content relationships

Measuring Online Brand Value in Content Marketing

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I recently interviewed Andrew Davis of Tipping Point Labs at Starbucks in Cambridge, MA.  Drew is Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder of Tipping Point Labs, a digital content creation shop that helps clients sell products through content marketing strategies.

TPL’s blog was recently rated the #1 blog on Junta42! Drew credits his team who releases new content every day!

I asked Drew why content marketing has become so important and what do we mean by digital content marketing? Drew points out that consumers are looking for more information about products, whether it’s a low engagement product or a high engagement product. Consumers may not start their research at a vendor’s website. So, marketers have to be available to buyers through valuable content that is easily found and is influential. The idea is to create the right kind of content that makes its way down to the consumer.

It’s all about valuable content that builds relationships, influences buying decisions and drives revenue.

The Influence Pyramid

One of TPL’s clients is Breville, an Australian maker of kitchen products including coffee makers. When they entered the U.S. market and they hired TPL they set out to find amateur influencers such as the Coffee Geek, and Single Serve Coffee and Heather Perry. These bloggers write content about coffee every day! They are influencers. In my social media marketing book, I call these people rock stars!

Prosumers – are people who are really engaged, but they don’t write every day as the influencers do. But, they are willing to write reviews at specialty websites such as Amazon.

Consumers – the end buyer in the mass market. They read a lot, but they don’t write. They consume and they are influenced by others who have conducted research or purchased products with something to say.

When you consider the shape of the influence pyramid the numbers at the top are much smaller. It is a finite audience at the top and an infinite audience at the bottom. Traditional advertising in this value chain has tried to sandwich itself in the middle and the bottom through mass advertising. But traditional advertising is no longer trusted. However, the influencer’s recommendation is built on trust and is therefore very valuable and trusted.

Measuring Results

TPL uses Google Insights to measure results. For example, TPL measures the espresso market in the U.S. in the food and beverage category. TPL measures through an online brand value chart to show the growth of online brand value and correlate it to revenue. This method of measurement is a new approach. TPL is hoping it will have long term validity. They also measure the impact of influencers blogging about a product such as Breville.

I asked Drew for a B2B example of successful content marketing. He told me about ORLive, an online community who transmits live surgeries online to provide education to surgeons. It’s educational content to help surgeons learn about new technologies. It’s been a successful content marketing strategy for device manufacturers by educating surgeons.

Any conversation with Andrew Davis is always enlightening and enjoyable. Sitting around the corner from MIT in Cambridge on a sunny August day was the icing on the cake for this podcast interview. I encourage you listen to the entire interview to hear more not covered in this blog post summary.

Drew promises to visit me in Florida during the winter when it’s cold and snowy in New England and warmer and dryer in Florida. You can connect with Drew on Twitter. You’ll be glad you did.

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

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