter you are going to check in to see if you are tracking to hit your one years’ and you can have different quarterlies along the way.'

Example: 'How to lose 15 pounds' and your why

'For example, you want to lose 15 pounds this year. The first question I ask is ‘why?’, Because what you created there is the metric. I don’t know if that really gets you geared up or not. So ‘why do you want to lose 15 pounds’?'

‘I want to lose 15 pounds because I want to look more confident on the beach.’

‘Why do you want to look more confident on the beach?’

‘Because I am looking for a romantic partner.’

‘Now we are getting to something, this is actually a meaningful thing. You want more confidence. It is not about those 15 pounds. What you want to do, is to have more confidence to find a potential partner. Now we are getting to your real ‘why’. What we do is to spend some time formulating this, that resonates, that’s real. Losing the 15 pounds is one of the things to get to your end goal, finding that romantic partner. Now we have the why behind that.'

We got two things now:

• the big overarching thing that makes it a bit sexier and rememberable: the why is to 'find a romantic partner'
• the specific objective is to ‘lose 15 pounds next year’

Objective and key results [OKR]

'From there what we do is to define ‘what do we believe we need to do in the next 90 days to get there’. Break it down into quarterly objective(s). And put these completely inside your control. 'You can’t just say I need to lose 5 pounds. We need to turn that objective into actionable and controllable things that are going to help you lose those 5 pounds, your key results. 

'The 90-day objective is to ‘lose 5 pounds.’

'The corresponding key results are what you need to make sure you do, to lose those 5 pounds in that quarter.'

 What are the things you must do that are totally in your control?' Your key results can be, like, ‘no desserts’ or ‘no eating out’ and ‘working out consistency’. Now, let’s make these three super-specific and measurable.

• ‘You are going to CrossFit 4 days a week’
• ‘you are going to eat out only once a week’
• ‘no desserts except for Saturday night’

The secret is the check-in

'Now we have this... Every single week, at the same time, we are going to check-in. With a coach, with a business partner or with yourself. We are going through your key results and track how did we last week. And you are going to hold yourself accountable.'

'It is amazing what checking a box does for people. It is amazing what social pressure can do. This is the secret sauce.'

'You go through the specific results: ‘done’ or ‘not done’. If you have a miss, talk about why you missed that. Now we are doing something, we are solving an issue. Than we are getting to that cause again, zoom out and ask ‘why’ you had a miss.

‘It was really tough.’

‘Why was it tough?’

Pull it back a few dominos and we might find things like obstacles we didn’t even realize; like ‘my schedule is this’, or ‘we are not grocery shopping enough’ or ... we might find so many things. Now we are solving things along the way to clear the obstacles that allow you to achieve your goal. And become accountable on a weekly basis.

If you rinse, wash, repeat that process, 12 times over a quarter, we get to the end of the quarter and we do another check-in. Depending on the result, create the next set of accountabilities for the next quarter.

Find you why, define your goals and the specific actions within your control to get there. Track on a weekly basis. Figure it out the obstacles and solve them. Take ownership yourself. What is causing them and then make the changes.

The power is being accountable

The power is in the peer pressure. Being accountable to some else, to do this in person, look them in the eye and say ‘I didn’t do that’. We, human beings, feel the responsibility towards each other to follow through to our word. It creates a lot of accountability along the way. (Not saying you cannot do it on your own as well.)

This is the secret to get your business to move forward, This is the secret to get your yearly goals and resolutions, to move the needle for you personally. You need to answer on a weekly basis if you are doing these things to achieve quarterly objectives that stack up to your one year.

OKR theory explained

A simple goal setting system and to keep track of your progress is the ‘Objective and Key Results’ [OKR] methodology. It describes your ’what we think is important and why this is important’ plus ‘how do we get there’. In the meanwhile, it smashes those nasty departmental silos. 

In all honesty, the terminology 'OKR' falsely appears to be a buzz word. It is anything but. Continue to read and give it a go, it really works and moves the needle. From business objectives into personal objectives. I tried and tested with a project for the Olympics Tokyo 2020 and writing this book.

This OKR methodology blew my mind. I never heard about it and it feels like the best-kept secret. 

Simple and transparent

I like it because of its simplicity, transparency, openness and no-nonsense approach. It gives a tangible measurable direction with accountability and clarity. As all is written down, openly communicated and available for all employees in the company, everyone knows what everyone else is doing and can help each other.

‘With the eruption of social media, transparency is the default setting for our daily lives. It’s the express lane to operating excellence. Yet at most companies today, goals remain secrets.’ This OKR methodology embraces this transparency to enable the entire company to work towards the same goals. Everybody knows the projects the others are working on, therefor it also becomes easier to say ’no’ to requests that are not in line with your OKRs. It makes objectives objective, written down in black and white.

This is used by brands like AOL, BMW, Disney, Dropbox, Exxon, Google, Intel, LinkedIn, Oracle, Samsung, Slack, Spotify, and Twitter. If it works for them, for sure it can work for me and you. Described into detail by John Doerr in ‘Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs’.

Objective 'what'

You set your objective, ‘what’ is the most important for the next three, six or even twelve months. What will move the company — and you — forward. The attribution to the business value has to be clear, otherwise, there is no need to invest time and effort in the objective.

Ideally, you stick to 3 or a maximum of 5 objectives quarterly to keep your focus. Significant, concrete, action-oriented, and inspirational. And have one owner for the accountability. If your objective doesn’t fit in one line, it is not clear enough. If you wrote it down in 5 minutes they probably are not good, think.

First, you set the company OKR, than for the team followed by the individual OKRs. By being open and transparent on all objectives from top to down, the entire company can truly work as a team. And help each other.

Key Result 'how'

This is the ‘how’ you are going to get to the objective. Very detailed and specific and time-bound, aggressive yet realistic. Most of all, measurable and verifiable. Describe the desired outcome, not the activities. Mostly a maximum of five KR’s is what you need to reach the objective.

Four benefits

The four direct benefits of the OKR methodology is to bring focus and commit to priorities, to align and connect for teamwork, to track for accountability, and to stretch for amazing.

Time path

• 4–6 weeks before quarter: Brainstorm Annual and Q1 OKRs for Company. Senior leaders start brainstorming top-line company OKRs. If you’re setting OKRs for Q1, this is also the time to set your annual plan, which can help guide the direction of the company.
• 2 weeks before quarter: Communicate Company-wide OKRs for Upcoming Year and Q. Finalize company OKRs and communicate them to everyone.
• Start of quarter: Communicate Team Q1 OKRs. Based on the company’s OKRs, teams develop their own OKRs and share them at their meetings.
• 1 week after Start of quarter: Share Employee Q1 OKRs. One week after team OKRs are communicated, contributors share their own OKRs. This may require negotiation between contributors and their managers, typically in one-on-one settings.
• Throughout quarter: Employees Track Progress and Check-in. Throughout the quarter, employees measure and share their progress, checking in regularly with their managers.
• Near end of quarter: Employees Reflect and Score Q1 OKRs. Toward the end of the quarter, contributors score their OKRs, perform a self-assessment, and reflect on what they have accomplished.

An example by Intel

Objective: ‘Demonstrate the 8080’s superior performance as compared to the Motorola 6800’

Key Results:

• Deliver five benchmarks. Develop a demo.
• Develop sales training materials for the field force.
• Call on three customers to prove the material works.’

Another example

Objective ‘Win the Indy 500’

Key Results:

• Increase average lap speed by 2 percent
• Test at wind tunnel ten times
• Reduce average pit stop time by one second
• Reduce pit stop errors by 50 percent
• Practice pit stops one hour per day

Read the book

This is just scratching the surface with the essence described in a nutshell. On my personal recommendation, read this book, try it for yourself and never look back. ‘Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs’ by John Doerr

Finding a publisher is damn difficult. Honestly, getting denied time over time again isn't that bad, feedback improved my writing and made the book to what it is today. Yet, what is content if it doesn't reach the audience. If the knowledge stays on my computer, nobody benefits. Hence, flipping the perspective and practicing what I preach, I decided to publish by myself, online, piece by piece. 

Week by week I publish the individual chapters and paragraphs of my book. Each has its own release, indexed by tags. Use the tags or bounce from release to release. You can bounce from release to release by using the tags, you can search for topics or you can just go with the flow and read what resonates. 

At the end of each chapter, you can download the PDF with the collection of the releases that create the chapter. Below you find the first part of the first chapter. Available in low res (1,5MB) and high res (45MB).

Content of the first chapter

Foreword and outline, Basics and fundamentals for content, It starts with a belief, 3 Key takeaways for content excellence, 4 Elements of how to think like a publisher, How to set up a newsroom, How to find great visuals, To blog or not to blog, Share content from others, 'How to keep your CFO on board for brand-building' by Les Binet, Your why and leadership, The content basics and fundamentals, Cross-silo content, Long term brand building content, Content pledge: contribute to business objectives, Content painpoints, 'Epic content marketing tips' by Joe Pulizzi, Start up to scale up, Sense of content urgency, We hate ads, Be Distinctive, 'Character Gives Respect' by G-Star RAW, 'Content to stand out' by Flinders, 'Stick to Your Brand Voice' by WodBottom, Build a brand before products, Reputation management, Brand safety and content.

