Before you start creating content, you need to build your strategy. We collected such valuable insights from over 40 major brands and thought leaders that we are rereleasing this ebook to help make your content marketing successful.

1. #CMWorld

2. Down the Rabbit Hole
!
eyond story telling, what is there in the world of content marketing?
Plenty! From creating a strategy to audience development to visual
content to finding the “real” ROI of a content marketing program,
TopRank Online Marketing and Content Marketing Institute introduce to
you a new series of eBooks: Content Marketing in Wonderland.
As a preview to the inspiring stories and wisdom to be found at the 2014
Content Marketing World conference, this series of 4 eBooks is themed
with one of the most imaginative tales of all time: Alice in Wonderland.
We’ve collected insights from over 40 major brands and thought leaders
presenting at #CMWorld including all-new ideas, strategies and practical
advice to help make your content marketing world a successful one.
We look forward to seeing you in September!
B
Lee Odden, CEO TopRank Online Marketing! Joe Pulizzi, CEO Content Marketing Institute!

3. Content Marketing in Wonderland
Just as Alice experienced her
adventures, we’re taking you on a
Content Marketing in Wonderland
journey with 4 new eBooks:
• Content Marketing Strategy
• Audience Development
• Visual Content Marketing
• Real Content ROI
A new eBook will publish weekly
as we approach the ultimate
content marketing adventure:
The Content Marketing World
conference Sept 8-11, 2014.
!"#$%&'$ !"#$((&'$
!"#$()&'$ !"#$*+&'$

4. Brand Contributors

5. 40+ Content Marketing Experts
Adele Revella
Alan Porter
Andrew Davis
Ann Handley
Ardath Albee
Brant McLean
Brian Clark
Brian Kardon
Bruce McDuffee
Carla Johnson
David Jones
Gurdeep Dhillon
Heidi Cohen
Jascha Kaykas-Wolff
Jason Miller
Jay Acunzo
Jeff Charney
Jeff Rohrs
Jen Dennis
Jesse Noyes
Jim Kukral
JoAnn Sciarrino
Joe Pulizzi
Jonathon Colman
Julie Fleischer
Lee Odden
Leigh Blaylock
Maggie Burke
Mark Schaefer
Michael Brenner
Nicole Smith
Pam Didner
Paull Young
Pawan Deshpande
Rebecca Lieb
Rick Short
Robert Rose
Scott Abel
Scott Monty
Scott Stratten
Steve Clayton
Tim Washer

6. “Content strategy is the
infrastructure of content
marketing. Without
answers to ‘why’ & ‘how’
the result is chaos.”
Rebecca Lieb @lieblink
#CMWorld

7. Content Strategy
Content strategy is the infrastructure of content marketing. It answers
two questions, it is documented, and it is communicated throughout the
enterprise:
1. Why are we doing this? (goals)
2. How are we going to get it done? (process and governance)
Rather than argue why enterprises require a formal content strategy, let’s
examine what happens when they content-market without the
infrastructure of content strategy.
I can’t think of a better metaphor for such a situation than Alice in
Wonderland. We could cast Alice as the content marketer, the Red Queen as
the CEO, and the flamingoes, hedgehogs and soldiers as members of the
marketing team. The resulting chaos is not unlike what’s being played out
in companies all around the content marketing world.
Rebecca Lieb @lieblink
Industry Analyst, Altimeter Group
#CMWorld Presentation:
The Content Marketing Software
Landscape: Marketer Needs &
Vendor Solutions

