The official title of Jefferson’s presentation at the SEJ Summit last Tuesday was “Adventures in Content Marketing: My Best Successes & Worst Failures.” I found her presentation, while very anecdotal, to actually offer some great tips to improving your content marketing as a whole. Jefferson has been working as a marketer for 15+ years and been a mentor for over 20 years, so her content marketing adventures offered a lot of variety. There were three main takeaways from the presentation:
- Strategic Partnerships hold the key to maximizing your adventure in Content Marketing.
- Branded Entertainment/Live Events + Social Media = major content power play.
- Don’t jump on the marketing trends bandwagon. Try to invent something unique.
Ultimately Jefferson believes that if you can train client to do well and be successful on his/her own, you’ll get a repeat client. Consider some of her story and her tips below.
A Few Success Case Studies
Throughout her 15 years in marketing, Jefferson was able to see several successes, one of the most significant coming from Red Bull.
Red Bull Media House (2013)
Red Bull didn’t have any streaming with their US and International offices and efforts. Throughout the transition process, it was important for the SEM/ SEO team to integrate and streamline all of the online marketing processes for all of the Red Bull sites and landing pages. This included bringing in a new search agency, building an international website for a Cartoon campaign, and social media for all campaigns. All their efforts were also content specific, and the content was based on all of the events and athletes they were working with, so their strategy was based specifically on content (also through micro event sites and the main portal). So Jefferson and her team created geo-targeted ads with Google, which was huge, and in the end event ticket purchases increased 45% through marketing and these key partnerships.
What You Can Take Away from This Success
There is always somewhere to put your content, whether that’s pushing content through a publisher, product brand, social media, etc. You should build a great team so that the content doesn’t all fall on you (it shouldn’t if you want to be successful!). Jefferson found that there were lots of content creators (specially at red bull) who didn’t’ have a voice because their role was something that maybe wasn’t social media, so she pulled those people and asked them what they thought we should say. In other words, it’s about that team and utilizing everyone in the company for collaboration.
Marketing Lessons Learned
Do your homework, assume nothing, and collaborate as much as possible. Jefferson went on to explain that mistakes are actually great as long as you can learn from them quickly and move on. If you’re unsure, you should be able to talk with your team and trusted sources before making a decision. There were three main lessons learned:
- Due your due diligence internally before onboarding a 3rd party. Talk to everyone. Get everyone’s buy in.
- Keeping your agency/ consultant/ 3rd party PM abreast of inside details to company trends, forecasted projections, or new insights is crucial to the formation of fresh content and campaigns.
- Be as clear as you can about your target market. The influencers you are looking for, including publishers & social socialites should match your strategy.
Ultimately when it comes to online marketing, it’s important to make sure all of your actions follow your brand, and most importantly have fun.
For the full presentation from Jefferson, visit the Search Engine Journal Slideshare.net account here. Let us know your thoughts on the presentation in the comments below!