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After The Beachhead

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After The Beachhead

Expanding Percolate’s Content Marketing Strategy

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Over the past three years, Percolate has developed an
incredible end-to-end technology web platform for
content marketing with several integrated mobile
applications. With seventy major brand+markets onboard
and more joining every month, the company has
established a strong foothold in the enterprise market.

Percolate is now working to develop a more robust

marketing strategy as it deepens its enterprise customer
base while expanding to the mid market. Becoming a
content powerhouse will be a top priority.
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Becoming a Content Marketing Leader
As a content marketing technology platform, I believe Percolate needs
deliver a world-class content marketing performance of its own.

This work-in-progress proposal contains my recommendations for

content marketing efforts that would build Percolate brand, attract new
customers and fans, and help the sales team close deals.

• Phase 1: Deepen the Funnel

Drip Email Campaigns, White Papers, Retargeting

• Phase 2: Invest in Premium

Overhaul Blog, Video Demos + Training

• Phase 3: Take Over the World

Conferences, Content Ecosystem

About this Report

This report was created by Jason Shen in February of 2014, based on a
few hours of discussion with the Percolate team and external research.

Note: It was necessary to make a number of assumptions about the

company’s goals and internal metrics, and these recommendations
should be considered “best guess estimates” by an outsider on how
Percolate should direct its marketing efforts.

Refining the report: Before pushing ahead on any of these

recommendations, I would want to spend at least two weeks diving
through the existing data: reading notes from numerous sales calls we
won and lost, talking to the sales team and if possible, clients and end
users directly. Reviewing the data on the blog and all our guest posts, as
well as user behavior directly on the site. My focus would be on
understanding where clients are at and where they want to be.

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PHASE 1 After The Beachhead
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Deepen the Funnel

The first priority of Marketing is to

help Sales find and close more
customers at a faster rate. The
company blog contains a treasure
trove of great content that with a
few tweaks could reach a greater
audience and provide sales with both
customer insights and “hotter”
prospects for shorter sales cycles.

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White Papers
The current call to action on the Percolate site is to
request a demo. Most prospects, especially those new to
content marketing technology, need a less intense way to
engage with Percolate. They need to be educated on the
problem, made to feel the pain that our technology
provides.

While Percolate has developed a number of white papers

on “The State of Content Marketing” or “Marketing for
the Super Bowl”, they are not easily accessible and they
could be more targeted.

How to Implement
Percolate should be creating a suite of white papers and aggressively
pushing them to website visitors for free download (in exchange for an
email address). We should create a variety of white papers that appeal to
different demographics (CEO vs CMO vs CM) and range from high level to
tactical. Each white paper will be tailored to focus on that demographic’s
concerns and needs.

We can take a mix of the most popular existing Percolate blog content,
existing best practices and new research / original writing to produce
these white papers.

Table 1: Examples of possible white paper topics

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Strategic Tactical

CEO The Content Marketing Why You Need a Chief Content

Revolution Officer and How to Hire One

CMO How To Transform Your Marketing Amplified: How Five Brands

Department into a Content Transformed Their Content
Generating Machine Strategy With Technology

CM Community Starts with Content: 57 Content Ideas for Building

How Brand and User Generated Authentic Communities
Content Are Merging

The MVP
The fastest way to get started is to use Optimizely and run a traffic test
with 25% of traffic seeing a “Get Expert Research” alongside a “Request a
Demo” button like the screen below. Run the test until we’ve had at least
100 clicks of the button and evaluate against the “Demo Only” Scenario.

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Success Metrics
With some tweaks, we should expect to see something like a ~4x increase
in downloads over demo requests.

Button Click: estimated 2x the CTR of the Request Demo Button

Report Download: estimated 2x the Conversion Rate of the Demo

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Drip Email Campaigns
Once we set up a strong push for report downloads, we
want to them maximize their impact. Currently, post
report download, there appears to be no email followup.
This is a lost opportunity to build a relationship with the
prospect that can result in deeper insights into customer
mindset and warm a prospect up for a demo and a sale.

How to Implement
First, I would recommend making the report available to download
immediately after prospect gives their email. Email verification isn’t
important enough to burden prospects with a delay in getting the
requested material. Offer instant gratification.

Once a report is downloaded, we filter clients into one of three

categories: CEO, CMO, or CM.