8. Context is Queen
When it comes to your Content Marketing Strategy, don’t forget the
Queen.
“Content is King!” is turning into one of the most overused pieces of
marketing-speak in the industry. But there’s hope.
A new phrase is bubbling up that helps fill in what this tired axiom is
missing – “Context is Queen.”
Guess what? You can have the greatest content in the world, but if you
don’t find the right place for it, nobody sees it.
In February this year, companies geared up for the “Big Game,” trying to
duplicate the great real-time marketing brands hit a homerun with last
year when the lights went out.
Progressive has a pretty big social media presence, Flo has over 5 million
fans, so we started thinking about it ourselves. After kicking around plenty
of ideas, we netted out in a unique place.
Jeff Charney @jeffcharney
Chief Marketing Officer,
Progressive Insurance
#CMWorld Keynote:
Inside Progressive’s Internal
Content Creation Machine

9. Context is Queen
Why try to yell the loudest in a room where we don’t belong? Why try to
ride the wave with a “me, too” attitude?
We went with a simple picture of Flo on the couch and the caption, “What
do car insurance and football have in common? Nothing. Talk to you after
the game!”
We were just trying to show our fans that we “get it,” and let them enjoy
the game. But the response from them, along with numerous publications
including the Wall Street Journal, was overwhelmingly positive.
The point of this story isn’t to beat our chests, although we are proud of the
work. It’s to show that with an almost non-existent budget (we created
one .jpeg image) and the acknowledgement that even the greatest content
in the world won’t work out of context. We did something people connected
with.
Context.
Long live the Queen.
Jeff Charney @jeffcharney
Chief Marketing Officer,
Progressive Insurance
#CMWorld Keynote:
Inside Progressive’s Internal
Content Creation Machine

10. The Path to What’s Next
Marketing campaigns often feel like a trip down the rabbit hole. The
promise of value or a good story lures in the curious.
From there – good luck.
This confused wandering is almost always due to a lack of planning. We,
the marketers, execute a great concept; content so alluring buyers can’t
help but be pulled in.
Then we neglect to provide a clearly defined path for that buyer to follow.
That buyer is required to figure out for him or herself, asking question after
question along the way, and stringing together answers when possible.
Wandering works in fairy tales. But it’s disastrous when it comes to lead
management.
Before any campaign is executed, the entrances and exits that make up
your buyer’s journey should be mapped out. Every asset you produce should
lead somewhere. A lead should never form a perplexed look and ask, “What
do I go now?”
Jesse Noyes @noyesjesse
Senior Director of Content
Marketing at Kapost
#CMWorld Panel:
How CMOs Are Structuring
Around Content Marketing

11. The Path to What’s Next
Here are three of my favorite steps marketers should take:
1. Create a call-to-action (CTA) flow chart. This is a chart that lists out
every campaign or theme you plan to address with your content. Each listed
theme should include several CTAs to related assets. This ensures whoever
contributes to your content knows exactly where to send the buyer next.
2. Create campaign flow charts for every campaign. Content marketing
campaigns can get complex. There may be blog posts, social posts, display
or search ads, videos, landing pages…the list goes on. Don’t get lost.
Before you launch any campaign, create a flow chart that maps out all the
entrance points and next steps for your campaign.
3. Stop focusing on channels and start unifying your content production.
When the manager of any channel – whether it’s top of funnel or bottom –
starts creating and deploying content on their own, it’s because they don’t
have content to deploy or don’t how to find it.
Establishing a content marketing operation results in a visible, strategic
approach to content creation. And that means buyers don’t have to zig zag
their way through your pipeline.
Jesse Noyes @noyesjesse
Senior Director of Content
Marketing at Kapost
#CMWorld Panel:
How CMOs Are Structuring
Around Content Marketing

12. Content Marketing Planning
What lessons can you learn from Alice and friends to help you create a
great Content Marketing Strategy? Here are three of my favorites:
Things change. And they change fast. New channels, new formats, and new
ways of interacting with your audience pop up much more often you might
expect during the abstract “strategy” phase.
But once you’re executing, count on it: You will see something special–like,
say, a talking white rabbit—and you’re going to want to follow it. Fast.
So weave experimentation into the fabric of your strategy. Otherwise,
you’ll lose critical time selling ideas internally every time you want to try
something new.
Most organizations have a Queen of Hearts (or a few). Make engaging with
them—and winning them over—a fundamental part of your vision.
A good content marketing strategy should encompass plans for
engagement with internal teams as well as interactions with prospects
and customers.
Jen Dennis @jendennis2000
Content Strategist & Marketer
#CMWorld Panel
What brands can learn from
the newsroom

