teaching the choir to sing: the communicator's role in content marketing

@CarlaJohnson

Teaching the Choir to Sing The Communicator’s Role

in Content Marketing

Carla Johnson

President, Type A Communications

@carlajohnson

@CarlaJohnson

ABOUT CARLA JOHNSON

WHAT IS

CONTENT

MARKETING?

@CarlaJohnson @CarlaJohnson

WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?

Content marketing is a strategy focused on the creation of a valuable experience. It is humans being helpful to each other, sharing valuable pieces of content that enrich the community and position the business as a leader in the field. It is content that is engaging, eminently shareable, and, most of all, focused on helping customers discover (on their own) that your product or service is the one that will scratch their itch. - Managing Content Marketing

@CarlaJohnson

Content marketing isn’t new.

But today there’s more emphasis on owning media, rather than renting it.

@CarlaJohnson

The difference between an audience and a community is which way the chairs face. Chris Brogan Human Business Works

WHY CONTENT

MARKETING

MATTERS

@CarlaJohnson

School

@CarlaJohnson

Goldfish attention span = 9 seconds

Human attention span = 8 seconds

@CarlaJohnson

DEMAND FOR OUR ATTENTION

• 1977 – 560 messages a day

• 1997 – 3,000 messages a day

• 2013 – 13,000 messages a day

BRAND

STORYTELLING

@CarlaJohnson

@CarlaJohnson

Rob Walker, Columnist, New York Times Author Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are

A Harvard Business Review article describes an experiment that Walker conducted by taking ordinary objects, creating great stories about them, and then selling them on eBay. The items sold, on average, for 2700% more than he paid for them. Read the article at: http://bit.ly/MwQnX4

@CarlaJohnson

BRAND STORYTELLING

• Articulates what the brand stands for

• Expresses in what the brand believes

• Gives employees purpose

• Emotionally connects with customers

• Puts audiences in the role of the hero

• Serves as the “North Star"

@CarlaJohnson

@CarlaJohnson

What about employees?

@CarlaJohnson

• A consistent story and customer experience

• Great employee engagement

• Better business results

• Creates “insurance” for all external spend

INTERNAL BRAND STORYTELLING DRIVES

@CarlaJohnson

BRAND STORYTELLING SHARES A UNIFIED IDEA ABOUT A BRAND

@CarlaJohnson

IMPACTS OF ENGAGEMENT

• Disengagement leads to* –

₋ Greater performance risk

₋ Vulnerable to lower productivity, higher inefficiency, weaker customer service, and greater rates of absenteeism and turnover

• Companies with sustainably engaged employees had operating margins 3xs those of disengaged workers*

• Companies with high levels of engagement experienced 147% higher EPS**

• Active disengagement costs US companies $400-500B per year**

*Towers Watson 2012 Global Workforce Study; **Gallup 2013 State of the Global Workforce

@CarlaJohnson

BRAND STORYTELLING & SALES

• Misalignment between sales and marketing causes the typical company to underperform by 10-20% in annual revenue. (IDC)

• Best-in-class organization that integrate sales and marketing outperform those that don’t by as much as 24% in average revenue growth. (Sirius Decisions)

@CarlaJohnson

Basically, the overwhelming majority of executive level buyers tell us that how a vendor engages with them differentiates them a lot more than what their products and services are or do. Scott Santucci Forrester Analyst

@CarlaJohnson

High-performing sales people are almost twice as likely to be highly engaged as lower-performing sales employees (44% vs 24%)

44%

@CarlaJohnson

BRAND STORYTELLING & HR

• HR as the “new” marketing department?

• Few companies extend their brand story to the employees they hope to recruit

• In order to have the right people tell the right story, you have to employ the right people

• HR includes recruitment, hiring, compensation, recognition, development, benefits, etc.

@CarlaJohnson

@CarlaJohnson

BRAND STORYTELLING & ENGAGEMENT

Rate by which actively disengaged employees continue to outnumber engaged employees.

2:1 Source: Gallup: 2013 State of the Global Workforce

@CarlaJohnson

GALLUP’S 2013 STATE OF THE GLOBAL WORKPLACE

@CarlaJohnson

EXAMPLES:

BRAND

STORYTELLING

@CarlaJohnson

@CarlaJohnson

EVOLVING CONTENT INTO BRAND STORYTELLING

Thought Leadership Storytelling

Meet Demand

The Efficient Funnel

Creates Trust

Be Found

Generate Awareness

Trust

Creates Demand

Differentiates

Creates Evangelists

Context Aware

Source: Robert Rose, Chief Strategist, Content Marketing Institute

@CarlaJohnson

• Operated as a single company for 80 years

• January 2011 Motorola split into 2 companies

• Created an imperative to tell a clear, compelling story

• Provided an opportunity to teach employees about the contributions and impact they make

• Foster a new sense of pride and enhanced employee engagement

@CarlaJohnson

CREATING TANGIBLE EXPRESSIONS OF CHANGE

@CarlaJohnson

CREATING TANGIBLE EXPRESSIONS OF CHANGE

@CarlaJohnson

@CarlaJohnson

@CarlaJohnson

DEFINE PAIN

SOLUTION VISION

SOLUTION VALUE

Marketing

MARKET RESEARCH

IDEA GENERATION

CONCEPT FEASIBILITY

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT &

PROJECT PLANNING

DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

RAMP UP

LAUNCH & PRODUCTION

START-UP PRODUCTION

EMERSON BEGINS AT STAGE GATE ZERO

@CarlaJohnson

EMERSON’S HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN

@CarlaJohnson

@CarlaJohnson @CarlaJohnson

DRIVING

BRAND

STORYTELLING

@CarlaJohnson

BRINGING YOUR STORY TO LIFE

• Communicate the “why” of your brand story

• Bring your story to people; don’t expect them to come to you

• Build and sustain excitement

• Be fun and human

@CarlaJohnson

Source: Robert Rose, Chief Strategist, Content Marketing Institute

FRAMEWORK TO TEACH THE CHOIR TO SING

@CarlaJohnson

Source: Robert Rose, Chief Strategist, Content Marketing Institute

FRAMEWORK TO TEACH THE CHOIR TO SING

@CarlaJohnson

People will forget

what you said,

people will forget

what you did, but

people will never

forget how you

made them feel.

- Maya Angelou

@CarlaJohnson

Carla Johnson, Principal Type A Communications (720) 344-0987

carla@goTypeA.com

www.goTypeA.com

Type A Communications @carlajohnson Carla Johnson