The Three Pillars Of Content Marketing Strategy (Festive Flashback)

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This nonfiction is an extract from the publication “Content Marketing Strategy” by Robert Rose ©2023 and is reproduced and adapted with support from Kogan Page Ltd.

This nonfiction is the archetypal successful a bid of 3 (Read: Designing The Content Marketing Strategy Measurement and Defining The Responsibilities In The Content Lifecycle) connected Search Engine Journal that delve deeper into the concepts discussed successful the book, which officially launched connected September 26, 2023.

As a token of appreciation for your readership, Kogan Page Ltd. has generously shared a 20% discount codification exclusively for Search Engine Journal readers. If you’re funny successful purchasing the book, delight usage the promo codification CMS20 astatine www.koganpage.com/content-marketing-strategy to redeem it.

Just arsenic we person the 4 Ps to picture the wide selling mix, we necessitate a caller exemplary to picture the strategy of content marketing.

The contented selling strategy begins with 3 halfway pillars: Communication, Experiences, and Operations (which bridges the different two).

These pillars overlap somewhat and frankincense framework 5 circumstantial categories of activities that managers successful the concern volition perform.

Following are descriptions of the pillars and their associated activities.

1. Coordinated Communication

As we established astatine the opening of this book, concern contented is communication.

So, the concern indispensable execute definite activities to amended coordinate the usage of contented successful bid to acquire, keep, and turn customers and different audiences.

A palmy concern communicates intelligibly and with a accordant voice. It is besides capable to pass successful originative and uniquely applicable ways that bespeak the diverseness of its radical and audiences.

To execute that delicate equilibrium of consistency and diversity, coordination is critical. This means that the archetypal halfway class of activities successful the connection pillar is Purpose. This is content-as-a-capability.

Many businesses autumn into a trap due to the fact that they judge that contented selling tin simply beryllium created arsenic a “skill position” wrong the business.

They prosecute a fewer journalists, editors, originative copywriters, and taxable substance experts, and acceptable them disconnected to beryllium “good” astatine creating and managing invaluable content.

But, arsenic I said successful the erstwhile chapter, businesses that are managing palmy content selling strategies recognize that the superior intent of a susceptible contented squad is not to beryllium bully astatine creating content.

It is, rather, to alteration the concern to beryllium bully astatine the cognition of content. Those journalists, originative copywriters, oregon taxable substance experts are usually thrown into a concern with lone the task to “create large stuff.”

There is usually nary shortage of that demand, but they rapidly go swamped and don’t person the skill, power, oregon infrastructure to accidental “no” erstwhile things get to beryllium excessively much.

Quality starts to suffer, and past doubts commencement creeping successful arsenic to whether oregon not these are the close people, oregon whether palmy contented selling is adjacent possible.

The Purpose activity, then, is to make and negociate a wide acceptable of halfway responsibilities and processes that physique and continually measure the allocation of resources, accomplishment sets, and wide charters that a contented selling squad volition request successful bid to go a differentiated concern capability.

One of those skills whitethorn beryllium the existent instauration of contented – but determination are assuredly others arsenic good (and we’ll research them aboriginal successful this book).

That leads to the 2nd enactment class successful the Communication Pillar: The Model, oregon content-as-coordinated-communications. The Model enactment besides overlaps into the Operations Pillar, which we’ll picture shortly.

Every concern that succeeds with contented selling strategy volition person a well-defined and well-understood governance/operating model.

For example, the concern we conscionable discussed, with each those journalists, whitethorn extremity up with an full section devoted to contented selling arsenic a “centralized” team.

The Cleveland Clinic is simply a large illustration of this. The world-renowned infirmary has created a centralized contented selling section that is simply a functioning concern unit.

They started with a fistful of contented creators and evolved into a divers and multi-functional, but centralized, squad with wide and modular operating processes.

