CCO August 2022

Here's one vision of how Web 3.0 might reshape content marketing's future, plus tips and ideas you can use today to improve your content power.

CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER

August 2022

In This Issue

FEATURED ARTICLES

Reshape Your Operations With This Strategic Framework
By Robert Rose
Get familiar with the strategic model that unites content's many functions across the enterprise. Your brand's success may depend on it.

Build a Content Community With 'We' (Not 'He' and 'She')
By Jodi Harris
Drop the hidden gender bias in your content conversations with these easy steps.

How Cleveland Clinic Turned Ambitious Goals Into Impressive Accomplishments
By Ann Gynn
Cleveland Clinic scaled its content success with a smart strategy shift. Here's how they pulled it off.

What Google Really Wants
ContentTECH Summit Video With Dale Bertrand
Use the tips in this full-length presentation to prove to Google that your content is its best search bet.

• General Manager: Stephanie Stahl
• Editor-in-Chief: Jodi Harris
• Creative Director: Joseph Kalinowski
• PR and Video Consultant: Amanda Subler
• Project Manager: Angela Vannucci

Questions or comments: cmi_info@informa.com

DEPARTMENTS

Steal These Secrets for Better Landing Pages
By Sally Ofuonyebi
Your competitors are showing you how to beat them at their own game – you just need to know where to look.

NFTs: Valuable Marketing Opportunity or Token Effort?
By Kim Moutsos
Brands like Gap and Reebok have made splashy forays into NFTs. Should your business join them on the blockchain bandwagon?

Follow the (Thought) Leader
By Jonathan Crossfield
Your content can lead an audience to a fountain of knowledge, but what are you really asking them to swallow?

Automating Without Alienating: Yes, It’s Possible
By Andrew Davis
Andrew Davis paints a picture of how to automate campaigns without losing that human touch.

Strengthen your core

Fitness experts extoll the virtues of strong core muscles for good reason. If that center can’t hold, everything else is more likely to fall apart.

The same concept applies to content marketing operations. A healthy strategic core makes it easier to keep all your content systems and processes running smoothly – even when new challenges get thrown into the mix.

That’s one reason CMI decided to update the content marketing framework it first developed in 2013. The original principles still serve our industry well. Yet an expanding and evolving digital landscape means our brands must now take a more holistic view of how they plan, produce, and manage content across the enterprise.

“Content is not just copywriting, thought leadership, storytelling, metadata structure, content management, SEO, or workflow processes. It is all those things,” Robert Rose writes in this issue’s cover story. “It deserves the same strategic approach, people, and technologies as any other strategic function.”

Robert outlines the three core pillars needed for a functional, enterprise-wide content strategy. He also explains how broadening your perspective can help supply the strength, endurance, and agility your marketing needs to operate at peak performance.

Of course, your core strategy is just one component of maintaining high-functioning content operations. So, we’ve filled this issue with more ideas and advice to help you increase your team’s efficiency and drive better outcomes – for your business and your audience.

Reshape Your Operations With This Strategic Framework

Get familiar with a new strategic model that unites content's many forms and functions across the enterprise. Your brand's future success may depend on it.

It’s time to upgrade the content marketing framework. Use this new model to transform how your content gets conceived, delivered, and experienced.

By Robert Rose

Almost a decade ago, CMI introduced a Content Marketing Framework. Those heady days were the “early innings” of the content marketing approach for businesses.

At that point, we had worked for about five years to help global brands build content marketing as a strategic function in business.

The seven pressure points in the initial Content Marketing Framework represented the seven connected areas where we observed teams focusing their efforts:

Plan describes documented content planning that integrates into other marketing strategies.
Audience involves understanding the people to whom you want to deliver value.
Story describes how to develop an overarching set of experiences to deliver to your audiences.
Channels involves developing specific approaches to a multitude of digital channels and content formats.
Process describes how to build a foundation of processes and governance to allow your content marketing to scale.
Conversation explores the distribution model (especially the interactive comments and social aspects) of content marketing.
Measurement covers how to design an evaluation plan that provides insight into the efficacy of our efforts.

We represented this framework as a chain and suggested a brand should press each link to test its strength. If any link was weak, the whole chain was less effective.

The original Content Marketing Framework introduced in 2013

Though it has evolved over the years, the basics of the original framework have served organizations well. It still forms the basis of the how-to guides on the Content Marketing Institute website.

New content framework
is long overdue

In so many ways, this new content framework is a little late. We intended to roll it out at Content Marketing World in 2021. However, the disruptions of 2020 and 2021 changed that plan.

At the beginning of this year, I wrote about a new mission for 2022, which involves preparing for new responsibilities. Since then, I've noticed more pronounced trends that point to the need for a content framework:

Embedded media companies: Our early predictions came true. Companies are, indeed, incorporating media operations as a mainstream part of their business strategy. This is perhaps represented most pointedly by Salesforce’s announcement of a complete streaming network to rival Netflix or Amazon Prime.
Hyper-democratization of content: Since the early days of social media, content production and distribution have been democratized. Now, with the rise of the creator economy, brands are working with more and more influencers and creators.
Digital-first and direct-to-consumer relationships: The pandemic has accelerated the need to develop sharper digital experiences that can act as a proxy for physical experiences. It’s not just content marketing (thought leadership, brand storytelling, etc.) that’s becoming more pressing, it’s creation, management, and effective use of content, full stop.

