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We are Bourne. A digital agency not satisfied being called a digital agency. Content Strategy Applied: Building a foundation for Multilingual Content Strategy January 13 th , 2011. New York/London/Glasgow. Introduction and Agenda.
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We are Bourne. A digital agency not satisfied being called a digital agency. Content Strategy Applied: Building a foundation for Multilingual Content StrategyJanuary 13th, 2011 New York/London/Glasgow
A digital agency not satisfied being called a digital agency. • 3 offices: New York, London, Glasgow • 45 planners, marketers, creatives, technical developers, writers, and project managers • Delivering work in over 25 languages • Providing strategic planning guidance and operational excellence across all digital channels • Specialising in making digital marketing fast, flexible and effective • www.wearebourne.com • Twitter: @wearebourne
Client Services / Planning • Account Mgmt • Project Management • Project Definition • Research / Insights • Analytics • Strategy • Technical Development • Content Management • E-commerce • Database Development • Intranets / Extranets • System Integration • Hosting • Content Development • Content Strategy • Content Research • Copywriting • Translation & Localisation • Front End Development • Information architecture • Usability • HTML/CSS • Flash & ActionScript • Accessibility • Game Development • Acquisition • Online Marketing • Data Planning • E-mail Marketing • SMS & Mobile • Creative Design • Websites / Micro-sites • E-mail Marketing • Landing Pages • Online Advertising • 3D Modelling • Video Post Production • Illustration
The way customers consume your brand has changed. Customers have always asked hard questions. But now they don’t always ask you directly. At least not in the beginning stages. And then when they do, they just want to find the answers. Now. And more often than not, this happens online.
This change has happened faster, and to a greater extent than most businesses realise. Customer expectations are very high. They don’t simply trust a few advertising headlines any longer. Brands are now read, viewed, heard, experienced, sampled, used, poked and prodded, and laid open to public trial and judgement in a wide variety of channels; not all of which you control.
Content is now branding. Fleeting encounters with ads and straplines don’t make brands any more. Deep analysis and interrogation of your business builds brands. And much of this is done via content. So, brand = content.
And it’s definitely sales. So much of the sale process happens before you ever meet your customer. B2B buyers often arrive at a vendor shortlist before making contact with any one of them. Vendors that provide the right information at the right time to help buyers work through the pre-purchase process, are far more likely to make it to the final sales conversation.
But, this presents a problem. Most businesses are not prepared for marketing in this environment. They don’t work like this. They don’t employ the right people for this. They don’t plan marketing and they do not budget for this. For most, content is one-dimensional and the delivery is slow and painful.
This problem has been ignored for some time now. * • Thought leadership • CRM • 1:1 marketing • Personalisation • Micro-segmentation • User experience • Behavioural targeting • Customer lifecycle marketing • Search engine optimisation • Pay-per-click • Viral marketing • Lead nurturing and marketing automation • Websites • Social media *Nearly every major online marketing trend/strategy over the last decade has been held back, not by strategy or technology but, by content.
And, tackling the challenge requires a few changes: Agreeing business/brand strategy and organisational buy-in about the importance of content. Identifying knowledge and content owners, both within and outside the business – and broad accountability for producing it. Identifying key content themes aligned to strategy and a foundation of source information for creating it. Structuring the approach and timeline for delivering content. Finding processes and technology to speed up the delivery
We call this Content Strategy: Based on business and brand objectives content strategy defines; who you want to talk to, what you want them to think and do, what content is right for the job and how you package and release it as a continuous, engaging story. And it defines how, you as a business, are going to deliver it – by outlining where knowledge and content live inside and outside your business, and how you are going to get content from the people that know it, to the people that produce it.
Content strategy moves from treating content as a project phase to treating it as a strategic business asset Like any asset, content requires investment, management and nurturing to achieve maximum performance.
