Approach
A model framework that Joe Territo has deployed to partner with and lead a brand or topical portfolio of brands in developing a digital content transformation strategy.
1. Establish Project Objective
Sample Objective: Deliver a transformative roadmap to efficiently create, package and distribute content that drives user behaviors, fuels new revenue and helps achieve desired strategic growth.
2. Establish Project Team
Typical Team: One empowered (decision-maker) stakeholder representing each of these seven disciplines – 1. Content, 2. Audience dev/user marketing, 3. Brand/client marketing, 4. Finance, 5. Sales, 6. Technical product dev, 7. Human resources.
3. Develop Components
A. Revenue
Define, document historical, near-term and long-term aspirational key revenue categories, and amounts collected/targeted per category, for the entire portfolio of products affiliated with the brand (e.g. data, digital media, marketing services, events and print).
Specify the most significant revenue categories for each year.
Pressure test near-term and long-term targets against existing strategic planning documentation and market research to assure confidence in right to win.
Key Participants: Finance, sales, brand/client marketing stakeholders.
Deliverables: Key participant endorsement of revenue goals and targets presentation, including annual trend charts illustrating the amount of revenue collected/targeted per category for each year, and pie charts illustrating the historic/budgeted/desired percentage of contribution per category for each year.
B. Content User Engagement
Define a short list (3-5 items) of highest-priority categories of clear and measurable content user behaviors where engagement growth can most meaningfully enable and create opportunities to achieve this year's, next year's and aspirational long-term key revenue targets. Include categories impacted by both editorial content (created/packaged by editorial personnel) and commercial content (created/packaged by content marketing personnel). Specify taxonomy (targeted topics) and persona targets (user types) where growth in any given category is most desired because of clear overlapping key user persona and client interest.
Document and illustrate historical monthly user engagement metrics per category. Provide views of metrics/patterns per product, rolled up per brand (multiple products) and for the entire group (all brands).
Define and illustrate actionable near-term monthly targets for year-over-year growth in each category throughout current year and next year, and transformative, ambitious long-term monthly targets for next-year-over-historic growth.
Propose continuous program of score-boarding and analyzing user engagement progress against goals and targets. Preliminarily identify internal metrics reporting product development needs. Include periodic reviews and evaluations to identify course corrections needed and success stories to be further exploited.
Key Participants: Content, audience dev/user marketing, sales, brand/client marketing stakeholders.
Deliverables: Key participant endorsement of a user engagement goals and targets presentation, including historical and targeted monthly trend charts illustrating achievement per category per month throughout each year.
C. Best Practice Execution Models
Leverage existing market research and business strategic planning documentation to develop detailed personas of multiple types of professionals and industry suppliers who comprise most important target audience.
1. Establish Project Objective
Sample Objective: Deliver a transformative roadmap to efficiently create, package and distribute content that drives user behaviors, fuels new revenue and helps achieve desired strategic growth.
2. Establish Project Team
Typical Team: One empowered (decision-maker) stakeholder representing each of these seven disciplines – 1. Content, 2. Audience dev/user marketing, 3. Brand/client marketing, 4. Finance, 5. Sales, 6. Technical product dev, 7. Human resources.
3. Develop Components
A. Revenue
Define, document historical, near-term and long-term aspirational key revenue categories, and amounts collected/targeted per category, for the entire portfolio of products affiliated with the brand (e.g. data, digital media, marketing services, events and print).
Specify the most significant revenue categories for each year.
Pressure test near-term and long-term targets against existing strategic planning documentation and market research to assure confidence in right to win.
Key Participants: Finance, sales, brand/client marketing stakeholders.
Deliverables: Key participant endorsement of revenue goals and targets presentation, including annual trend charts illustrating the amount of revenue collected/targeted per category for each year, and pie charts illustrating the historic/budgeted/desired percentage of contribution per category for each year.