Soon to be published in this chapter

Content to contribute to business objectives, Set your KPIs, Reporting Tips, Measure progress with OKR, Fill the top of the funnel, Use a brand persona for content consistency, Sonic identity and content, Podcasts and how to make your own, Social first, The audience first for the best content, Learn them something new, Content follows media spend, Create a threesome: content, media, and production, Common content mistakes, Data and content

More to come within soon, stay tuned on LinkedIn or twitter​

They are taking over the CrossFit world by storm. With a strong and fierce brand, they make that emotional connection. Their base is in the USA and they have a dedicated EU shop. It all started online and expanding to pop-up and bricks and mortar shops. A basic collection with sold-out limited editions, excellent customer service, and strong social content and advertising, they rock big time. 

What is special about their brand, how did they developed it and what we can learn?

Key takeaways 

• It is about a long term view and mindset. 'Make the pie bigger and not make our slice bigger. If we get more people doing this, our slice by definition gets bigger.’
• Build a brand and create content before you have products to sell. ‘Once we had the name NOBULL, it became a filter that guided everything.’
• Recognize that the product specs are not enough to become relevant and to have an emotional connection. ‘It is not about you, it is about them, your customers and their needs. Most of the times a product is created and then sold to people. Start the other way around, first the needs and use those as a filter to develop the product.’

Stolen with pride from the podcast ‘Chasing Excellence’ 'The Origins of NOBULL' by Ben Bergeron, ‘a show dedicated to dissecting what it means to live a life of excellence, both inside the gym & out.’

I have written down a part of the interview, edited bits and pieces to improve readability. 

Entrepreneurial long term mindset

‘Reebok is coming back with an incredible offer.’ Without the slightest hesitation, the response was ‘go with them.’ ‘What they are offering, we cannot match.’

‘And what is better for them, is better for the sport. And if it is better for the sport, it is better for us in the long run.'

'That is such a long term view. Instead of what is better for us this week, this month, this quarter, … , it is about the long term. This is so refreshing because it is about making the pie bigger and not to make our slice bigger.’

'If we get more people doing this (CrossFit), the slice by definition gets bigger.'

‘They get it.'

Why NOBULL had to build a brand before they had a product to sell

[Ben asking] 'You were building the brand before you had the product. Most of the times people have a product and then start to build the brand on top of it. This is flipping it. You have the ethos first, and then find the product that fits. How did NOBULL do this?'

[Markus answering] 'It came from the name. Once we had the name NOBULL, it became a filter that guided everything. And that became the whole mentality about being a brand for people who train hard and have no excuses.'

'It is within the product. We try to keep the product simple and it performs with you the way you need it to - and nothing else. Once we had that then we could start to set that mentality. And that drives the content and everything else.'

Content creation before they had the products

'From the very early stages, even before we had the product, we developed content. You can be very creative in the way you shoot things. You could not see the shoes they were wearing, you can set the tone. You couldn’t necessarily see what the product was, but you can feel it.'

'We did this a lot out of necessity. Because once we started working on it, we had the timeline for launching and we did not have the products. When we realized the product was going to be delayed even more, we were forced to be more creative around the way we talked about the brand and the mentality.'

'The very first piece of content we created was for the factory, a 60’’ spot. Their response was ‘wow this is different and this is exciting’. And from that moment on everything started top-pick up a lot faster.'

Become relevant, recognizing that product spec isn’t enough

'How do we become relevant within the CrossFit space? We were not thinking about how we are going to compete (with other brands). We were always thinking about what we are going to say, and what connects with us.'

'One thing that was very clear for both of us (founders), …, we felt like brands talk about ‘where our products, our shoes can make you run faster, jump higher or make you stronger’. And we didn’t agree with that.'

'The only thing that is going to make you faster, stronger, any of those things, is you to put in the work. That is where the NOBULL mentality 'no excuses' comes from. And that is connected really well in the broader Crossfit community.'

Build an emotional brand connection

'Building an emotional connection to a brand and not relying on the product specs. Therefore you need to build a brand before you have the products. You have to fuse it with emotion to make it work.'

'It is not about you, it is about them, your customers and their needs. Most of the times a product is created and then sold to people. Start the other way around, first the needs and use those as a filter to develop the product.'

'For NOBULL the needs (of the athletes) are about stability, durability and there is no reason it can’t look good. That was the filter for the materials.'

'We went to look for the materials, the upper for our training shoe, the ‘super fabric’. It is a highly durable material, a military-grade material. It makes a lot of sense for everything we are doing in CrossFit with rope climbs and super stable for Olympic lifting we do. It came from a purpose around the need were going to be.'

'Above and beyond you need connection. That the people you are speaking to, feel that you get them. If your message is about you, there is no connection. Nobody is really excited to go out to lunch with somebody who constantly talks about themselves, they want to find about you and if you speak to them and their needs matter. That is where the connecting starts.'

Video and visual credits:  https://www.instagram.com/nobullproject/ , first posts June 2014

Don’t claim the obvious leadership elements the others in your industry are claiming. That is the recipe to be forgotten. There is already more than enough of the same. There is already more than enough clutter. Find your own expertise and create a unique combination or take a different approach.

Nobody is as interested in you as you are

‘Marketers, like all humans, believe everyone is as interested in their work as they are. Leading to ads that fall at the first hurdle by taking it for granted that they will be noticed.’ ‘Prioritise being noticed above other goals. If you fail there, everything else is academic.’ And ’smash your category’s norms’. Source: MarketingWeek

Don't give in to mediocrity

Go for excellence. Don't settle. Don't give in to mediocrity. Just 'good enough' is not good enough. Because there is already so much out there that is 'good enough'. Aim for something you are really proud of. Is your content something you would like to read, view yourself? And what does it do to you? If it doesn't touch you, make you smile or give you knowledge... think again and start over until it does.

Golden rules

A few golden rules to stand out and show your brands' personality, especially on social.

• Grab the attention from the first moment. In the social feed, you have like 1,5 seconds to stand out and be noticed.
• Have a super clear brand communication in those first 1,5seconds. By preference, your logo as this is a brand cue and distinctive recognizable asset.
• Make sure your message in your content is very clear. Don't be mysterious or pretend a cliffhanger. Social likes clarity. Easy to consume and digest. Spell it out. When you get a bit tired of it yourself, only then your message will probably land with your customer.
• Don't forget about a call to action. This can also be a feeling, provoking a sentiment or thoughts beside an action like a click. It has to be clear for your customers what you want them to do after consuming the content. Having a 'dead-end' in your content is a waste of budgets.

Together you know more

If you are not sure about your content, listen to your hesitation. Always do a check with someone else. Not only on the copy, typos, also on the message and the quality level of your content assets. Use our own common sense and ask yourself 'would I thumb-stop my scrolling social feed on the iPhone to watch this video?'

Be different

Most brands claim they are 'innovative', 'open', 'honest', 'caring' - to name a few usual suspect values. How does your 'innovative value' differs from the 'innovative value' from your competitor? You can be distinctive and different on the operational level; by the actual words you use, the language you speak and the visuals you post.

Bring your brand and your values to live in the content assets. Do not stick to the overarching value descriptions, get down to the operational level of the content producers. Give them real-life examples of the actual words to use and the hallmarks for the visuals and videos. 

Be minimalistic

Stick to who you are and don't make it too complicated. Minimalist branding is a trend, connected to the art trend. Copy-paste from Medium 'Next to being clear, it is also visually appealing, with a focus on being straightforward en essential. With Marie Kondo’s hit books (and her Netflix show, Tidying Up), brands are going to start asking themselves, “Does it spark joy?”

If you cannot explain your distinctive identity in a few simple words than you probably don't understand it well enough. 

Read more on being distinctive

• Character gives respect by G-Star RAW
• Stick to your brand voice by WODBottom
• Content to stand out by Flinders

A belief that content is essential to build your brand by providing stories to your audience, based on their needs. With the purpose to give value before getting value. That means you have to invest before you can generate sales. Courtship before closing the deal. Show and tell with pride and passion who you are and why you do what you do. If done authentically, you can capture their minds, souls and in the end their wallets. The belief comes to life with these two conditions: time and money.