An automatic 3 week campaign would be set up with 2 emails per week

on relevant topics from Percolate, ranging from case studies to industry
trends to tactics. We’d focus on the most popular / relevant articles
already posted on the Percolate blog. The email includes several
sentences about the article as a teaser but then drives people to click
through to the article.

If the prospect does click through, follow up an hour later with an

automated email from one of the co-founders that encourages the
prospect to set up a demo (or explain why they’re not ready)

Table 2: Structure of Drip + Customized Email Campaign

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Prospect Percolate

Initial Trigger Inputs email address in “Get Saves address, provides a custom-tracked
Expert Research” button landing page with report for immediate
download

First follow-up If they download the report Send email from cofounder thanking them for
(1 hour later) download, provide download link again, let them
know they’ll get a few emails over next few
weeks with relevant content

If they DO NOT download the Send email from cofounder checking in to see if
report they missed report, emphasize value in report,
mention future emails with relevant content

Drip Emails (2x (Automatic) Short email that triggers curiosity and drives
a week) prospect to click through from blog post to email.
Easy “reply back” if they want to schedule a
demo

Strong interest If prospect opens 3 unique emails Send custom email “noticing” their interest and
followup in drip campaign (of 6) or clicks doing a stronger sell on Percolate, really
through on at least 2 emails pushing people to request a demo.

MVP
One day after any report is downloaded, send an automated email from
one of the co-founders asking if the prospect is interested in a demo, and
requesting personal feedback on their thoughts about Percolate.

Success Metrics
Open Rate: Email from founder should see something like a 50% higher
open rate over the original email sent to prospects after requesting a
white paper

Demo Requests: Uptick in number of demo requests over baseline - a

best guess: 25% increase.

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Retargeting
The final piece of Phase 1 is about growing the funnel.
Retargeting has shown to be one of the cost-effective
forms of advertising because you are bringing back
people who are already familiar with the Percolate brand
and have demonstrated interested in the product.
With a little set up, we can even structure different
campaigns for people who are casual browsers vs deeply
interested prospects. This will drive more people to
download white papers and experience the drip email
campaign, ultimately leading to more demo requests and
purchases.
Hubspot retargeting me on one my favorite webcomics and on Facebook

How to Implement
Install a tracking code from a service like Perfect Audience or Adroll.
Create different campaigns for different viewing behavior. People who

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read the blog or briefly click around the site should see retargeted ads
encouraging them to get a white paper. People who spend a significant
amount of time on the site, particularly on the tour and client pages
should see retargeted ads encouraging them to request a demo. Have ads
hit Facebook sidebar, Newsfeed and Open Web Display Ads; double down
on what converts best.

The MVP
Create just one retargeting list, start with FB sidebar ads, run something
generic just as a starting point. Get a baseline of CTR and likelihood to
request a demo and/or download a White Paper.

Success Metrics
Click Rates: Well executed FB retargeting campaigns reach 1% CTR and
often can exceed that

Higher Conversion: Of those who come back to the site, we should

expect to see ~20-30% higher rates of conversion (either PDF download
or demo request)

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PHASE 2

Invest in Premium
With a more optimized conversion
funnel, Marketing can turn its eyes
to longer-term investments to build
audience and reinforce a premium
brand. It starts with turning the
Percolate blog into a highly
respected publication. Reinforcing
this expert content with high quality
video and training resources will
enhance the company’s position as a
trusted partner and resource.

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Blog Overhaul into a Publication
The Percolate Blog is filled with fascinating ideas
ranging from industry analysis, to company culture, to
design practices, to case studies, to product
announcements. But this diversity in content means it
has a diffuse impact, particularly for driving sales.
To dominate the marketplace, Percolate must seek
greater recognition in the content marketing world as a
pioneer and source of expert content. To do that, we
must separate the “company news and updates” content
from the “research, case studies, thought pieces” and
make the latter it’s own thing, with editors, contributing
writers and more.

How to Implement
Create a named entity that lives at http://PublicationName.percolate.com
and populate it with all the content marketing focused articles already on
the Percolate blog.

Prepare a pipeline of content targeted at different demographics (the

CEO/CMO/CM roles discussed earlier) with a range from strategic to
tactical advice. Hire some freelance writers to support this pipeline.

Recruit several industry experts to produce unique articles for the new
publication. Don’t pay them but offer to invest heavily in social
advertising to promote the content across the web.

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Invest in one or two major flagship pieces of content that are not PDF
reports, but long, valuable blog posts that are freely available.