B. Content User Engagement
Define a short list (3-5 items) of highest-priority categories of clear and measurable content user behaviors where engagement growth can most meaningfully enable and create opportunities to achieve this year's, next year's and aspirational long-term key revenue targets. Include categories impacted by both editorial content (created/packaged by editorial personnel) and commercial content (created/packaged by content marketing personnel). Specify taxonomy (targeted topics) and persona targets (user types) where growth in any given category is most desired because of clear overlapping key user persona and client interest.
Document and illustrate historical monthly user engagement metrics per category. Provide views of metrics/patterns per product, rolled up per brand (multiple products) and for the entire group (all brands).
Define and illustrate actionable near-term monthly targets for year-over-year growth in each category throughout current year and next year, and transformative, ambitious long-term monthly targets for next-year-over-historic growth.
Propose continuous program of score-boarding and analyzing user engagement progress against goals and targets. Preliminarily identify internal metrics reporting product development needs. Include periodic reviews and evaluations to identify course corrections needed and success stories to be further exploited.
Key Participants: Content, audience dev/user marketing, sales, brand/client marketing stakeholders.
Deliverables: Key participant endorsement of a user engagement goals and targets presentation, including historical and targeted monthly trend charts illustrating achievement per category per month throughout each year.
C. Best Practice Execution Models
Leverage existing market research and business strategic planning documentation to develop detailed personas of multiple types of professionals and industry suppliers who comprise most important target audience.
Map key aspects of personas to key user engagement goals and targets. Define specific user engagement funnels (mechanisms, methods, schedules/day parts, content formats) through which content will be leveraged. Determine best practice executions of content creation, packaging and optimization – sometimes in close partnership with audience dev/user marketing (user lead nurturing) – to achieve desired results.
Gather learnings into best practice execution models (“playbook”) presentation including per-model details explaining potential impact of each model, when each use case is most appropriate, and providing illustrated internal and external (business and consumer) examples of effective (“do”) and ineffective (“don’t”) executions.
Key Participants: Content, audience dev/user marketing, sales, brand/client marketing stakeholders.
Deliverables: Key participant endorsement of a best practice execution models (“playbook”) presentation, including illustrations of and links to internal and external – both consumer and B2B – examples proven successful to achieve desired results.
Gather learnings into best practice execution models (“playbook”) presentation including per-model details explaining potential impact of each model, when each use case is most appropriate, and providing illustrated internal and external (business and consumer) examples of effective (“do”) and ineffective (“don’t”) executions.
Key Participants: Content, audience dev/user marketing, sales, brand/client marketing stakeholders.
Deliverables: Key participant endorsement of a best practice execution models (“playbook”) presentation, including illustrations of and links to internal and external – both consumer and B2B – examples proven successful to achieve desired results.
D. Personnel
Define true digital first editorial and sponsored content creation and optimization organization that simultaneously delivers strategically valuable print products to fulfill user and client needs.
Review current content budget for content personnel, contractors, supporting product and service licenses, shared services allocations and travel. Obtain executive direction on flexibility in proposing changes to overall funding and allocation percentages to assure true alignment of resources with ability to achieve user engagement goals through best practice execution models.
Develop proposed budget revisions, which may include identifying and proposing new product and service licenses (e.g. syndicated content, metrics tools) – re-aligning capabilities and creating efficiencies to fully enable and support achievement of user engagement goals – and projecting realistic transformation expenses (e.g. training, new practices and workflows).
Re-define number and type of content positions needed, accurate job titles and prioritized responsibilities per position (job profiles), management organization (content team org chart) and workflows to achieve user engagement goals and targets within budget. Fashion content roles, responsibilities, organization and workflow to effectively interoperate with audience development, marketing, sales and technical product development personnel. Establish employee alignments and work output expectations primarily focused on key audience segment needs, aligning brand/product offerings to best support those needs.
Re-define content employee performance goal and incentive definition and review process to drive fulfillment of job profiles to achieve user engagement goals with mechanisms for continuous evaluation and course correction.
