Status quo is not a strategy. For example, wandering around the world of content marketing like Alice wandering in Wonderland is hardly the way to succeed. And yet that’s how many marketers are approaching content and that lack of planning and direction brings costs in the form of fewer leads, lower revenue and little market differentiation.
“Only a few find the way, some don’t recognize it when they do – some don’t ever want to.” – The Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland
Content Marketers with a plan are more successful. According to CMI and MarketingProfs, 66% of the most effective marketers have a documented content marketing strategy. But how do you apply this thinking in a practical way?
To shine a light on the subject, we’ve collected content marketing strategy advice from top content marketers from major B2B and B2C brands including: SAP, Boeing, Caterpillar, Progressive Insurance, John Deere, charity: water, Lattice Engines, Indium, BitTorrent, Altimeter Group and Kapost. Then we compiled those smarts into this handy infographic.
There’s an eBook that dives deeper of course, but we know you like short form, visual content too. Now you can have both!
Click on any image in this post to get the full Content Marketing Strategy infographic.
Rebecca Lieb, Altimeter Group
@lieblink “Content strategy is the infrastructure of content marketing. Without answers to ‘why’ & ‘how’ the result is chaos.” Tweet This
Jeff Charney, Progressive Insurance
@jeffcharney “Still thinking Content is King? The greatest content in the world won’t work out of context. Context is Queen.” Tweet This
Bruce McDuffee, Boeing
@brucemcduffee “Want to drive revenue with content marketing? Help your target audience be better at something.” Tweet This
Alan Porter, Caterpillar
@alanjporter Don’t base global content on geography alone. Localize by region & a mix of culture, industry & market knowledge.” Tweet This
Gurdeep Dhillon, SAP
@gurdeepd “Modern marketing is about taking risks & not being afraid to fail. Recognize & learn from failures, then move on.” Tweet This
Rick Short, Indium Corporation
@RickShort21 “Establish a unique, honest, & consistent voice. You can’t be everything to everyone. Go to market as yourself.” Tweet This
Paull Young, charity: water
@paullyoung “Does your content inspire you to share? You can never fail by making customers, prospects & employees feel inspired.” Tweet This
Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, BitTorrent
@kaykas “Look to your community for content to augment and help promote. The proverbial win-win is not a myth.” Tweet This
Brian Kardon, Lattice Engines
@bkardon “Content Marketing is the fuel that is propelling the marketing engine & touches all aspects of a customer’s experience.” Tweet This
Jesse Noyes, Kapost
@noyesjesse “Leaving buyers confused & wandering is for fairy tales. Lead them by using unified content, CTA & campaign flow charts.” Tweet This
David Jones, John Deere
“Enlist the best writers, photographers & videographers you can; listen to & trust their judgment. You’ll be ahead of the game.” Tweet This
Jen Dennis, Consultant
@jendennis2000 “New channels, formats & ways to interact will pop up, so weave experimentation into the fabric of your content marketing strategy.” Tweet This
Here are some additional content marketing strategy statistics from the B2B Content Marketing 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends – North America by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs report:
- 44% of B2B marketers have a documented content strategy
- 48% of smaller B2B companies (10-99 employees) have a documented content strategy
- 41% of large B2B companies (1,000 employees) have a documented content strategy
- 86% of the most effective marketers has someone who oversees content marketing strategy
- 46% of the least effective marketers has someone who oversees content marketing strategy
- 73% of B2B organizations have someone in place to oversee content marketing strategy
- 78% of small companies have someone who oversees content marketing strategy
- 58% of large companies have someone who oversees content marketing strategy
- 73% of B2B content marketers are producing more content than they did one year ago
- 80% of B2B marketers who have a documented content strategy are creating more content than a year ago
- 66% of B2B marketers without a documented content strategy are creating more content than a year ago
- 8% of B2B marketers outsource content planning & strategy
You can view the full Content Marketing Strategy eBook here on SlideShare and get more information about the Content Marketing World conference here. In fact, if you use the registration code TopRank, you’ll get $100 off.
