A conversation with Laleh Hassibi, Senior Manager of Content Marketing at PayScale, Inc.
It was true in 1996, and is still true today: content is king. However, the idea has matured into a complex game of who, what, where and why causing marketers and advertisers to develop top-notch strategies to optimize their content.
While some marketers are just beginning to roll up their sleeves and dive into strategy development, others have got it down pat. Laleh Hassibi, Senior Manager of Content Marketing at PayScale, Inc, is one of those people, so we asked her to share best strategies and real life examples with us.
Know who you’re talking to
PayScale provides an immediate and precise snapshot of current marketing salaries to employees and employers through its online tools and software.
“We have an interesting audience because on one hand we are dealing with many customers who are used to traditional methods of acquiring data, so everything we do is educational and becomes a long nurturing process. Our second audience type is tech-savvy business people who can make decisions much faster,” explains Laleh.
Laleh develops value add content around those two audience personas, understanding what type of content is important to them. She explains two types of content her team focuses on: value-add content and entertaining content. Both of which are used to get through to people and build relationships that evolve into business relationships.
“We found that doing something engaging like an ebook has worked great with certain audiences. However classic white papers and research reports are still attractive to our more traditional audience.”
Measure everything and analyze constantly
PayScale conducts in-depth tests to ensure they get the best response possible for all their social marketing campaigns. This is often overlooked in content marketing. Laleh explains how her team uses systems like Marketo and Google Analytics to track progress.
“The primary KPI we look at for any given piece of content is downloads and therefore, leads. We also look at opportunities and closed deals that came in from each piece of content to get a total picture of its success,” explains Laleh.
Laleh went on to discuss another element she considers: the average deal size from different content sources. For example, she looks at data from past content pieces and looks at the number of downloads/leads it produces. These types of metrics are important to help guide decisions about what resources to focus on in the content mix.
Laleh’s years of experience have given her the insight to understand what it takes to create a successful content strategy.
Interested in learning more about using social media as a lead generation tool? Join industry leaders like Laleh Hassibi, LinkedIn ,Full Circle and NetProspex on October 10 at the Columbia Tower Club in Seattle to discover additional social marketing secrets. You can expect to mingle with innovators, listen to 20-minute tracks packed with education content focusing on social lead gen and optimizing ROI and of course plenty of opportunities to network with B2B marketing’s finest. Find out what’s possible for your organization. Request and invitation today!
Stay tuned for more blog posts from the FastTrack speakers who will be presenting at the event!
