In a poll of business-to-business sales and marketing professionals worldwide, marketing messaging company Corporate Visions found that two-thirds of organizations do not have a fully collaborative message development process. In general, sales staff are left out of messaging and content creation processes, researchers found. Only 37 percent of staff involved in creating messaging and sales tools are sales representatives, while 54 percent are marketing associates, the study found.

“By operating in distinct silos, marketing runs the risk of creating messages that will fail to effectively reach customers, and by extension, that salespeople are not comfortable delivering or will not use,” researchers wrote.

A lack of repeatability
One of the most significant problems survey respondents reported was their organization’s failure to create a scalable solution to content management. Just 3 percent of those polled said that their organization was using a repeatable process for content, messaging and sales tool creation.

Researchers concluded that most messaging tools are created by accident, opening up a risk for inconsistent or diluted messages across an organization. In order to reduce this threat, organizations should look to align their messages by adopting tools to integrate content across divisions, analysts explained.

“The results of this quarter’s survey indicate that while some organizations are taking steps to better align sales and marketing, many continue to operate in inefficient silos,” said Tim Riesterer, chief strategy and marketing officer for Corporate Visions. He added that organizations “need to employ a cross-functional framework for message development where marketing and sales work together to create messaging that resonates with customers.”

Steps to align marketing and sales messages
Developing a message that involves both sales and marketing staff and works at all levels may seem like a complicated process, but organizations can take steps to make sure this type of content is being developed and delivered. In a blog post at Customer Think, Riesterer offered advice for improving messaging. Not only should members of sales and marketing teams work together to develop messages, he said, but the content created should be tailored to specific needs.

He advised looking at specific interactions along the sales process and creating tools that address each step. Organizations will find the best results by delivering targeted, scalable messages, he explained. The sales staff will be most effective when it has marketing materials that engage buyers in a precise way.

According to Evan Whitenight of marketing agency the Pedowitz Group, there are several marketing steps that can help drive revenue. Through services such as cloud software, marketing can be automated to enable repeatable, scalable programs that work across an organization. Additionally, organizations can create new content by repurposing existing company materials as short blog posts or other messaging tools.

On the Pedowitz Group’s blog, Chris Yeich, of content strategy firm Bulldog Solutions, explained organizations can take three steps to quickly implement unified, scalable content. By auditing existing content tailored to each step of the sales process, organizations can quickly repurpose it for other contexts and then distribute that content in a scalable way across all channels. Organizations can then look at how specific pieces of content generate revenue and target that content in a way that makes sense for the organization.

“Remember: content is not a ‘nice to have,’ it’s your voice as an organization and a direct link to your customers and prospects,” Yeich wrote. “Leverage the value of your content. Ask internal stakeholders to ensure that content is developed thoughtfully and that it aligns with your marketing messaging.”

A recent Content Marketing Institute blog post explored some techniques for creating engaging video content and presented some questions for marketers to consider when drafting video plans. Post author Adria Saracino stressed the importance of approaching video content as a different type of media than blog posts or infographics and planning content creation accordingly.

“If you ever find yourself trying to ‘convert’ content into a video, rather than developing the video idea organically, that’s an indicator that your creative process has gone awry,” Saracino warned.

Improving the content planning process
Saracino identified three signs that content is not suited for a video format, or that a video is not effectively delivering its message. If the video is a sales pitch and lacks a story arc with a climax and a resolution, then it should be redesigned in a more narrative format.

A video also needs to avoid an overly complex call to action. Saracino recommended breaking content down into smaller pieces that each have their own simple, direct objective. Similarly, trying to fit too much content into a video is a common pitfall. Videos should ideally be shorter than four minutes. Videos that stretch to 10 minutes or longer risk turning the viewer away, and such content may be better suited for a different format.

To avoid common pitfalls, marketers should take two factors into consideration, Saracino said. If the content would lose meaning in text and image form, then it may need the added presentation of video. Conversely, if the content does not need visual or auditory elements to communicate its points, then it is most likely not suited for video. By determining in advance whether content is suited to a visual storytelling format, organizations can ensure their message is delivered in the most effective manner.

As the use of smartphones and tablets in medicine grows, pharmaceutical organizations can take the opportunity to generate marketing content specific to these platforms with a goal of engaging consumers and improving patient outcomes.

Consumer access
Healthcare consumers are slowly but surely shifting their information gathering habits away from the personal computer and onto mobile devices. Although the PC still reigns supreme when it comes to performing general healthcare research, according to communications firm Makovsky, mobile devices are being used by patients on the go.