Key Participants: Content, human resources and finance stakeholders.
Deliverables: Project team endorsement of a content budget, org chart, roles/responsibilities and performance evaluation presentation.
Define true digital first editorial and sponsored content creation and optimization organization that simultaneously delivers strategically valuable print products to fulfill user and client needs.
Review current content budget for content personnel, contractors, supporting product and service licenses, shared services allocations and travel. Obtain executive direction on flexibility in proposing changes to overall funding and allocation percentages to assure true alignment of resources with ability to achieve user engagement goals through best practice execution models.
Develop proposed budget revisions, which may include identifying and proposing new product and service licenses (e.g. syndicated content, metrics tools) – re-aligning capabilities and creating efficiencies to fully enable and support achievement of user engagement goals – and projecting realistic transformation expenses (e.g. training, new practices and workflows).
Re-define number and type of content positions needed, accurate job titles and prioritized responsibilities per position (job profiles), management organization (content team org chart) and workflows to achieve user engagement goals and targets within budget. Fashion content roles, responsibilities, organization and workflow to effectively interoperate with audience development, marketing, sales and technical product development personnel. Establish employee alignments and work output expectations primarily focused on key audience segment needs, aligning brand/product offerings to best support those needs.
Re-define content employee performance goal and incentive definition and review process to drive fulfillment of job profiles to achieve user engagement goals with mechanisms for continuous evaluation and course correction.
Key Participants: Content, human resources and finance stakeholders.
Deliverables: Project team endorsement of a content budget, org chart, roles/responsibilities and performance evaluation presentation.
E. Internal and External Product Needs
Leverage and meticulously comb through completed components to identify dependencies upon internal and external product features that require development/acquisition of new technical capabilities or enhancements to existing technical capabilities. Examples of internal needs may include, for example, new tools or features to measure and scoreboard specific user behaviors. Examples of external needs may include new tools or features to enable execution of specific digital storytelling best practice execution models.
Key Participants: Audience dev/user marketing, brand/client marketing, sales and technical product dev stakeholders.
Deliverables: Key participant endorsement of an internal and external product needs presentation.
Leverage and meticulously comb through completed components to identify dependencies upon internal and external product features that require development/acquisition of new technical capabilities or enhancements to existing technical capabilities. Examples of internal needs may include, for example, new tools or features to measure and scoreboard specific user behaviors. Examples of external needs may include new tools or features to enable execution of specific digital storytelling best practice execution models.
Key Participants: Audience dev/user marketing, brand/client marketing, sales and technical product dev stakeholders.
Deliverables: Key participant endorsement of an internal and external product needs presentation.
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4. Complete Strategic Plan
Create cohesive complete strategic plan that incorporates all previously-developed components and adds specific proposed next steps to put plan into action. Include within plan and next steps efforts to assure that personnel are given incentives for loyalty to appropriate brand and product user and client needs, that structure is unified and supported across functions by management team, and that operation is rooted in values clearly understood and embraced throughout the company.
Participants: All stakeholders and executive sponsors (presentation review, endorsement, meeting prep).
Deliverables: All-stakeholder and executive sponsor endorsement of a cohesive strategic plan, incorporating deliverables from each component of project, and adding specific proposed next steps to put the plan into action.
Create cohesive complete strategic plan that incorporates all previously-developed components and adds specific proposed next steps to put plan into action. Include within plan and next steps efforts to assure that personnel are given incentives for loyalty to appropriate brand and product user and client needs, that structure is unified and supported across functions by management team, and that operation is rooted in values clearly understood and embraced throughout the company.
Participants: All stakeholders and executive sponsors (presentation review, endorsement, meeting prep).
Deliverables: All-stakeholder and executive sponsor endorsement of a cohesive strategic plan, incorporating deliverables from each component of project, and adding specific proposed next steps to put the plan into action.
