Effectively Using Data in your Content Strategy

Communications, Content Strategy, Marketing

Content Marketing has been an important part of the overall communications and marketing mix for more than a decade, but it continues to evolve and mature.  Content plays a significant role in attracting prospects and delivering the information they need to advance in their journey from consideration to decision.

However, a content strategy which is not based on clear business goals and driven by data will simply fall short of those goals. There are a ton of great educational resources and models out there but one thing that is lacking in many of the tips and articles is the use of data to offer additional insights in your content planning.

Before developing the content strategy, we need to outline the fundamentals:       

What are your business goals?

What are successful outcomes that you want to achieve?

How are you defining the core messages that differentiate you in the marketplace?

What does customer research tell you about where your targets spend time?

What channels make sense for content to reach your specific audience?      

If you are not clear on these elements, stop here. Without these answers, you are likely to waste time and money hoping for results. A great friend/mentor of mine, Bob Aronson, often said “If communications is not your top priority, then all your other priorities are at risk.” This is spot on. If you cannot effectively answer the questions above with confidence, it’s important to pause in order to define those to ensure your strategies will truly align to drive your desired results.

Assuming the fundamentals are in place, organizations typically dive in with creating content they think will hit the mark.Yet, data driven insights allow so much more than just taking a smart, educated guess as to how to deliver valuable content to meet the needs of the market. It’s an ongoing challenge that has been exacerbated in the last couple of years with more focus on the credibility of online results with Google continually looking to help users understand why they get the results they see.

With several great tools available, there is more that can be done to create an effective content plan. So, what should be considered?

Search Behavior Research

This is an extension of basic keyword research where you try to understand search intent. Of course, taking keywords into consideration should still be a part of the process but it also must be done in context. This is of critical importance. We want to deliver the right information to meet the needs of the person searching, not simply leveraging keywords and saying a prayer that somehow you wind up on page one of search results. Those days are long gone and never really worked all that well anyway.

Attention to the problem you’re trying to solve for a user should be the focus in all planning efforts. As a marketer, you must deliver the content that is meaningful to the audience. That’s the win-win for everyone. Readers want to find what actually addresses their needs, and you want to reach people who are seeking your content. Every page you are working on should have a specific purpose and advance the reader further into your marketing funnel by either addressing their questions or providing critical information. Thinking through the questions that will get a user to your site as well as every step through your content pathways once there, including effective calls to action, should be modeled as part of your plan. In the example to the right, the volume provides the obvious guide on if the topic is actively being searched online. Understanding the current interest in specific terms is the minimum to consider in capturing those readers and allowing you to begin to formulate ideas around topics.

Most Shared and Engaging Content

Another area that I believe is under-utilized is analyzing the content most shared for your industry or topic. This data is readily available and can provide extremely specific insights that help in understanding how your audience is engaging with content.

Conventional wisdom has said that shorter-form content is what most readers want. We’re busy right? You can hear it now- “There’s too much going on, I don’t have time to read lengthy articles” or even seeing how often people share articles and clearly have not read beyond the headline. But surprise, sometimes the most helpful content can be very heavy, lengthy pieces.

It varies of course, but if you don’t look you won’t know what is happening in real world scenarios. While personas and assumptions are better than nothing, you may be leaving opportunity on the table without doing this research.

In the table above, the data displays which articles are being shared most widely based on the initial research. To the left, I’ve included the column that corresponds to the length of that highly-shared content. You can see that longer articles are performing very well. Many of the top-shared articles are several thousand words. While many short content pieces do well for a lot of topics, you can see that some of the most highly shared articles feature deep, rich content. For new or potentially complex topics, many readers seem to appreciate the added detail versus quick-hit copy. This level of content planning simply allows smarter outcomes that are more likely to succeed.

Get Ready for Content Success in 2022

This time of year, many companies begin the process of planning for the year ahead and wouldn’t think of ignoring real-world customer or prospect data garnered from the sales team or industry voices but don’t fully leverage data available online. If you want to learn more about effective content planning, and ensure you’re turning over every stone to help meet your goals, please reach out for a discussion on opportunities to enhance your strategic content efforts in 2022.

