4 Ways to Improve Your Content Marketing

Frank V. Cespedes; Russ  Heddleston

Article | Harvard Business Review (website) | April 19, 2018

4 Ways to Improve Your Content Marketing

by Frank V. Cespedes and Russ Heddleston

Abstract

In the past decade, content marketing has become a widely established practice. Companies have hired writers and chief content officers to run departments as well as create blogs and other materials—in the process, some have assured sales people that content marketing can mean the end of cold calling. The authors examined 34 million interactions between customers and content on DocSend’s platform, which is used daily by organizations across a variety of sales contexts. The result is empirical data and a good starting point for examining core aspects of any content marketing initiative. The authors found that prospects spend less than three minutes on content, mobile is less important than advertised, one day of the week isn’t better than others, and case studies are most preferred.

Keywords: Marketing; Marketing Communications; Sales; Performance Improvement;

Format: Electronic

Citation:

Cespedes, Frank V., and Russ Heddleston. "4 Ways to Improve Your Content Marketing." Harvard Business Review (website) (April 19, 2018).

Data and analytical tasks have lengthened productivity ramp-up times in many sales contexts, making each hire a bigger sunk cost for a longer time. Most companies adopt two common practices: They hire on the basis of “experience” and/or look at their best reps and try to hire more like them. This article discusses factors that are making sales hiring more complex and why common practices are increasingly counterproductive. It then discusses how two key factors (the impact and performance variability inherent in a company’s sales tasks) vary in different sales models and the hiring implications.

Teaching Note for HBS No. 817-056. IguanaFix, based in Argentina, is a platform business that connects consumers with home improvement contractors. The founders are evaluating growth options and an investment offer. The case focuses on scaling issues for a venture engaged in both B2C and B2B initiatives in a business model where there are important links, but also trade-offs and choices, between these approaches. The teaching note discusses some core marketing tools primarily relevant to a B2C versus a B2B approach in a venture; the complementarities and resource-allocation implications of the choices facing the founders; and scaling options and requirements ranging from new products and new markets to new channel partners and acquisition. The case is suitable for use in MBA and executive courses on Entrepreneurial Management, Business Marketing, Consumer Marketing, Sales, Making Markets, and Launching Technology Ventures.

Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-013. Magpie is a startup with a platform that allows publishers to natively tag the products discussed in their content and thus allows consumers to purchase those products without needing to leave that publisher’s web page. A key aspect of the venture’s business model is to leverage the content and influence of publishers (i.e., those who provide content in the fashion product categories initially targeted by Magpie). The founders have developed four publisher personas and must decide on priorities among these buyer personas and the implications for messaging, media, and other aspects of marketing to each group. “Buying Journey” and “Buyer Persona” are currently popular terms for a perennial requirement of effective marketing: understanding who buys, why, and how among a venture’s potential customer groups. The teaching note discusses the process for creating buying personas in an early-stage venture; the go-to-market implications that flow from focus on a given persona; and the uses, misuses, and inherent limitations of qualitative constructs like Buying Journey and Buyer Persona in allocating resources.

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4 Ways to Improve Your Content Marketing

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