You have to be in it for the long term. There is no such thing as a quick fix. It really takes time to build your brand, create awareness and generate reach on digital. Some brands are fortunate to have a flying start with one social campaign. This is a lucky shot and pretty damn difficult to repeat and keep up for that important long term. Think about a year minimum to build some kind of trust and relationship with your audience. The focus of your content is about 60% long term brand building van 40% short term brand activation. [Les Binet and his work for the IPA]

What you pay is what you get. If your budgets for media buying and content production are limited, you will get limited output. You need money to generate money. Next to non-working for production and working budgets for distribution, you need a team. If you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys. Invest in your team with a senior strategist. You just cannot expect integrated excellent successful long term content if you work with just interns and juniors.

More firmly said: If you do not have this firm belief with the support from the C-suite, plus the significant budgets, then forget ‘content’.

With the move towards digital marketing, and specifically programmatic advertising, brand safety has become a growing concern for marketers and advertisers, and its importance has increased. Major brands have responded by cutting advertising budgets and pulling their ads off online advertising and social media platforms after finding their ads were placed next to undesirable content.' 

Often misunderstood

Brand safety is an important hot and often misunderstood topic. Explained in a nutshell: some brands avoid YouTube and other social user-generated content platforms to prevent that their content is placed next to extremists. Living out of fear, brand safety measures can limit your reach and disturb the success of a campaign.

Please, do take brand safety seriously, however, do not go overboard. Implement it in the right way and get the specialists on board. If you do spend the time and efforts for the setup, the limitations on your campaigns, brand safety can be negligible.

How to: white and blacklisting

You can control some of your distribution with the ad placements by white and blacklisting complimented by the keyword lists. These are ’living’ overviews. Owned by the brand and are set up together with your agencies and must be updated frequently.

Yes, the obvious porn, cruelty, vulgar, rude, abusive and brutal must be avoided, the details and specifics for your industry, brand, and product are absolutely bespoke. 

Be prepared

It is not a matter of 'if', it is a matter of 'when'. Some day your brand safety will be an issue. And the press will smell a juicy story... Better be prepared for when that sh*t hits the fan. Embed the brand safety in your content team. End responsible is the Editor in Chief, with direct lines to the Crisis Communications management. Read more on Reputation management

You cannot control everything, you can control how you react to it.

Frame It

Sharing third party content is quite simple once you know the trick. You just need to frame it. Tell your audience in your own words why this content item is worth reading or watching. Quote that golden nugget and highlight what is the most valuable. Stick to a few words, very short and simple to trigger your audience to read the entire content item.

Keep your audience in mind and make it easy as possible for them. If it has an excellent video that captures the essence, share only the video with the credits and the link to the original source. Don’t be lazy and make an effort to why and how you share this content. 

Give credits

Don’t be an asshole. Always give the producer of the content the credits. If feasible, let them know in advance you are referring to them. ‘Giving credits’ sounds like a no-brainer, in reality often forgotten. Intentionally or not, once discovered you not giving the credits, you have almost unrepairable reputation damage by breaking the trust.

Practicing what I preach, a big chunk of this book consists of content by others. Over the last 10+ years, I collected, resumed, framed and structured all that great knowledge on content. Why reinvent the wheel and doing the same as everybody else? I am being distinctive by bringing a different angle and claiming my leadership by giving a new or overarching vision.

You can use social media to build a brand. There are a few requirements and rules to follow to make it a success. Perfectly captured by Callum McCahon, Strategy Director at Born Social. Callum has done his research and homework on how you can use social to build your brand. A shameless copy-paste-editing of his work, enriched with an interview. Callum is not only an expert, he is also a pretty awesome dude.

Five rules of brand building

‘The tools for social might be different, yet in reality, it isn’t that new, shiny and different. The fundaments did not change. The ultimate job is to influence decision making. Take a long term view and set your strategy as the brand building doesn’t happen by accident.’

1. System 1 and system 2 - Daniel Kahneman in ‘Thinking fast and slow’

Our brains work in two different ways. 95% of the time we think fast, using system 1. Like being on autopilot, responding immediately and using instinct and intuition.

The other 5% we think slow, using system 2. when we have to stop and think to arrive at a rational decision. This is based on logic and takes effort. It is about rationality and reason. This is where the more rational campaigns work best: talking about a product, pricing, and reasons to believe. This is where the short term sales activation campaigns are the most effective.

Yet, if you want to build a brand, system 1 is the place to focus, where we spend the majority of our time. You want to influence this fast and automatic decision making.

2. The long and the short of it - Les Binet and Peter Field

Short term sales uplifts come from sales activation campaigns. These are rational and designed for immediate response. Short term sales uplifts don’t lead to long term growth. To build a brand for long term growth, you need to involve the creation of memory structures that prime consumers to want to choose your brand.

In short, long term brand building is to focus on the long term brand growth. This is done with brand-building campaigns. Designed to generate fame and prime us emotionally. Long term means long term, a matter of years, not months.

3. Cultural imprinting by Kevin Simler in ‘Ads don’t work that way’

In his article, Kevin makes the case that advertising doesn’t work through inception, by planting ideas in the subconscious. Advertising works through cultural imprinting. A shared understanding within a society, of what the brand means.

The mark of a strong brand is when everyone has the same understanding of what the brand means and what it stands for. In short, brand building has to work on building and reinforcing the collective understanding of the brand.

The catch is that this cannot be done on a one-to-one, personalized level, as everyone has to buy in on the same idea. Brand building is about building a collective understanding.

4 Growth through penetration by Byron Sharp in ‘How brands grow’

His book explains how advertising really works, by building a set of 7 rules about how brands can achieve growth. Two are important for social.

First, brand growth comes when you gain more buyers. Most of them are light buyers, who buy occasionally. Growth is not about getting your existing and loyal heavy buyers to buy more. Combine this with ‘growth comes through penetration’.

So, if you want to build a brand, you focus on reaching all the potential buyers in your category, continuously and in the most efficient way possible.

5. Be distinctive also by Byron Sharp in ‘How brands grow’

Second, be distinctive and to stay on top of mind. Distinctive brand assets are crucial to brand building and need to be reinforced time over time. Get noticed and do this consistently. In this way, you increase the mental availability of a brand, that the buyer actually thinks of your brand in buying situations. It takes years to build this recognition by being distinctive.

Being distinctive is more than your logo. It is your brand cues like color, the tagline of the specific style of advertising. Unique to your brand and famous to be linked to your brand.

Impact on current beliefs for social

Keeping these 5 rules for brand building in mind, the impact is huge on the current beliefs for social as a channel. From audience or follower metrics to engagement KPIs and micro-targeting beliefs. If you want to use social to grow your brand, a few pointers by Callum.

1. Audience growth doesn’t build brands

Applying the ‘brand growth by increasing penetration’ by Byron Sharp means to focus on reaching all the potential buyers in your category, not only the heavy ones. Yet, by nature of the characteristics of social, it is mainly the heavy buyers, or fans, that follow a brand. Meaning, if you want to grow your brand, you need to think beyond growing your followers. Focus on all your potential buyers in your category. Think broad and use the media budget for reach.

2. Engagement doesn’t build brands

The engagement rate is a common key metric on social. If you zoom out, think about who are the people who are most likely to engage. Your heavy buyers, your fans. And to actually engage, you can presume these are probably the heaviest of the heavy buyers.

Even Facebook doesn’t see the value of engagement as a key metric, based on research:

- less than 1% of people engage on Facebook. Most communication happens in the dark social

- engagement and clicks bear no correlation to brand metrics as recall, awareness or purchase intent. Just because something is engaging, it doesn’t mean it is effective.

3. Micro-targeting doesn’t build brands

Think about ‘cultural imprinting’, for a brand to grow, it needs to exist in the collective consciousness. All of the potential buyers need to have a shared understanding of what a brand means and stands for. Micro-targeting with personalized messages conflicts with building this shared understanding. Point made.

How to build a brand on social

Creative

The creative is not about the creativity and execution itself. It is about the right types of content. You need a threesome: fame builders a few times a year, short stories a couple of times a month and distinctive cues a couple of times a week.

Fame builder content. To build brand fame. By making work that creates an emotional reaction and touches your heart and soul. This is the ‘hero’ piece of creative. With your most effort, time and budget allocated. You need like once or twice a year. Make it outstanding. Relative long-form for social, optimized for full screen. This builds a collective understanding and reaching all your potential buyers.

Short stories.  Pretty self-explanatory. The objective is to tell a story. These work to reinforce brand fame, and integrate the distinctive brand assets. Short means short, like 10 to 15 seconds. Best produced in an integrated production with the fame builders. For alignment and for optimization on the production budget.

Distinctive brand cues. The goal is to keep your brand top of mind and foresting the mental shortcuts (in system 1). It takes creativity to balance the recognizable distinctive brand assets and be creative for social platforms. Notice these brand cues only work as a reminder and cues, if you have built the brand fame and short stories.

Media

Pay to play. Organic is dead. Quoting Born Social 'media means first to make sure to reach most of the potential buyers in your category, at the right frequency at the right costs. Second, you need media to ensure that you are reaching these people in the right places in order to achieve maximum effectiveness.' For more media details, see Callums great deck, slide 27 and onwards. 

