Trending: How To Justify Content Marketing?

Although Twitter stock might be suffering, I believe that the platform has some life in it yet.

What does Twitter offer that the others don’t? One thing I love about it is the opportunity to chime in on any conversation around the world grouped by the infamous hashtag.

One example: I just participated in my 2nd #CMWorld Twitter chat with my friends at the Content Marketing Institute.

And we hit the 3rd most trending topic on all of Twitter for a few hours while we were talking!

We had 139 contributors send more than 1,000 tweets in a chat that reached nearly half a million people.

Here’s the full transcript of the questions and my answers, but feel free to check out the hashtag tracking report for more details.

How To Justify The Value Of Content Marketing?

Q1: Do you think most orgs understand the value of content marketing? If no, why not?

A1: Most orgs realize that traditional marketing isn’t going to cut it. Content marketing is the way to do marketing people don’t hate.

A1. Most organizations are struggling with how to do content marketing, how to quantify it directly to business outcomes

Q2: Who in your org needs to have #contentmarketing justified? Is this one conversation or a process?

A2: Content marketing needs to be supported by the most senior marketing team and even the C-Suite.

A2: Content is your best product.

Q3: What are some common misconceptions of #contentmarketing that might stall the approval process?

A3: Content Marketing is a mindset, not a tool set

A3: To gain executive buy-in, content marketers need to show that the world has changed and most marketing stinks

Q4: What aspects are most important when citing stats or case studies when justifying content marketing?

A4:  4 areas to focus – start with cost per lead stats and conversion rates of traditional tactics vs content and inbound marketing

A4: benchmark your company on mix of inbound vs. outbound leads (@SiriusDecisions is a good place to start)

A4: Look at a content audit. Does the content your company create get used at all. Is it mapped to buyer stages

A4: Finally, look at your website traffic to determine if your visitors are coming for early or late stage content

Q5: Speaking of, do you have links to your favorite or best stats/case studies for justifying content marketing?

A5: Here’s 33 Stats on the future of content marketing: http://ow.ly/tthXB and @Slideshare: http://ow.ly/ttiaX

Q6: What elements should be in place b4 trying to justify a content mktg plan? Optimized website? Blog? Active social channels?

A6: Step 1 after buy-in for #contentmarketing is to stop creating content no one wants. Then look at your platforms and technologies

A6: You need a good CMS, workflow tool, social channels and people who know how to think like publishers and tell stories.

A6: you could do a whole #cmworld chat on technologies and platforms 😉 Maybe get @RobertRose

Q7: What info would be useful for you to have that you currently don’t that would help justify content marketing?

A7: I’d like a real-time war room to show the effectiveness of our marketing activities on share of conversations, inbound traffic, leads, conversion rates

Q8: Are there different things #smallbiz needs compared to enterprise when justifying content marketing?

A8: My advice to #smallbiz: content marketing does not need to cost a lot of money. Just stop doing what doesn’t work and shift to content

Q9: Is there a certain format that is most successful when justifying content marketing to your team?

A9: I think a 2×4 works pretty well when trying to justify content marketing. Hit them with hard and harsh truth

A9: We committed to sharing results every month, presented in infographic form and posted to our internal portal for all to see

Q10: When justifying content marketing, what is the best way to show quick wins when it may take 6-12 mo to see benefit?

A10: Goals of #contentmarketing should be reach, engagement and conversion – at something like a 30/30/40 balance

A10: you can see how we do it at http://t.co/vpo86MHiCd

Let me know what you think in the comments below. And please follow along on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook  and Google+ or  Subscribe to the B2B Marketing Insider Blog for regular updates.

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