by Robert Rose
The Traditional Marketing Campaign Process
How long will this take to create/build?
(e.g., project plan, creative, technology, deployment)
Once we launch the effort, what will it take to manage it?
(e.g., what are the channels, content, technology, analytics, media)
What are our goals after the launch?
(Month one, two, three, etc., and then by the end of the campaign)
In fact, almost all digital projects done in concert with agencies are handled in exactly this way. The implemented methodologies are almost always some form of the following:
• Develop requirements for the project
• Design and implement based on those requirements
• Launch (or delay) based on the fulfillment of those requirements
• Manage and add in “phased aspects”
• Measure, learn, and reiterate, or begin again.
Thus, the way most marketing project-campaign plans are assembled and executed is based on a “best-case” scenario with go/no-go decisions based on how far along (or behind) the pre-prescribed timeline of the project is.
No doubt, many successful marketing campaigns and projects have been delivered this way. We are not suggesting that every marketing project methodology needs to be upended and changed into what Agile, the Lean Startup, or other methodologies would prescribe.
However, one of the key differences from traditional marketing campaigns is that content marketing initiatives are infused into the other communications efforts. In most cases, they need to be:
• Promoted and marketed
• Cross-functional
• Cross-channel
• Centered on fast adaptation.
Some of the biggest complaints about content marketing initiatives derive from common myths:
• They can’t be measured or assessed until they’ve been live for a year (not true).
• We can’t tie content-driven experiences to successful measurement for the business (not true).
• We’re not structured to enable a company-wide content marketing or customer experience mission (not true, even if silos exist).
In contrast to our description of traditional and familiar methodological initiatives, here is an alternative approach to mapping a content marketing initiative.
Starting with “X” Marks the Spot: Backward Mapping
Borrowing somewhat from the interesting work of Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian C. MacMillan, which is presented in their book, Discovery-Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity, we begin the story mapping step by starting at the end.
McGrath and MacMillan suggest starting a product development process by creating what they call a “reverse income statement,” which allows you to:
“…model how all the various assumptions in the initiative affect one another and whether, as you gain new information, the plan is getting traction or is at risk. The documents are intended to change as you learn, not to be a finished product.”
Story mapping takes the reverse income statement idea and synthesizes it, using ideas from the concept of “backward design,” and transforms it into an idea we call “backward mapping.” What this means is that we start with our “X” that marks the spot, and then work backward.
Contextualizing “X”
Using the goal and the timeline we’ve established, we have an endpoint and know what a minimally viable success looks like at a relative point in time. What we don’t know yet is how the timeline looks in context with what we must do to reach the endpoint.
To get there, we have to look at that point in time and make assumptions and draw conclusions about what needs to be true to achieve the vision that we set in Step 1.
For example, let’s use the case of the B2B technology services company that we used earlier. In this example, the company rejected the “curated news” idea and decided to create an original content platform that targeted new, young, and ambitious CIOs (a core audience persona for them). Let’s map out their story. Let’s start with a recap of what we’ve learned so far and review their vision.
THE VISION
The “Why”
The Core Story (Our Content Mission)
a. Who is the audience for this story?
Young, ambitious CIOs who are looking to further their careers by keeping up with trends in IT.
b. What is the content mission (or core story)?
We can be the new voice of the CIO. Our MissionCriticalByDesign.com online magazine helps CIOs navigate the fast-changing technology landscape. We help them stay current by reporting on the most important future trends in data center management and how they can navigate their career. Through original and curated content, we will be different than any other technology magazine out there in order to help the young CIO navigate a successful career.
c. What is the narrative timeline for this story until success?
We have no base for this because this is a new audience for us. So, we will first need to attract an audience for this platform and focus on audience development as a core strategy. We will first try to pull them in by leveraging industry influencers as guest writers. Then, to establish our authority, we will source great thought leadership content so essential to our audience that it will create a loyal base. Our narrative will have three parts: Inspire, Engage, and Accelerate. In alignment with our business case, we believe this will take 12 months from go-live to reach success.
The “What”
The Business Case
a. What is the business goal?