After visiting a doctor, roughly 52 percent of patients will visit a pharma website on their PC, while 31 percent will check out that same information on their smartphone or tablet. However, after experiencing possible symptoms, mobile devices are the go-to source for information, the Makovsky report found. Forty-three percent will use their smartphone or tablet to visit a pharma site to investigate symptoms, compared to 21 percent who use a PC.

An outbreak of outreach
“Whether they want guidance for an informed conversation with their doctor, or the support of a larger community coping with the same illness, consumers seek trusted sources for health information,” said Gil Bashe, executive vice president and practice director with Makovsky Health. “With new and evolving access points, understanding the consumer mindset is critical to supporting improved health outcomes.”

Recently, a report from Cutting Edge Information indicated that patient communication is the biggest problem for pharmaceutical marketing teams. This stems largely from a disconnect between what pharma organizations feel is important and what consumers are interested in learning about. While organizations typically focus on patients’ medical diagnosis, most consumers are more concerned about the immediate effects of the treatments they’ve been prescribed.

Another area in which organizations miscommunicate is in terms of overall content. Many consumers simply aren’t able to understand technical medical jargon, the CEI report found, which can stymie nearly any marketing effort. These issues are fairly easy to remedy, however, and the report authors had a few suggestions to get organizations back on track with their outreach campaigns.

Increase understanding: By approaching their content from the point of view of the consumer, pharmaceutical organizations will be better able to address their information needs and allay any fears about treatments.

Improve planning: Effective patient engagement depends on well-planned engagement programs. Choosing the appropriate channels and tools – for example, using a content management system (CMS) to create a simultaneous mobile/PC outreach campaign – is a step toward this end.

Implement strategies: Patient engagement should be a goal of all pharmaceutical organizations. Examining the efforts of other groups and evaluating their challenges can help inform a campaign strategy.

Pharmaceutical organizations have an opportunity to reach consumers and improve patient outcomes, provided they use the right tools to craft and deliver pertinent healthcare information.

The study cited attacks on popular open source content management systems in the past as a forbear to attacks on other systems. As organizations migrate to closed source systems, attackers are likely to follow and increasingly challenge these applications.

“The risk to organizations continues to be amplified by the frailty of human curiosity,” said Charles Renert, Vice President of Websense. “It's now expanding across diverse mobile platforms, evolving content management systems and an ever-increasing population of online users.”

A tempting target
Compromising a CMS can offer particular rewards to hackers because such a system can easily facilitate hosting malware or allow cybercriminals to steal organizational data, researchers noted. According to a 2011 InformationWeek article, attack toolkits designed to install code on vulnerable websites are relatively cheap, and the cost can easily be recouped in stolen visitor data.

Many such vulnerabilities are exploited on open source content management systems or, increasingly, in plug-ins for such systems, the article noted. According to IT Business Edge, any use of open source software on a CMS, especially in areas that rely on user-generated content, is a particular vulnerability because more people have access to the code.

“While purchased commercial software can also be hacked, it is available to fewer people and is, on the whole, safer to use,” the site noted.

Protecting against threats
Adopting a CMS with robust security support is one of the first steps IT professionals can take to help protect their organization. A software-as-a-service (SaaS) CMS can offer particular value as it is scalable and easily updated. Any attack attempted against one user of the system can be incorporated into the software’s security intelligence, meaning that all organizations using the software benefit from constant updates designed to thwart evolving threats.

Websense recommended CMS administrators protect against threats by keeping up with patches and other security updates to their system. With many cloud systems, such updates are incorporated seamlessly without disruption to users, making it easier to stay secure against the latest threats.

Gleeson consulted SEO experts Laura Beatty and Benj Arriola to identify strategies organizations can implement to position themselves for success.

Revisit the keyword strategy
The Forbes contributors advised thinking organization-wide to set a productive keyword strategy. If different business units are not communicating with each other, they may be generating content using identical or similar keywords, diluting the effectiveness of an overarching strategy by competing with each other for traffic and rankings.

While reviewing its keyword strategy, an organization should pay special attention to including non-branded keywords in its content. A BloomReach white paper cited SEO expert Adam Audette as saying top brands should see 40 percent of traffic to their website coming from non-branded keywords, which are keywords that do not contain the company name or other "branded" terms.

Someone who inputs a brand name into a search engine already has heard of that brand, the white paper pointed out, and is therefore likely already a customer or user, or at least is close to that conversion point. By utilizing non-branded keywords, an organization is more likely to come up in the search results for those encountering the brand for the first time. As the white paper put it:

♦ "Increasing your search traffic from non-branded terms from 10 percent to 40 percent of your total search traffic is not a zero sum game that harms your branded terms.   Non-branded traffic grows the size of the pie rather than changing how you slice it."

