For this episode we’re joined by an incredible marketing and content strategy leader who I’ve admired through my career.  David Brown is SVP and Head of Strategy at Knotch, a content intelligence platform, consultancy, and community.  David’s leadership track record is impressive – having played executive leadership roles at Ogilvy, Meredith Corporation, OneSpot, Manifest and other industry-leading groups.  I’ve personally had the privilege to work with David on the brand side, setting direction for content strategy, performance benchmarks, standards and process.  During our discussion, David and I touch on the idea of strategy as a catalyst and guide for content marketing growth.  It was both an insightful and fun discussion - enjoy!

Highlights from the discussion:

• Investing in content strategy work up front establishes clearer pathways to creative thinking and scale for content marketers in the long run.
• Getting strategy precise for how content can deliver value across business, brand and audience objectives is critical.  Do not allow for loose and vague expectations – this will create on-going tensions.  Precise objectives make the quarterly reviews function a lot more positively and constructively.
• Content Marketing has traditionally had more performance visibility at the top and bottom of the funnel, but less in the middle.  Knotch calls this the “missing middle” and has developed ways to get deeper insights around what audiences are responding positively to and what’s really driving consideration.
• Understand the 5% rule, particularly during recession-esq moments.  A very small amount of a brand’s content library tends to drive the majority of business impact and growth.  Make sure you know what your top 5% content is, ring fence it, protect it, grow it.  Create more assets like it.
• Analysis of content performance should happen at both the macro and micro levels, to understand both the publishing system as a whole, while also getting into specifics across topic, format and journey.
• If you get too "bottom funnel focused" you're not really growing your business, you're just getting business that you're already going to get, maybe a little bit faster.
• The true way for content marketers to drive growth is to establish a consistent footprint across the entire audience journey.
• While the Writer and Art Director have been the classic collaborative duo, Content and Analytics Leaders are the new partners in crime.
• When you have the data, you're in a position of strength strategically and creatively.  When you don't have the data it's as if you're flying blind.  And remember, there is no data without content and creative to drive response, so keep testing and learning!

Beyond these great insights around content strategy, David also shares fun personal stories of growth, ranging from early inspirations to join the agency world, lessons on the power of personalization, the value of persistence and more. 

Pod and article originally published here.

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