We achieve success when we are drawing 25% more monthly qualified leads from this new target persona. Additionally, 1,000 new engaged CIOs from our target
company list will become aware of our brand and subscribe to our platform.
b. How will we differentiate our approach?
Our research has shown that no one is currently publishing a career-oriented magazine for young, ambitious CIOs who are trying to focus on mission-critical businesses. Our ability to connect these CIOs, as well as provide thought leadership on big data and data portability, gives us a unique advantage to deliver this value. We will also differentiate by making our online magazine available over mobile and social platforms.
c. How will we integrate this into our existing marketing or cross-functional efforts?
A key effort here, as part of our Inspire, Engage, Accelerate program, will be to introduce and promote this initiative through our existing direct marketing program, as well as through our onboarding program with new clients. We will work closely with our PR team to generate news that makes influencers and other industry luminaries aware of our new platform. Ultimately, this will integrate with the demand generation team to provide more qualified leads.
This map is very truncated, but it should give you an idea of where we would be when we start the actual mapping process. There’s a very real business goal in this initiative. There’s a narrative story present as well, because our example company realizes that their character (the brand) isn’t known for this yet. They must first inspire, then engage this new audience, and finally create something scalable.
So, we begin the mapping process by defining what success looks like. Building on this definition, we make some assumptions and draw conclusions about what must be true. Thus, in the above example, we define success as:
• Success: when we have 25% more qualified leads and 1,000 new CIOs subscribed to our platform (e.g., brand awareness in our new target market).
With success clearly in sight, we work backward (in whatever granularity makes sense) to look at two things:
• What needs to be true at each stage (Inspire, Engage, and Accelerate)
• What assumptions we will need to make (a list of our best guesses using our experience and previous knowledge) about the best way to get to each truth.
Working from “X” backward, we split these into three discrete groups:<
br />
• Our business goals
• Our editorial mix of purpose-driven content
• Our integration mix into other areas of the business.
There may be others you might want to capture, and certainly this model can be expanded. The point is to capture, in categories, what the team needs to feel comfortable about moving forward.
If we designed a matrix defining the specific categories for our example, it would look like this (remember, we’re working backward):
Accelerate Days 365 Forward
Business Goals Editorial Mix Integration Mix
• 25% more qualified leads in the pipeline
• 1,000 subscribers
• 2,000 visitors to the platform
• 80% professor content
• 10% poet content
• 10% preacher and promoter content
• Core element of demand generation
• Working with customer onboarding to expand into loyalty
• Working with PR to attract new influencers to the platform
Engage II Days 270-365
Business Goals Editorial Mix Integration Mix
• 1,000 visitors
• 500 subscribers
• 10% more qualified leads
• User survey indicating strong CIO presence as subscribers
• 60% professor content to feed existing subscribers
• 40% percent promoter or preacher content to continue promotion and audience acquisition
• Heavy integration with PR and Social for promotion
• Promotion through email and client events
• Standard part of client services onboarding program
Engage I Days 180-270
Business Goals Editorial Mix Integration Mix
• 500 visitors
• 200 subscribers
• Some new qualified leads
• Audience survey indicating valuable platform
• 40% professor content to feed clients
• 60% promoter and preacher to promote program
• Heavy integration with PR and Social for promotional and influencer effort
• Paid media opportunities to focus on audience acquisition
• Email and web team key to making sure we are promoting new platform
Inspire 0-180 Days
Business Goals Editorial Mix Integration Mix
• 500 total visitors
• Three new influencer posts
• 80% promoter and preacher content
• 10% professor content
• Full integration with PR and Social as blog launch, and integration with advertising team for paid media opportunities
• Integration with event and other marketing services
As you can see, our content mix changes markedly as we move through the different phases. We start out with a ton of promotional content as we focus on audience development. This obviously affects our editorial strategy as well as our ability to generate leads. Then, as we reach success, we can dial down the promotional content while we accelerate the reasons why our audience should return and engage with our content.
Remember these are percentages, not quantities. So our content load at the beginning will be VERY high as we fill the blog AND the promotional channels. This helps us identify where the costs and budgets should be placed.