Other businesses whitethorn deploy a “federated model” successful which the contented squad is liable for creating lone a tiny percent of content. In fact, their full functional exemplary whitethorn beryllium devoted to enabling the different departments successful the concern to create, manage, activate, and measurement prime contented crossed aggregate channels.

Their relation – overmuch similar a national authorities – is truly to supply a centralized spot wherever “laws” (e.g., standards, playbooks, workflows, etc.) are created and kept truthful that everyone is moving successful the aforesaid way. A large illustration of this is Anthem Blue Cross Insurance (now Elevance Health).

This institution employs 98,000 radical and consists of aggregate businesses, including pharmaceutical insurance, dental insurance, semipermanent care, and disability.

You’ll work much astir their travel successful the adjacent chapter, but 1 of the keys for the contented squad person determination was to make a ceremonial charter for her team.

They created an organizational process wherever the antithetic merchandise groups person coordinated representation, allowing each to interface with the contented team.

The marque contented squad is liable for curating, creating, packaging, and making disposable Elevance-level marque stories.

2. A Portfolio Of Experiences

You’ve conscionable learned that a coordinated communication/content attack is managing the quantity, and quality, of what the full concern wants to say.

That leads america to the 2nd pillar of a contented selling strategy – Experiences – each the mode astatine the different extremity of the spectrum. Experiences are the designed containers of contented being created for audiences.

No substance however large a concern is, it needs a strategical attack to however the contented it creates volition beryllium utilized to powerfulness designed platforms specified arsenic emails, websites, assets centers, people magazines, PDF files, events, blogs, oregon adjacent societal media channels.

This is simply a captious facet of operating similar a media institution that has owned media properties.

For example, erstwhile a media institution thinks of its adjacent production, it whitethorn commencement arsenic a movie – but then, astir immediately, operational and absorption processes footwear successful to research however that aforesaid contented volition beryllium leveraged successful books, television, podcasts, interactive entertainment, etc.

The communicative comes first, and past the reasoning for each the antithetic kinds of containers that mightiness explicit that communicative successful antithetic ways.

Remember, for media companies, the acquisition that they monetize is the product. And they person 2 superior ways of monetizing it.

They monetize entree to the acquisition with models similar subscriptions oregon selling a constricted fig of tickets.

Or media companies volition monetize the acquisition by selling entree to the assemblage consuming it by allowing sponsors to make contented that volition beryllium contained successful it. This is the exemplary of advertizing oregon sponsored content.

Our owned media experiences for concern should beryllium nary different. All of a brand’s owned media channels – the website, blog, assets center, ecommerce catalog, people magazine, etc. – should beryllium treated with the aforesaid attraction and information arsenic the existing product/service lines.

Just similar a media company, we should deliberation “content first” and past however we volition make each the antithetic kinds of containers to present that content.

We negociate each of these arsenic a portfolio of experiences that exploit invaluable contented for audiences. Each instrumentality should person strategical purpose, goals, and objectives.

Arguing, for example, that our website oregon our blog is little important than immoderate of our products and services is fundamentally arguing that they shouldn’t beryllium astatine all.

So, arsenic with immoderate merchandise oregon service, idiosyncratic needs to beryllium liable for ensuring that these experiences are updated and that they person charters, goals, and circumstantial strategies that are optimized to conscionable the needs of the consumers (audiences) they serve.

They should beryllium designed and evolved to conscionable caller marketplace demands, promoted successful a modular way, and measured against shared concern goals. Further, similar immoderate of our products and services, they should beryllium easy discontinued erstwhile they nary longer suit our concern objectives.

This pillar is founded connected the thought that determination is simply a squad focused connected the process of producing and managing the platforms of a company’s owned media strategy successful a mode that is optimal for the company’s concern goals.

The 2 enactment categories wrong this pillar are Audience and Value.

Audience is wherever the concern indispensable specify each acquisition arsenic a product. In different words, Audience is content-as-product. This harkens backmost to the earliest days of the 4 Ps.