For future success, your content framework must be based on a holistic content strategy, not just a content marketing one.

In the past 18 months, we've road-tested a new framework based on a holistic content strategy, not just a content marketing strategy. This more complex framework better reflects the more complex practice of content.

The 2022 Strategic

Content Framework

This strategic framework, which we've used in consulting engagements to help more than 50 global brands, is built on the following observations:

1. Content marketing and content strategy are merging
Successful businesses take the function of enterprise content seriously. Similar to how accounting sets the standard for how an enterprise manages its money and legal sets a consistent approach for managing its business affairs, content is becoming the foundation of a coordinated communication strategy.

Content is not just copywriting, thought leadership, storytelling, metadata structure, content management, SEO, or workflow processes. It is all those things. It deserves the same strategic approach, people, and technologies as any other strategic function.

2. Content is scalable only if everyone is enabled
Content can't be scaled by installing a studio of writers, designers, podcasters, and designers charted to produce digital assets on demand from the rest of the business.

My content law is this: The need for more content expands in direct proportion to the number of resources allocated to it.

Strategic content is successful in organizations that create a content function that enables the entire organization to communicate and manage experiences in a consistent and compelling way.

This is one reason you won't see “channels” as a foundational piece of the new framework. A great content strategy focuses on enabling consistent communication independent of the channels or content types that may come and go.

Historically, marketers have been taught to think container/channel first and then content. They think, “I need a web page.” Or “I need a social post.” Or “I need an e-book.” Only then does anyone think about the content to pour into that container.

Content practitioners must unlearn that thinking. Begin by creating content consistently and putting value first. Then determine the appropriate containers or channels for that content.

3. Measurability must consider efficiency and effectiveness
When content is a business strategy, it becomes more important – and more complex – to measure. Don't wait until after you press “publish” to consider measurement.

Content performance is only the denominator. You also must measure the efficiency by which content is created, managed, repurposed, and reused. That's the numerator in content profitability calculations.

Strategic content pillars

With this understanding, the 2022 Strategic Content Framework is built across three core pillars necessary to content as a functional strategy:

Communication involves coordinating the use of content to acquire, keep, and grow customers.
Operations describes how to ensure the efficient and effective creation, production, and use of content.
Experiences establishes how to use content to power designed platforms that provide value.

The framework also includes five building blocks aligned with these pillars:

Purpose (goals and focus) involves creating a charter as a strategic business function.
Model (teams and capabilities) describes structuring needed resources and skills.
Audience (audience and story) involves developing clearly defined audiences and value propositions.
Frame (technology and governance) involves building appropriate standards and processes and the tools to support them.
Value (investment and returns) involves measuring return on investment.

Taken as a whole, the 2022 Strategic Content Framework unifies the methodology we teach through Content Marketing University and is the starting point for all our consulting work with global brands.

Each area serves as a way to organize your efforts to grow a stronger, more agile, and more innovative approach to creating a content strategy that builds value for your business, as well as for your customers.

Strategic content builds a competitive advantage

The subtitle of Edelman’s seminal 2022 Trust Barometer is this: Societal Leadership is Now a Core Function of Business.

As the authors write, trust is “the ultimate currency in the relationship that all institutions – business, governments, NGOs, and media – build with their stakeholders.”

Audience trust is a relationship built with content. That's why approaching content operations as a strategic function of a business is so essential. In 2022, it’s not only a marketing opportunity to generate more leads. It’s a responsibility essential for competitive advantage.

Are you ready? Then I invite you to check out the 2022 Strategic Content Framework.CCO

Apply This Framework to Your Content

Interested in a deeper dive into the Strategic Content Framework? It’s the foundation of what we teach through Content Marketing University.

Learn more about the curriculum and enroll here.

Robert Rose is the founder and chief strategy officer of The Content Advisory, the education and consulting group for The Content Marketing Institute. Robert has worked with more than 500 companies, including 15 of the Fortune 100. He’s provided content marketing and strategy advice for global brands such as Capital One, NASA, Dell, McCormick Spices, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Follow him on Twitter @Robert_Rose.

Build a Content Community With 'We' (Not 'He' and 'She')

All consumers want to feel seen in your brand’s conversations – regardless of their gender. Take these simple steps to add universal appeal.

More inclusive content experiences can increase audience engagement and trust – and they're not as hard to achieve as you think.

By Jodi Harris

It’s a basic principle in marketing – create content that lets your audience know that your brand sees and hears them.

Optimizing your content conversations to be inclusive of transgender, nonbinary, or gender-nonconforming consumers will help you have a better chance of capturing their attention, deepening their engagement, and earning their loyalty. You also will gain respect from their supporters.

At Content Marketing World 2021, Ruth Carter – author, lawyer, and principal/“evil genius” at Carter Law Firm – spoke on the inclusion of nonbinary consumers in your content conversations. You can watch this follow-up interview with Ruth, then read on for additional insights, examples, and ideas from them to help you get started.

A small but influential community

Recent research shows than estimated 1.2 million adults in the U.S. are nonbinary – meaning they do not identify as strictly male or female. Given the nature of gender diversity and the linguistic, cultural, and societal norms associated with the topic, this is likely an underestimation.

