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

Session Notes

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 

1. 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
2. Organize content: between spreadsheets and Uberflip
3. Personalize experiences: ensure the ad links to content that matches the person seeing it, with a focus on building one-to-one experiences  
4. Distribute content: email follow-ups, use direct mail—people need to see the engagement from start to finish.
5. 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 

• Our goal is to encourage growth. 
• The best companies focus on content experience.
• Let your audience choose, but guide them to that choice in an intelligent way. 
• We have to enjoy content as marketers ourselves. Stream on!