Measurement

A no-brainer this is super important. Though, when it comes to social, most key metrics are very short term and campaign-only focussed. As a brand, you need to break out and keep the long term brand building metrics in your view. Track your metrics over a longer period of time and over several campaigns. This goes for your creative and for your media.

Resume

You can build a brand on social, if you understand the game, keep a long term view, and have a strategy and planning in place.

Amazing work on 'Brand building on social' by Callum of Born Social to bring the work of Kahneman, Les Binet, Peter Field, and Byron Sharp together and apply this to how brands are built on social. Please reach out to them for more information and how they maybe can help you. shout@bornsocial.co.uk or +44 (0)2033933290.

I am not affiliated with Born Social or Callum. Sharing this because this is too good not to share.

Strangely enough, most brands do not have this basic content in place. A brand that claims to be sustainable yet doesn't tell about sustainability in their 'about' pages or in the job descriptions. A brand that claims the benefits of dairy consumption, yet they don't even tell why they believe drinking milk is good for you. A brand that is into coffee, yet does not even have the number 1 search query 'how to make a cappuccino' on their ecomm pages. Just a few examples. 

When that sh*t hits the fan in times of crisis, or simply when journalists are just looking for a good story, the press deep dives into your content. Once they smell something juicy they dig even deeper. You better have all your content together because you will never know when this happens.

3 Simple rules 

There are three simple rules for proactive reputation defending content. 

1. In line with your ‘why’. It is your core and explains your license to operate. If you lack this content, you are not credible and do not have the ‘proof’ of your reason for existence. 
2. It takes time to build a solid base. And it is not a one-off or a campaign. Don't wait for the perfect story and the perfect pages. Small steps ahead. Just start, build and expand over time. Most often forgotten: audit and re-evaluate continuously to keep this content up to date.  
3. Non-commercial. No discussion.

Business case

Due to the lack of a solid immediate business case, producing this type of content for your online reputation is a challenge. Keep in mind, the costs of a crisis always are much higher. 

A few tips: developing this type of content is a long term investment and you don’t have to do all at once and go big. Next, this type of content is mostly in line with your help content. Joining efforts between corporate communications, public relations and marketing silos pays off in re-usable content. 

1. Be distinctive

Know your ‘why’ you do what you. Show and tell your passion and pride. Set yourself apart from your competitors. Dare to be different and stand out from the crowd. Don’t make nor be ‘more of the same’.

2. Takes time

In general 1 to 3 years before content adds to your business objectives. Balancing your content between brand building and brand awareness is key and it takes time. Be patient to tell your brand story that unfolds over time and then delivers results. Expecting direct revenue from content is not realistic.

Those exponential exploding start-ups also start with building their brand awareness via content. All based on an insight into the market and on data. Basics first before skyrocketing.

3. Listen 

Really listen to your audience. Tapp into their daily lives what they need to solve their problems. And adjust your product and communications to provide them with an answer. Use data from Google, YouTube, FB and IG audience insights, web analytics and your internal sales data. Use customer care and webcare, they are the first line of contact. Use Facebook Groups, anonymous and don’t dare to interfere. And then, use that information to understand and implement, not to reply.

Bespoke

Last, not least, it is absolutely bespoke. There is no such thing as a one size fits all content model for strategy and operation. It is custom made for your brand, organization, wishes, needs and available resources.

There is no black or white straight way forward one size fits all. There is no ‘good’ or ‘bad’. That only exists in fairytales. Content is fifty shades of grey. Adapted to each and one’s desires.

If anyone tells you about that golden content nugget, think twice if you want to work with them.

Four main elements, once the corresponding content is online, I add the link

1. First, build some solid basics and fundaments with a firm strategy and identity

2. Second, create a content structure based on data and using tags, themes or topics

3. Third, set up a central and agile content team

4. Forth, get your tools and processes in place

Finding great visuals is one of the most difficult parts of writing. You want to stay away from the obvious usual suspect stock imagery. Your own supply is limited or, even worse, outdated. And create new bespoke visuals takes time and eat budget. How to get great visuals, by preference something original and for free? 

Free stock images

For sure there are a lot of other websites for free stock. My go-to website to find stock images is Pexels, if I cannot find it there, my back up is Unsplash. For free. Original. High quality. Daily updated. Videos included. No more words needed.

• Pexels
• https://unsplash.com/

A complete overview of 16 free-to-use stock websites.

Search for images

If you are searching for images on a regular basis, I recommend having your search-list in place. A search-list is a simple list with requirements and guiding principles. I always start with a keyword in line with the key message of the content item.

Taking off from there, using synonyms, clicking on suggested tags by the image website. And do not forget to browse the other images by the photographer of the images you like. You can add some of the magic and special keywords you use to the search-list for when you are stuck. To make this a bit more tangible and operational, my list:

• Requirements:  Happy. Light. Fresh. White. No people, nop portraits, no children, no bodyparts, nothing human, except for the interviews. No buildings, no city images. No words as these are an awful UX combination with my headlines
• Guiding principles: beach, dunes, sea, water, (tropical) animals, happy nature, botany, white flower, spring, white or pale tones, vintage. Feeling happy, bright, exciting, passion, sparkle, white, sunny, colorful
• Keywords: vintage, toys, white, minimalism

Edit stock images

My final tip for great visuals is to be consistent in your editing. By enhancing the lighting, shadows, saturation, and other colors, you can create your own style. Next to that, be consistent in the cropping. Always applying the 'rule of thirds' for a more exciting visual. Just google on 'Photography rules'. What works for old school tradition photography, for sure also works in digital.

I have my (Keynote) template in place to crop and size.  As a regular website does not need high res visuals, I simply edit the visual and make an export. Adjust the name and upload it into PressPage newsroom software. You can build a template in Photoshop. For me, being a bit lazy and cutting corners, Keynote is easier and quicker. 

Last not least, have fun. Do not be too serious. Play around with the cropping. With the colors. Try and experiment. Surprise yourself and your audience with creativity. Having fun shows off and people do notice. 

Definition newsroom

In short: it is the central place where all news-related content comes together. The objective of this content is to inform, not to sell. Hence, originally the target audience for the newsroom is a bit different than for the .com. It used to be focused on the press. You feed the journalists with news with the objective the write about you. However, the world has changed.

From .press to .newsroom

In our digital days, the audience for the newsroom and for both departments is broader. Your external communications are not limited to the power of the press anymore. As a brand, you become your own publisher. Communicating with the broadest audience thinkable. From the traditional press, financial stakeholders, to interested customers, fans and followers, up to the skeptic frenemies. No need to further explain this, is there?

The impact on how you communicate is accordingly. You use your newsroom to show and tell your passion and why you do what you do as a brand. The most convenient way to bring structure to your newsroom is to use the topics within your content structure.

Nike newsroom

A great example by Nike with about.nike.com linking to news.nike.com. In the ‘about’ they bring their passion and their ‘why’ to live and explain what it means for them. Clicking on e.g. the topic ‘innovation’, it brings you to the latest news in the newsroom, arranged by tags.

Airbnb newsroom

Another best practice is news.airbnb.com. Mentioned before, they are doing an amazing job by arranging their content with tags. Up to date with recent content. Easy to digest and navigate, and written in a consumer and press-friendly tone of voice. Next to all this, their newsroom is alive and breathing. Keeping an eye on them for several years, I notice changes in their tags and how they bring structure to their (news) content. In line with slight changes in brand identity, they adjusted their newsroom accordingly.

Have fun

A newsroom never is written in stone. You have your content structure as the fundament. Improve and optimize by learning and doing. If some tags do not fulfill the needs of your audience or by you, simply change them. Play around, have fun in publishing your news and capturing your audiences’ hearts.

Requirements for your newsroom

To get yourself going on the newsroom, a few basics have to be in place:

• Your content structure with tags, themes or topics.
• A modern and digital content savvy corporate communications and public relations department. Sounds like a no-brainer, in practice these two departments often tend to be a bit more traditional.
• A silo-agnostic mindset and culture. Use, abuse and re-use the content produced by all departments. You will be surprised how much of the content from marketing is relevant for corp or pr and vice versa. The same goes for HR and talent recruitment. Join the efforts with a central overview.
• A tool. You can build a newsroom yourself, or get some SAAS software for a fraction of the price. In all honesty, a bit biased, I a big fan of PressPage. I stumbled upon them in my search for newsroom software and pleasantly surprised by the platform and features. It takes a few weeks to set up your own design and UX, some days to learn all the tricks and then you can start publishing right away. From start to finish you can be live within 6 to 8 weeks.
• Distribution. The great thing about a tool like PressPage is that you can integrate your distribution in one-click-go. And you can make use of their worldwide press database, GDPR compliant.

