Play Your CARDS Right in

Content Marketing

Jessica Grammer & Jennifer Hale

Before You Begin…• Determine the Game

o Research your market.

• Know the Playerso Who is your audience? o Which competitors will have an impact?

• Understand the Rules o What business objectives are you trying to achieve?o What KPIs will you measure to select a winner?

The Who, Where & WhyWho & Where is your audience? Ask these questions: What is my audience’s gender? Age? Location? Do they experience any particular life events? What are their interests? What channels will I have the best chance of reaching them? What channels are going to allow me to reach my business goals?

Who & Where are your competitors? Ask these questions: Who is solving the same problem my product or service is solving? What are my competitors doing that I have the resources and time to do as well? Why are they a competitor? Why would someone should my competitors over me? What channels are my competitors using?

Why do I want to play this game?Ask these questions: What are my business goals? What do I ultimately want to achieve with my strategy? Increase brand awareness, drive online sales, build a following, increase brand advocacy Why do I want to reach (target audience)? Why am I investing in (channel A)?

Content StrategyNow that you know the who, where and why,

you can begin building a content strategy to drive your specific KPIs (awareness, engagement and

conversion) that will help in meeting your strategic business

goals.

Creation/CurationContent should be clear, concise and conversion-driven.

From the beginning, it will need to be developed with SEO best practices in mind to provide maximum reach.

Social media content should follow the 70/20/10 rule.

70% Relevant Content 20% Curated Content10% Promotional content

Creation/Curation6 Questions to ask before you push the publish button: 1. Does this content help solve a problem? 2. Is this content shareable? 3. Is this content engaging? 4. Is this content timely? 5. Is this content relevant to my audience?6. What is the purpose of this content and does it help

reach my business goals?

Attraction & Amplification

Based on initial research and content development, disseminate content through channels where you are most likely going to reach your target audience and in the format your audience can best understand.

Attraction & Amplification

Integrate all content marketing efforts to support the process of reaching your business goals

RelevancyDeliver content that matters to your target audience:

● Answer a question● Solve a problem● Provide a solution

Discover what your audience cares about:● Crowdsourcing● Trending● Asking

Data AnalysisStart with the basics and look for ways to replicate the results:

Questions to ask:

● What content drives KPIs? o (i.e. organic traffic, positive sentiment, increased rank in search engines for brand terms)

● What type of content resonates with your audience? o (i.e. images of puppies and babies vs. stock photo of older couple, infographics, video,

emoticons)

● What content drives conversions? ● Who is engaging with your content?

o (gender, location, race, age, etc.)

● How and when is your audience accessing your content? o (referrals, organic, social, word of mouth, weekends, thursdays, mornings, etc.)

Shhhh…it’s a secret!

What’s your competitive edge?

● Grandma’s delicious meatballs? ● 30 day customer guarantee satisfaction warranty?● Team of amazing creative designers?● Writers with 15 years of experience?● Quality customer service? ● Community Involvement?

@jgrammer @jenhale

Questions?