You totally buy in to the fact that content IS the new marketing, but you are struggling with getting your executives to understand it and approve the time and funds for that content strategy. How can you present the business case to them? How can you get approval for something beyond a 30-day test? Check out this presentation to see real case studies demonstrating the ROI for content marketing, including a systematized approach that it is repeatable and scalable.
This presentation was given at Content Strategy Applied USA on November 17-18, 2014
How to Convince Your Boss to Invest in Content Marketing with Arnie Kuenn
1. Arnie Kuenn, CEO, Vertical Measures
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
How to Convince Your
Boss to Invest in
Content Marketing
2. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
About Your Presenter…
• Vertical Measures is a 50 person content marketing
agency with an SEO foundation
• Instructor for the Content Marketing Institute &
Online Marketing Institute
• Columnist for Marketing Land, Chief Content Officer
& Relevance
4. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
“Arnie, I just can’t get our
management to see the potential
in this. Getting buy-in seems to
be impossible…”
After 2,000+ students in our content
marketing workshops, the most
common thing we hear afterwards…
10. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
What if you went back to them with a
presentation and never used these words:
• Blogging
• FAQ’s
• Content Marketing
• Inbound Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
11. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
• Learning Center
• Listening
• Being Helpful
• Communicating
• Teaching
• Coaching
Instead you used words like:
12. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
Buyers are searching for
information that helps them
make an informed decision.
Businesses that provide
that information - will win.
13. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
“When prospects visit our website, do
we want to help solve their problems
better than anyone else in our
industry?”
“When they “Google it”, are they
going to find US or our competitors?”
14. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
Companies, large & small, that truly
understand these principles are the
ones doing incredible things online
– and will win in the long run.
17. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
What Is Content Marketing?
• Content marketing is the art of providing relevant,
useful content to your customers without selling or
interrupting them.
• Instead of pitching your products or services, you are
delivering information that makes your customers
more informed before they buy.
• If you deliver consistent, ongoing valuable
information to your customers, they ultimately reward
you with their business and loyalty.
26. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
It Takes Courage…
• It takes courage to give away
something of value without the
expectation of immediate return
• It takes courage to trust that your
customers and prospects will reward
you with sales and loyalty at some
point in the future
• It takes courage to play the long
game, not the short game
27. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
ROI On Content Marketing
Source: Content Marketing ROI (Kapost – Eloqua)
30. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
Because most of our clients are not the NYY, we
strongly suggest playing MONEYBALL
1 in 4 at bats = hit (a success)
1 in 36 at bats = home run (a big success)
1 in 1,691 at bats = grand slam (viral success)
THE ODDS OF HITTING A GRAND SLAM
31. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
(
In order to play content MONEYBALL, you need
to come up with hundreds of ideas so you can
create fresh, useful content on a frequent basis.
Here’s how we do it…
45. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
of all consumers use search
prior to making a purchase
Source: GroupM
of searchers conduct non-
branded queries
of buyers click on organic
links vs. the sponsored ads
47. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
Most Common Problems We Find?
• Unintentional duplicate content
• Duplicate title & meta tags
• Over optimization of anchor text in
backlinks and footer
• No image optimization
• Blocked pages or site
60. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
The Results…
• Yale’s traffic has grown from
40,000 visitors to 150,000
annually
• Leads have grown from 800 to
2,300 monthly!
• Revenue is up by 40% since
starting their content marketing
program.
• And according their president
Steve Sheinkopf: “Profitability
is up way more than that,
because we eliminated
marketing expense.”
66. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
What Really Matters To Your Business?
• How many people visited your website this
month compared to the previous months
• How many people filled out a form to
download a piece of content you provided
• How many new subscribers to your blog
• How many qualified leads you’ve gained
• How much has your revenue increased
67. @ArnieK #CSAUSA
The best time to start
a content marketing program
is 5 years ago.
The second best time is NOW!