How to Build Your Own Content Marketing Hub<\/strong><\/h2>\nMany people confuse content with content marketing. But content is not content marketing<\/a>.\u00a0Content is everywhere.\u00a0Content marketing, on the other hand, is about building and attracting an audience to the branded content destination you own to help you better reach, engage and convert new customers for your brand.<\/p>\nA successful\u00a0content hub is one that your target audience will want go to regularly for information, insights and\u00a0solutions to their toughest challenges and problems.<\/p>\n
Once you\u2019ve built your content destination, you can use social media to help distribute and amplify your content to drive more customers to your brand-owned\u00a0platform.<\/p>\n
So how do you go about building your\u00a0content marketing hub? Here are 5 tips to help you get started:<\/p>\n
1. Craft Your Content Marketing Mission Statement<\/strong><\/p>\nWho is your target audience? What content topics are they most interested in? What value can you provide to your customers, knowing their needs, pain points, interests and business challenges?<\/p>\n
You need to put your customers at the center when determining your content marketing mission statement<\/a>, while making sure that it also supports your overall brand mission. This step is crucial as your content marketing mission statement is the foundation of your content marketing efforts.<\/p>\n2. Determine How Branded Your Content Destination Will Be<\/strong><\/p>\nWill your content marketing hub be a part of your brand\u2019s domain, like Adobe\u2019s CMO.com or will it be on a completely unbranded site, like GE\u2019s Txchnologist<\/a>?<\/p>\nFor an on-domain destination, you will want to make sure that your creative direction supports your corporate brand to some\u00a0extent, so that the content experience is not completely off-brand and is consistent with other touch points and interactions with your brand.<\/p>\n
For an off-domain destination, you have a bit more creative freedom, but ultimately it\u00a0should support with establishing your content marketing hub as the go-to destination for your given topic and industry.<\/p>\n
3. Think Like A Publisher<\/strong><\/p>\nWhen you act as a publisher, it means creating and publishing the content your audience wants, but it also means so much more than that.<\/p>\n
On any publisher site, you will find that they typically cover a variety of topics, with content coming from different authors. Publishers also make it easy for their readers to find the content they want to read, such as adding clear categories to show the topics their content destination covers.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll also include a clear call-to-action or offer for your readers, and\u00a0provide a way for them to reach your brand directly. And don\u2019t forget to include social-sharing options to make it easy for your readers to help promote your content.<\/p>\n
A great publisher is always thinking about growing their owned audience on their branded platform. Subscriptions are excellent indicators of your reach, engagement and conversion, as well as tracking\u00a0what content resonates with your audience. So make sure you always include calls to subscribe to your updates, and use this data to help optimize your content marketing efforts.<\/p>\n
4. Publish Regularly And Consistently<\/strong><\/p>\nReaders visit and return to a publisher site for a reason. They know there is new content published regularly on the\u00a0topics they\u2019re interested in. So establish\u00a0a regular content cadence and commit to maintaining\u00a0it.<\/p>\n
When starting out, try publishing at least once a week. If you\u2019re covering two topics, you\u2019ll want to publish at least twice\u00a0a week. If you have the resources, I would even suggest publishing new content every day on the topics that will help drive\u00a0the right audience to your content marketing hub.<\/p>\n
5. Determine How You Measure Success<\/strong><\/p>\nYou can\u2019t improve what you don\u2019t measure. But one of the biggest challenges content marketers face is determining what to measure since there are so many metrics you can track.<\/p>\n
My advice is to start small. Start measuring metrics like the number of new and returning visitors, page views, social shares, comments, average time spent on site, subscribers, and submission forms, or asset downloads if you offer ebooks and whitepapers, for example.<\/p>\n
By tracking these areas, you can more effectively measure and optimize your content marketing efforts and demonstrate your ROI.<\/p>\n
The Pros of Building a Content Hub on Your Website<\/h2>\n
There are major advantages to creating a content hub on your website. It\u2019s easier, more streamlined and it\u2019s connected to your products or services.<\/p>\n