Visual mindset for newsroom content

Publishing via a newsroom needs a different mindset and assets. It is visual. Therefore you need visuals. And getting engaging qualitative visuals can be a burden. And to combine the visual with the text, that's a skill. One that makes the difference.

This all sounds pretty simple and straight forward. In reality, it is a shift in mindset and ways of working. This takes time to learn, yet is absolutely worth the effort. And please... please stay away from the stock. Using the usual suspect stock photography does more harm than good. Insider tip: give communities like pexels.com or unsplash.com a try for free amazing visuals.

As you are sending out your news, use this moment to inspire your audience in the broadest way. Not only with your news item itself, but you can also combine it with related relevant content items. To touch, to educate and sometimes even to sell. For example, if you send news about a new travel destination, combine it with the top 10 tips for great restaurants at the same destination. Or combine with a long read on the cultural history of the destination. Easy does it. The more information you provide your (press) audience, the easier it is for them to write about you.

Next step

Once you have made the internal decision to embrace this new way news distribution, just start. Inspire the corp comms and public relations department with those best practices. Deep dive in the PressPage information to educate yourself.

Setup the requirements as mentioned above. Get a dedicated content consultant on board to get you started. After the newsroom and structure have been set up, this consultant is obsolete and can hand over the work to the daily team.

Steal with pride, learn from the best, and copy-past what works for you.

Not affiliated

In all honesty, I am a bit biased. As I publish my content via the PressPage platform. They provide me with their software for thinklikeapublisher.com. Yet, me being enthusiastic about their services, is not affiliated in any way. There is no fee, no kickback or any financial compensation other than me being the lucky bastard using their software for free.

Read more on PressPage 

Stand out with your blog

If you want to blog, you have to have an outspoken opinion and vision on the subject. Be distinctive. Add value by giving knowledge and insights that are not out there (yet). Quality over quantity. Spend the effort to create the content. Do not talk about yourself. And for sure do not try to sell something.

Blogging is providing information that teaches your audience something new. And is best done in a sequence to create impact. Give your audience a reason to return for more.

If you cannot fulfill all of these requirements, it indeed is a waste of your time and energy.

Blog or vlog

Everybody is all about video. Yet... N=1, based on my own preferences, I prefer written blogs over video vlogs. Maybe I am too lazy. Maybe I am too impatient. Maybe I 'consume' content better in writing. I don't know. I do know I like to select my own pace to get the insights. In a text, you can scan and cherry-pick. In a video, you need to align with the pace of the producer. Next to that, it is pretty damn difficult to produce an engaging video that is beyond the 'talking head'. Not even to mention the challenge to have a clear qualitative and pleasant sound that is 'easy on the ear'. And what about those subtitles? 

Keep in mind where and how your audience likes to consume content. Be rigorous and honest about the quality of your vlog. If you have the slightest doubt, probably, so does your audience. 

Last not least, for SEO you need those written words as the Google spider cannot access a video. Hence, if your preference is a vlog, do not forget to write down the essence if a few sentences to be found via Google. 

Why I blog

Why I run this sort of blog on thinklikeapublisher.com? Easy. I want to share that great knowledge and those amazing insights into the content industry. In one place. Only the best from the best. I decided to give them my stage. Instead of me reinventing the wheel, becoming vanilla, and battling for attention in the overcrowded content world. By collecting and sharing the knowledge from others, I claim my leadership that I know what is trending and what is next.

WARC: One of the things that we've heard out of the WARC Toolkit survey is that (marketers) have a challenge making the case for long-term brand investment to convince the CFO, who is dubious of giving that money for something that they can't see is working straight away. How do they make that case?

Binet: “The first thing is to start talking the language of finance. We don’t help our case when we talk about brand-building in terms of awareness, image and ‘touchy-feely’ terms. Brand building is about selling. It’s about revenues and cash flow, but it’s about durable revenues and cash flow, over longer time periods. We have to help CFOs to understand that some marketing activity gives you an immediate short-term delivery of sales,”

Over-reliant on performance marketing

WARC: We’ve recently seen Adidas and eBay acknowledging that they had become addicted to performance marketing and were looking to make a change. How do you think some of these enormous brands have become over-reliant on performance marketing?

Binet: “The addiction to the short-term is not a new phenomenon, but it has got a lot worse. One of the problems is that (for) short-term activities, you get immediate feedback: responses, clicks, or short-term sales. If you are a marketer who's spending money and nervous about what you're getting for your money, you can immediately see that this stuff pays back. It's become easier and easier to see these short-term effects because we have more granular short-term data that comes through faster and faster. With the arrival of e-commerce in particular and digital metrics in general, all of the business is now afflicted by the same problem. All businesses now have short-term metrics, which can distract them from long-term growth. I think that's the real reason why business is becoming a short-termist. It's not quarterly reporting. It's not the short tenure of marketers. It's the data.”

Key metrics

WARC: Is there any specific metric that a brand should be looking for as an indicator that they should make a change? And if they do make that change, what type of metrics seem to see the most improvement?

Binet: “The most important metrics to look at first are financial and business metrics… If you got a strong brand, you will see it in the financials. If you've got a weak one, you'll see it in the financials. The most important brand metrics are to do with sales, profit, price sensitivity, and hard financial spend.

WARC.com

These and more great insights in the interview by WARC

For those who are unfamiliar with WARC, it is an amazing research platform with the best insights and publications on everything that's happing in the marketing world. As they say themselves 'Let’s save the world from ineffective marketing. At the heart of all great marketing is an insight. At WARC, we have the most trusted insights based on evidence enabling your work to be effective.'

From own experience, not cheap to get a subscription, worth every penny.

This is a non-sponsored nor an affiliated post. Sharing this because these insights and this platform are too significant not to know.

‘The more difficult it is to produce the content, the easier it is to stand out.’ ‘The more difficult it is to obtain content about products or brands, the higher the margin. And the less competition there will be…’ And that is exactly what Flinders does. By stepping up and raising that bar. 

The secret of success is the content Flinders creates. The numbers speak for themselves. In just 8 years from the launch of the website in January 2011 to the amazing flagship store in Zaandam (2000m2), Flinders Cafe Groningen, warehouse (9000m2) in Amsterdam, Design Studio Gent. Geert-Jan adds, all shiny and proud, that Flinders is awarded as the ‘Best Furniture Shop’ of the Netherlands in 2019. With an expected sales volume of € 24 million in the same year. 

In-house content team

They mix the traditional product shots provided by the furniture manufacturers, with their own in-house produced content showing the room setting and giving inspiration. The problem with the traditional shots is that is lacking that information for the customer to make a well-funded decision.

‘Yes, It is very time-consuming to make your own content. Especially the images. One shot of a nice room setting can take up to one day. But then again, that makes it possible to differentiate ourselves from the other furniture webshops.’ ‘The content you create and collect should be high res and flexible in size and form so that it can be used for every channel, platform, and social medium.’

The third source of content is the customers themselves. With the MyFlinders program, they collected 700+ inspirational user-generated pictures. Uploaded by the customers with #myflinders. Starting in 2017 the in-house photographer visits their most inspiring homes to extend this content. Used online and in the magazine. Priceless content to tell the Flinders stories and to help sell the products they love.

The Flinders extensive in-house content team consists off

• 2 Copywriters
• 1 SEO specialist
• 1 Visual designer
• 1 Social Media Marketeer
• 1 Trendwatcher and Photographer
• 1 Photographer

The Customer Care and Advice Department give advice to the content team. From insights on the type of interior and furniture advice, the customers are looking for, what information is missing on the website, to how the website should improve from the customers' perspective.

All these content assets are used in the online and offline formats. From obviously their website, with all the product content, trends and inspiration chapters, advice and room setting modules to their print magazines. They even provide interior advice at home. Including taking care of all the hassle that comes with buying and placing new furniture. Flinders is the data-driven e-commerce platform adding value by giving inspiration and providing 'retail as a service'.

Three tips

Use data to set your product and content strategy.

Flinders focuses on the data first. Not on the furniture. Do your research on what your audience is looking for to develop your product inventory. And use the brands to create the Google and YouTube search volume and traffic to generate immediate sales volume in your webshop.

Another really valuable often overseen source of immersive data is the Customer Care department. Involve them for the insights on the first contact with the customers. Align these two sources with the Google trends and the international Furniture Fairs — and you are setting up for success. 

Have your PIM in place

The Product Information System is the heart of the brand. Filled with their own and supplier content. By working closely together with their suppliers, the basic content like pack shots and life pictures are provided in a format that can be uploaded/connected right into the PIM (API, XLS, feed).

Every piece of content is tagged with multiple labels and topics. This is a hell of a job, painstaking and a monumental task. This can be partly automated. However, with the devil in the details, the manual check of all the tags is what makes the difference. 

Content needs attention

After a year your content becomes outdated and definitely needs to be updated. Plan this within the daily operation as it takes a lot of work. Do not only focus on the production of new content.

