By Margaret Molloy, Global Chief Marketing Officer + Head of Business Development, Siegel+Gale
This week I had the pleasure of moderating a panel on “C-Suite Perspectives on Content & Branding” at the B2B Content2Conversion Conference in New York.
I convened the panel of Ted Smyth, Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs at McGraw Hill Financial; Amanda Rubin, Managing Director in the Brand Marketing and Digital Strategy Group in the Americas for Goldman Sachs and Tim Clark, Head of Brand Journalism at SAP.
It was clear from our conversation that content is about more than conversion; it must also serve an important master—the brand. As I reflect on the discussion, six themes emerged that can help marketers create content that successfully reinforces their brands. Below I’ve captured those takeaways along with illustrative examples directly from the experiences of the three B2B marketing leaders on the panel:
1. Consider content for engagement
Content is powerful for conversion and brand engagement. [@MargaretMolloy TWEET]
“Content marketing is not just about going from content to conversion, nor should it be. Instead, it can be content to conversation. We need to differentiate between the two so that CFOs can see the value of content and not just in terms of ROI. Valuable content needs to be engaging and not profit seeking. In fact, if it reeks of profit seeking, it’s not going to work. The public will smoke you out if you’re not transparent and authentic.”
– Ted Smyth, Executive Vice President, McGraw Hill Financial
2. Use content to evolve a brand
Content has the capacity to evolve, grow, and reinforce a brand. [@MargaretMolloyTWEET]
“Goldman Sachs has a lot of different target audiences and in recent years, we’ve acquired a new one in the general public. The easiest way to describe out brand is as a catalyst for superior economic results, whether for our clients, beneficiaries of our strategic philanthropic programs or our employees.
We have three goals for our content strategy that all relate to our brand. First, we need to generate a greater understanding of what we do through our core businesses and why they are relevant and valuable for the greater society. Second, we want to continue to demonstrate our commitment to transparency. Third, we are focused on harnessing the intellectual capital of the firm on broad macroeconomic topics that can be of value to people beyond our client base.”
– Amanda Rubin, Managing Director in the Brand Marketing and Digital Strategy Group in the Americas, Goldman Sachs
3. Remember the power of stories
People respond to a well crafted narrative. [@MargaretMolloy TWEET]
“My primary advice on content and branding is to just tell stories. They’ve been around for centuries for good reason. They have a beginning, middle and end and they better have a point and be engaging, or people will stop listening.”
– Ted Smyth, Executive Vice President, McGraw Hill Financial
“When we launched SAP Voice, we fell back on familiar beats of being self-promotional and consequently saw poor returns. When we turned to just telling good stories, the program really took off. Now we’re seeing millions of page views each year and social shares increasing thanks to quality of content, not quantity.
-Tim Clark, Head of Brand Journalism, SAP
4. Leverage content across platforms
Different audiences will respond to different forms of content. [@MargaretMolloy TWEET]
“You have to recognize that people consume information in different ways. There is still an audience that will read a 27-page white paper but certain people like to consume information as an infographic and others prefer a video. We’ve learned that we need to provide a menu of options so people can digest the content whichever way they prefer.”
– Amanda Rubin, Managing Director in the Brand Marketing and Digital Strategy Group in the Americas, Goldman Sachs
5. Do research to create news
Buyers crave fresh insights. [@MargaretMolloy TWEET]
“You’ve got to inspire your audience in whatever platform they exist, to engage folks so they sit up and say “Wow, that’s an interesting fact.” To do that, you need to do more surveys, research, and studies to drive their interest. “Studies show” creates news. You cannot recycle old data and call it new. If you’ve worked in journalism, you know what news is. It doesn’t always have to be provocative or bad news, just newsworthy.”
– Ted Smyth, Executive Vice President, McGraw Hill Financial
6. Look internally for content creators
Employees can be the most authentic brand ambassadors and sources of quality content.[@MargaretMolloy TWEET]
“Look within your company to find sources of content. Ghostwriting won’t capture the spirit of your brand appropriately. It will boost the quality of your content tremendously if you look for the right talent internally.”
-Tim Clark, Head of Brand Journalism, SAP
“We started a series of employee interviews where they interview each other. People can have fun with it. It can be as simple as “How was your day?” or “How did you get this job?” We’re trying to get these pieces to proliferate as a way of humanizing the brand and highlighting people who are trying to do the best things for their communities and the world.”
– Ted Smyth, Executive Vice President, McGraw Hill Financial
Beyond these takeaways, all three marketing leaders—from the publishing, financial, and technology industries—agreed that brand is a vital component of any content strategy.
Margaret Molloy is the global CMO at Siegel+Gale, a leading strategic branding firm.
Follow me on LinkedIn and on Twitter @MargaretMolloy