13. Content Marketing Planning
Creating great content requires participation from many people. You might need
HR’s help. Or approval from legal. Or your engineers' expertise. Or a quote from
your CEO. You get the picture.
Here’s the thing: All these people already have jobs, and those jobs aren’t in
marketing. So they might not know, or care, about the value of content
marketing. It’s your job to fire them up. Without their support, it’s “Off with their
heads” for your plans.
Sometimes a tea party will turn out to be stupid. Go to tea parties anyway.
For all our talk about process and planning, this remains true: Creating a
content marketing algorithm that produces ‘winning’ or ‘viral’ content every
single time is impossible (Google would have built one already otherwise).
Yes, establish KPIs and meet them. But expect—and plan for—the occasional
miss. Don’t worry; you’ll learn something from the duds too.
The original title for Alice in Wonderland was The Adventures of Alice in
Wonderland. Make sure your strategy encourages, rather than eliminates, the
adventures.
Jen Dennis @jendennis2000
Content Strategist & Marketer
#CMWorld Panel
What brands can learn from
the newsroom

14. “Look to your community
for content to augment
and help promote. The
proverbial win-win is not
a myth.”
Jascha Kaykas-Wolff @kaykas
#CMWorld

15. Content & Community
How to build your content strategy inside a community of 170 million
monthly users.
A key marketing focus at BitTorrent is to develop a content strategy
showcasing our users’ stories, across product lines. Let’s focus on one of
our products, BitTorrent Bundle, which illustrates our three core tenets that
you can employ for your company:
1.! Content drives the experience inside and out: User stories and artist
content from the community highlight the product better than anyone.
2.! Tight coordination between the artists/users, product, product
marketing and communications drives success.
3.! Good content that drives a specific product should impact wider
brand strategies and goals.
Jascha Kaykas-Wolff @kaykas
CMO at BitTorrent
#CMWorld Panel
How CMOs Are Structuring
Around Content Marketing

16. Content & Community
Tip 1: Look to your community for content that you can augment and
help promote. The proverbial win-win is not a myth. The best record stores
craft stories on top of the artists’ content. Our content strategy is
collaborative with the artist community in this same vein.
Tip 2: Don’t do it alone. Coordinating with your community and their team
for resources can have an exponentially positive impact. Working closely
with our community (and in this case, G-eazy and his team): 4.7MM Bundle
user sessions for G-eazy’s bundle and G-eazy’s new album debuted at #2
on Billboard initially and #1 on the hip hop list.
Tip 3: Focus on the ‘Bright Spots’ to keep the momentum going. A
success with your community is the best ingredient to start the next recipe.
This is how we build momentum. Collaborating with our users helps
identify artists to feature. We choose projects that amplify our brand; that
stand for the same thing. In fact, we just blew through 100 million
downloads, and each win makes it easier to drive future successes.
Jascha Kaykas-Wolff @kaykas
CMO at BitTorrent
#CMWorld Panel
How CMOs Are Structuring
Around Content Marketing

17. Content Marketing Experience
Content marketing is the fuel propelling the marketing engine.
We should no longer think of content marketing as a means to just develop
thought leadership, generate awareness or build demand. Content touches
all aspects of a customer's experience or a buyer's journey. It doesn't stop
when they first learn about you or when the sale is closed.
To succeed with a content marketing strategy, it's important to:
•! Get out of your comfort zone, be willing to experiment and test
different content formats and types;
•! Align your content goals to the overall goals of the company, not just
marketing or demand gen goals;
•! Connect with other content marketers to stay current on new
technologies, platforms and channels
Brian E. Kardon @bkardon
Chief Marketing Officer at
Lattice Engines
#CMWorld Panel
How CMOs Are Structuring
Around Content