Though other studies indicate their numbers may be on the rise – particularly as younger generations reach adulthood – they are a small minority of the estimated 334 million people in the U.S. But while they may only represent a small percent of the population, the nonbinary-inclusive audience also encompasses a large community of allies who support them and stand up for their rights.

A Public Religion Research Institute study found that 76% of people support a law that says someone can't discriminate against a person because of their gender, sexual orientation, or both. “Your company or your client may not care about [this tiny little group], but I bet they care about 76% of the audience they are trying to cater to. That's what you’re risking by inadvertently or blatantly being discriminatory,” Ruth says.

76% of people support a law that says someone can’t discriminate based on gender, sexual orientation, or both.

Consider the experience of Confections, a Texas-based bakery, and its Facebook post wishing their LGBTQ friends a happy Pride Month with a display of rainbow heart cookies:

Confections' initial Pride post.

The post resulted in a wave of unfollows and a last-minute cancellation of a large cookie order, which the owner detailed in a follow-up post: “I never thought a post that literally said more love, less hate would result in this kind of backlash to a very small business that is struggling to stay afloat and spread a little cheer through baked goods.”

Click to enlarge

5 steps to evolve your content beyond binary boundaries

Trans and nonbinary people want to see their full, authentic selves represented in a brand’s experiences. While gender identity is a complex, personal, and evolving topic, making your content feel more welcoming and accepting of the nonbinary experience isn’t nearly as complicated.

In their presentation, Ruth suggests simple changes brands can make to acknowledge their unique experiences and ensure equal consideration.

1. Explore your brand experience through a nonbinary lens

If your content focuses on the male-female gender experience (Ruth describes this as “that 1950s stereotype of what a man is and what a woman is”), you exclude the perspectives of people who don’t fit those constructs.

To communicate more inclusively, put yourself in the shoes of somebody who doesn’t identify as male or female and walk through their customer journey. “Think about how they might experience [a brand] differently than a cisgendered audience and see if there are opportunities to shift to a [different] perspective,” Ruth says.

For example, clothing brand Levi’s announcement of its “genderless” Unlabeled Collection shifts the conversation by defining gender as, "being really confident in who you are and feeling free to identify yourself by name, not by a label of male or female."

2. Update your style bible, registration forms, and greetings

When you reference an individual in the third person, do you only use he/him, she/her pronouns? “What this phrasing communicates to me is that I don't exist. I don't deserve to be part of this community,” says Ruth, who recommends replacing these exclusionary terms with they/them pronouns.

Tip: Incorporate the use of they/them pronouns in your style guide and ensure your content team is aware of the change.

Gender bias often lurks in how speakers address audiences in group settings, such as an event or live streaming video. Ruth says instead of starting with “Ladies and gentlemen,” go with a greeting like, “Welcome, everyone.” Brands can take this to the next level by creating a custom, gender-neutral term for their audience, like the Green Bay Packers do by using the term "Cheeseheads" to refer to its fans.

Similarly, the use of traditional honorifics like Mr., Mrs., or Ms. excludes trans and nonbinary people. If you use drop-down menus or checkboxes on your registration forms to collect gender demographics, make sure you include MX (pronounced “mix”) as a gender-neutral honorific option.

New Zealand telecommunications company Spark addresses this issue by changing how businesses collect gender data. Its Beyond Binary Code campaign introduces a single piece of code that enables standard website forms to be updated to a more gender-inclusive alternative. They co-created it with OutLine Aotearoa, a mental health organization, and nonbinary communities.

Spark's Beyond Binary Code campaign.

3. Make it easy to access and update personal data

Speaking of data collection, Ruth points out that trans and nonbinary consumers may have used their birth-assigned name and gender when they created their original account with your business. Empower those who have later updated their name to affirm their authentic identity in your records. Be clear about any documentation required for validation purposes – i.e., if there are legal, financial, or other regulatory requirements involved.

Mastercard took a different approach to address the binary data dilemma: In 2020, the brand launched its True Name feature, which enables financial institutions to issue credit cards that display the customer’s first name – without requiring legal name change documentation. According to the company’s news release, their director of consumer marketing Anthony DeRojas conceived the initiative as a meaningful way to commemorate World Pride and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. “We wanted to go beyond being just a logo in a sea of other Pride sponsors,” says DeRojas. “We wanted to do something that was impactful for the community.”

Mastercard's True Name campaign.

It may seem like a small gesture, but it makes a big difference to customers like Asher: “Seeing a name you connect with feels like acceptance... being seen and acknowledged as the person you are... It will change lives.” As a bonus, the spot’s tagline Start Something Priceless fits in with the brand’s signature #Priceless hashtag.

Remember, creating content that reflects consumers’ authentic selves sends a powerful message. But to earn the full trust of this audience, that message needs to be consistently executed and affirmed through your brand’s words and deeds. Make sure the updated information they provide gets integrated into all the marketing automation or CRM systems your business uses to communicate with them so consumers aren’t misgendered in future messaging or direct conversations.