Just similar we would make a program for each merchandise oregon work we would bring to market, we present request to make merchandise plans for our owned media experiences.

This means crafting a solution that fits a marketplace need, initiating marketplace probe into the assemblage and knowing them well, and having specific, measurable goals for each content-driven acquisition being launched.

This publication dives heavy into the Audience activity.

Treating experiences this mode helps america present their eventual goal, which is Value. Value is content-as-insight. Meeting each of the designed objectives of a portfolio of experiences delivers the worth of the contented selling strategy.

This enactment is wherever we integrate penetration and representation retired precisely where, when, and however the contented selling strategy volition supply it. Designing a measurement and worth attack is simply a halfway portion of this book.

And that gets america to the 3rd contented selling strategy pillar, the glue that holds Coordinated Communications and Experiences together.

3. Strategic Operations

Consider for a infinitesimal the signifier of accounting.

It is 1 of the oldest concern practices successful the world, dating backmost to the 1400s erstwhile mathematician Luca Pacioli created the double-entry accounting strategy and introduced the thought of ledgers, journals, and bookkeeping.

The reasons for standards and predictable guidelines successful accounting are casual to understand.

Finance touches each portion of a business. Everyone successful concern does immoderate signifier of accounting, from the mode timesheets are completed to procurement requisitions, vendor relationships, merchandise sales, and adjacent the usage of earthy materials for products and services.

Now deliberation astir contented and marketing. Today, it is conscionable arsenic pervasive arsenic accounting – oregon adjacent much truthful successful immoderate cases. Creating contented for concern connection touches each azygous portion of the business. It’s the h2o successful which we swim.

Yet, astir businesses grip the creation, management, distribution, and measurement of contented successful an advertisement hoc manner.

Remember, it’s not conscionable selling that is changing, it is the full concern strategy. Thus, the CEO’s oregon concern owner’s narration with selling and contented changes arsenic well.

In a 2022 nonfiction for McKinsey Consulting, 1 erstwhile retail CEO said,

“Data has changed however the C-suite is interacting with marketing. Now it’s precise hard to abstracted institution strategy from selling strategy.”

If that is true, past it’s besides existent that it’s hard to abstracted institution strategy from our contented strategy.

Today, selling departments are looked astatine arsenic factories – places wherever thing palmy should beryllium replicable a cardinal times.

In bid to execute consistency successful replicating occurrence and go a halfway concern strategy, contented selling indispensable person a intelligibly articulated and replicable process that tin flex and accommodate caller ideas arsenic they emerge.

The enactment successful this pillar is the Frame, oregon content-as-standard.

If activation of engaging contented is present the bosom of marketing, contented operations are what marque the bosom beat.

Getting contented selling operations close frees originative radical to bash originative things that alteration the concern strategy, and empowers the selling teams to execute this astatine scale.

As we’ve established, everyone successful the concern creates content: the web team, the selling automation/demand-gen team, the contented selling team, agencies, executives, frontline relationship representatives, salespeople, quality resources, and adjacent accounting, with invoices, contracts, and onboarding documentation.

In fact, it’s astir apt easier to number each the radical who don’t make integer lawsuit communications these days. We’ve established that mounting up communications coordination is simply a superior pillar of a standardized attack to content.

Additionally, contiguous businesses run successful a multichannel satellite with, typically, dozens of channels (experiences) that person to beryllium populated with contented successful aggregate formats.

For example, see a institution that launches 2 to 4 caller products each quarter. For each caller merchandise launch, determination are 10 assets planned, including brochures, merchandise tech briefs, a thought enactment paper, etc.

That whitethorn not dependable similar precise much, but each of the 10 assets needs to beryllium customized for the 5 large work partners that volition enactment the marketing, and each of those work partners has promotional assets that request to beryllium customized for different contented types oregon transmission specifications (social media, video, etc.).

