Over the past two days, I’ve been lucky enough to represent Reload Media at ContentTECH Summit in San Diego. Previously called Intelligent Content Conference, ContentTECH Summit this year was rebranded and boasted a killer line-up of industry experts talking all about how marketing technology and content marketing intersect.
The two days were jam-packed full of the hottest Martech trends and tips for enterprise-level content strategy and development; and we got to hear from thought leaders such as Robert Rose, Carmen Simon, Andy Crestodina, Randy Frisch, Chris Penn and Joe Lazauskas – not to mention brands such as Hello Fresh, LinkedIn, Red Hat, Cleveland Clinic and Autodesk! Phew!
As always, we want you to benefit from our learnings – so here’s my top takeaways from ContentTECH 2019:
Make Data-Driven Content Decisions
Being primarily a Content Martech conference, it’s no surprise that the importance of data was a big focus over the two days.
As Andy Crestodina eloquently summarised, research has shown that “1 in 3 marketers don’t know what tactics have the biggest impact.” Why? Because a lot of the time, we lack the fundamental performance tracking on our content pieces.
This, combined with the fact that 5% of content gets 90% of the attention, is why having a solid understanding of your content performance is so critical; and why you need to be making data-driven decisions to guide future strategy.
This is why tracking is so critical and I’m happy to be a #datanerd. Thanks @crestodina #ContentTECH pic.twitter.com/gFxll5llxZ
— Sarah Hutcheon (@shutchh) April 9, 2019
Look at things such as which content pieces are contributing to revenue generation, and how these intersect together as a part of a content journey in your sales funnel to really understand which pieces are not only driving engagement, but business impact as well.
Data is our friend. Don’t be afraid of playing around with it! Guided tour of how to find your most valuable content courtesy of @crestodina #ContentTECH pic.twitter.com/fZSBUhbMvr
— Sarah Hutcheon (@shutchh) April 9, 2019
This is where metadata strategies also come into play – another hot topic from the conference. Metadata is basically tags that can be applied to content to allow for large-scale content management within organisations. Having your content tagged by type, topic or audience can then also allow you to engage in more insightful performance analysis in a much more efficient way.
Great simplification of how metadata and taxonomies can have application in a business setting to help identify high and low performing content. Thanks @annamarymchugh for making a tricky topic digestible, complete with 🍄 analogies! #ContentTECH pic.twitter.com/khLbQJAvk1
— Sarah Hutcheon (@shutchh) April 10, 2019
Content Councils Are The Way Forward
Another key trend that emerged over the course of the two days was the concept of ‘Content Councils’ – where representatives from across the entire business (think sales, marketing, content, operations, and customer support) all join together on a regular basis to map out content priorities and strategies that will support overarching business objectives.
Consistent theme coming up from today echoed by @dustycd from @autodesk – full business alignment of content strategy and activity is where larger enterprises need to focus efforts for best results. Hybrid or centralised models will flourish. #ContentTECH pic.twitter.com/fvcIEbYOoJ
— Sarah Hutcheon (@shutchh) April 9, 2019
Content is no longer just the responsibility of the content team – the more integrated the process can be throughout the business, the more successful content strategies have shown to be. Companies like Autodesk have seen massive improvement in content success by moving from a decentralised content model to a hybrid model (whereby there is a lot more alignment in content strategy and production across all areas of the business).
Companies tend to organize their content in 3 ways. Centralized requires a single narrative that every team can get behind. #ContentTECH pic.twitter.com/G86sEJBmPw
— Amy Higgins (@amywhiggins) April 9, 2019
Neuroscience Should Feed Into Content Strategy
We all know stories in the world of content and branding are important (I reported this as a key takeout from Content Marketing World 2018!) and the ‘how’ to make it happen (create a curiosity gap to keep your audience engaged) – but the why has been somewhat elusive, with the exception of collective market research findings.
But no longer! I am happy to report I now have an excuse to use the phrase “because, science!”… well, neuroscience, if you’re being picky!
For content that sticks, forego an element of novelty in favour of something familiar – this helps improve working memory and makes your content stick more! Dont overstimulate, but ensure you deviate from expected patterns. Great tips by 🧠 genius @areyoumemorable #ContentTECH pic.twitter.com/y1ZhCmV5mS
— Sarah Hutcheon (@shutchh) April 10, 2019
A fantastic talk by Memzy’s Carmen Simon showed us the empirical research around neuroscience and content marketing activities. Our key takeout was that ‘working memory’ is one of the most critical things to consider when crafting content that ‘sticks’. This means we need to be careful not to overload our audience’s brain with too many new things – there needs to be an element of familiarity in order to maximise working memory and message recall in the long-term. According to Contently’s Joe Lazauskas, this is where storytelling plays a critical role in helping us communicate messages in an audience-centric way.
Stories are so important for us humans. Stories release oxytocin & give us emotional reactions, which increases neural activity & makes us more engaged & retain more of the message. Even DARPA is researching the impact of stories! Fascinating @JoeLazauskas! #ContentTECH pic.twitter.com/JeyrUEkHao
— Sarah Hutcheon (@shutchh) April 10, 2019
LinkedIn’s Meg Golden also supported this when she said, “as marketers, we’re obsessed with newness… but newness isn’t what sells, it’s what scares”. As she explained, only 1 in 5 new ad campaigns outperform old campaigns (at least in the case of LinkedIn), so Meg’s approach was to analyse previous content performance and focus on their hero ‘blockbuster’ pieces as the centre of their content strategy.
Only 1 in 5 new ad campaigns out perform old campaigns. New is not also better. Users want familiarity. – @Goldmegs #ContentTech pic.twitter.com/IGx8UZYguP
— Amy Higgins (@amywhiggins) April 9, 2019
Content Personalisation Critical
More of a trend than an insight, there was a lot of talk about enterprises moving toward an Account Based Marketing (ABM) approach to content development and sales; basically flipping the sales funnel on its head by focusing more time and effort into a curated selection of leads, rather than creating generic content that appeals to the masses, but is less useful.
27% of ABM marketers reported over 50% increase in c-level engagement. 97% of marketers achieved higher ROI with ABM than with other marketing initiatives. @JennyLMagic @jennaleereiff #ContentTECH #upsidedownfunnel pic.twitter.com/gLJ1s1WbEF
— Stephanie B. (@stephybouch) April 10, 2019
This is where the idea of the value behind content personalisation really shone through. The majority of B2B content remains underutilised in the majority of enterprises, mostly due to the blanket approach to content development no longer working (the argument here being that we are so bombarded with content these days, that generic content just no longer keeps our attention). Enter the need for content personalisation.
Teamwork makes the dream work! How to get content personalisation right by @randyfrisch 👏 #ContentTECH pic.twitter.com/U7bXlfC3DS
— Sarah Hutcheon (@shutchh) April 10, 2019
By crafting personalised content for individual accounts (like in an ABM model) and doing this in a strategic, modular way, businesses can create personalised content that over time becomes more and more scalable (there is, however, an initial resource investment required until content inventories are built).
And those are the key takeouts from ContentTECH Summit 2019! There was of course a whole range of other fascinating learnings and insights – if you’d like to find out more about anything mentioned here, just get in touch HERE!