iCrossing UK's Head of Content, Trisha Brandon, looks at the importance of getting your house in order at this years iCrossing UK client summit 2012.

1. IT’S NOT SEXY, BUT IT’S ESSENTIAL:
6 REASONS TO GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER
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2. OVERVIEW TRUEISMS
Statements that brands actively strive for, or that our customers
demand from us:
> We’re all publishers now
> Multichannel is where it’s at
> Quality content is essential
> Mobile – it’s the future (again)
> Local = more relevant
> We all love a great story
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3. OVERVIEW TRUEISMS AND CONTENT
> Do we agree?
> Can a brand stay present and relevant let alone innovate?
> Content is the ideal lever to help make the internal changes
needed to meet the challenges set by these truisms.
> I’ll address each truism and break down how you can get your
house in order to help make them a reality for your brand.
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4. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Context
> Spawned new disciplines
> Content Lab
> eBooks
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5. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
> Content Marketing Institute’s 2011 survey
> 1000+ people who market using content
> International, but heavily weighted to U.S.
5
http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/12/2012-b2b-content-marketing-research

6. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
> Differences year on year
6 http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/12/2012-b2b-content-marketing-research/

7. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
> Predicted spend in 2012
7 http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/12/2012-b2b-content-marketing-research/

8. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Other interesting findings
> Those who felt that their content marketing efforts were successful
differed from those who don’t in three key ways:
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9. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Other interesting findings
> Those who felt that their content marketing efforts were successful
differed from those who don’t in three key ways:
1. They allocate more budget (31% of budget vs. 18%).
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10. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Other interesting findings
> Those who felt that their content marketing efforts were successful
differed from those who don’t in three key ways:
1. They allocate more budget (31% of budget vs. 18%).
2. They consider their customer’s stage in buying cycle and
tailor content to suit
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11. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Other interesting findings
> Those who felt that their content marketing efforts were successful
differed from those who don’t in three key ways:
1. They allocate more budget (31% of budget vs. 18%).
2. They consider their customer’s stage in buying cycle and
tailor content to suit
3. They benefit from substantially more buy in from senior
members of the organisation.
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12. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
> But does is take to produce content - really well?
> Follow the process editors and content strategists have always
used:
Develop
strategy
Analyse Plan
Publish Create
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13. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Editorial cycle for a brand:
> Requires everyone who produces content to be:
– Consist
– Coordinated
– Strategic
> It needs those focused on users’ ongoing journey too:
– SEO
– Customers services
– Brand
– PR
– CRM/eCRM
– Product
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14. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Transparency
> Transparency is increasingly expected – it’s a marker of trust.
Publishers have that trust already, brands have to earn it.
Solution
> Be open and transparent through your content. Show personality
and voice, highs and lows, failings and successes.
> It’ll show you’re genuine, and in the long run, build trust
14 http://www.slideshare.net/PewInternet/citizen-20-12618601

15. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Solution
In a nutshell…
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16. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Reality check
> To be a publisher, act like a publisher
> Strong content ownership
> Organisational change
> Relationship building
Results
> Better return on your efforts (efficiencies)
> Maximum benefit from budgets
> Finding new, better ways of working
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17. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
So who does this well?
> Red Bull
– Bold
– Confident
– Creates brand associations
– Addresses truisms head on
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18. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
So who does this well?
> Boden
– Bold – they walk the talk
– Community from scratch
– Clearly value customers
– Give them value in return
– They’ve committed to it
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19. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
So who does this well?
> Boden
– Bold – they walk the talk
– Community from scratch
– Clearly value customers
– Give them value in return
– They’ve committed to it
– They have engagement
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20. TRUEISM 2. MULTICHANNEL IS WHERE IT’S AT
Context
> If previous section focuses on the “what” and the “who”, this is the
“where”.
> Challenges
– Who manages what?
– What content are you producing and where?
– Lack of internal systems that support a joined up approach
> See it simply as your brand’s cost of entry into being a publisher.
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21. TRUEISM 2. MULTICHANNEL IS WHERE IT’S AT…BUT…
> But aligning channels can be
like creating a big marble run.
> You never know whether things
will turn out as you anticipate
21
Photo from zimpenfish

22. TRUEISM 2a. MULTICHANNEL CONVERGENCE IS WHERE IT’S AT
Solution
> A single, robust foundation that defines how your brand thinks
about its customers, messaging and content
> This will pave the way for consistent brand experiences
Source: Ron Rogowski’s The Unified Customer Experience Imperative, Forrester
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23. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Context
> Those of us passionate about content have always known that it:
– Is a valuable brand asset
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24. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Context
> Those of us passionate about content have always known that it:
– Is a valuable brand asset
– Gives you permission to directly communicate with your
customers
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25. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Context
> Those of us passionate about content have always known that it:
– Is a valuable brand asset
– Gives you permission to directly communicate with your
customers
– Unlocks access to the conversations most pertinent to your
brand across digital channels (provided you put your customers
first)
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26. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Context
> Those of us passionate about content have always known that it:
– Is a valuable brand asset
– Gives you permission to directly communicate with your
customers
– Unlocks access to the conversations most pertinent to your
brand across digital channels (provided you put your customers
first)
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27. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
You’re
Context welcome
> And more recently, SEO is in on the action with Google measuring
‘quality content’
Content farms
> So how do you balance quality content for a brand, for customers
and for Google?
27 Photo from Kevin Dooley

28. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> Think, plan and invest only in content that delivers results.
28 Tom Critchlow, Distilled

29. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> Salon’s recessionary publishing dilemma.
29 Source: http://open.salon.com/blog/kerry_lauerman/2012/02/03/hit_record

30. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> According to Kerry Lauerman, they changed their approach by:
– Spending more time on stories that would have greater impact.
30 Source: http://open.salon.com/blog/kerry_lauerman/2012/02/03/hit_record

31. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> According to Kerry Lauerman, they changed their approach by:
– Spending more time on stories that would have greater impact.
– Published less of the content you can get elsewhere.
31 Source: http://open.salon.com/blog/kerry_lauerman/2012/02/03/hit_record

32. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> According to Kerry Lauerman, they changed their approach by:
– Spending more time on stories that would have greater impact.
– Published less of the content you can get elsewhere.
– Tightened their content strategy: focus on originality
32 Source: http://open.salon.com/blog/kerry_lauerman/2012/02/03/hit_record

33. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> According to Kerry Lauerman, they changed their approach by:
– Spending more time on stories that would have greater impact.
– Published less of the content you can get elsewhere.
– Tightened their content strategy: focus on originality
– Published roughly one-third fewer posts on Salon than they
had the previous year.
33 Source: http://open.salon.com/blog/kerry_lauerman/2012/02/03/hit_record

34. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> Result:
– In December 2011 and January 2012, they published 33%
fewer posts but saw a 40% increase in traffic year on year
34 Source: http://open.salon.com/blog/kerry_lauerman/2012/02/03/hit_record

35. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> Creating great content
sometimes means simply
making more of what you have.
> New York Times used Tumblr
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36. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> M&S Lingerie timeline 1920-
present
> Published on the M&S Stories
website
> Sharable, and embedded on
third party sites
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37. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> In a nutshell: put your customer first, create great content that
they need or want, and the rest will follow.
> What’s the rest?
– SEO rankings
– brand awareness
– trust
– loyalty
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38. TRUEISM 4. MOBILE – IT’S THE FUTURE
Context
> Many of you in this room know the context better than I do but
there are a few stats that are particularly related to content.
– One in 20 sales are lost (according to Internet Retailing, April 2012)
– Bounce rates 10% higher (according to Internet Retailing, April 2012)
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39. TRUEISM 4. MOBILE – IT’S THE FUTURE
Context
> The Economist’s Lean Forward 2.0 initiative
39 http://www.slideshare.net/emmaturner/lean-back-media-the-shock-of-the-old

40. TRUEISM 4. MOBILE – IT’S THE FUTURE
Context
> The Economist findings:
– 49 minutes
– 2 hours
– browsing
– reading
> NPR’s COPE (create once, publish everywhere)
40

41. TRUEISM 4. MOBILE – IT’S THE FUTURE
41 From: http://www.slideshare.net/zachbrand/npr-api-create-once-publish-everywhere

42. TRUEISM 4. MOBILE – IT’S THE FUTURE
Solution
> Plan for and create content that’s platform agnostic
> Publish flexibly, stay close to the data then watch and learn, as the
Economist did
> Turn content into data by chunking it for different purposes, giving
it structure, tags and metadata
> Doing this will set your content free, so it can easily travel
wherever your customers want it this year, and next
> Partners in responsive content design
– SEO
– UX and design
– Technology
Read more about COPE here: http://blog.programmableweb.com/2009/10/13/cope-
42
create-once-publish-everywhere/

43. TRUEISM 5. GROWING HUNGER FOR LOCAL INFO
Context
> Pew Research Center shows
increase in demand
43 http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Location-based-services/Summary-
of-findings.aspx

44. TRUEISM 5. GROWING HUNGER FOR LOCAL INFO
Solution
> Test, manage and exploit every angle of local information for and
about your brand, including:
– Facebook Places, Foursquare and Gowalla
– Yelp, Qype
– Local offers, such as VoucherCloud
– Ensure Google Maps displays correct and up to date
information about your brand
> Develop content and distribute it locally if relevant to your brand
> Build and strengthen partnerships that will facilitate this
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45. TRUEISM 6. WE ALL LOVE A GREAT STORY
Context
> “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be
forgotten.” Rudyard Kipling
> Horrible Histories
> Mr Parr’s science songs
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46. TRUEISM 6. WE ALL LOVE A GREAT STORY
> Context
Andrew Stanton, Pixar writer-director (until 2:39)
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47. TRUEISM 6. WE ALL LOVE A GREAT STORY
> Solution
> So how can brands make people care?
– Know your customers – truly
– Commit to serving them – their needs and desires
– Look for stories everywhere
– Share them in lots of different ways
– What’s the KPI for trust?
• Define it
• Measure it
> The payoff will be huge
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