SEO<\/strong><\/p>\nThis advantage works both ways. The dynamic appeal of your hub\u2019s media mix will boost your website\u2019s SEO<\/a>. At the same time, you won\u2019t have to start from the ground up to generate traffic and optimize a separate site for your content hub because your website\u2019s users can stay on your site to explore the hub.<\/p>\nLower resource commitment<\/strong><\/p>\nWith limited resources, it\u2019s a lot easier to build upon the website you already have than to create a standalone hub, promote it, optimize it, and make it into its own worthwhile online hot spot for your audience. This makes building onsite appealing to smaller businesses who don\u2019t have the resources to create and cultivate a separate online entity.<\/p>\n
Streamlined analytics<\/strong><\/p>\nYour content hub will give you a lot of analytics as it tracks the way users interact with your hub\u2019s content. When it\u2019s an extension of your corporate website, this data can be streamlined with your other website data, giving you a clearer picture of your audience instead of having to differentiate between the two different sources of content data \u2013 and possibly, different buyer segments (unless that’s exactly what you are going for).<\/p>\n
On-site hubs elevate the overall website, making it a greater source of value for your buyers and a more attractive destination. With smaller companies or if your hub is clearly aligned with the ideas, value propositions, and has the same SEO and target market you\u2019re appealing to (and learning about through analytics), building your hub as just one more destination on your website makes a lot of sense.<\/p>\n
REI\u2019s content hub\u00a0is an excellent example of a successful onsite hub.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/reis-content-hub.png\")
<\/figure>\nWhen visitors click on the tab for REI\u2019s CO-OP Journal, they stumble into a sea of well-organized content. The hub is user-friendly as it\u2019s divided into multiple topics and subtopics \u2013 activities, gear, how-to\u2019s, and local content. REI clearly positions themselves with their hub as an ultimate source of outdoor enthusiasts and adventurers. But it also uses the space to connect visitors with branded content that really drives home the REI story, which they may not have originally sought out, like their content surrounding sustainability and social responsibility and REI\u2019s unique series \u2013 Take It From Me and Wild Ideas Worth Living.<\/p>\n
REI\u2019s content hub has enough complexity to deserve a microsite. But why take your audience to a different site when your products are a click away from inspiring content?<\/p>\n
The Pros of Building a Standalone Content Hub<\/h2>\n
As practical as building your content hub on your site is, there are situations where it makes more sense to create a standalone content hub.<\/p>\n
When your big company is also slow to adapt<\/strong><\/p>\nDepending on your organizational structure, keeping your hub separate may be a smarter strategy. For example, in larger companies where there is a lot of red tape to make anything happen to the website, it may be wiser to let the content marketing team work at its pace to build an unfettered content hub.<\/p>\n
When your hub itself is too big<\/strong><\/p>\nOne of the reasons to build a hub for your content in the first place is it improve the customer experience. Hub visitors can quickly access the information they want and can see, at a glance, related content they may be interested in. If your hub is loaded with different types of content, combined with different landing pages to pick up subscribers, event registrants, webinar sign-ups, podcast followers, and more, then your hub may need a home of its own. This allows you to create a better user experience and to better control the way visitors interact with your content.<\/p>\n
To differentiate sales and content<\/strong><\/p>\nWhen your content hub is all about establishing industry authority, it can be smart to make a standalone hub. This allows you to keep the sales pitch a mile away from the thought leadership articles, content created by your employees, curated content, and other content that is focused more on the message than the actual company.<\/p>\n
To reach a new or specific audience<\/strong><\/p>\nA separate microsite gives your content marketing the ability to take off in a new and exciting direction because it\u2019s somewhat removed from the brand\u2019s online corporate base. This also makes it a smart move if you want your hub to cater to a specific buyer segment.<\/p>\n
The Hartford Financial Services has a dedicated content hub for targeting small business owners.\u00a0SmallBiz<\/a>\u00a0is packed with helpful articles on topics small business owners and entrepreneurs would be interested in, as well as a SmallBiz podcast.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/hartford.png\")
