Five Key Takeaways from NewsCred’s 2016 Content Marketing Strategy
Key Takeaways
NewsCred, a tech company that develops content marketing software, held a webinar in March 2016 to share tips and best practices for creating a successful content marketing strategy. Liam Moroney, demand generation manager at NewsCred, and Alexa Biale, brand marketing manager at NewsCred, discussed why content should be at the heart of every brand’s marketing strategy and explained how brands can put readers first when creating content.
“Giving users the best experience leads to the most value for the brand.”
No. 1: Content is the core of NewsCred’s marketing strategy.
Building a marketing strategy focused on content was transformational for NewsCred. To increase conversions, the company began creating content for each stage of its user experience. Because content-focused strategy requires the right tech infrastructure, the brand developed its own marketing cloud and began using marketing automation and a CRM system to measure how its channels were affected by content. It learned that leads who had engaged with content were twice as likely to accept a meeting, that prospects engaged with an average of 20 pieces of content before becoming a customer, and that for every $1 that went towards content $14 were returned.
No. 2: Create content your audience actually wants.
Three content types that perform well:
- Tactical stories and best practices
- Data-driven stories, such as trends and research
- Exclusive interviews and profile pieces with CMOs
A good content strategy sits at the intersection of what a brand wants and what its audience wants. It’s important to talk about a variety of topics relevant to the industry and just as important to talk about topics of interest to the consumer. Brands have to understand if their content is resonating and, if not, figure out how they can do it better. They should stop guessing what they should write about and put a framework in place to guide content creation. The framework should be based on who the brand wants to be, what it wants to be known for, and what its customers need and want to read about.
No. 3: Deliver content the way your audience wants it.
Understanding what makes content work is essential for success. In 2016, NewsCred took a look at its content output and was surprised by the highest performing channels. For instance, webinars proved to be the most effective tool for bringing blog subscribers further down the funnel. Based on this insight, marketers created a personalized hub for quality content. It used Spotify as a model to make the hub visually appealing.
No. 4: Content marketing success is all about consistency.
Content creation is a marathon, not a sprint. Results take time, but if a brand continually creates high-quality content, its ROI will increase. NewsCred’s publishing cadence is the same all year, but website views increase as the year goes on. This is because the bank of evergreen content being built up continues to drive visitors to the site. Additionally, moving posts with an SEO page rank of four or five to a page rank of three makes a massive difference. NewsCred also suggested taking posts that get a lot of search traffic but are not in a brand’s top 50 to 100 posts and improving or lengthening them to increase their value.
No 5: Focus on retention as much as acquisition.
Attention has to shift to the customer experience. Content marketing creates brand loyalty, increases revenue, and deepens customer relationships. Too many businesses focus on transactions and forget to invest in the experience post-sale. The lifetime revenue of a single customer should be three to five times the cost of acquiring and retaining them.
“Content creation is a marathon, not a sprint.”
Source
"NewsCred's Best Practices: How We Do Content Marketing in 2016." Liam Moroney, Demand Generation Manager at NewsCred; Alexa Biale, Brand Marketing Manager at NewsCred. NewsCred Webinar, 3/10/16.