18. When Content Goes Global
“They only speak French in France, don’t they?”
I’ve actually had this conversation more than once. It happens when
marketing groups make decisions on what languages to translate their
content into based on geography. “We sell this product all over Europe, but
not in France so we don’t need French.” What about Switzerland, Belgium,
Holland and other countries in Europe where French is spoken? What about
a French speaker living and working in Germany?
50% of the world is bilingual and we need to accommodate that.
Does that mean we need to translate everything into all 6,900 spoken
languages? No.
80% of the world’s population can be reached with just twelve
languages. If you can’t support twelve languages or more for global
coverage, then think on a regional basis.
People move around so provide support for that. What are the top five
languages spoken in the region you want to market to? In the USA it’s
English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog (Philippines), and French.
Alan J. Porter @alanjporter
Content Marketing Manager
at Caterpillar Inc.
#CMWorld Case Study
From the Midwest to the
World: Developing a Business
Driven Globalization Strategy
for Content Marketing

19. When Content Goes Global
Multi-lingual people think of different subjects in different languages.
For instance a Swiss person may think about his car In German, food In
French, and movies in English, because that’s how he experiences them.
Figure out the predominate language for the experience you are trying
to market in the region you are targeting.
There’s a reason that here at Caterpillar our website for Africa includes
content in Chinese – it’s because a large percentage of the construction
industry working in Africa are Chinese.
Stop thinking about global content in terms of geographical boundaries.
Content translation and localization decisions need to be determined on a
regional basis informed by a mix of culture, industry and market knowledge
—not based solely on nationality.
Alan J. Porter @alanjporter
Content Marketing Manager
at Caterpillar Inc.
#CMWorld Case Study
From the Midwest to the
World: Developing a Business
Driven Globalization Strategy
for Content Marketing

20. Help Your Audience Be Better
One of the best content marketing strategies I have found that drives
revenue growth is to help the people in your target audience be better at
something. Naturally, the thing you choose to help them be better should
intersect with the unique expertise of your company.
As an example, if a company is in the business of creating, printing and
selling airplane navigation charts, this firm could help their target
audience (pilots) be better at flying by teaching them to be more proficient
at reading charts.
Notice that the strategy does not include teaching them how to use their
specific product. By keeping the lessons general and not about your
company, the bond is much stronger and more authentic. Granted, for this
strategy to grow your business, you must let them know who is offering this
education and what your firm does sell.
By offering your expertise freely with no strings attached, your firm has
given the people in your target audience a gift.
Bruce McDuffee @brucemcduffee
Senior Manager, Content
Marketing at Boeing
#CMWorld Industry Lab
Manufacturing Industry Content
Marketing

21. Help Your Audience Be Better
When the day comes around and they need to purchase what you offer, they will
want to reciprocate by purchasing from the company that helped them be
better.
Here are 3 steps to get started:
1. Pick a particular area of expertise where your company excels. If you
make bicycle shoes, you may have expertise in efficient pedaling techniques or
adjusting your bike setup for more efficiency. If you repair computers, you
might be an expert in using Windows 8.
2. Determine an area where the people in your target audience have
problems, pain or passion causing them to want to be better. This thing should
intersect with the expertise chosen in step one.
3. Decide how you will share your expertise. Will you set up live seminars?
Webinars? A podcast series? An enewsletter series? eBooks?
Then go ahead and execute with good content marketing practices. Heck, this
is sounding like it could be your content marketing mission statement, “To help
the people in our target audience be better _________________ “.
Bruce McDuffee @brucemcduffee
Senior Manager, Content
Marketing at Boeing
#CMWorld Industry Lab
Manufacturing Industry Content
Marketing

22. “Does your content
inspire you to share? You
can never fail by making
customers, prospects &
employees feel inspired.”
Paull Young @paullyoung
#CMWorld