<\/figure>\nThis how having a separate content resource center makes more sense. It appeals directly to a certain segment, creating a better experience for these viewers. This also makes it easier to generate leads as the entire hub directs viewers to one primary action \u2013 to sign up as a subscriber.<\/p>\n
The Content Hub Location Checklist<\/h2>\n
When deciding where to build your content hub, you can use this checklist summarizing TriComB2B’s Chris Eifert’s advice to help narrow down what online space makes more sense for your brand and your content marketing strategy.<\/p>\n
If your goal is\u2026<\/p>\n
\n- SEO, then using your corporate website is better<\/li>\n
- Objectivity and authenticity, then a stand-alone hub is better<\/li>\n
- To quickly create a site and you don\u2019t have time for website bureaucracy, go for standalone<\/li>\n
- The best user experience, then standalone is usually better, although a great user experience can work on the corporate website<\/li>\n
- Lead generation, then standalone is usually more effective<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Add to this list, these factors:<\/p>\n
\n- Limited resources or small market presence, business website wins<\/li>\n
- Planning on creating one or more hubs for different segments, opt for standalone.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Social Media Is Not Your Content Marketing Destination<\/h2>\n
According to the \u201cSocial Media Marketing Survey\u201d from Clutch, 78% of enterprises surveyed say social media is the most important tactic for marketing success compared to other marketing strategies.<\/p>\n
With shorter attention spans and changing consumer media consumption habits, many brands are realizing video\u2019s effectiveness in engaging, educating and entertaining consumers. In fact, according to the Clutch survey, 23% of enterprises reported that video content outperforms images, offers and promotions, articles and infographics on social media.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s the key takeaway for marketers here? Should you focus all your marketing efforts and resources on social media then? Will social media content will help you generate the most leads and revenue?<\/p>\n
My perspective is that this is all wrong. Brands need to first develop their own digital content platforms, then look at social as a means of distribution.<\/p>\n
Every day, brands are producing new content, everything from marketing content to sales, product, event and campaign content. It\u2019s not enough to just create and share quality content anymore. If every marketer out there is pumping out valuable, relevant content just like you, how do you know if your target customers will actually engage with your content and not your competitors\u2019 content?<\/p>\n
The lifespan of social content is also extremely short. According to Spredfast\u2019s in-depth analysis<\/a>, the average median engagement of a tweet is around 30 minutes, and less than an hour for an Instagram post before they die.<\/p>\nAnother study<\/a> found that the half-life \u2013 which is the amount of time it takes to get half of your average engagement \u2013 of a Facebook post is about 3 hours. Keep in mind that your content won\u2019t organically show up in the news feed of all your fans. With the constant changes to news and stream algorithms, you\u2019re looking at less than 5% of your fans.<\/p>\nWhat these stats tell us is that marketers can\u2019t rely solely on social media for their content marketing success. Social media is only a component of your overall marketing strategy, so it can\u2019t be the only thing you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n
And instead of trying to buy an audience on someone else\u2019s platform, you want to build your own content destination to attract your target audience to this brand-owned platform.<\/p>\n
What Is Your Favorite Content Marketing Hub?<\/h2>\n
One of the best way to show a business the importance of content marketing is to show them all the great examples of companies who are already doing it right.<\/p>\n
I like to lead my own content marketing proposals with a few statements. Like these:<\/p>\n
\n- Imagine you own the website for the generic category searches your customers use like\u00a0L’Oreal’s Makeup.com<\/a><\/li>\n
- Imagine you own the digital destination for your target persona like\u00a0Adobe’s CMO.com<\/a><\/li>\n
- Imagine your content marketing hub is the largest source of leads for your business like American Express Business Trends<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I think it often helps businesses, who might need\u00a0that little push<\/a>\u00a0into content marketing, to see what others are doing.<\/p>\nIt starts with an understanding that marketing is not about selling, but about the conversation we have with our customers. It continues with investing in a brand-owned content marketing hub<\/strong>, because the difference between just content<\/em> and content marketing<\/em> is the destination<\/a>.<\/p>\nUsing this\u00a0intent-based marketing<\/a> and the proof that\u00a0emotion beats promotion<\/a> by more than two to one, any brand can become an amazing example of content marketing.<\/p>\nThis list came from my constant desire to learn from others, to recognize those who are creating great content, to inspire those who are looking to build their own content marketing program\u00a0and to help you see what approaches other companies are taking,<\/p>\n