Source: Flinders, MyFlinders program, Flinders tag on IG

Use 5 words

Made simple, if your consumer is standing in the supermarket to buy a product, they look a the shelves and have an overkill of choice. Why should they pick your product? Explain this in a maximum of 5 simple words that even a child can understand. If you cannot explain your ‘why’ to a kid, you maybe don’t understand it yourself.

Ask 5 times 'why'

To get to the real core of why you do what you do, ask five times why the brand produces the products they sell. Once you get the first answer, ask it again, and again, and again, and again. Not easy and pretty annoying to answer. You will notice that by the fifth time, you get a very operational, clear, free of jargon answer that captures the core. This is the fundament on which you build your story and content to showcase your passion and enthusiasm for your brand and its products.

This technique is originally developed by Toyota to get to the core of a problem. Why not apply this to get to the core of why you do what you do? Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys

Leadership

‘You do not lead by hitting people over the head. Any damn fool can do that, it's usually called 'assault' - not 'leadership'...I'll tell you what leadership is. It's persuasion - and conciliation - and patience. It's long, slow, tough work.’ By Dwight D. Eisenhower, stolen with pride from Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi.

‘A thought leader is an individual or firm that is recognized as an authority in a specialized field and whose expertise is sought and often rewarded.’ (Wikipedia).

First step: know

The first step to claim this leadership you have to know your ‘why’, and needs to be in line with your purpose or mission. Pretty obvious you cannot claim to be the expert in a specific category if you do not have this in the heart of your ‘why’ and the brand.

Second step: claim with content

The second step is to claim it with the use of content. If your audience is looking for information on your category or industry. Create that content based on their needs and just make sure they can actually find it on the world wide web.

Be that leader and demonstrate your knowledge. Show your authority, help potential consumers to find what they need and empower them with your knowledge (to get their business). The key in this is to produce content that breaths your passion and enthusiasm in a non-commercial way. This type of content forms a part of the ‘Help’ layer of the YouTube HHH model. Content with a very long lifetime, with a solid basis in your website, easily found via Google with a solid presence on YouTube. This content is also the basis for your ‘always on’. It can be reused, and republished time after time. Worth the effort and investment.

Third step: consistency

The third step is to be consistent. Claiming your leadership is not a one-off. Nor is your leadership build on one campaign. It is all about your continuous effort to ‘prove’ your claims with content.

The ROI of content question

What if the C-level asks you for the 'ROI of content'? The answer is not what they want to hear, it is that you cannot measure exactly what the return on investment is for the content, there is no 1:1 attribution, probably you do not have a model in place to measure this attribution, just because it does not really exist. You can measure hard sales conversion coming from a (social) post of the content item. However, the growth in your likability by showing your passion and enthusiasm, your ‘why you do what you do’ as a brand, that is something you can not measure in short term hard data.

Why not answer this ROI question with a straight answering question: 'What is the value of thought leadership for our business?' 

Practical, Easy and Low Budget Tips

• Use customer feedback, surveys, comments on social media posts and insights by the webcare or customer care team to create more content on your category or industry. Include these departments in your Editorial Board.
• Use Google and YouTube keyword search queries. What are the first and second keywords your customers are searching on in your category or industry? Make sure you implement these in your actual content themes, see chapter 2 on ‘Structure’.
• If you are having problems to convert the marketing sales message into leadership content, shift your perspective from ‘sales’ to ‘teaching’. Teaching through content is one of the easiest ways to connect and to give empowerment to your customers. Simply by adding value for them.

Sources: Content Marketing Institute newsletter - May 2017, https://marketeer.kapost.com/build-authority-content/

The icky sticky truth is that you have to start with your basics. Without those, you are on your way to failure.

60% of content created by brands is ‘just clutter’. The majority of content created by brands is having little or no impact on business results or people’s lives, according to Havas’ latest ‘Meaningful Brands’ study. A study from 2017, my gut feeling tells me this has gotten even worse with the rise of content.

Creating content is like learning to walk before you start to run and go for that marathon. A long term effort with learning by doing, continuous training, ongoing evaluation, and improvement. With a ‘fail fast, adapt faster’ mentality and with some ‘stealing with pride’. If you start in a sprint, for sure you will not make it to the finish line.

Hence… First thing first.

Before you even consider creating content, please make sure you have your basics and fundamentals in place. Failing on those basics, it is like building a straw house that gets blown down by the first storm. Or even worse, your little content straw house might even collapse by itself.

What you need for content basics

Stay tuned, the articles on how to do this are soon to be released. An overview of the basics and fundamentals for effective and efficient content:

• Your why: why do you do what you do as a brand
• Your leadership: the domain you want to claim
• Who you are: develop your brand persona
• Audience first: add value for them and solve their problems
• Business objectives driven: content should always contribute to the business objectives.
• Budget: content follows your media spend
• Create a threesome for budget optimization: brand - media - creative
• Why content fails with the most common content mistakes

Content is more than marketing. Content is a combination of all (digital) communication efforts to create effective and efficient storytelling to capture the hearts and minds of the customers. Content is to show and tell who you are as a brand, why you do what you do, what excites you and makes you ticks. It's a bit like tutti frutti, pick and mix and make the best combinations. 

The Wikipedia definition of 'content marketing' has two major elements, ignored by most brands:

1. It builds trust and does not involve direct sales
2. The main focus is the need of the audience

Department agnostic

Content is department agnostic. Meaning, the customer does not differentiate between content from Marketing, Sales, Corporate Communications, Public Relations, or even Human Resources for talent recruitment and last not least Customer Care. That is why you need to include all these departments in the content strategy, planning, and production. Depending on your industry, your size, and scale, your maturity, add or drop departments accordingly.

How to make cross-silo content

Stay tuned, the articles on how to do this are soon to be released. 

• Organizational configuration with a central content team directly reporting to the CEO
• Work with an Editor in Chief and dedicated team of producers and an analyst
• Centralize planning with a strategic Editorial Board and operational Editorial Calendar
• Include the departments, or silos, as stakeholders in the Content Board
• Departments are and stay the owner of the content
• Mutual responsibility for fetching and delivering content ideation

Sounds a bit like a no brainer. Yet in reality, as soon as the content assets are delivered to the media agency, most marketers wrap up and move on to the next campaign. Speaking from experience, even the evaluation afterward is quite superficial and scuffled away in a folder on the company drive. A missed opportunity to learn and improve your content efforts based on insights and data. 

How to and what you need

How to use data and set up an iterative learning campaign after campaign. Create, test, measure, and repeat. Continue the learning cycle. 

What you need:

• KPIs: what do you want to reach producing and distributing content. By preference, you align your KPIs with your business objectives. Content should always contribute to the business and you need to step away from vanity metrics such as followers and engagement. 
• Testing plan: know what hypothesis, audience behavior, you want to test within and between campaigns.
• Threesome between brand - media buying - content creation. These three must work seamlessly together to get insights. Just shifting the procuration and assets list back and forward will not do the job. 
• Real-time data: keep track of success.
• Content assets: a lot, and even a bit more. Variation is key. And use the social algorithm to your advantage and let it decide what content assets are best for your campaign KPI.
• Focus: make the testing and reporting a dedicated task to ensure it gets done.

'Focus on long term learning instead of short term ROI optimization'. Joseph Harper, E-commerce Marketing Manager - Western Europe at Kellogg Company, is a firm believer and shares his three tips for long-term testing of content assets. 

Frequency kills

Yes, you build a brand and imprint your message by repeating your message. Yet, 'most of the time the adds are 1:1 repeated without any variation, let alone testing. For me personally, as for many others, seeing the same ads over and over again, cause irritation. Make sure you have different variations and assets to test. Learn what works, and take from there.'

Channel shapes the content

By lack of budget or time, or maybe even knowledge, you see a lot of ads in the wrong format for the (social) channel. 'The most obvious example is an (edited) TVC shown in social. Allow the channel to shape your content, and not your content to shape the channel'. The social channel has a different heartbeat and asks for a different storyboard, adjusted script, and vertical or square.

Sounds like a no-brainer, in reality, more often than not the same assets are used for different (social) channels. To get the most out of your content production budget, media buying budget, you need to invest in content assets that actually work and do contribute to your objectives. The only way to discover what works is to test and adjust based on data. 

No best practice

'There is no kind of best practice for content.' 'Look at your consumer and your brand what fits and whatnot.' Joseph continues 'It is bespoke. There is not wright of wrong. Just know your audience and use data for long term learning what works for your brand.'

'Things change continuously. Nobody knows what the future will look like. So stay true to what you believe in, who you are, and stay authentic.'

Joseph Harper 

Read the interview with Joseph Harper by the Drum, including photocredits. Copy-paste 'Joseph Harper has developed and executed social and digital strategy, brand side, for the past six years. He spent almost three of these as Bet365’s social media editor, where projects included launching new digital channels and initiatives. At Kellogg's, he works on the digital transformation as social media manager for UK & Ireland across brands like Pringles, Crunchy Nut and Special K.' 