4. Consider whether gender is contextually relevant to the story

Ruth advises marketers to refer to interview subjects and other sources by their preferred pronouns. (If you aren’t sure, ask them.) However, it’s not always necessary – or appropriate – to incorporate their gender identity in your storytelling. “I was on NPR, talking about how Arizona now issues nonbinary driver's licenses. It made sense that my gender would be identified. But if it was me talking about trademark law, my gender would be pretty irrelevant,” Ruth says.

You also can incorporate gender inclusivity by featuring a wider range of personal experiences in your content or amplifying inclusivity on your media channels. It’s an approach that Pantene used in this emotionally powerful video celebrating LGBTQ+ pride in all its forms.

Pantene celebrates LGBTQ+ pride.

5. Listen to their conversations

Your audience often tells you what they need and want to see – you just need to pay attention.

Transgender and nonbinary people often change their birth name to one that better suits who they are. Starbucks was inspired by social media conversations from transgender people who wondered whether they had selected the right name. It responded with #WhatsYourName, which offers a way to try out their chosen name and see how it feels:

Starbucks' #WhatsYourName campaign.

Just how much does it mean for this community to see a brand acknowledge this major life milestone? Ruth says it gave them goosebumps, and research psychologist and influential YouTuber Jammidodger treated his 900,000-plus audience to a heartfelt review of all the happy feels it gave him:

YouTuber Jammidodger reviews gender-inclusive brand campaigns.

A small step for your brand can be a giant leap for inclusion

To communicate more inclusively and forge stronger customer connections, eliminate gender bias from your brand’s conversations. For nonbinary people who have often felt ignored or invisible to brands, even making small adjustments to the language, syntax, and substance of your content conversations can be affirming and validating.

As Ruth points out, your business doesn’t have to become an authority on the complicated subject of gender – it just takes an authentic desire to be part of the conversation.CCO

Jodi Harris is director of content strategy at CMI and editor-in-chief at CCO. She describes her role as a combination of strategic alchemist, process architect, and creative explorer. Prior to this role, Jodi spent over a decade developing and managing content initiatives for brand clients in the entertainment, CPG, healthcare, technology, and biotech industries, as well as for agencies and media brands. Follow her on Twitter at @Joderama.

How Cleveland Clinic Turned Ambitious Goals Into Impressive Accomplishments

Cleveland Clinic scaled its content success with a smart strategy shift. Here's how they pulled it off.

Lofty goals and achievable success don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

By Ann Gynn

Amanda Todorovich shares Cleveland Clinic’s prescription for staying true to your content strategy, communicating with executives, and proving the potential for healthier marketing outcomes.

Cleveland Clinic's executive director for content marketing, Amanda Todorovich

Health Essentials boasts some impressive vital signs. The content brand, owned by the Cleveland Clinic, earns more than 12 million visits each month. That’s 60X the traffic it earned a decade ago.

Not surprisingly, the content team’s mission expanded over time to include the organization’s website and health library, too.

Mergers of content marketing and content strategy like that happen more often these days. So, it can’t hurt to study the strategy and practices behind this content marketing success story.

Amanda Todorovich, the Cleveland Clinic’s executive director for content marketing, shared the story (which ends with a bit of a cliffhanger) in her Content Marketing World 2021 presentation, Winning Resources: How To Get Leadership Support To Grow Your Content Marketing Team.

I’ve charted some lessons from that presentation here. (Amanda will share the rest of the story at Content Marketing World 2022 in September.)

Work on your
bedside manner

Yes, the Cleveland Clinic is a massive global health system with 21 hospitals and operating revenue totaling over $12 billion.

But don’t think the program’s resources came easy. When she landed at Cleveland Clinic as a digital engagement manager ten years ago, Amanda joined a team of three. Today, she leads a group of 80 (50 of whom she hired in 2021).

To get there, Amanda had to figure out how best to communicate with leaders – including two CEOs with different perspectives – in terms they understand.

For example, content and marketing are two powerful words to content marketers. But to the CEO and other executives? Not so much.

“They like that second word (marketing). They don’t really know what ‘content’ means, and they don’t really understand how it matters... the actual impact of a blog post has on an organization is something they don’t comprehend,” Amanda said.

Semantics play a role in successful communication, she says, but making the most of opportunities to get in front of executives and share successes matters, too.

To marketers, content and marketing are powerful words. To executives? Not so much.

Become the content prescriber, not the content pharmacist

But the first and most important change she made has lasted and served the organization well: implementing a strategy.

A team of three handled the Clinic’s digital marketing in 2012 – a writer, a social media person, and a project manager who tracked all the content demands from people across the organization on spreadsheets.

One of the first things Amanda did was throw out the spreadsheet: “That’s not what content marketing is about. We're not going to run around and ask everybody internally what they want us to put on this blog,” she says.

Instead, the small content team switched their perspective from filling content orders to creating content that would be good for the audience, Amanda explains.

Data is a content marketer’s friend. Use audience members to build confidence in your content strategy.

Blog traffic grew from 200,000 to 1 million monthly visits in just half a year, relying on a simple strategy of three to five audience-focused articles a day. (It hit that 12 million monthly visit number in September 2021 using the same content formula.)

But the new focus on serving the audience wasn’t an easy transition. “From day one, we had to have lots of crucial conversations with leadership and key stakeholders about why we were changing the strategy,” Amanda explains.

