Marketing campaigns<\/span><\/a> make sense. At their core, campaigns define the terms and scope of marketing activities. They’re researched, planned, and executed<\/strong> within a time frame, with set costs and performance expectations. What’s not to like?<\/span><\/p>\n “Content marketing is <\/span>not<\/strong> campaign marketing”<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Robert Rose, of the<\/span> Content Marketing Institute<\/span><\/a>, in<\/span> this ANA video<\/span><\/a>, explains that “…successful content marketing is not supercharged campaign marketing,” and reduces his statement to “content marketing is <\/span>not campaign marketing<\/span><\/i>.”<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The folks at the Content Marketing Institute aren’t the only ones saying this. You’ll find dozens of similar mentions on Twitter and in the blogosphere.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n So… what’s wrong with campaigns? Why are content marketers opposed to campaigns? What do we do about it? To answer these questions, let’s first define the terms. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A marketing campaign is a coordinated, organized effort executed within a set time frame, usually targeting one business goal. Content marketing campaigns include both the creation and promotion of content.<\/span><\/p>\n A campaign plan often includes multiple distribution channels – blog, email, and social media are three of the most commonly used.<\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes campaigns include one piece of content that’s atomized and distributed, and sometimes campaigns include a series of content around a particular theme.<\/span><\/p>\n Campaigns make for compelling business cases because they typically serve one goal, they’re easy to measure, they include defined costs, scope and timeline, and there is a definite end date. The CFO isn’t going to lose their mind because they’ve agreed to a “marketing cost-center” that will spend cash and resources indefinitely.<\/span><\/p>\n Campaigns are often used because something <\/span>has to be promoted<\/span><\/i> to a target audience. The thing has already been made and it needs eyes on it. One common campaign “theme” centers around content that’s created to promote a new product. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Performance involves short-term measurement around a pre-defined goal. Measuring content marketing campaigns is actually quite simple. You can measure traffic (sessions and page views), engagement (social shares, comments, bounce rate, time on page) and conversion (subscribers, downloads, contact-form submissions), within a set time frame. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Campaigns Measure the Performance of Content For These Metrics:<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n While marketers usually have full visibility into any and all of these metrics, their campaigns typically serve one of the three major goals – traffic, engagement, or conversion. <\/span><\/p>\n Content Marketing campaigns are easy to get approved because they serve brands’ needs for distributing messages, they play within the confines of existing business frameworks, and they’re easy to quantify with concrete metrics. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A content marketing program is an ongoing effort to attract, educate and\/or entertain an audience. A program is “always on,” there’s no end date. They’re about developing relationships with the people in a market, over the long haul. They may have business goals, even short term ones, but programs have brand-building aspirations. <\/span><\/p>\n Programs can serv <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Because programs are built to produce ongoing traffic, leads, and sales, the “shout” methods of distribution, like PR, outreach, ad buying and heavy syndication often take a back seat to organic audience growth. Organic traffic, from search engines, is a major distribution channel for many content marketing programs.<\/span><\/p>\n The promise of a successful program is a large cumulative business effect over the long term. If the content you produce has lasting value, then every piece builds on the one before it. Unlike with ads, “evergreen content” can continue to rank, to be found through internal search and internal navigation, and can be continually promoted and shared through social media. So when you’ve published 20 articles, videos and whitepapers, you may have some decent traffic and lead volume, and when you’ve published 200, you may have altered the awareness, perception and sales of your business, forever.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n That’s what makes content marketing unusually compelling in the digital marketing world. That’s what successful programs do.<\/span><\/p>\n Programs are tracked in the short term using the same types of metrics that campaigns are tracked with. They aim to drive inbound and organic results for the business in the medium term, and they aspire to build the brand and its connection with its customers over the long term. Often, companies use data points from NPS surveys, and widen the lens to measure performance across major traffic sources over the long-term. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"Robert](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/image08.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Twitter\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/image06.png\")
<\/p>\nContent Marketing Campaigns vs. Programs<\/span><\/h2>\n
What Is A Content Marketing Campaign<\/strong>?<\/span><\/h3>\n
Why Are Campaigns Used In Content Marketing?<\/span><\/h3>\n
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What Is A Content Marketing Program<\/strong>?<\/span><\/h3>\n
\ne multiple business goals, driving results across the entire marketing funnel. Whereas a campaign usually serves one master (often sign-ups, downloads or leads) programs are usually built to drive results that impact the entire funnel.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"program](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/image00-1.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"20](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/image04.png\")
<\/p>\nWhat’s Wrong With Campaigns?<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"Why](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/image09.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Buy](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/image01.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Pareto](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/image02-1.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Long](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/image05-1.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Customer](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/image10.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"bumpy](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/image03.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Smooth](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/image11.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Integrated](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/image07.png\")
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