The Value of Bad News

Business, Business Communications, Communications, Leadership

An interesting article caught my eye recently on the importance of listening. It specifically looks at senior leadership and the challenges of remaining connected to the full organization while creating an environment that fosters sharing and listening across levels. The article is titled Are You Really Listening? via Harvard Business Review (limited number of articles per month free or for subscribers) and is worth a read in full.

For years, CEOs and other senior leaders (corporate, agency, and nonprofit) have often struggled alone in managing the pressures they face. Despite being in charge of hundreds or even thousands of employees, it can be a very lonely role. The expectation exists to be confident and strong in their decision making, to always have a handle on what’s coming next. Studies have shown that many CEOs don’t feel that they can have someone internally with whom they can be truly open and honest in working through ideas or challenges they face.

Because of these pressures and challenges, it is easy to become disconnected from those with lines of sight to the day-to-day operations. It’s also common for information moving up the chain to be revised at each step to appear more positive. Managers and directors along the way don’t want to be the bearer of bad news either so senior leaders may be receiving filtered information that paints things in the manner that staff “believe” leadership wants.

“At the core of the challenge is a paradox in the life of senior leaders, particularly CEOs: They generally have access to more lines of communication than anybody else has, but the information that flows to them is suspect and compromised. Warning signals are tamped down. Key facts are omitted. Data sets are given a positive spin.”

Are You Really Listening? – Harvard Business Review

There are a number of great takeaways within the article and Adam Bryant and Kevin Sharer provide quality insights so I won’t repeat those but one aspect that I’d like to expand on is the importance of accepting, and actually encouraging, staff to share bad news.

In my career, this has been one of the major challenges that most organizations face. It’s hard to share bad news, really hard. Every employee wants to perform well and succeed so sharing news like “the promotion isn’t working” or “customers don’t want our new solution” with your boss can be a scary proposition. The first time I ever made a mistake at work, which turned out to be a relatively easy to fix once I summoned the courage to raise it, I was absolutely sure I was going to be fired and finding a new line of work. Yet I’m still here 25 years later thanks to a great boss that probably saw the fear on my face and calmly talked through a couple options to get things back on track.

To empower staff to share information openly, consider the following:

Directly communicate the importance of unfiltered updates– The best way to convey your need for essential, open information is to state it early for all employees. The information coming in from all sources in the organization must work together to provide the organization with the flow of real-world feedback needed to succeed. As a manager or leader, you can’t do your best work without the support of employees in their roles. Be sure every employee knows that as well.

Walk the talk in supporting culture- It is easy to say “come to me with anything” but without a system in place and backing from the top of the organization that statement rings hollow. The first time any employee comes to you with a concern or bad news, how you react will set the tone for the future interaction with them and anyone else that knows of the issue. A disappointed look, frustration, or anger will carry more weight than any policy they’ve read. You begin building trust from day one and you continue to earn it over and over with each update, good or bad.

Create regular touchpoints to listen and clarify- Establishing a regular cadence of updates from all levels of the team allows senior leaders to have timely, open updates. Putting the pieces together from all sources of information throughout the organization is the responsibility of leadership. To do that, they need full access to information but that also requires focused listening.  A meeting can shift into something that just has to be done and then on to the next one, particularly for remarkably busy individuals. Don’t make that mistake and slip into turning a valuable commitment into a missed opportunity. To gain the strategic value from listening, you must be fully present to hear what is being said and take the opportunity to clarify and ask questions. Actively listening provides employees with the confidence that they are valued and trusted while senior staff get the insights they need to effectively set the right strategic direction for all.

Women Doing Great Things Every Day

Business, Life

International Women’s Day is a great opportunity to consider where we are and how far we still have to go in order to see women recognized as they should be in so many ways. Within the communications industry, there is better representation than many professions and for that I’m truly thankful. I’ve had the opportunity to work with so many smart, talented women throughout my career but, even in this industry, there remains an unequal gender balance in many of the very senior and executive levels.