Fortunately, data is a content marketer’s friend. Amanda used their audience numbers to help leaders gain confidence in the team’s shift. Any resistance to their shift from filling the doctors’ orders to creating content prescriptions for the audience dissolved in the face of the healthy, evidence-based outcome.

Amanda developed the habit of sending brief emails weekly to her boss about the team’s activities, describing a win, a cool idea they’re trying, or a new content relationship they’d formed. “I was making sure people knew what we were doing,” Amanda says.

We had crucial conversations with leadership about why we were changing the strategy.

Credit someone here…

The prescription

Don’t let subject matter experts place content orders (i.e., demands) or direct the content strategy. Let your audience's needs drive content creation and strategy.
Use your data to prove the content strategy’s success to secure continued leadership support.
Share wins, experiments, and news via informal outreach in addition to formal reporting.

Balance audience strategy with leadership priorities

When the content team achieved 1 million blog visits a month, they celebrated with a cake and party.

But the CEO at the time didn’t share the enthusiasm. He believed the organization’s future depended on social media success.

During a presentation on paid search, for example, he interrupted to ask about what the team was doing on TikTok. With the emphasis on social media, more people joined the team to focus on social channels.

“It was a bit tough because while we were doing things and innovating, it was Health Essentials (the blog) plus social media,” Amanda explains.

At one point, Facebook accounted for 60% of the traffic. But as the team built an arsenal of helpful content on Health Essentials (and social media algorithms and behavior changed), the numbers shifted. Organic search drives most traffic now.

The prescription

You may not change the CEO’s content priorities. But you keep your focus on the big picture behind your content strategy.
Use the strategy’s success to help educate the CEO and evolve organizational priorities to deliver what the audience needs and wants.

Expand the strategy

when new content responsibilities arise

While the blog was delivering growth and engagement, the website wasn’t. The team behind it was stuck in the order-taking strategy thrown out at the blog. “We had this great strategy and cohesive thing happening with (the blog and social), and the rest was kind of a mess,” Amanda says.

We had a cohesive strategy for the blog and social … but the rest was kind of a mess.

Given the success of the blog and social, Amanda’s role expanded once again as she took on responsibility for health content across the brand’s website, pulling together teams that had once operated as separate entities. “We started talking about how the pieces fit together,” she explains.

With an audience-focused strategy, the website grew exponentially. In 2012, the website had 50 million visits. In 2020, it had 256 million visits (including the blog), with 81% of the traffic coming from organic search. By 2021, the number grew to 427 million as Amanda secured more resources.

Data shows visits to Cleveland Clinic's website have grown exponentially each year. Click to enlarge.

The site’s health content success revealed another disconnect. While the audience was coming to the site for the health content, only 1% were going to the clinic’s product and services pages.

“Those are the pages that everybody else in the organization is doing whatever they want to do … They don’t know what their patients actually want and are engaging with,” Amanda explains.

That disparity has prompted conversations about how to connect the dots: “How do we bring the same level of sophistication that we’re bringing on the health content side to the rest of the site?”

The answer came as it did earlier – let the audience-focused people oversee those pages, too. Amanda now leads the entire Cleveland Clinic website with her bigger team. “Connecting the dots for leadership has been a critical step,” she says. “It’s not like I went and asked to take over (the website). It was just pointing out opportunities along the way.”

Now, “(N)othing’s off the table. We’ve made major organizational changes. We’ve asked for lots of resources. You cannot be afraid to do that,” Amanda says.

The content marketing team also isn’t just an expense to the organization. About six years ago, the strategy expanded to include bringing in revenue through their content from digital advertising on their health content pages.

You cannot be afraid to ask for the resources needed to make critical changes.

“Executives understand money. So, this has powered a lot of our ability to grow and change the conversation,” Amanda says.

The prescription

Success often leads to more work, as others in the organization want their content to deliver similar growth, too.
Leverage your success to ask for more resources – to expand or merge teams to bring content under the same umbrella.
Grow a new structure.
At the Cleveland Clinic today, the growing content marketing team is divided into three buckets of core functionality:
- Editorial (including many, many writers – Amanda says she can barely hire enough)
- Content growth (encompassing SEO, analytics, social, video, email, voice, and podcasts)
- Project management (all the tools, capabilities, and functionalities needed to create and maintain exciting, interesting, and engaging content.

But it wasn’t always so. At one point, the social media team way outnumbered the SEO team (which consisted of a single person). But as priorities shifted and data showed the relative importance of each, the team evolved. In September 2021, the SEO team numbers more than 15, while the social media team is less than half that size.

This organization chart shows the makeup and number of positions within the three core functions.

Cleveland Clinic's org chart. Click to enlarge.

A director of content product and operations leads two groups:

The Content Architecture group consists of two digital marketing managers, a coordinator, three digital marketing associates, a podcast coordinator, and five additional associates who are contractors.
A Product and Project Management team consists of a digital marketing manager, three project managers, and three coordinators who are contractors.

A director of editorial leads groups for each content product:

The Health Essentials team consists of a digital marketing manager, six content roles, one contractor, and three managing editors.
The Health Library team consists of a digital marketing manager and 15 content roles.
The Care Pages team consists of a digital marketing manager and two content writers/practitioners.