Review the CMS
Organizations should also review their technology, such as the content management system (CMS), to make sure it is functioning properly and is robust enough to meet needs. The Forbes article pointed to localization as one area of focus, as organizations should make sure translation glossaries are up to date and support location-specific keyword strategies. The translation management system must be able to translate content across every region effectively, and the CMS should not be needlessly auto-generating pages or creating duplicate content.

While the nature of SEO changed in sometimes confusing ways after updates such as Panda and Penguin, the Forbes piece said organizations can likely meet SEO-related key performance indicators by focusing on a few simple directives, such as posting high-quality content that provides thought leadership and/or invites social interaction. By creating this type of strong content, integrating effective keywords, and deploying it through a robust CMS, organizations will likely see SEO success in 2013.

The report by Econsultancy and Outbrain surveyed 1,300 digital marketing professionals and found more than 90 percent believe content marketing will become more important in the 12 months ahead. Seventy-three percent agreed with the statement “brands are becoming publishers.”

Despite this recognition of content marketing’s growing role, however, relatively few marketers have actually created a well-defined content marketing strategy. Only 13 percent of respondents at marketing agencies reported having content marketing strategies in place for their clients, while the figure was 38 percent for in-house marketers.

A growing focus
With nine in 10 marketers anticipating growth in the field, it is clear that organizations are beginning to pay attention to the value offered by content marketing.

“Content is the voice of your brand and it is therefore important to allocate the respect, investment and focus it requires,” a digital marketing manager for a luxury auto brand said in the report. “Creating great content is difficult and delivering great content consistently through established processes is complex. However this is what is required if you want to take your brand from good to great in today’s communication environment.”

A separate 2012 report from the Content Marketing Institute surveyed B2B marketers and found that 60 percent planned to increase their spending on content marketing in the year ahead and that content marketing accounted for approximately 26 percent of marketers’ budgets for 2011.

This growth in spending is also helping to define the field. In the Econsultancy study, 64 percent of in-house marketers agreed that content marketing is becoming a discipline of its own. This appears to be reflected in the Content Marketing Institute’s finding that 62 percent of B2B marketers are outsourcing their content marketing.

A path to adoption
The implementation of content marketing strategies remains low, but the high level of interest appears to be prompting some action. Econsultancy’s report found that 55 percent of in-house marketers and 58 percent of agency respondents are working on a content marketing strategy.

Many organizations may also be using some level of content marketing, even if they do not yet have a formal strategy. A more bullish set of numbers from the Content Marketing Institute showed 90 percent of marketers reported their organizations are using some sort of content marketing.

The lack of formal strategies could signal a tentative approach to adoption or stem from obstacles such as producing engaging content or having adequate resources. Forty-one percent of respondents in the Content Marketing Institute Report said their biggest challenge was creating content that would engage customers, while 20 percent reported struggling with producing enough content. In 18 percent of cases, the problem was a lack of budget, while 12 percent had encountered a lack of buy-in from executives.

According to one social media editor quoted by Econsultancy, many organizations may be hesitant to devote too many resources to content marketing until it becomes a more established field.

“Maybe [the low rate of adoption] is a sign that the majority of users are simply ‘playing’ in this space or testing the waters,” the executive said.

Goals for content marketing
Organizations may still be determining the business objectives for their content marketing efforts. Econsultancy looked at the motivations behind organizations’ activity, as have several other surveys.

The top goal stated in the Econsultancy study was increased engagement, with 52 percent of respondents claiming this as a priority for content marketing efforts. Forty-two percent mentioned increasing site traffic, and 35 percent named increasing brand awareness. Other objectives cited included improved SEO, lead generation, improving brand perception and thought leadership.

For B2C marketers, improved brand perception and improved SEO were relatively more important goals, while for B2B marketers, there was more of an emphasis on lead generation, thought leadership and nurturing leads.

Another report, by BtoB Magazine, found the primary objectives of content marketing for B2B professionals were similar, with lead generation, brand awareness and thought leadership constituting the top three goals. The Content Marketing Institute’s survey of B2B marketers yielded similar results, with brand awareness topping the list of goals.

The Content Marketing Institute also looked at the most common content marketing tactics. Articles topped the list, with 79 percent adoption, followed by social media at 74 percent and blogs at 65 percent. Other tactics included white papers, webcasts and in-person events.

Organizations that are looking to keep up in the current digital marketing landscape should be aware of the trends in content marketing adoption and the reasons driving it. Brands are finding that traditional metrics such as web traffic are holding a less prominent place alongside factors such as building engagement and awareness.

