Stream On or Tune Out

Randy Frisch, CMO & President of Uberflip, author of F#CK Content Marketing: Focus on Content Experience to Drive Demand, Revenue and Relationships

Bringing a new and enthusiastic energy into the room, Randy’s presentation delivered the hard facts, while also giving a human element to what streaming means to us. His presentation style and conversation-like flow made Uberflip feel more familiar and content a little less daunting.

Content Today

Now we can jump onto TV and get content at our fingertips
Now people don’t have to use a clicker and say “I’ll find something” and have that constant feeling of searching and not finding
Now we need to deliver a more engaging experience in how content is delivered
This is like in Back to the Future where Marty goes back to 1955 and people don’t know what reruns are
The content was only available when it was available then!
Now we’re able to see what’s next, served up in a meaningful way

The Streaming Economy

New content is there before we’re even ready to leave
This isn’t just happening with film/TV streaming; Randy can even get catered to on his Peloton bike
The streaming economy is helping companies win

The Leaders

Peloton was valued at 4 billion dollars, and now Life Fitness is $490 million
Netflix occupies 76% of the market and cable now sits at 67%
Spotify has risen to 108m subscribers and Apple music has remained at 60m
This is because of the continuous options made and curated for the viewer (and AC/DC isn’t even making new music!)

The Infinite Scroll

So, what are you “streaming”/promoting to your consumers/ buyers?
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn help to create the Infinite Scroll/Swipe
These entities continue to deliver content that matters to us, delivering great experiences
We’re consuming content at such a large rate because of how it’s delivered to us

Product vs. Content

Marketers will say “we’re not selling content, we’re selling products and services”
Is our content a product or not?
There’s no right answer but our product is content
A lot of us think content is just something that pulls people in and gets attention
But that’s not the only way consumers are seeing the content
Studies show that marketers say that their content is used for brand awareness
The brand journey is fuelled by brand awareness
Research from Gartner shows how little time people spend actually talking to salespeople
How much time is there in the buying cycle before we even talk to salespeople anyway?
82% of the buying process includes the research consumers do before talking to sales reps!
Even after they’ve talked to sales, they’re still doing their research
We need to start earning more of the remaining 18% of their time.

This has Changed the Purpose of Content

THE OLD WAY: Look at what the website has become—you find content, clicking through the menu structure
THE NEW WAY: Now, we lead with content
We do it through social, email, ad spends (offer or pricing), and sales reps
We want consumers to go on the journey they want and the one we want to share with them
But a lot of the time consumers are scared like they’re in the upside-down of Stranger Things
Looking at research from Matt Hines of Hines Marketing, one-third of marketers say we’re not doing a good enough job at getting our buyers to consume more content
It’s about consistent action—delivering content, and if that is engaged with, it will be served again with a more personalized and persona-based approach
We have to start thinking about content as “one is not enough.” We get the most engagement when we present more to engage with
Research from Uberflip shows that the most engagement comes from seven to 12 pieces of content

Taking a Step Back...

Marketing is literally about creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience to drive profitable customer action
We stopped at the word creating when it’s also about distributing
70% of the content we create is unused—we need to start thinking about content marketing, not just creation
Content means we’re not alone; it means we have friends!
Stuck in creation mindset and planning (called criterion by the team at Forrester)—but now it’s about activating content
Activating has become more important than just the planning and creating stages
Uberflip is focused on how we use content
Activation is all about delivering a better experience

What is content experience? What do we focus on?

The Environment

Think about the environment. For example, drinking Corona in a basement vs. on a beach—it’s the same product but the difference is how many more we drink when we’re on the beach

The Structure

The idea of related content, based on what you’ve already been engaging with, is tied to a specific account
This is compared to Blockbuster and having to go to the big “action” section. Now we can watch movies with a specific star we like whatever the genre

Unique Experiences

Spotify delivers this
Randy here references Bandersnatch, who made it all about what the audience wants—though he hated it, he loved the choices, the control!

Ways to Deliver Content More Than Once

Let your audience choose—let them select what they want
Recommend with intelligence, leveraging AI to determine and guide what they want
Let the bot guide them—use chatbots integrated with the audience’s journey as they visit your site/piece of content
Drive to action—create different pieces of content and opportunities on different parts of your website, contact pages
Introduce content at different stages—and if they don’t like it, maybe we can find another way or another piece of content to show them
Before they go—rather than just saying subscribe, we can recommend some other content they can come back to!

Creation/distribution also needs a balance with experience

But how?
Who owns that balance?

Randy’s Office Whiteboard:

Let’s get strategic about how we think about content

Ask:

Why are we using content in the first place? Why do we exist as marketers?
If our goal is to help our organizations grow, aren’t we here to learn growth tactics?
How do we go to market at the end of the day?
What are the best ways to engage the audience (through retargeting, email, social, sales, etc.)?
What happens next?
Who are we gonna go after? What accounts can we win/land?

We need to decide based on the tier of each account. We have to start engaging the audience and grabbing their attention. The next step is engagement—we want to let them choose what’s next in their journey.

Who’s Already Doing This?

Medtronic—Segments by different accounts they're going after
Blackbaud—Focuses on demand through email; each button strategically links to an accelerated buyer journey
Snowflake—Through ABM, every distribution strategy is catered to the experience (even with 2,000 accounts); they have individual engagement strategies and personalize the experience for the account

Content Experience Framework

Centralize content: videos, blogs, e-books, infographics, slide decks—pulling all the stuff together so we have at our fingertips answers when things change fast
Organize content: between spreadsheets and Uberflip
Personalize experiences: ensure the ad links to content that matches the person seeing it, with a focus on building one-to-one experiences
Distribute content: email follow-ups, use direct mail—people need to see the engagement from start to finish.
Generate results: follow steps one through four

So, what are you streaming to your buyers?

Know your audience and target intentionally
Personalize based on target segments
Deploy AI to improve recommendations
Develop immersive experiences

What do we do next? Here’s the problem:

We spend $$$ on data—it makes us smarter marketers
We spend $$$ on salespeople—we need them to close the deal!
We spend $$ on distribution—we need to grab people’s attention
We spend $ on experience—but we don’t spend as much time or money on how we keep people engaged

Key Takeaways