A director of content growth leads groups focused on four areas:

The SEO team consists of a digital marketing manager, two additional managers, seven analysts, and six associates (who are contractors).
The Social Media team consists of two digital marketing managers, a program manager, and three coordinators
The Email team includes one digital marketing manager supported by a contractor.
The Video team includes one digital marketing manager, an associate, and a lead data analyst.

The prescription

As you scale your content marketing, revisit your team’s organizational structure. Create distinct divisions to address core responsibilities.

Plan to meet changing expectations

Five years ago, a new CEO brought a new set of priorities. This CEO interrupted a presentation to ask why the Cleveland Clinic didn’t appear when he searched for himself or a particular procedure. He gave the challenge to Amanda to fix, adding members of the patient education team to the content marketing umbrella.

More recently, the CEO asked Amanda how the Cleveland Clinic could become the indisputable leader in health care online. He wanted to know how they could beat their competitors by 10 times.

She and her team went to work creating a five-year strategy to explain how that could happen. The CEO loved it but didn’t want to wait five years. The CEO wanted to know what it would take to do it in two years. He gave her 10 days to figure it out.

“We had been running pilots … and studying this for so long. We know what it’s going to take. It’s small changes. We’re not changing our strategy to do this; we just need to do more of it.

Amanda presented the business plan detailing what it means to be a leader – to have the most traffic, rank the highest, and drive more revenue to the organization. She asked for 90 full-time-equivalent employees and a big budget. The executive team said yes unanimously, with the CEO declaring this content business plan an investment, not an expense.

(Whether her plan worked or not is the cliffhanger. We’ll find out the answer in September.)

The prescription

Listen to what leadership wants and prepare a plan to achieve it.
Ask for the specific number of people and other resources you need to implement the content business plan.
If they can’t commit the necessary resources, tell them you’ll need to adjust the plan.

Keep your content eyes on the audience prize

Though Amanda has seen a lot of change over her almost decade working in content. But their content mission hasn’t changed: “We engage users in daily conversations using health, wellness, and clinical information unique to Cleveland Clinic.”

She explains: “You have to have a strategy, and you have to define it. You have to stick to it, which is the harder part.”

Her bosses love the mission and the effect of the audience-focused content. “It’s unique to us. It’s different. It’s better than our competitors. It’s our experts. It features our doctors. That’s the stuff they want to hear,” Amanda says.

It’s also what hundreds of millions want to hear (or read), too. And that’s why that strategy born long ago still resonates and delivers results leaders love to see.CCO

Ann Gynn edits the CMI blog. Ann regularly combines words and strategy for B2B, B2C, and nonprofits, continuing to live up to her high school nickname, Editor Ann. Former college adjunct faculty, Ann also helps train professionals in content so they can do it themselves. Follow Ann on Twitter @anngynn or connect on LinkedIn.

Need to know what
happened next?

Hear the next chapter in the Cleveland Clinic story when Amanda Todorovich takes the keynote stage at Content Marketing World 2022, September 13-16 in Cleveland. Learn more here and use promo code CCO100 to save $100 on registration.

Forget the Ranking Rules – Here’s What Google Really Wants to See

A ContentTECH Summit 2022 presentation (exclusively for CCO subscribers).

Google’s AI engine doesn’t care about your content.

Google's goal is to deliver a satisfying search experience for every inquiry. Here’s how to signal that your brand can provide it.

The search game has changed, once again. Google has put machine learning in charge of its algorithm and is training it to look at content’s artifacts of customer satisfaction – such as high CTS rates, low bounce rates, and deeper engagement.

In his presentation at ContentTECH Summit 2022, Fire and Spark’s content and SEO strategist Dale Bertrand explains how implementing a purpose-driven SEO strategy can build brand momentum, create customer intimacy, and increase the signals of trust, authority, and community that make your content a sure bet for the AI engine.

Watch the video to learn everything Dale taught the audience at ContentTECH Summit.CCO

Click the image to watch this full-length ContentTECH 2022 presentation.

ContentTECH Summit may be over, but you can still experience the education and inspiration by purchasing an On Demand Pass. Register here to unlock a full year of access to 25+ sessions. 

Steal These Secrets for Better Landing Pages

Your competitors are showing you how to beat them at their own game. You just need to know where to look.

Your competitive advantage is hiding in plain sight.

How do you create a landing page that beats your competition? Look at what they’re doing. After all, that’s what your buyers do.

By Sally Ofuonyebi

A competitor analysis can help you spot their strong points and weaknesses so you can improve your own conversion rates. These nine SEO and content marketing experts share their tips for evaluating what your competitors do to inform your company’s landing page development.

1. Brainstorm, research, and compare

Rebekah Edwards, CEO at SEO agency Clara, says her research process starts with the target customer: What would they be looking for? What things would they like to see?

“I'll Google terms that come to mind and proceed to analyze landing pages that are ranking on the SERP to see if I locate any that is close to what I'm looking for,” she says.

Then, she uses Ahrefs’ Site Explorer tool, which looks at the organic search traffic and link profile of any URL. “I reverse engineer the keywords most relevant to my own landing page. From there, I look to the top five pages ranking for those keywords – and that’s where the real competitor research begins,” Rebekah says.