New research suggests that mobile traffic as a percentage of overall web traffic is climbing at a remarkable rate, and that consumers use mobile devices differently than PCs and laptops. If organizations hope to capitalize on this trend, however, entrenched business attitudes have to change.

Exponential growth and change
Ad tech firm Kontera recently unveiled some surprising statistics regarding mobile web traffic. Not only do smartphones and tablet computers now account for 22 percent of all consumer devices providing internet access, that figure is expected to rise even further over the next few months. The report projects 27 percent of internet views will take place on mobile devices by the start of 2013.

Knowing how users are accessing information on mobile devices can be essential for organizations in planning their marketing campaigns, and the report highlighted a few interesting facts about user habits. For example, Apple’s iOS platform is significantly more popular among mothers who view healthcare information on their mobile devices, with iPhones (39 percent) and iPads (34 percent) comprising the lion’s share of devices used for this purpose.

Not only do moms reach for their Apple products when doing research or finding information, they log onto the internet through their devices later in the day than PC users. Mobile use peaks during television primetime hours, according to the report, suggesting marketers can time their messages to arrive in the evening when users are logged on.

Agencies and applications
But all the user data in the world won’t help if organizations aren’t making the move into mobile. A number of advertising agencies have shown reluctance when it comes to shifting their efforts to mobile devices, and some industries are suffering lost revenue as a result.

The most recent census taken by the Association of Online Publishers found that ad agency attitudes are the biggest factor holding up revenue growth from mobile channels. Despite this, a large majority of publishing organizations said tablets (91 percent) and smartphones (85 percent) will provide the greatest opportunities for revenue growth in the near future. According to Lee Baker, director of the AOP, publishing organizations are going to be implementing some changes in the near future to take advantage of this channel, regardless of ad agency attitudes.

Many of the changes Baker predicts the publishing industry will make can be adapted by other types of organizations. For example, when it comes to producing content, publishers intend to find a content management system (CMS) that allows them to generate content for multiple platforms simultaneously, rather than requiring organizations to manage each channel individually. Any organization that produces a large amount of content, from publishers to healthcare, from insurance groups to financial organizations, can use this same approach to get its message out to users on multiple platforms.

Implementing the right tools can help an organization harness the growing power of mobile channels, increase revenue and expand brand awareness.

As the traditional model of marketing shifts toward digital, there are several approaches car makers can take to make sure their content is targeted to the right audience in a way that generates interest and provides consumers with the information they need.

Creating hype
Digital channels can be used to generate interest in a product before its release in ways traditional print advertisements can't always accomplish. Social media in particular is great for creating buzz, with friends and acquaintances sharing information with each other in an organic, grassroots way.

Recently, the chief marketer for a major U.S. auto manufacturer spoke with Ad Week about his organization's plans for a new marketing campaign, which involves a heavier focus on digital and social media than any other campaign in the company's history. One advantage the channels provide over outlets like TV or print advertising, he said, is that digital and social marketing can be more efficiently directed toward specific audiences. This is important for organizations like auto manufacturers because consumers who are interested in newer model vehicles will receive the new marketing material, while campaigns for older models can continue to reach their target audience. 

Once the target audience was identified, the chief marketer said his organization began engaging with big-name celebrities to spread the word about the new product via Facebook and other social media channels. The social media team was able to craft content for dissemination and engage with roughly 11 million digital users with this technique, he said.

Providing information
Another car manufacturer recently had success with a mobile "showroom" app that allows users to virtually interact with all its offerings, according to Marketing Week. Potential customers can download the app and check out each model on their smartphone or tablet, customizing features, colors and other options however they like. The app then saves this information, which can be accessed later on a tablet computer at the actual showroom.

“The majority of people research online and then visit a showroom – they don’t want to come in and start a whole new discussion, they want to pick up where they left off," said the manufacturer's relationship marketing manager.

Manufacturers that take this approach could combine their application marketing efforts with localization to direct users to the nearest showroom or provide other pertinent information based on their location. For example, organizations could include a prominent link on all pages of an application that directs users to a landing page on their mobile website that contains locations of nearby facilities and contact information. Localization can also provide region-specific information regarding prices, local laws and tax regulations in a variety of languages, if necessary. 

A major online auction website was among the first to experiment with a combination of mobile applications and localization, Marketing Week pointed out. Users could simply take a picture of an automobile and the app would search for similar cars for sale in their area. This approach has been very effective, and could be utilized by manufacturers as well.

As technology evolves, other creative and symbiotic cross-channel marketing methods will no doubt emerge, but it's apparent that already, manufacturers can take advantage of digital and social media to generate interest in a new offering and target their information to a specific group.