Finally, each of those assets request to beryllium translated into 4 languages. The nett effect is that 10 planned pieces of contented crook into astir 300 integer assets that request to beryllium designed and produced.

Multiply that by 2 caller products per quarter, and you extremity up with astir 2,400 integer assets created each twelvemonth conscionable for caller merchandise launches.

So, it doesn’t substance however large the concern is – a repeatable acceptable of processes indispensable beryllium enactment successful spot that are governed by standards, guidelines, playbooks, and technology.

We telephone this the Frame activities because, precise overmuch similar the framework of your house, it’s what holds everything up. It is content-as-a-standard.

This 3rd pillar, Operations, is the people, processes, and exertion that assistance make a repeatable, accordant process to link the coordinated contented creators (pillar 1) with the experiences powered by the contented they are creating (pillar 2).

With the close contented operational exemplary successful place, you tin standard and measurement endeavor content.

Together these 3 pillars and the 5 building-block activities signifier a competency model for the entirety of your contented selling strategy. They are unit points that assistance to find however beardown oregon anemic your strategy is.

For example, erstwhile I enactment with a institution that is struggling with the intent of their firm blog, I mightiness archetypal property connected the Audience button. I tin spot however beardown we are astatine a company-wide knowing of however good we execute that activity.

I tin analyse what makes that class of enactment antithetic oregon optimal.

That, then, helps maine arsenic a strategist recognize wherever I whitethorn request to alteration the enactment oregon fortify immoderate of the different pillars of coordinating communication, operational processes, oregon managing the experiences.

This model puts a conceptual operation to meaningful questions that indispensable beryllium answered:

• What competencies and accomplishment sets are needed for antithetic roles of people, processes, and technologies successful the concern successful each of the pillars?
• What moving models volition beryllium required, valued, recognized, and rewarded with respect to a functioning contented strategy?
• How volition we specify the interior processes of operating similar a media institution truthful that this tin beryllium scaled and measured arsenic an effectual concern function?
• How volition the model supply for measurable objectives, the results of which volition supply penetration into the worth being created some for the audiences and the business?
• How bash we usher the differentiating operational absorption for contented selling that tin supply the evolving competitory vantage that the concern wants?

You whitethorn wonderment whether determination is an overarching template, a cheat sheet, oregon standardized answers to these questions. Fortunately, oregon possibly unluckily for those of you who are looking for a speedy answer, determination is not.

Welcome to the creation and subject of contented selling strategy. It reminds maine of the situation that James Culliton faced successful 1948 portion introducing the selling mix, and Jerome McCarthy had successful 1960 introducing the 4 Ps.

While the model whitethorn beryllium useful, determination is nary azygous reply for immoderate 1 institution astir a template selling premix oregon usage of the 4 Ps. The ingredients for your cleanable premix of contented selling strategy volition beryllium yours, and precise different, indeed.

There is nary template. There is nary cleanable recipe.

One of the astir important things we’ve learned aft moving connected contented selling strategy for hundreds of brands implicit the past decennary is that what you enactment into those categories of activities is overmuch little important than consciously making the determination to enactment thing successful there.

Just arsenic determination is nary cleanable selling mix, determination is nary cleanable contented selling strategy. You volition evolve. It volition change. Because you and your concern volition change.

As statistician George Box erstwhile said, “All models are wrong, but immoderate are useful.”

Successful contented marketing, either consciously oregon unconsciously, uses elements of this exemplary to bolster its operation. As I said astatine the beginning: successful, blessed contented marketers look to person a akin mode of working.

This is simply a exemplary that we’ve seen enactment – it’s been tested.

In fact, you whitethorn person realized astatine immoderate constituent during this section that the remainder of this publication is organized by covering each of the categories of activities successful our contented selling strategy model.

If you tin formulate, structure, and pressure-test your activities successful each box, past you are good connected your mode to creating a large contented selling strategy.

Let’s get to it.