Using a combination of Ahrefs and SimilarWeb, Rebekah looks at their:

Visitor demographics
Traffic breakdown (ads, organic, social, etc.)
List of competitors from SimilarWeb to add any she hasn’t already found

She also runs her target keywords through Clearscope to generate latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords that her competitors use on their pages about a similar product/service. It includes an overall content grade based on ranking positions, relevant terms, search volume, page types, and top competitor content:

She says the most effective thing she does is look at the competitor landing pages side by side on both mobile and desktop and jot down her observations.

Look at competitor landing pages side by side on mobile and desktop, and jot down your observations.

2. Make sure you have the right audience

Christopher Penn, co-founder and chief data scientist at Trust Insights, shares his thoughts on how to create landing pages using competitor analysis in the video on this page.

Click to view Christopher Penn's video.

Among his advice is the success of landing pages depends on three things:

Do you have the right audience?
Do you have the right offers for your audience?
Is the creative good?

Note that the question about the creative is the last one. He says you should resist the temptation to leap into creative optimization until you’re sure you have the right audience and your offer is relevant to them.

To know those answers, do in-depth research into and with your audience – run focus groups, do surveys, and conduct one-on-one interviews. Then, scrutinize competitors’ landing pages and offers.

What are they offering? Discounts, or free shipping? What button colors do they use? What’s their customer experience like? What kinds of images do they use to support their content?

Next, use social analytics and landscape monitoring tools to monitor your audience's conversations about competitor brands. For e-commerce brands, check Amazon reviews; B2B marketers can check reviews on Capterra and G2, among others.

You also can use software like Google Marketing Platform’s Optimize to deliver engaging customer experiences through A/B testing and website personalization (see example in image).

3. Engage with your competitors

To get clearer on what your competitors are doing, you need to interact with them. Take note of both direct and indirect competitors – businesses that sell the same service as you and others who fulfill the same need or solve the same problem.

On the Semrush dashboard, click Domain Overview to enter a domain name and see your competitors and related data:

Click on view details under Main Organic Competitors to see the list of your keyword competitors:

Claire Beveridge, freelance blog manager at ConvertKit, advises using Burner Mail – not your company’s – and taking their landing pages and subsequent onboarding experience for a spin. Note factors like:

UX experience: Is the site easy to navigate? What colors are they using? What’s their font choice?
Messaging strategy: What language do they use on buttons? What’s their call-to-action strategy? Are they using images or video?
Trust strategy: What trust icons or testimonials do they include to improve brand credibility and increase conversions?
Onboarding friction: What snags did you find in their signup process that you can avoid on your landing pages?
Tech stack: Are they using tools that prompt more conversions that you don’t? For example, a competitor accepting crypto payments when you’re not could affect your conversions.
Analyze their traffic: Do they see more success from social or pay-per-click campaigns or organic? For example, if your competitors landing pages get zero traffic from PPC campaigns, there's likely no need to waste your ad budget running one.

Click Traffic Analytics on the Semrush dashboard to find the share of traffic top keyword competitors' pages receive, as well as breakdowns of the channels and countries where that traffic comes from. The example below shows traffic data for sites that rank for the keyphrase "subscription boxes."

Analyzing these elements should inform the creation of your landing pages to increase prospect engagement.

4. Research competitors’ keywords further

SEO consultant Nick LeRoy uses a pillar content approach to his landing pages. He says he’s a fan of Ahrefs and Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool to determine seed keywords and identify which sites drive the most traffic based on the parent topics:

Based on this information, Nick compiles lists of critical keywords and topics to cover in a new piece of content – the pillar page.

He also encourages reviewing the results in Google search features, such as the People Also Ask section, to note related topics as well as the length of the content. The example below shows a few questions people ask in their queries about subscription boxes:

Don’t forget to include internal links in the content – a step missed by many marketers. “I do this to wrap up my pillar content,” Nick says. “Not only does internal linking help with getting your content discovered (and indexed), it also sends some much-needed internal link equity to this new page.”

Brian Piper, director of content strategy at the University of Rochester, recommends using Semrush for keyword gap analysis to see keywords your competitors are ranking for. It can give you ideas for other terms to include on your landing pages.
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5. Observe commonalities in search rankings

Zoe Ashbridge, SEO strategist at Adriana Stein Marketing, usually uses an SEO angle in creating landing pages. “I want the page to rank for something specific – and rank well,” she says.

She looks up the top SERP results for her target keyword or cluster of keywords. Then, she looks for the common elements of the top-ranking content. For example, if videos appear as the top results (as shown in the image above, captured from a search on “subscription box”), Zoe would consider using a video on her landing page.

By modeling your content after the top-ranking results, the landing page is more likely to rank higher in SERPs.

6. Take cues from competitors’ spending

Ad insights are a gold mine to up your landing page game. I love how Brett Farmiloe, CEO of Terkel, explains it: “Follow the money trail.”

Visit the landing pages your competitors pay to promote. If they are spending money to drive traffic to a landing page, it is likely converting, and the advertiser has spent time perfecting it. To identify these presumed high-converting landing pages, click on a few of the sponsored results on the SERP for your keyword(s) to find some commonalities worth repeating on your page.

To go deeper, use tools like Ahrefs and SpyFu to determine your top competitors in the paid ad space and evaluate their pages to get insights for yours. This graphic illustrates what SpyFu details in its most profitable ads and keywords results. It includes listings of keywords based on clicks per month, cost per click, coverage, and top ads based on the keyword.

