The Essential Playbook for Winning the Content Marketing Super Bowl

The Essential Playbook for Winning the Content Marketing Super Bowl:

Ah, the sounds of padded bodies colliding; the tension of “third and long;” the pain of the untimely turnover. At this time of year, football rules.

After 16 games and a January jammed with nail-biting playoff battles, two teams remain to face off in the biggest brouhaha in all of sport. Behold the undefeated ruler of the media universe: the Super Bowl.

What does this have to do with content marketing?

We’ve got the “Brady bunch” along with “Manning and his miracles.” Juicy. You really want me to change the channel and get back to work on content marketing?

Let’s meet in the middle. We’ll call it the Super Content Marketing Bowl, where scoring points means expanding your audience and establishing authority in the things you do best. Before we play ball, we’ll meet at the 50-yard line and introduce some new rules for taking home the content marketing trophy.

It’s time for the kickoff

Welcome everyone to The Google Dome, where we’re coming to you live with the much-anticipated battle for content marketing supremacy. It’s game time. Let’s look at how you score:

Point #1: You need a great site to compete

You’re not going to be a content marketing champion without a great website. The 1990s variety won’t do. Here’s the new game plan:

• You have to constantly update your site with valuable content.
• Your content plan must trace to your SEO plan in every way, so create and refine a short list of keywords and build your content with strict adherence to the game plan.
• A blog is going to be your star player, your authority builder, your captain, so make sure to feature one prominently on your site.
• The head coach will rely on a super-duper playbook. (We happen to have a great one right here: CMI Content Marketing Playbook — 42 Ways to Connect with Customers, sponsored by Eloqua and PR Newswire.)

Point #2: Go for the goal

In football, to punt is to surrender. You had the ball, but failed to make the necessary progress. But as a content marketer with a well-planned strategy, you won’t find surrender on any page of your playbook.

Content marketing champs don’t play it safe; they take chances. They persevere. The team you play for will aim to put some points on the board. Go for it by putting a variety of plays together that use video, presentations, or other formats that score points with different types of audiences consuming different types of media. Distributing your content online opens all kinds of new possibilities; tune into the conversations surrounding content publishing and you’ll find an ever-expanding number of them.

Point #3: Score points

You can’t always score a touchdown. Sometimes you go for a field goal and get some points on the board. Field goals aren’t touchdowns, but they add up.

These content marketing tactics will keep you in the game:

• Promote your blog relentlessly by using the social media tools available to you, creating links where you can, and joining relevant conversations on other blogs.
• Write guest posts for other blogs, and syndicate your content by finding relevant outlets for publication.
• Forge relationships with strategic allies.
• Offer curated content in the form of ezine-type services. I’m a fan of Scoop.it, Summify and paper.li, but I encourage you to explore relentlessly because new options appear almost daily.
• Monitor your competition’s activities and what’s trending in the media.
• Plug social media into your marketing strategy. Be active on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and the social networks that are relevant to your fans.
• Create a variety of free resources your customers will find valuable, such as how-to articles, case studies, checklists, expert interviews, and reviews.

Point #4: Reach the end zone

When you score a touchdown in football, the crowd goes crazy. It’s magic; a player might even jump into the seats to party with elated fans. And the celebration is well deserved because you accomplished what you came to do — score against the competition.

In content marketing, you score big by creating something of real value — content that educates or entertains, or both. The crowd responds by saving it, sharing it, praising it, or paraphrasing it in their own work. Your ideas go viral; you’ve inspired people to take action, and it’s possible that you’ve even done something remarkable that people will remember for years to come.

You might accomplish this with a blog or some tactic we qualified as a field goal, but your real touchdowns, your top plays, are likely to require some extra effort. Here are some content marketing plays that could possibly get you dancing in the end zone:

• White papers, which switch on light bulbs of inspiration and education
• Industry reports, which demonstrate that an investment was made in the interest of uncovering answers
• Events such as shows, broadcasts, and webinars
• Videos crammed full of valuable insight and perspective
• Books and eBooks, which inspire readers to invest their time and money to discover the secrets to success

Point #5: Conversion is key

Admittedly, in football, the extra point is a chip shot. The majority of the time, the team succeeds in getting the extra point and the touchdown drive ultimately becomes a 7-point score.

But extra points are far from insignificant. They could be game winners. And you know what they call it when you make it? A conversion. (Sometimes metaphors can be so sweet.)

In online marketing, conversion isn’t strictly defined as invoking a purchase; however, your audience does need to “buy” something, even if it means buying into the point of view you’ve presented. Think of content marketing conversion as getting the visitor to do something, to take action, such as:

• Tweet your content or pass it along one way or another
• Submit lead information such as an email address or phone number
• Bookmark the page where your content resides, either locally or with a web-based bookmarking service such as Digg and Reddit
• “Like” it on Facebook, share it on LinkedIn, or +1 it on Google+
• Dig further into your website or resource library for more valuable information
• Follow up with a compliment, comment, or question for you
• Try your product or service

Point #6: Play solid defense

Now and then in football, a “safety,” or two-point play, is scored. It generally occurs when the defense stuffs the opposing team behind their goal line. And then, to pour a little salt in the wound, the rules dictate that the humiliated team must immediately give up the ball by punting it to the team that scored.

Keep this defensive strategy in mind by protecting your “turf” when it comes to your content. There’s no coasting in content marketing. To win is not only to keep gaining, but you must also refuse to give up ground to the competition. The best teams tend to have the most fearsome defense. So establish trust, build authority, and consistently work at reaching your goals by hosting webinars, publishing guides, and curating content like the industry leader you are.

Point #7: Go to Disneyland

Prior to the big game, the media fixates on every detail. Every practice and press conference becomes part of the storyline, and the fans place bets, enter pools, and plan some serious parties to extend the experience of the game beyond pure spectatorship.

When the game comes, an astounding number of TVs are turned on. Advertisers invest gazillions in showcasing some of the silliest commercials ever. A few hours later, one team gloriously hoists the coveted Lombardi trophy. Invariably, the MVP announces he’s going to Disneyland.

You’ve got to get on that team. Be valuable. Exult. Celebrate your success by sharing it across Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the new media services your audience tunes into daily.

Are you forging a plan to become a content marketing champ? Please tell our audience a bit about it right here and now.