• Put your customers first
• Add value to touch hearts, minds, and souls, inspire or educate
• Show and tell why you do what you do
• Show and tell how your product solves their problems
• Fix your basics and set up fundamentals before your start
• Use research and data
• Implement KPIs in line with business objectives
• Align media buying with creative production for effectivity and efficiency
• Create a central Content Department with Editorial Board
• Create a digital brand persona
• Realize integrated production, with one Editorial Calendar and digital eco-system
• Be prepared for crisis management for when the sh*t hits the fan

Sense of urgency

What is the sense of urgency to ‘think like a publisher’? Good question, easy answer.

A new era, new times, new ways of communicating with your audiences. It still is not about you, it is about the customer, to connect and to add value. If you do this, you become more likable, with the result people are more eager to buy your products. Simple as that.

You can choose to continue as you go by producing inside-out content with a focus on brand activation, stick to broadcasting your sales messages and with a reactive ad-hoc PR approach. Nothing wrong with that.

Realize it is your customer and their expectations that are changing, due to innovations, technology developments, and sociological trends. You keep up with them and play on, or you stand still, and lose in the end.

Let’s be honest, if you are not already convinced of the sense of urgency of content by now, deep dive in Google, go to marketing blogs and do your homework before reading these pages.

Don’t be old school

Keep in mind that there is no such thing as digital and non-digital, your audience really doesn’t differentiate between the online and offline channels. All communication efforts from a brand should be seamless and not based on one channel. Digital is just another channel in the mix, like TV, print, OOH or radio. Nothing more nothing less. Don’t overcomplicate. Combine, integrate all channels.

Don’t be old school. Content first, channels second.

Less is more

Common sense is that is all about producing ‘more’ content. Quantity over quality with an inside out message. Social media timelines are getting more and more cluttered, websites become patches with superficial non-findable content and overflowing mailboxes with meaningless newsletters.

As a result, we, even more, hate the ads, developing stricter filters with ignoring faster and faster the non-relevant no-value-adding content. Our attention span on Facebook or Instagram is just 1.7 seconds for mobile, 2.5 seconds for desktop. (Source: Facebook BluePrint 2019, https://www.facebook.com/business)

Not even to mention those Millennials and Gen-Z’s. They are different. With their love for authenticity, their values are shifting from the common values ‘class, status and luxury’ into ‘identity, purpose, and energy’ with fun and engagement. As non-millennial, I am shifting my values as well.

The solution is with the brands. Let's vow to produce less content and focus on what the consumer actually wants to view and read. Quality over quantity. Content that adds value based on your audience's needs.

Yes, this takes time, it is pretty difficult and expensive to produce. However, this resonates more, the content assets can be reused, it saves on media budget and can actually attribute to the long term business objectives. More effectivity and efficiency in the long term.

Use data

It sounds like such a no-brainer to use data. Data is quite a bubble and everybody talks about it and wants it. Few brands really know how to read and use big data in favor of the customer. A lot of brands struggle and do not know where to start. True. It is complicated and I do not have an answer as data is an industry by itself.

What I do can suggest, is to do a deep-diving in Google and YouTube and to do a search query to discover the needs of their audiences. What are your, potential, customers fans and or followers actually looking for in relation to your brand and industry? What are the keywords they use?

Do a deep-dive into the analytics of the brand website. What are the top 10 best and worst pages to discover how the website is used and what content gets consumed and what not?

Use the data from your customer care department? They are the department with the first line of contact with your customers and an amazing source of information. Find out why are people contacting the brand, what is the top 10 asked questions in the webcare, email, and phone.

This data is more or less for free and already available. All you need is an analyst to do the research.

Solve problems

Keep in mind, we as consumers want a solution to our problems, fulfillment of our needs and wishes. Your product is their solution. Sometimes they are aware of their problems, sometimes it is triggered by your advertising.

So tell them how your product and brand solves their problem instead of listing solely the product features. And if possible, please explain why I should like and prefer your brand over the competitors.

Be likable

Nowadays there are hardly any bad products. The really crappy and shitty ones phased themselves out. The main reason why consumers buy your product is that they like your brand. Even with a big price difference, that can be the reason why they like you more than your competitor. That is why the ‘why you do what you do’ is so important in your content strategy.

This works the same in the offline world with bricks and mortar shops. If the shop has great products but the staff sucks, is lazy or even rude, you do not even hesitate to buy anything. No way you gonna spend your hard-earned money with someone you do not like. Especially if you can get more or less the same thing next door for a comparable price. The other way around, if the staff is really nice and likable, you probably buy even more than intended and perhaps you make a return visit.

Same for brands. Why buy a BMW or an Audi? Both are great cars, fantastic functionalities, shinny, amazing power, electrical, solid loud sound system, cozy leather seats, all got four wheels plus a steering wheel, both crazy expensive and super fun to drive. Why one or the other? Because of your ‘driving pleasure’ or your preference for ’technological advanced’.

It is about being likable. That people can relate to your brand, share your values and they like you why you do what you do. And that you provide a solution for their problem.

'People like doing business with people they like'

Content excellence rules

Some rules for content excellence

• Show your passion and pride for why you do what you do: is irresistible
• Learn to walk before you start to run: fix the basics and set up the fundamentals before you even think about starting
• Content is a like a marathon, if you sprint at the start you will not make it to the finish line
• Nothing wrong with being real and authentic: sometimes it just shows the passionate people behind the brand and nothing wrong with that
• A little unpolished raw and human touch with an edge is fundamental for the connection, perfection in every content item and social post is pretty boring and lacks character
• Manage beforehand that you can make mistakes along the way, fail fast learn faster
• Put your audience first and put your ego aside, it is not about you, it is all about them

Last, not least,

• Have fun :)

A few familiar pain-points within the C-suite on content

• Having a team of 30+ content producers and content / social media managers is not an exception for a big brand. Without real insights on the effect for the long term business objectives, is the content actually worth the investment?
• Disputes between the marketing, sales, corporate communications and public relations departments. More often than not, the marketing and sales department win the battle for the content. They get the mandate and ownership, with their focus on short term sales-driven KPIs.
• Marketers often focus on the short term shiny award-winning hero campaigns. Based on their KPIs that are given by management.
• The human resources department has similar content needs as the marketing department. To sell the brand and organization to new talent. But, seldom there is a cooperation to create content together.
• The Customer Care department is no part of the content game. They are not involved as a stakeholder in the Editorial Board. A missed opportunity as the (webcare) agents are in the first line of contact with your audience.
• How to reach your audience with the growing 'ad-blindness’ and shorter attention span?
• It is a common practice to develop a digital campaign for one channel. There is no integration between social, Google SEA SEO and website content.
• Huge dependency on Facebook and Instagram for social reach. What if these channels disappear, how to reach your audience in a new way?
• Most digital campaigns are start-stop with focus on marketing events or promotions. There is no long term reusable always-on content for brand building.
• No budget optimization by combining media buying and creative production.
• No real use of Google data to discover needs from your audience
• No use of social algorithms to optimize budget allocation
• When ‘the shit hits the fan’, no profound preparation for crisis communications. How to freeze all your content? There is not one overview of all content published and scheduled, where, by whom and the media budget. And there is no process to restart your content after the crisis.
• How to handle privacy, data and brand safety?

How to solve your content issues

First, start reading these pages and absorb these insights, knowledge, tips, and tricks. Second, create a plan. 'Failing to plan, is planning to fail'. Third, hire the experts, agencies and don't be a cheap bastard. Producing and distributing content costs money. A lot of money. There is no easy nor cheap fix to touch the hearts and souls of your audience. Yet, when done right, content is a valuable contributor to your business objectives. If not, indispensable and pretty essential to differentiate yourself from your competitors. 

Last, not least. Do, or Do Not. There is no 'Try'. Go for it. Don't do it half, because for sure then you will not succeed. Content deserves your full attention.

If not feasible for whatever reason, no offense meaning, then just do not do it. 'Content' is no golden nugget and doesn't solve every one of your business problems. Sometimes, on rare occasions, the best answer is not to 'do content' and focus on your other activities. 

3 Statements on content marketing

The three most relevant ways to ‘Take the Media World by Storm’ from Joe Pulizzi

’Make mobile your top channel strategy’.

Stated by Pulizzi in 2012, nowadays even more true. The numbers of mobile usages speak for themselves. Unfortunately, I still encounter not-mobile optimized websites or even emails send out by big brands and institutes that are not humanly readable on a mobile phone.

‘Develop professional editorial practices.

Many brands today are leveraging employees and outside influencers as part of their content marketing programs. While I believe this is good, I see a gaping void in the editorial area. Simply put, brands are not investing enough in editorial and proofreading as part of their processes.’

‘Make the reader your number one priority.

