10 lessons I've learnt about content marketing from the experts

This year I’ve had the privilege of interviewing many thought leaders in the content marketing world from strategists, analysts, best-selling authors to co-founders of influential agencies.

Here I’ve selected the highlights and shared some of the pearls of wisdom from each of the conversations I’ve had.

1. “Content is the atomic particle of all marketing”

So said Rebecca Lieb, industry analyst and former Editor at ClickZ:

You need content to commit to content marketing but by the same token social doesn’t exist without content. Social media platforms are merely containers for content, as is email.

Email is another device that delivers content, ditto mobile, ditto search. What we are seeing is really innovative marketers, Intel is one example, putting content together with other marketing disciplines because content needs to flow across all areas of marketing.

2. “It’s dangerous to look at the micro in terms of ROI and not the macro or you’re give up too early”

Shane Snow, tech journalist, author and co-founder of Contently Inc:

If you’re pouring cups of water into a bath tub eventually the bath tub is going to fill up enough so that things will float in it. But if you just pour one cup of water into it nothing is going to float.

What I recommend to our clients, when we talk about the data question, is don’t look at the traditional methods – how many people read it, or how many people shared it – look at how much time people have spent with something.

3. “Big data is a bucketful of nonsense”

Robert Rose, chief strategy officer for The Content Marketing Institute and senior contributing analyst for the Digital Clarity Group:

Companies in the FTSE 100 have been trying to solve the big data problem for years. The trouble for companies of all sizes is they are not very good with the data they have, much less making it any larger.

And so, right now, data for the most part is being used for measuring how we’re doing. But it’s a mistaken notion for businesses to use it this way because it makes most marketing organizations completely adverse to anything risky.

4. “Uninformed executives are the biggest threat to B2B content marketing”

Michael Brenner head of strategy for content marketing platform provider NewsCred:

I think what happens is an uninformed executive will say ‘I’m not going to do this new thing (in our case it’s Content Marketing) unless I know there’s going to be ROI’. It’s almost a defence mechanism against openness to change.

My response to that is Content Marketing ROI, for those that have demonstrated it, is as simple as just looking for it. Julie Fleischer from Kraft Foods Group recently said they see four times the return on investment using content marketing in comparison to their average return from other marketing activities.

5. “We’re all about to be buried in Crap”

Doug Kessler co-founder of  Velocity Partners and author of the viral SlideShare, Crap. The Content Marketing Deluge:

Crap content fails in one or more of these main ways: No empathy – no understanding of the target audience. No original ideas – just rehashing what everyone already knows. No craft – poorly written or really ugly or hard to consume. No utility – it doesn’t help the reader do anything, just pushes an agenda.

It’s a problem for all of us because crappy content might LOOK like credible content from the outside. And that means that people will get suspicious of all content – your content; my content… and that sucks.

6. “Digital can no longer be a ‘carbuncle on the side of a company”

Karen McGrane, content strategist, information architect and co-host of Responsive Design Podcast:

Over the last 10 years I have worked with lots of organizations where their digital properties were essentially a completely separate business, like a carbuncle on the side of the company.

Now, in the last few years, we’ve moved to a tighter but more uneasy integration of digital with traditional businesses. But at a certain point there isn’t going to be a distinction between “digital” or “the website” because that’s what everything is going to be.

7. “Not every brand can become a publisher, but they can adopt an “editorial mindset”

Nic McCarthy,  content director of London’s content marketing agency, Seven:

Lots of brands have become more editorial in their tone and approach, Innocent Drinks or Dove for example. But I wouldn’t describe them as publishers.

Whereas brands like ASOS and Converse really are [publishers] – it’s not just the breadth and depth of content they create, it’s the way they talk to people, their design values, the stuff they share – they’re chatty, open and not afraid to have a point of view. How far you go down the road of becoming a publisher depends on your objectives and what business you’re in.

8. “Companies that are looking at non-traditional hires and understand that they need storytellers and writers are creating the best kind of content”

Ann Handley, best-selling author, keynote speaker and co-founder of ClickZ:  

These people haven’t come straight out of marketing – they may have taken a different path to get there. This goes hand in hand with companies who understand that in order for them to get the best stories they can’t control the message too much.

The smartest companies are letting journalists and storytellers loose and enabling them to tell customer centric stories – stories that benefit the audience. Take for example Cisco who has hired my friend Tim Washer (he has a background in improv comedy) to create video on their behalf.

9. “Marketers need to understand data in the same way that drivers need to understand the dashboard of their car”

So said Andy Crestodina, web strategist and content marketer from Chicago’s Orbit Media:

You really can’t make good decisions unless you are paying attention to the data. Decisions are only really based on two things; data and opinion. If you aren’t using data then you are making decisions based on your gut or how you feel about something personally.

I don’t listen to my own opinions at all anymore. Every decision I make is data driven. The trick to marketing is data driven empathy. Empathy is the greatest marketing skill, you must know the hearts and minds and fears and hopes and dreams of your audience. You know that through data.

10. “Content marketing is about solving the same problem that your product is trying to solve”

Jay Acunzo, VP of Boston’s seed VC firm NextView Ventures’ and former digital media strategist for Google:

Content marketing is just like a product. The product or the service creates value and your content is an extension of that. So if you don’t know the problems your business is there to solve, marketing is the last thing you need to worry about.

Why do you exist at all? What does your product do? I say to our startups, don’t worry about all the noise in the industry – be a problem solver and things will be a little easier.

 You can read Juliet’s interviews in full at the Content Kings blog…