23. 3 Steps to Content Inspiration
At charity: water we believe that inspiration is the most important part of our
digital strategy.
The trick is: inspiration is easier said than done.
Stop for a second and consider this question (and please be honest with
yourself!):
What piece of content has your brand produced recently that you would
describe as inspirational?
Have you been inspired to share content from your brand personally? Not
because you felt like it was your job, but because you wanted your friends and
family to be inspired?
Creating content that truly inspires comes down to three key items:
1. Build a great team
For truly inspiring creative content, you need inspired creative people on your
team. I don’t believe that it’s easy to outsource this. For great content you need
blood, sweat and tears from committed creatives - not freelancers working
against the clock.
Paull Young @paullyoung
Director of Digital at
charitywater.org
#CMWorld Presentation
Creating a Movement
Through Content Marketing

24. 3 Steps to Content Inspiration
2. Give them the freedom to do great work
If your planned output is inspiration you need to measure the creatives
work by inspiration, and nothing else. It’s the marketer’s job to drive
eyeballs, and products job to drive conversions. The creatives need to
rigidly focus on creating something they believe will inspire.
3. Make their output one of the most important things for your brand
You need senior staff to care deeply about the content. They need to fight
internal battles to ensure the creatives have time and resources to do
excellent work. They need to invest their own time in pushing for excellence.
Ultimately: senior people need to passionately care about creating inspiring
content, or the content just won’t be inspiring.
You can never fail by making your customers, prospects and employees feel
inspired.
Paull Young @paullyoung
Director of Digital at
charitywater.org
#CMWorld Presentation
Creating a Movement
Through Content Marketing

25. Risks & Rewards of Content
The thing about content marketing is…we all want a piece of that cake.
You know, the cake that causes Alice to grow? Yes, the one labeled EAT ME.
We want to produce content that is so great for our audience that all of our
metrics explode.
But in most cases, that’s not how it works. There are ups and downs and
you’re always looking for ways to get better. If you’re ready to go down this
rabbit hole, here are some tips and best practices, tied to some of our
favorite quotes from Alice in Wonderland:
"I don't see how he can ever finish, if he doesn't begin.”
This one’s pretty straightforward. You’ll never run a successful content
marketing campaign if you don’t give it a shot. Pick a target audience,
find a way that you can truly help them with content, and make it happen.
Because “at any rate, there’s no harm in trying!”
Gurdeep Dhillon @gurdeepd
Vice President, Customer LoB
Marketing at SAP
#CMWorld Panel
How Brands Are Scaling
Content Marketing

26. Risks & Rewards of Content
“I knew who I was this morning but I've changed a few times since then.”
Modern marketing is about taking risks and not being afraid to fail. No
matter how much we research and study our audience, we’re not always
going to hit the mark when we create content. The key is to recognize the
failures, learn from them, and move on. And the way to do this is simple…
measure everything!
“My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if
you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.”
To implement a successful content marketing strategy, you’ve got to have a
team of passionate, dedicated, and agile people. They will need to stay
ahead of the trends that impact their audience, the market forces that
impact your own product or services, and the competition. And to be
successful, they’ll have to create a consistent flow of magnetic content and
NEVER sacrifice quality for quantity.
Gurdeep Dhillon @gurdeepd
Vice President, Customer LoB
Marketing at SAP
#CMWorld Panel
How Brands Are Scaling
Content Marketing

27. 10 Steps to Content Success
1. Always begin at the end! In other words, have a clear goal. It is critical
to put your goal in writing.
a. Define your target audience.
b. Define precisely what you would like them to do.
2. Establish clear, easy to implement, valued, and connected metrics:
a. Clear and concise
b. Publish freely to your team
c. Automate as much as possible
3. Commit to a defined process. Develop, define, tweak, and stick to it.
4. Establish key individuals as thought leaders in your target arena.
Readers appreciate knowing the people behind the scenes.
5. Hire the right people. Things work when individuals have the innate
philosophy. Things fail when the wrong individuals are put in these roles.
Rick Short @RickShort21
Director of Marketing
Communications at Indium
Corporation
#CMWorld Presentation
B2B Blogging Driven by
Employees