Use the launch of the publication to get covered by industry publications

like AdAge and Digiday.

The MVP
The Percolate Blog is already the MVP here. Our learnings from the white
papers will help inform the direction for the publication. Building
relationships with industry experts in advance and getting their feedback
on this concept would be valuable.

Success Metrics
Unique Visitors - we should expect over time to see a significant amount
of traffic coming from this asset. For an idea of what’s possible, Buffer,
the social sharing service, with a small team of writers, reached 650k
uniques and 1M pgviews in January 2014 on it’s blog.

Time on Site - beyond just visitors, we should also expect people to

spend significantly more time on the site.

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Video Walkthrough of Product
There’s no question. Producing high quality video is
difficult and expensive. And that’s precisely why it’s a
piece of high ground that Percolate can seize. While a
salesperson can only make so many calls a day, videos
can work day and night to educate, persuade and impress
potential customers and industry observers that
Percolate’s product is the greatest in the marketing.
Additionally, the data produced from the video playback
will provide valuable insight for sales, marketing, and
product teams.

How to Implement
The interactive demo built by the sales team can be turned into a series
of 6-8 videos each of 4 or 5 minutes in length. The demo script put
together first, with visuals recorded separately from narrative and put

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together in post-production. A clips of the cofounders talking about their
vision for the product would add to the perceived value of the product.

By splitting the videos up, product changes won’t require recording an

entirely new video. Each video can end with a natural call-to-action
(“Want to learn more? Request a demo”) and even include subtle hints in
the video itself.

If video continues to prove itself a good investment, a educational video

series similar to Moz’s Whiteboard Fridays and Wistia’s Learning Center
would make sense as next steps and continue to underscore Percolate’s
position as a “top shelf” technology platform.

In the long run, a suite of video training resources, some pre-recorded,

others conducted live, would a pull dynamic that would bring brands back
for more and more as they continue to find value in Percolate offerings.

The MVP
Record just ONE 4-5 minute video that touches on the very basics of what
Percolate has to offer, with a call to action for requesting a demo. Put it
on the tour page and direct 25% of traffic there and watch the results for
several weeks.

Success Metrics
Time on Site: As videos take longer to watch than scrolling through a
tour, we should see an uptick in time on site from launching our videos.
Longer time on site = more trust and deeper engagement.

Demo Requests: If we can product high quality video that people

actually watch, demo requests would inevitably increase by a significant
margin.

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PHASE 3

Take Over the World

In the long-term, Percolate has an
opportunity to become the
marketing platform used by
organizations of all sizes and
sectors. But to become the standard,
we need even more ambitious ways
of reaching our audience.

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Conferences
Ultimately, there is nothing more powerful than the in
person experience. It takes a lot of time, money, and
human-power to deliver a great conference, and yet it
will really establish Percolate as a leader - for brands, for
agencies, for mid market customers and for industry
observers.
(Just for fun)

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Content Ecosystems
In the high tech marketing classic Crossing the Chasm,
Geoffery Moore talks about the differences between the
product you offer visionaries and early adopters, and the
early majority and pragmatists. The latter want to know
that you’re the market leader (conferences help with
that) and also that there’s an entire ecosystem of
products and services revolving around the product.
“They like a product such as Microsoft because there are
not only books in every bookstore about how to use it but
also seminars for training, office hot-line support, and a
whole cadre of temporary office workers already trained on
the product.” - Geoffery Moore.
Percolate eventually will become a platform for 3rd-party
app developers, consultants, support services to emerge.
The company will offer certification, similar to how
Google certifies Analytics, Adwords and AdSense
partners. This is how an 800 lb Gorilla marks its territory.

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Jason Shen builds and grows
technology products that help
people accomplish amazing things.

Talk about exceeding expectations! A great class (thank

you, Jason!), well organized, well presented, with very
actionable things you can do to make your blog
interesting and followable. I highly recommend this
class, and Jason as a teacher.
Maureen Ladley (Student)

I’ve Read Your Blog: How to Create Compelling Content for the Web -
a Skillshare class

Jason's workshop on blog writing was one of the most

productive we have ever held. He packed an startling
amount of practical advice (and humor) into two hours,
and his advice reflected extensive preparation and
understanding of our business and our audience.
Paul R. Constance (Client)

Chief, Communications Management Division at Inter-American

Development Bank

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