People Structure Process Tech Developing content as a strategic business asset, particularly in a multilingual environment, means that you must address key organisational barriers
Localisation capabilities tend to follow a common evolution • Phase 1: No localisation • Phase 2: Cut, paste and translate • Phase 3: Two Tiers: Large and small markets • Phase 4: A strategic content strategy framework
There are two types of multilingual marketing structures • Centralised • Approach: • Centrally planned and executed content • Relationship with other markets: • Dependant in input of local level content • Decentralised • Approach: • Centrally planned and locally executed • Relationship with other markets: • Central marketing sets strategy and guidelines, while providing tools that help markets create and publish content
Building a long-term content strategy approach Key stages • Bourne has a comprehensive methodology for full-scale content strategy management, which covers: • Research • Audit • Planning • Content creation • Build and deploy across key touch point and channels • Test/Measurement/Optimisation • The key is looking at this as a cycle of activity that works continually across business objectives rather than a on-off sequential process.
However, in practice there is always a mix of short-term and long term activities working in cycles Common Scenario • A quick -win content strategy • Long-term strategic plan and theme setting • Bite-size audit s for daily, weekly and monthly activity • Frequent content creation cycles to support campaign cycles • Revisions to strategic plans and business objectives shift
Content and communication audit in detail - example • The initial content and communication audit is critical in establishing the strongest possible theme: • Understand as many marketing activities (event, webinars, product launches, partner incentives etc) as possible and plot them in a programme calendar • Identify key existing content assets (whitepapers, customer case studies etc) • Identify internal content already scheduled to be produced in short term and long-term (new whitepapers, research, case studies etc) • Gather supporting sales collateral and customer research that may be available • Understand any related marketing activity happening in within the channel that should be leveraged
A content strategy framework across large multinational organisations
Content drives an online toolkit to support multiple business objectives Awareness Analyst Briefings Banners Online PR Advertorials Website Content Analyst Briefings Data Acquisition Sales Collateral and Templates Whitepapers E-mail Nurture Strategy (Automation) Event Support Growth and Retention Contact Centre Support Customer Acquisition Campaign Landing Pages Whitepapers E-mail Nurture Strategy (Automation) Video Content SEO/Pay-per-click Customer Case Studies Telesales Support TCO/ROI Tools Interactive/Experiential Apps Webinars Podcasts Local Event Support Webinars Marketing Support Sales Enablement
Content Toolkit: The toolkit needs to be flexible to work across markets with varying needs Tier 1 Markets Complete Product and Solutions Portfolio Structured Activity Segmented Communications Strong sales teams and partnerships In-market customer examples Significant marketing budgets Tier 2 Markets Partial Product and Solutions Portfolio Ad-hoc Activity Little Segmentation Developing sales teams and partner networks Reliant on out-of-market case studies Technology limitations Tier 3 Markets Emerging Markets Not ready Selected targeting of major accounts Ad-hoc Sales Support Internal Communications and Education Online communications are limited High Low Market Readiness
There are tools you can use to capture and manage this information. • Capture: • Marketing plan • Content Audit • Customer Personas • Customer Lifecycle • Decision Maker Maps • Data modelling • Manage: • Editorial Calendar • Information Architecture • Workflow processes • Publishing Tools • Content Toolkit
Clear guidelines around central and local responsibility, for example: Central Marketing Local Markets Local market information Tactical content development Localisation Customer feedback and evaluation Strategy Umbrella Messaging and Proposition Creative Approach Strategic level content creation Pan-market communications Marcomms templates and guidelines Training
Dell Computers: Global Channel Marketing Project Summary • Bourne is responsible for online communication in Dell’s Partner Channel in US, LatAm, EMEA and APAC • We’ve developed a consistent suite of templates and creative guidelines that are used globally • We’ve developed a central store of localized content which can be readily accessed for campaign reuse • We developed a system that reduces production time for multilingual campaigns from over 25 days to less than 7 • With the fundamentals in place, we are now developing a quarterly editorial schedule which will extend across multiple formats and channels
Blast date agreed and milestones set Stakeholders submit assets for stories Bourne copywriter engaged Draft copy shared for review English master newsletter built into existing template in Basis tool Copy finalised and approved by client Subsequent draft copy shared by Bourne Stakeholders feedback / edit documents When master approved, copy is sent for translation Master language variants built into Basis EMEA review team engaged Localisations created. Bourne responsible Newsletter blast
Case example: Ricoh Europe websites Challenge With little notice, Ricoh Japan (Corporate HQ) instigated a global re-design of the business’ entire global website portfolio. The global marketing team developed a comprehensive set of brand guidelines and imposed tight timelines for implementation within each region according to their own business objectives and content requirements. Bourne and Ricoh Europe realised that this was the time to make a significant change in the content and structure of the website. Bourne’s challenge was to lead Ricoh through this process and deliver a revised website in 14 languages within unmoveable timelines. Approach Bourne delivered a content discovery plan that ran in conjunction with the initial stages of the web development programme. Content briefs were distributed to all business units and key product managers followed by in-person content workshops and review of all key findings against the central business/brand strategy. Outcome The output of the content discovery plan went straight into the Information Architecture phase of the website. The revised structure was pitched to senior management, which subsequently informed the creative approach and build plan.
