Christopher Earle: Content Marketing Lessons from Netflix: 5 Steps for Feeding the Content Beast From David Bruno

Friday, 19 February 2016

Content Marketing Lessons from Netflix: 5 Steps for Feeding the Content Beast From David Bruno

content-marketing-lessons-netflix

With more than 25 years of experience on the front lines of creative campaign development in content marketing, David Bruno knows that, “content marketing” has been around for a long time, in one form or another.

During his Content2Conversion session, “Feeding the Content Beast” this past Wednesday, he artfully explained how content marketers can apply lessons from Netflix to their marketing efforts.

Is Netflix “Content Marketing?”

Let’s back up. Many marketers wouldn’t consider Netflix a tale of content marketing success. Content marketing, they would argue, is meant to produce leads – and business results. Netflix is entertainment, not content marketing. Or, so the logic goes.

David argued (and I agree), that Netflix is a content marketing powerhouse. They mine user data, produce original content for a clearly-defined audience, and definitely drive profitable customer action. Consider the relationship between original content production, subscriber growth, and most importantly company profit:

Subscribers have gone from 20 million in 2011 to 75 in late 2015, significantly outpacing Hulu an Amazon (below):

Company revenue, on the other hand, has spiked more dramatically, starting in 2011 (below):

So, why have profits spiked, while subscriber growth has been steady? Two words: original content. In 2011, Netflix released their hit series House of Cards, effectively changing their business model forever. According to the latest reports, they plan to produce more than 600 hours of original content, yet this year.

Embrace the Binge Mentality

Before you run off and pitch your wild infotainment concepts for your B2B clients, let’s examine how you can apply the Netflix model to your content marketing in a scalable fashion.

As early as 2013, a McKinsey report announced we had entered an age of on-demand marketing. Your customers now want instant answers, delivered in their preferred channel. Take a cue from Netflix – they pioneered the “anytime, anywhere, any device” mentality in streaming services. What if your B2B content marketing did the same? Do you know when, where and how your customers want information? Find out, and use this data to your advantage.

Be Data-oriented, Not Media-driven

Netflix is known for mining data. But data doesn’t present instant answers. It’s what you do with the data that matters so much.

Media companies follow big numbers. They want eyeballs, scale, massive adoption. But data-driven organizations understand that influencing behavior takes more than showing interesting content to massive audiences.

Take another cue from Netflix and tap into your passion communities. Netflix is famous for producing shows for niche communities that then explode. Take Hemlock Grove, Arrested Development, Weeds, and all of those niche documentaries I can’t stop watching as examples. All of these Netflix originals arose from someone mining their user data. With each niche offering, they’ve secured a new community of dedicated fans.

Often times, these passionate customers might be a blip on your radar, or a tiny segment in your Google analytics dashboard. Use advanced analytics segments to identify these customers, and create custom content that answers their questions. Even if they are a small group of your users – this will pay off big time.

Do B2B Customers want More Content?

Yes. According to a recent study from Pardot, 76% of B2B buyers prefer different content at each stage of their research process. There’s no way around it. It’s time to feed the content beast.

Image courtesy of Marketo

Without further delay, here’s a 5-step process for feeding the content beast and applying the lessons learned from Netflix’s content marketing. Apply these 5 steps to your B2B content development process to ensure your customers are getting the content they need:

#1 – Give the people what they want (not what we want them to want)

Too often, we assume we know what our B2B audience wants. Dig into the data. Find your passionate customers, and give them what they want.

#2 – Embrace creative thinking

B2B doesn’t have to be boring. Talk to your customers. Find out what sports, shows, and interests they have. Use those cues in your content development. We’re all human beings after all.

#3 – Obsess over quality (rate your content)

This is a hallmark of top publishers. The highest quality content is what gets surfaced to the top of search engine rankings. And it’s what users want. Obsess over quality!

#4 – Publish or Perish

If you don’t get your message out there, your competitors will. Produce content regularly. Find out where your audience is, and own it!

#5 – Hire a managing editor

All too often, content marketers try to do it all on their own. Find someone who can keep you accountable. Managing editors help in the following ways:

Keep you on message
Keep you on deadline
Manage the content calendar for you
Understand what the program goals are

We all stand to learn a great deal from the success of Netflix. B2B content marketers have a long way to go in order to close the gap. The good news is, utilizing some of the tips above will get you there faster than you ever expected.

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