28. 10 Steps to Content Success
6. Commit to transparency and authenticity.
7. Establish a unique, honest, and consistent voice. You can’t be
everything to everyone. Go to market as yourself and be consistently you.
8. Ownership is critical. Every project or assignment should have one, and
only one, owner.
9. Develop and publish information that will be in demand in the future.
“Be the answer, today, to the question your customer will ask tomorrow.”
10. Respect and support your content generators and purveyors. They are
the geese laying the golden eggs
Rick Short @RickShort21
Director of Marketing
Communications at Indium
Corporation
#CMWorld Presentation
B2B Blogging Driven by
Employees

29. The Original Content Marketers
For nearly 120 years, The Furrow has delivered relevant, thought-provoking
content to millions of farmers and researchers, simultaneously
strengthening the John Deere brand while cementing the magazine’s
reputation for brand-agnostic journalism.
And while I’m wary of anyone promising "The Secret" to anything, there is
one element without which The Furrow could not have achieved the
success it currently enjoys.
Of the six field editors that contribute the bulk of the content to The Furrow,
two are full-time farmers in addition to being on our editorial staff; one
was raised on a good-sized cattle ranch in Montana, is still actively
involved in the ranch’s operations, and runs a small herd of her own. One is
a landlord…in the agricultural, as opposed to the residential, sense. The
other two have a combined fifty-plus years in ag journalism and B2B
communications.
The bottom line is, these folks are bona fide, industry-recognized
experts… in the subject matter, because they live it every day; in the
consumers of that subject matter, because our writers are part of the larger
audience for ag journalism, too; and in what motivates that audience to
read, click, listen or view.
David G. Jones
Publications Manager at John
Deere Ag & Turf
Editor, The Furrow and
Homestead
#CMWorld Presentation
John Deere and The Furrow:
The Original Content
Marketers

30. The Original Content Marketers
What does that mean for us back here in the office? It means we can
think about how to increase the reach of The Furrow, even as the number of
large farms in the U.S. decreases. We can think about how to bring a
magazine with 120 years of print history into the digital realm. We can
think about how to raise the profile of The Furrow within our own
organization.
And while this may sound like content-marketing heresy, it ultimately
means we don’t have to worry about our content resonating with our
audience, because our providers are part of that audience.
And that leads directly to my One Thing:
Enlist the best writers, photographers and videographers you can find;
listen to them, trust their judgment, pay them well, pay them promptly,
and you’ll be ahead of the game.
David G. Jones
Publications Manager at John
Deere Ag & Turf
Editor, The Furrow and
Homestead
#CMWorld Presentation
John Deere and The Furrow:
The Original Content
Marketers

31. LEARN EVEN MORE ABOUT CONTENT MARKETING
Join 3,500 industry peers from 50 countries, 100+ speakers,
and leading Fortune 500 brands at:
CONTENT MARKETING WORLD 2015
September 8-11, 2015
www.contentmarketingworld.com
REGISTER TODAY
Use code
“TopRank”
for $100 off
of Main Event
and All-Access
registrations.

32. Content Marketing Services
Tired of Chasing the Rabbit?
We Can Show You the Way
If you would like to leverage TopRank’s world-class
expertise with content and influencer marketing,
social media, search and online ads, let’s talk!
We can help plan, source, create, manage, measure
and optimize the performance of your content
marketing programs.
Contact TopRank Marketing:
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34. Next: Audience Development
Be sure to check out the next eBook in the Content Marketing in
Wonderland series:
Building an Audience Development Strategy for Content Marketing
at: marketingblog.com
p
Coming: Aug 11, 2014