The Real Reasons Why Your Client (Or Boss) Keeps Rejecting Your Content Campaign Concepts

@BrockbankJamesTheRealReasonsWhyYourClient(OrBoss)KeepsRejectingYourContentCampaignConcepts
The Real Reasons Why Your Client (Or Boss)
Keeps Rejecting Your Content Campaign Concepts
James Brockbank
Managing Director & Founder - Digitaloft

More than…
2 million blog posts
(Source: MarketingProfs)
&
400,000 YouTube videos
(Source: YouTube)
Are published...

EVERY.

EVERY.
SINGLE.

EVERY.
SINGLE.
DAY.

That’s a hell of a
lot of content!

If you want to cut through
the noise, your content
needs to be amazing.
It must be better than everything
else being pitched to journalists,
published on the web or shared
on social.
Not just good.
It needs to be great.

(& your client or bosses money…)
Otherwise…
You’re probably
wasting your time!

It’s rare that one piece of content
can tick all these boxes.
After all, you need to be creating
content with a purpose; typically
that which aligns to one of a few
common campaign goals:
Earning links
Earning rankings
Earning social shares

Let’s assume you
already know
this though.
(Don’t worry, I won’t spent the next 15
minutes boring you about WHY you need
to be producing great content…)

Have you ever spent hours coming
up with that NEXT BIG IDEA for
your content marketing campaign?

You’ve prepared a fancy
presentation to put to your client
(or boss) to get them as excited
as you are about the ideas...

“Sorry; we don’t like the ideas.
Any chance you can think up
something else?”

Oh
FFS...

Sadly, this situation is all too
common amongst agencies
and in-house marketers.

It’s frustrating and can
be disappointing ...

But you just need to understand
things from their perspective
and address their concerns
during the ideation and pitch
stages of a campaign...

Here’s 4 reasons why clients
(and bosses) reject content
campaign concepts …

They Don’t
Understand The
Campaign Goals

01. They Don’t Understand The Campaign Goals
If the end goals
aren’t obvious,
content concepts can
often be considered
out of context.

If they don’t (or can’t)
understand what it is you
are trying to achieve (i.e.
earning links through great
content to support the SEO
campaign), how can they
fully justify to themselves
a concept?

It all comes down to …
EDUCATION

Why do we
*usually*
create content?

...To make
money

Content is typically being
produced as a tactical way
to roll out a strategy which
meets wider marketing
KPIs and goals

It’s a
means to
an end.

If a campaign meets its
goals and makes sense
to the brand, why would
anyone say no?
Unless they couldn’t
see these goals...

Share your vision for
the content with key
stakeholders and speak
in their language

20 DA40+ links to support
the SEO strategy
5,000 organic visits per month at an
expected conversion rate of 2.7%
3,000 engagements on Facebook
That means aligning the
way you pitch your ideas
to their own goals.
That could be …

They Think
Content Marketing
Is Advertising

02. They Think Content Marketing Is Advertising
Content
Marketing:
“Content marketing is a strategic
marketing approach focused on
creating and distributing valuable,
relevant, and consistent content to
attract and retain a clearly defined
audience — and, ultimately, to drive
profitable customer action.”
(Content Marketing Institute)

Advertising:
“Advertising is attempting to
influence the buying behavior
of your customers or clients by
providing a persuasive selling
message about your products
and/or services.”
(The Balance SMB)

Content marketing
and advertising
are NOT the
same thing.

Educate your key
stakeholders.

Consumers
are immune to
advertising.
30%
of internet users are
using ad blockers.
(Business Insider)
86%
of TV viewers
skip ads
(Guardian)

Understand and educate that
successful content campaigns…
Focus on these and the sales will follow;
even without direct advertising.
Inform & Educate
Entertain
Engage
Build Trust & Reputation

We studied 253 content campaigns
produced by 57 eCommerce brands...
Subject Proximity to Brand Offerings
Content Pieces
Content Pieces
Related Topic Pieces [78] 30.8%
Average LRDs 47
On Topic Pieces [170] 67.2%
Average LRDs 22
Off Topic Pieces [5] 1.98%
Average LRDs 36

(They Think)
It’ll Cost A Fortune
To Execute

03. (They Think) It’ll Cost A Fortune To Execute
Pitch a BIG idea and there’s
a good chance you’ll be
met with the question of…
“But how much
will it cost…”

There’s a common
misconception that content
campaigns cost a fortune.

Ba
ng head her
e

You just need to
get smart.

Think BIG and
execute within
your budget
constraints.

You need to understand
that the most common
‘budget eaters’ in a
campaign...
Research
Development

The best stories
are backed with
authoritative data.

But that doesn’t
mean you need
to spend money
to get it.

Forget expensive
surveys...

There’s thousands of free
data sets available which
are just waiting to be used
in a creative way...

Forget big,
fancy productions

They’re nice
but a waste of
resources when
you’re working to
a budget.

Prove to stakeholders that a great idea
can be executed in budget-friendly
ways if necessary.

There’s No
Evidence That
A Campaign
Will Return
Results

04. There’s No Evidence That A Campaign Will Return Results
Content marketing cannot
guarantee results.
But there’s a few things you
can do to mitigate risk and
demonstrate potential.

If you’re producing
10x content
guides to rank
on the SERPs...

Supply keyword
volume data

Estimate traffic
based upon
expected organic
CTR at different
ranking positions

Demonstrate the
potential conversion
rate from traffic.

In monetary terms; what could
this piece of content realistically
generate in the first year?

If you’re producing
content intended
to earn links or
social shares...

Use ahrefs and
BuzzSumo to
analyse similar
content.
How many links were earned?
How many social shares?

If it’s the story you
need to prove ...

Run a micro survey.

USURV allow you
to survey 50 people
for around £12.

You’ll usually get
the results within
half an hour.

Prove a concept before investing
heavily into research.
It’ll be much easier to sell
the story to stakeholder.

IN SUMMARY
Make it as easy as possible for stakeholders to share your vision.
Hook campaigns to end-goal KPIS (i.e. MONEY)
Educate clients on the WHY of your concepts
Think BIG and showcase how you can execute within budget constraints
Provide evidence-based projections on the potential of a campaign

THANK YOU!
james@digitaloft.co.uk @BrockbankJames

The Real Reasons Why Your Client (Or Boss) Keeps Rejecting Your Content Campaign Concepts

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to The Real Reasons Why Your Client (Or Boss) Keeps Rejecting Your Content Campaign Concepts

Similar to The Real Reasons Why Your Client (Or Boss) Keeps Rejecting Your Content Campaign Concepts (20)

More from James Brockbank

More from James Brockbank (13)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

The Real Reasons Why Your Client (Or Boss) Keeps Rejecting Your Content Campaign Concepts