The digital journey of the family business SCHMACHTL, our customer in the field of industrial trade and services, is entering the next round. We dig a little deeper: Which strategy is the right one? Who in our team fulfills which tasks? And were we able to win the battle against the data monster?
In the first part, we already talked about our initial strategy, the first goals and their implementation. Our companions, the Content Glory Team, were also briefly introduced. How does it continue from here?
"Content Glory has managed to bring out our expert knowledge and turn it into relevant professional articles."
Jules Bernard, Marketing Manager SCHMACHTL GmbH
Content Glory as the tour guide...
Not only Content Production, but also Marketing Automation integrator. Content Glory can play two roles. "It was very important for us to have both: Content and Management of our Inbound Marketing platform. Content Glory was able to do it all – from a single source". However, SCHMACHTL learned at the beginning of our cooperation that the All-in-one-platform alone is not the holy grail of marketing. Several parameters are necessary for a successful implementation: A segmented customer database and relevant content are only two of them.
...with journalism in the backpack
"Content Glory's approach is different from traditional marketing activities. We're not publicists, so the strategy of holding regular editorial meetings and interviews to generate new content was new", says Jules Bernard.
But we have a good reason for this: The editorial meetings are essential when it comes to extracting specialist knowledge and packaging it attractively. Small editorial meetings are held for each business division, during which our editors generate new topics together with the respective experts. In the large editorial meetings, all employees come together to get creative in the joint team. Our creative process is structured as follows:
- Analytics: Which content from last month was particularly well received? What about the opening and click rates of the newsletters?
- Where we are: What is the status of the current articles for the respective month?
- Where we want to be: Where do we want to go: Together we brainstorm which new topics and contents should be published in the next 3 months.
Stations of the journey: The first stopovers
Once the strategic and content approach had been defined, we proceeded to implement it. And that did not take long. Within the coming months, we were able to successfully pass a number of milestones:
- Integration of the SCHMACHTL database into the Inbound Marketing platform
- Launch of the knowledge blog with 40 professional articles (July to November)
- Increased online presence through SEO optimization of articles
- Sending the two monthly newsletters
- First Content Offers for Lead Generation
- Presence on social media channels, such as LinkedIn
Achieving these goals requires stable, digital communication. The Content Calendar is one of these pillars: every Content Piece (article, Content Offer, newsletter) is carefully listed by month. The planning reaches at least 3 months into the future and defines all necessary deadlines. For our editorial process, we work with Trello, a web-based project management software to which our customers always have access and can track the progress of the content at any time: Is the article still in internal review? As a customer, is it already my turn to do the final review of the content?
The editorial duo Ursula and Pia
Without the bright light that is guiding our column, we would probably not be able to make the journey as smoothly. Project Manager Ursula Mitteregger drives the editorial process forward and makes sure that the rest of the team stays on the right track, while Pia takes over the creative Content Production. Their most important characteristics are flexibility and improvisation, when things don't quite go as expected: external interview partners can unexpectedly cancel due to time constraints or publish dates can be tough to handle. We often try to contact external input providers in order to produce new, up-to-date content again and again. So far, the team of project management and editorial staff have been able to avert any dicey situation with new article ideas, which they always have up their sleeve in case of emergencies.
Once a week, our Project Manager Ursula discusses the current status of Content Marketing activities with Jules Bernard, and future developments such as the next steps, Content Offer or the planning of editorial meetings are also on the agenda.
The content review and feedback by SCHMACHTL is essential throughout the entire process and at all meetings. Neither Pia nor Ursula have a background in technology in their curriculum vitae, so understanding can be a challenge with the industrial customer SCHMACHTL. "For me, the area was just a white sheet of paper in the beginning, but now I see a detailed drawing in front of me. In the supposedly dry subject, connections can now be identified that have a strong human factor when viewed more closely." (Ursula Mitteregger)
Content Creator and Manager Pia Saal is present at every editorial meeting and is responsible for all the creative work. Together with our contact persons at SCHMACHTL, she thinks about new topics, which she can present in informative and entertaining blog articles. Even when it comes to designing exciting Content Offers, she takes over the creative direction. It can even be a small video production, if it fits the topic. Altogether, Pia writes two newsletters and five blog articles – each month. By the time a finished article goes online at the end, the text has already moved through various phases:
- Definition of content
- Specifying the input source
- Planning the input date
- Conducting the interview
- Transcribing the conversation
- Writing the article
- Proofreading and image research
- Internal review by the editor-in-chief
- Review by SCHMACHTL
- Publication by our Content Management
So there is a lot of time and effort behind every well-researched Content Piece. "The more time I spend with SCHMACHTL during my work, the deeper I get to know the industry-relevant developments in the branch. Each new article gives me new insights into areas that would have stayed unknown to me," says Pia Saal.
You snooze, you lose
The first projects are realized, we can already celebrate some small achievements. But what no one should ever do, is rest on one’s laurels. "Content Marketing is not a rigid process, but an ongoing one," says René Neubach, managing director of Content Glory. This statement only really gains importance when you encounter the first obstacles during the journey and start to ponder: Is the initial strategy still the right one? When is the right time to change something?
Our monthly meetings, where we discuss the latest analytics, help us make these decisions. Internally, we also discuss with the entire team which little cogs we can turn, in order to make our content even more interesting and relevant for the target group. Due to such considerations, we made a decision together with our client to establish an additional strategy. Our Content Calendar remains unaffected and continues to run in parallel. Starting next year, we will provide relevant content for decision-makers in an even more targeted manner with the help of Account-Based Marketing and sales activities based on marketing content.
Still a long way to go
Together we can look back on an eventful Content Marketing year in which both SCHMACHTL and ourselves learned a lot: Which content is best received by the target group? How do we have to design newsletters in order to further increase the opening rate? In our cooperation, the journey is the destination. We would like to thank SCHMACHTL for the helpful learnings and are looking forward to all of the stages that still await us.
Credit: ©Netzer Johannes/Adobe Stock