With this in mind, we can clearly communicate and inspire our teams and our C-suite, and propose a reasonable budget, timeline, and measurable strategy that will move our business forward.
If we’ve carefully planned our map, we should be well on our way to success. Because this is a process, we can anticipate that new tests and challenges will get in our way. So, we must also be prepared to make iterative changes along the way, based on both successes and failures.
STARTING THE JOURNEY
Deploying the initiative is really the meat of our narrative. If we set up the story well, success may simply flow from executing exactly as planned. Or, as is most often the case, it may mean improvising based on a sudden unplanned challenge or obstacle.
One of the keys here is to get into a review cycle—not based on major development milestones—but rather as a function of progress toward the different phases of the story as you have mapped it. The level of granularity of these rhythmic review cycles will depend largely on how confident you are about your assumptions, your learning along the way and, of course, the size of your investment in the initiative.
This process differs from campaign or classic marketing project planning because there are no “preconceived” stages that measure the project. Rather, we treat this as an approach, moving it forward based on our learning rather than on predetermined notions of success.
Checkpoints on this learning are the direct result of the goals we set in the vision or as other unpredictable changes arise.
At each checkpoint, we must ask very specific questions as a group and have ongoing discussions about continuing “as-is,” with “modification to the plan,” or by accelerating or decelerating the plan.
Questions to Ask
• What was the outcome we were hoping for?
• What was the reality we got?
• What did we learn from the gap, or the surplus?
• What do we need to change from our original assumptions?
• What do we need to change to meet the next business goal?
Using the measurement philosophy we describe in Chapter 10, you can start to look at your goals, your primary indicators, and your user indicators to get a good sense of how to report progress to others.
Don’t Wait for Big Experiments; Prototype Early and Often
When creating the map, try to identify the “show stoppers” and those that can easily be tested. In other words, as we make assumptions, we will be making some of them with a high degree of confidence about their accuracy. Other assumptions, however, will be pure guesswork. Still others will be guesses that could be tested in advance.
For example, let’s suppose one of the assumptions was that we could actually attract these new CIOs through a paid campaign to a number of existing CIO resources. This is something that could be tested and included as part of the story map. This might be especially important if instead of 1,000 subscribers, we were looking to address 10,000 subscribers. That paid campaign might be the biggest cost of our new initiative. Knowing how effective a paid campaign would be will be critical in understanding the timeline of the success of the initiative. We should plan on taking lots of little steps as we build toward a larger approach.
Remember, we are building toward the minimal acceptance of success. Even if we “blow it out of the water” initially, there may be unexpected challenges ahead. We still need to have review checks to see if our assumptions will be affected.
As we’ve mentioned, there are other, more detailed models for developing methodologies to deliver everything from small projects to enormous products. We’ve made no secret that our story mapping process borrows from a number of them. The key is to actually adopt one and scale it. Develop your own toolkit for the management of the content and your owned-media platforms. Once you have an actual process—a method by which to govern your actions—you will have the freedom to be more creative, more “outside the box,” and more agile.
We don’t know what’s coming. All we know is that things will change. And if we structure ourselves to accommodate change, we will succeed in the long run.
WHAT’S NEXT: THE 90-DAY VISION
Story mapping can be a very valuable process—if not for project planning, for building a business case for a new initiative. But, the difference is that a story map is the plan (or business case) for a new “content product,” not a campaign.
• The First Month
Work with the CCM team to develop parts one and two of the story map.
Define the content experience mission. What is the valuable experience that is separate from your product or service? To whom
will you deliver this value? Is it a differentiated experience? If not, how will you differentiate?
Define the business goals. Work toward one or multiple business goals that could be achieved by delivering this differentiated approach to this customer. What goals might it achieve in the first phase vs. how it might evolve over months or even years? What does success look like (separate from your business goals) and how long will it take to achieve? How will this success (or can it) be integrated into other parts of the customer’s journey or your organization?
• The Second Month
Work with the CCM team to prioritize and outline the actual story map.
What does the narrative outline look like? Do you need to start with one type of content (such as poet content) to change beliefs before you start educating? Or, do you need to create awareness first, and then start bonding emotionally? What does the storyline look like over time? How does that comport with your business goals?