This can present a challenge to marketers who are searching for the right platform from which to launch their web- and mobile-based campaigns. With so many options, how is it possible to find the best one?

Evaluation
Speaking with tech blog Digiday, StarcomMediavest's Global Digital Director Julian Zliberbrand said organizations need to evaluate as many advertising tech companies as possible in an objective way. By carefully looking at the pros and cons of each provider, marketers can determine which ones will help them best reach their target audience.

The current ad tech market is fairly chaotic, the Digiday article pointed out, with many firms simply trying to beef up their business in an attempt to get bought out by a bigger company. While the market will eventually weed out these firms, and those whose goal is client service rather than quick profit will make their way to the front of the field, separating the two today can still be a challenge.

Provider metrics
Some of the things Zliberbrand said he looks for when evaluating ad tech providers for his marketing clients include company health, staffing and the services provided, which can include things like data collection and cloud content management software. Recently, a site run by web designer Walter Apai highlighted some additional specifics that those looking for an effective web content management system (CMS) should keep in mind when evaluating potential providers.

Ease of use: It is important that marketers be able to quickly grasp any new solutions they implement, the article said, and they should evaluate how difficult a particular platform will be to use before deciding whether to adopt it. But marketers should not overlook potentially useful features of a CMS in favor of getting basic websites activated in a hurry.

Control: Marketers should choose a CMS that allows members of their organization to easily update websites, but also provides for a certain amount of control over those actions, Apai's site suggested. If website content is being updated by multiple individuals within an organization, for example, it may not be important for all of them to be able to change website formats and structures.

Support: A good CMS provider should not only offer documentation to help users build sites and craft content quickly, it should also provide on-demand support to help in case the documentation doesn't provide enough information to solve every problem that may arise, the article said.

"Inevitably, there will come a time when you need a custom add-on built or something else comes up that is over your knowledge level," Apai's website said. "Someone needs to be there to do it for you or walk you through it."

Taking the time to carefully evaluate ad tech providers and the services they offer will help marketers dial out the noise and find the right solution for their marketing needs.

This is not an effective use of resources, the group said. Rather, organizations should dedicate at least 7 percent of their marketing budgets for mobile campaigns, with an eye toward 10 percent over the next four years. By increasing their mobile marketing budgets, organizations can embark on campaigns that will generate leads and convert potential customers.

Financial revolution
There are a variety of factors involved in determining what percentage of a marketing budget should go toward mobile campaigns. According to Marketing Evolution, organizations in different industries may find they require more or fewer resources to effectively use the channel. For example, while the report indicated that the average organization should spend 7 percent of its marketing budget on mobile, automotive, finance and other similar industries that require greater involvement from consumers should allocate at least 9 percent.

Recent research has indicated that many marketers in the finance vertical have already started taking this to heart. A report issued jointly by comScore and Millennial Media earlier this year showed that finance has overtaken all other verticals – retail, entertainment, telecom, automotive, etc. – when it comes to spending on mobile marketing. Overall, the financial vertical grew by 314 percent between 2010 and 2011, while the total number of finance-related mobile marketing materials grew by 34 percent.

Finance is a broad category, according to the report, encompassing much more than just banks and financial institutions (though those organizations comprised 28 percent of the mobile advertising market in that vertical). Credit card companies, investment brokers, loan issuers and other monetary service organizations have also been expanding their mobile marketing budgets. None of these groups, however, quite match the market share taken up by insurance companies, which made up 42 percent of the finance market for mobile advertising.

Organizations in other industries like healthcare or business services that have similar mobile marketing goals – chiefly lead generation and market presence – can take a cue from finance and allot a larger share of their marketing budgets to mobile.

Cost-effective strategies
While expanding mobile marketing budgets from 1 to 10 percent signifies a 1,000 percent increase in spending on the channel, that is still one-tenth of the overall marketing budget. As such, organizations need to use their resources efficiently to see the best return on investment. Recently, MobileStorm highlighted two of the most cost-effective strategies organizations can use for their mobile campaigns.

Simplicity: The key to effectively using the mobile channel is to keep content simple and direct. A content management system (CMS) can be used to craft marketing material in an easily digestible format, but it also reduces the need for a large support staff. According to MobileStorm, a successful mobile campaign doesn't necessarily require dozens of consultants, strategists and graphic designers.

Specificity: Collecting user data through a CMS can help organizations target specific swaths of the population in their mobile campaigns, rather than sending blanket messages that fall on deaf ears and eat up resources. The CMS can also be used to localize mobile content, tailoring the message to users' needs.

As the use of mobile expands, so too should organizations' mobile marketing budgets, and cost-effective content management strategies can help enterprises make the most of those resources.