Case example: Ricoh Europe websites Integrating content strategy, website design and build tasks
Case example: Ricoh Europe websites Developing a rapid yet structured approach to developing content
Case example: Ricoh Europe websites Content discovery process informs information architecture and website templates
Campaign Overview: Maximising the MDS Story • There is often a great deal that can be done with the content that already exists in a business, just by getting multiple stakeholders to work together and by packaging content more effectively • This campaign arose from a simple 2 week audit across several business units at Ricoh, which identified that several initiatives were taking place including video production, whitepapers, webinars and customer research. We simply joined the dots, and The Ricoh Knowledge Series was born. And, by positioning this as a series, it is much more compelling to customers than each activity would have been on their own
Campaign Overview: Creating engagement and longevity • The Knowledge Series is the main driver of campaign engagement and longevity. It will initially draw interest and data capture using IDC Research and will then provide a platform for bringing new elements into the campaign as they become available, including webinars, whitepapers, industry briefings and interactive tools, • The Knowledge Series is positioned as timeline of activity. A repository holds all previous activity, and the timeline shows what’s coming up. The simple positioning as a long term initiative, incentives registration and provides a platform for ‘socialising’ the content.
Content strategy demands that business change their behaviour and structure. • Brands that are online are publishers and they must act like it • Publishers develop themes and create stories. Then they create editorial schedules that find as many creative ways of talking about that theme as possible. Then they fight to meet their schedules • Staff must be either recruited or trained to facilitate insight and content generation. It must be in their job descriptions. • The fact is that right now, the responsibility for this task is limited to a few – and almost no one else has a vested interest in supporting these people.
Short Press Releases RSS Feed D Tweets Daily W Newsletters New Blog Post New News Articles Weekly M Mini-Whitepaper (i.e. 5 ways to…) Webinar (Tactical) Long Article/News Posts Podcast Monthly Q Major Whitepaper iPhone App and Updates Big Webinar (Senior Manager) Research Release Quarterly
Recruit or develop a content strategy role • Work with marketing partner to develop over all content strategy and production methodology • Continuously develop a content development toolkit • Content requirements checklist • Content matrix • Content library • Marketing calendar • Editorial guidelines Invest in developing content as a strategic business asset:
Brand strategy must extend much deeper • Standard brand guidelines are not enough • Brand strategy and development must extend to: • PR and sales strategy • Content and editorial strategy • Customer experience objectives • Social media themes • Customer lifecycle messages • Rules of engagement for handling two-way customer communication
Businesses must do strategy first. Then Technology • Marketing has so far failed to take control of digital technology strategy • For large organisations, the technology decisions that IT departments make can limit the capabilities of marketing and sales for up to a decade if the wrong decision are made • There are two types of technology: 1) That which enforces consistency and control; and 2) that which enables flexibility and speed. They mustn't be confused. • It is always better to get to market first with lightweight technology and backfill once you are know what everyone wants
Can you measure how big the shift in the importance of content is in your organisation?