A profitable ad identified through Spyfu.

7. Get insights from non-number data

Don’t just focus on quantitative analytics. Qualitative data also can be valuable. Shayla Price, content strategist and founder of PrimoStats, says: “I’ve used qualitative data – like customer support options, platform features, integrations, and plan comparisons – to build high-converting landing pages.”

She writes the copy to emphasize what her brand offers as it relates to what the customer needs. Sometimes, she visualizes the relationships and pinpoints gaps using a Venn diagram.

But she still relies on quantitative data, too. “I measure the effectiveness of my copy by analyzing the bounce rate, time spent on the page, scroll rate, and conversion rate,” Shayla says.

8. Write a connection-focused message

Dom Kent, director of content marketing at Mio, interviews Oliver Meakings of Roast My Landing Page about tips that make a great landing page for marketing a product. Among their recommendations:

Know your customer persona. Don’t try to address multiple audiences or products on one page. Create a page for each of your solutions or personas.
Collect customer feedback. What are they saying? What do they need? What are their pain points?
Write with empathy. Let them know you feel their pain, agitate this, and introduce your product as the solution.
Add social proof. Tell your audience why they should buy from you and not your competitors. Use customer reviews, testimonials, case studies, and client logos to build trust and credibility.

In this example, HubSpot uses its total customer numbers, including country locations, along with well-known brand names to establish credibility with landing-page visitors:

Use these quantitative and qualitative checklists
I've summarized all the advice above as two checklists – a quantitative one and a qualitative one.

You will work most efficiently by tackling the quantitative list first. Analyze your competitors’ metrics – the numbers potentially affecting landing page traffic and sales. Claire, Rebekah, and Nick share this tracking list:

Quantity of keywords the competitor ranks for
Estimated organic search traffic to the page
Domain authority of the site
Quantity of internal links pointing to the ranking pages
Backlinks or external links pointing to the ranking pages
SERP rankings
Keywords targeted (PPC campaigns or organic)
Share of voice – awareness of the competitor’s brand and engagement in the market
A/B testing use
Organic vs. paid traffic percentages
Visit duration/time on page
Pages per visit
Visitor demographics

For a great landing page: Know your customer persona, collect customer feedback, write with empathy, and add social proof.

Now that you have the data to know which competitors’ landing pages are likely most successful, you can scrutinize the details of those pages. To simplify this qualitative competitor analysis, use this checklist from Claire and Rebekah:

What CTAs are they using? Where do they appear?
How is the page laid out?
What creative assets are used? How?
Does the page use reviews, testimonials, or other social proof? Are they shared as images, text, or videos? Are words or concepts repeated in the reviews?
What about the user experience sticks out as inconvenient or clunky?
What makes the user experience great?
What languages, colors, and fonts are they using? Do those differ with their CTAs?
Are they using tools to entice more conversions?
What is the price of the product or service being sold?
When and how do they discuss the price?
What statistics or data are used to indicate the demand for this product or service?
How long is the text-based content? Does it feel overwhelming or just right?

Creating a landing page requires in-depth competitor analysis, qualitative data, valuable content, and a smooth user experience.

With these tips and checklists, you can assess what your competitors are doing well and what you can do better or differently on your landing pages to drive traffic, catch audiences’ interests, and generates sales.CCO

Note: No one post can provide all relevant tools in the space. Feel free to include additional tools (from your company or ones you’ve used) in the comments.

Sally Ofuonyebi is an SEO content writer and strategist at Pennalife. She’s got zero chills for helping SaaS and B2B e-commerce brands get more visibility, leads, and brand authority through SEO content that connects and converts. Follow her on LinkedIn for more content marketing tips.

NFTs: Valuable Marketing Opportunity or Token Effort?

Brands like Gap and Reebok have made splashy forays into NFTs. Should your business join them on the blockchain bandwagon?

Mint a branded asset, collect $69 million?

With its groundbreaking sale, Beeple made NFT success look easy. But the full value of these digital assets has yet to solidify.

By Kim Moutsos

What’s your take on NFTs?

1. Yes, please.
2. Wait and see.
3. Pfft.

Brands like Gap, Coca-Cola, Adidas, Reebok, Lamborghini, and other consumer product companies would respond, "Yes, please," as they have made splashy forays. News, sports, and entertainment brands have made moves, too.

If you haven’t gotten questions about how (or whether) your brand’s content strategy should include NFTs, it’s only a matter of time.
To answer them, you should understand some NFT basics and know how they can be used.

Content strategist and comic book author Buddy Scalera offered a helpful introduction for content marketers in a recent episode of The Creative Show, co-hosted by CMI Creative Director Joseph (JK) Kalinowski.

Like many creatives, Buddy’s interest in the topic sprang from the news in 2021 that an NFT minted by Beeple sold for more than $69 million. Buddy researched, experimented, and eventually co-wrote a comic explaining how NFTs work.

His answers to several NFT questions on content marketers’ minds are recapped here, along with additional information and resources. You can also watch the full discussion in the video above.

Click to watch The Creative Show episode on NFTs.

What is an NFT?

NFT stands for non-fungible token. That clears everything up, doesn’t it? (No? Not for me, either.)