Today I want to thank a number of people that have had an important impact on my professional life over the last 20 or so years.

Thank you to Patti Engel and Janet Stacey for your support and the opportunity to learn from each of you. The stages of my career were different but being able to work for smart, dedicated health care leaders was tremendous.

I appreciate the great industry friends, colleagues, and client contacts I’ve been fortunate to have over the years. Whether working together directly or just within the industry and crossing paths, it’s been such a pleasure to collaborate with people like Heather, LeAnn, Christina, Melissa, Jenna, and Maggie.

I’m also so excited to see how many of the young professionals I met during the earlier stages of their careers have gone on to do some wonderful things. It’s probably just that I’m old now but these “young” pros success is amazing and well-deserved. As an example, Jessie Clapper was an intern that put up with me way back when and has gone to do tremendous achievements for a number of leading brands. As have Kirsten, Nicole, and Janey.

I would be remiss to not-mention my amazingly talented wife Christina who is so dedicated and doing awesome things in her professional world and for our family.

Still a long road ahead, but I’m thankful that it’s being paved by this group and so many others.

Learning More About Moral Leadership

Leadership

Really interesting and important research from The HOW Institute for Society as shared by the World Economic Forum on the true desire for moral leadership. This is not a call for just CEOs and formal leaders, but those of all levels that influence and lead others. It’s always been relevant but in greater focus now given well, everything the last year or so has thrown at us.

It’s fascinating to see some of the many findings that are far from complex in concept- as an example, “79% of respondents agree that their organizations would make better business decisions if they followed a golden rule: treat others as you would have them treat you.” This is what most of us learned at home before even starting school. Treat your teams with compassion, treat each other as humans and not just workers, and know that everyone is working to balance many roles in their lives. These are real factors in how teams perform and overlooking the human piece in leading an organization will ultimately leave you short of optimal results.

One of my favorite pieces in the report:

These leaders are not simply well-behaved, they stimulate action by anchoring their daily work – and the work of those around them – in a principled vision of what is good for the world. Moral leaders are advocates who see the humanity in everyone and take the time to build unique and deep relationships. They see people not as means, but as ends in themselves. They listen and learn from those they lead and are often more inclusive.

Read the full report from The HOW Institute for Society and consider how you can continually learn and improve your own moral leadership skills and enjoy better performance.

B2B Email Marketing in 2021

Marketing, Writing

Every year it feels like there will be a push to move away from B2B email marketing with new tools and channels available. Plus, “everyone gets too much email” and “nobody reads email.” This year will be no different. The growth (justifiably so) of audio and video has captured much of the buzz as we collectively seek new ways to connect while more physically apart than any time in recent memory.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE- B2B email is performing better than pre-pandemic levels. According to Hubspot’s State of Email Marketing in 2020, 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months. Email can generate an ROI of up to 42:1 per research by Litmus with some industries even outperforming that average.

Why does email work so well? Targeted, strategic content that is on-target to your prospects.

  • We’ve been conditioned to look for professional communications via email. There’s no surprise in this but the key is identifying the content that is relevant for your audience. Would you have guessed that 73% of millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email? (Hubspot) Understanding your audience is central in creating the content strategy that will drive your B2B program.

  • The most successful companies use metrics to measure content performance and have a documented content strategy. (Content Marketing Institute) It’s difficult to improve performance if you aren’t measuring against specific goals. One of the areas I work with clients to improve is utilizing metrics to track progress and performance but also learn specifically what type of content and topics are working and what could be missing the mark.

  • What do you want them to do? This is the central question when shaping email content. With limited real estate both visually and in terms of best practices for copy length, be specific in what the call to action is within your message. Don’t make the mistake of trying to list every benefit or feature that you think a prospect needs to jump to a buying decision. Consider the journey that will be required to move a prospect from awareness to consideration and ultimately to a decision- work step-by-step. Email is a great way to nurture a relationship, provide useful content and you’ll get there.