(…) As a brand (…), commit your stories to one epic concept - what’s in it for them, your readers (that is, your customers). This is your critical advantage (over media companies), where you can and should focus all your attention.’

A little note on mobile-first content

It sounds like a no-brainer. Yet, still in 2020, I am receiving emails from big brands, international companies, that are not mobile proof. One of the possible reasons could be traditional CRM systems, lack of overview of all emails by the brand and every now and then one little desktop bastard email slip through. 

How to fix it? Just check your customer journey with its entire email flow. Including the purchase confirmations, the exceptions, the escalations or emergency communications. Be precise, be strict. No exceptions. Go mobile or go home. 

4 Benefits of content marketing

‘The four hidden benefits to content marketing’ by Joe Chernov, Vice President, Content Marketing, Kinvey (and 2012 Content Marketeer of the Year)

Content can give you a recruiting edge.

In a competitive industry, recruiting top-caliber talent is a priority of the highest order. (…) Recruiting top talent is one of only three priorities for every CEO. Yet despite the importance of recruiting, it would be easy to overlook the impact an engaging content marketing can have on this business-critical priority.

Content can help boost company morale

Back when I worked at a PR firm, I recall challenging a client who wanted us to help his company secure coverage in a publication that didn’t necessarily influence its buyers. When I pushed back on the priority, the CEO told me, ‘The article isn’t for our customers. It’s for our staff. The place lights up when we get covered in the press… and I know a lot of our workers read this magazine; I’ve never forgotten that lesson, and content marketing can accomplish this very same goal.

Content opens up lines of communication

Remarkable content doesn’t just get customers an prospects talking: it also gets your internal clients buzzing. It gives colleagues something to share with one another, something to debate, or something to challenge. It opens doors, rings phones, and makes heads gopher over cubicle walls. It also provides you with an opportunity to recruit advocates and participants.

Content fosters trust

In a recent Fast Company article, marketing leader Don Peppers convincingly argues that the key to competitive advances is ‘being proactively trustworthy’. ‘Creating content that is so valuable that people would pay for it, yet you give it away for free, is a reliable way to earn the public’s trust’. This is precisely why the value transfer in content marketing should be from institution to individual, which is an upside-down model for traditional marketers. In other words, when trust is the goal, companies should strive to ‘sell by not selling’.

Source: Epic Content Marketing (page 37-39), (page 45, 46) by Joe Pulizzi

It is a challenge. Where to start, what do you need first, how to get the budget, what talent needs to be recruited, the stakeholder management, selecting and briefing the agencies, get the reporting? Let’s be honest, going into the content business is hard. … Planning paralysis …

Just do it

There is no 'Try or Try Not'. There is no middle of the road. Go for it, or don't. The choice is yours. Just don't do it half.

My advice, ‘just do it’ and start small. Be brave, make a plan for the first 3 months. Scale-up slowly. Steal with pride on what works. Learn and improve by doing, with a ‘fail fast adapt faster’ mentality.

Iterative is the way forward and it will never be perfect from the beginning. It is about the progression, not perfection. 'Perfection is the enemy of progress'.

Greatly inspired by the book The Science of Breaking Out of Your Comfort Zone: How to Live Fearlessly, Seize Opportunity, and Make Each Day Memorable by Peter Hollins

Image credits: https://www.instagram.com/benbergeron/ and BenBergeron.com 

• Why your brand needs to think like an old school publisher to prepare for the content future without a Facebook or Instagram. Improve the effectiveness of your content with your audience at the core. Become agile and nimble. And to speed up whilst you gain efficiency in production and media budgets. 
• What are the basics and fundamentals you need before you even consider participating in the content game? Spoil alert, your ’why’ and your brand strategy are the backbone. Measure your content efforts in line with your business objectives. And please do create a brand persona for consistency and speeding up the production process.
• How to set up the content structure to merge content from all silos like Marketing, Sales, Corp Comms, PR, HR, and Customer Care. You will gain efficiency in your production budget. Use free Google data for insights on your customer needs. And why ‘help’ content is mostly overlooked, the least sexy and your most important plus effective content investment.
• Setting up a central content team, including the JDs. Keep your stakeholders on board. How to tackle brand safety and be prepared for the crisis when the sh*t hits the fan. 
• Last not least, what are the processes and tools to have in place to speed up the team and shorten timelines?

Time to make a change

Shift from ad hoc performance campaigning to continuous brand storytelling. Use the ‘softer’ content to fill the top of the funnel. Create an overview of what is published, when, where and with what media spend. Decrease your dependency on social for reach. Integrate all digital channels for consistency. It is a bit like publishing your own daily digital magazine.

My aim is to give you insights on why you should embrace this change, how this is done and what you need. With the science in these pages, the art is in your own adjustments and implementation.

Stay curious and dare to be bold.

Don’t BS.

Just do it. Don’t say you want to build your content base, build it. Lots of my clients are saying they want to make the change, yet in reality, they are driven by the sales numbers and activation campaigns. Brand building with content takes time and investment. In the long term, it pays off. Very clear with your ‘help’ content used to tell your brand story. It also generates more and hotter leads that are easier to convert to sales.

4 Elements you need for content 

Some of the concepts in this book are new, some are familiar. Each is different in length, depth and amount of operational details to explain the concept. In a nutshell

• It’s a belief: First things first. The belief and the support from the C-suite are non-negotiable.
• Element 1: Basics and Fundamentals. What do you need before you can even think about content?
• Element 2: Structure. How to bring structure to your content and use data to make decisions.
• Element 3: Organization and Content Team. Why and how to set up a central content team. From the roles, organizational structure to stakeholder management.
• Element 4: Tools and processes. What you need to speed up. Added bonus: how to improve your brief to the agencies. ‘Sh*t in is sh*t out’ and having great content starts with yourself.

These pages apply to all industries, brands, and organizations. From international corporates to smaller brands, start-ups or even independent consultants and artists. With a focus on digital channels as that is my area of expertise and experience.

My experience and 20+ books

Bringing together my experience, my knowledge with the best books on content, I aim to give you a vision for the content future. I create the overview, you do the deep-dive in the sources to learn more about all the details.

Interviews

With huge pleasure, I got the opportunity to interview the most amazing peers in the content industry. From the top international agencies to the most inspiring brands. Their insights absolutely blew my mind. Incorporating these was a challenge and I hope to have done justify to all the great minds that shared their experiences and knowledge.

Books and sources

Sometimes I do a shameless copy-paste, not reinventing what is already written with excellence. Other times I adjusted and combined for the readability and tone of voice. Always giving the credits and linking to the original sources. See the overview of all references and credits at the end of the book. With my shout out for their excellent work, amazing knowledge, insights and how to’s. Crediting their leadership within their industry.

Overcrowded, jammed and packed social timelines and inboxes with sales focused try-me buy-me messages. Google search is not much different. Blindness for the upper part with the ads, knowing by own experience these ads seldom provide the answer to my search.

Still missing that focus on the customer needs. Still missing out on the relevance. And that in these days of data abundance. We should be ashamed of ourselves as marketers.

Advertisers and agencies are hellbent on the idea that creating better advertising will make people hate ads less. But in recent years, with ad blockers and Netflix and paying for Hulu or Spotify without ads, people have become accustomed to the idea that there can be a world without advertising — that they can get their entertainment without the interruption. If the ability to opt-out of advertising is available, people are going to take that option. It’s a better experience — and not one that better ads — Cannes Lions creative or not — is going to solve. https://digiday.com/marketing/rundown-weve-always-hated-advertising/?DM2=764622

Yet we don’t hate all ads

‘That isn’t true’ Dick Buschman, Partner at ACHTUNG! Amsterdam corrected me during the interview. ‘People actually love advertising’. ‘It is in human nature to love stories’ he continues, ‘people are hungry for stories to tell and to share. For inspiration and a laugh.’ ‘Stories that touch their hearts and soul. Stories that make them smile or even drop a tear or two.’

He explains ’advertising is the truth well told [McCann]’, ‘with the cultural and local relevance that creates Magic and sparks Joy.’

The stories Dick mentions ‘are the stories that are coming from within’, ‘your true history and your heritage of the brand and products.’ It is about ‘a long term vision with the same (core) story told for many many years.’ ‘Stories that bring your mission to life and explain why you do what you do.’ ‘Stories that show your vision and underline your values.’ He continues ‘and only if you have that (long term) in place, then think about the (short term) commercial advertising for activation and sales.’

‘Therefore, if you create advertising based on your authentic story, people actually do not hate it.’ Dick adds ‘actually, one of the reasons people follow brands on Instagram, is to be inspired by their stories.’

A few examples of brands that create such advertising: Volkswagen, Patagonia, Google, and SuitSupply. ‘They own their story. And that story directs the content. Not vice versa.’

Dick Buschman: ‘People hate BAD ads, people do not hate advertising in general.’