You will see a mix of B2B and Consumer brands. You will see a mix of on-domain and off-domain content hubs. You will see examples from companies large and small. You will see examples of brands that include some direct conversions and some that are only looking to build awareness.<\/p>\n
Business \/ Technology Content Hubs<\/h3>\n\n- Adobe CMO.com<\/a>\u00a0one of the earliest and best examples of lightly branded, off domain content hubs<\/li>\n
- American Express Business Trends<\/a>: “Insights, Inspirations and Connections To Grow Your Business” -1 of the earliest and most-cited example of content marketing<\/li>\n
- Departures<\/a> from American Express for their Platinum card members, run by Time Inc.<\/li>\n
- Deluxe Small Business Revolution<\/li>\n
- GE Reports<\/a><\/li>\n
- GE Txchnologist<\/a><\/li>\n
- Wistia Video Library<\/a><\/li>\n
- BufferApp Blog<\/a><\/li>\n
- Hubspot<\/a>\u00a0Blog “Your Daily Dose of Inbound” segmented by Marketing, Sales and Agency personas<\/li>\n
- Salesforce<\/a>\u00a0Blog<\/li>\n
- Moz<\/a> Blog “Helping you level up your SEO and online marketing skills”<\/li>\n
- LinkedIn’s Marketing Solutions Blog<\/a><\/li>\n
- AT&T’s BusinessCircle<\/a>\u00a0“Where business owners share tech answers that matter”<\/li>\n
- CapGemini Blogs<\/a><\/li>\n
- HP Enterprise Community Blog<\/a> and TechBeacon<\/a><\/li>\n
- OpenView Venture Partners’\u00a0Labs<\/a>\u00a0another early example of content marketing for a small business<\/li>\n
- Shutterstock Blog<\/a><\/li>\n
- Google’s Think With Google<\/a><\/li>\n
- SAS<\/a> Blog<\/li>\n
- Sprint’s Future of Business<\/a>\u00a0one of the winners of last year’s\u00a0Content Marketing World awards<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Retail and Fashion Content Hubs<\/h3>\n\n- L’Oreal’s Makeup.com<\/a>\u00a0great example of a consumer brand “owning” the category<\/li>\n
- The Birchbox Magazine<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Men\u2019s Guide<\/li>\n
- Williams-Sonoma Taste<\/a>\u00a0beautifully designed site<\/li>\n
- Harry’s Five O’Clock<\/a><\/li>\n
- Warby Parker<\/a>\u00a0Blog<\/li>\n
- Nasty Gal’s Nasty Galaxy<\/a><\/li>\n
- LVMH’s Nowness<\/a><\/li>\n
- West Elm’s Front + Main<\/a><\/li>\n
- Tory Burch’s Tory Daily<\/a>\u00a0I like how this site humanizes the Tory brand<\/li>\n
- The Etsy Blog<\/a><\/li>\n
- Michael Kors Destination Kors<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Consumer Brand Content Hubs<\/h3>\n\n- Red Bull\u2019s Red Bulletin<\/a>\u00a0a brand fully committed to acting like a publisher<\/li>\n
- GoPro Video Channel<\/a>\u00a0great example of user-generated content<\/li>\n
- P&G Everyday<\/a>\u00a0is another site that has been around almost from the beginning of modern content marketing<\/li>\n
- Zillow Porchlight<\/a>: “Always on. Guiding you home.” This site is so popular, they are selling ads<\/li>\n
- Whole Food’s Whole Story<\/a><\/li>\n
- Coke’s Coca-Cola Journey<\/a>\u00a0“Refreshing the world. One story at a time.”<\/li>\n
- Electronic Art’s EA News Blog<\/a><\/li>\n
- Microsoft’s Stories<\/li>\n
- The Adidas Group Game Plan A<\/a> “Personal insights into our business in sports.”<\/li>\n
- Equinox Q Blog<\/a><\/li>\n
- Uber’s Newsroom<\/a><\/li>\n
- Rosetta Stone LinguaVore<\/a>\u00a0“A blog about learning language.”<\/li>\n
- National Association of Realtor’s House Logic<\/a><\/li>\n
- Honest.com’s Honestly Blog<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Financial Services\u00a0Content Hubs<\/h3>\n\n- Betterment’s Resource Center<\/a>\u00a0“Information to help you lead a smarter financial life”<\/li>\n
- The Hartford SmallBizAhead<\/a><\/li>\n
- TD Ameritrade Tickertape<\/a>\u00a0“Pearls and insights for investors.”<\/li>\n
- Fidelity MyMoney<\/a>\u00a0“Get in better financial shape today.”<\/li>\n
- Bank of America BetterMoneyHabits<\/a><\/li>\n
- First Round Capital Review<\/a><\/li>\n
- Mint Life Blog<\/a><\/li>\n
- Acorn’s new site Grow<\/a>\u00a0is looking awesome and one of my newest favorites in design<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Healthcare\u00a0Content Hubs<\/h3>\n\n- Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials<\/a>\u00a0is one of the best examples on this list<\/li>\n
- One Medical Blog<\/a>: “You have one life. Make it count.”<\/li>\n
- Excedrin.com<\/a><\/li>\n
- Mayo Clinic’s Sharing<\/a>\u00a0offers personal stories of real people overcoming disease<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Travel\u00a0Content Hubs<\/h3>\n\n- AirBnB City Guides<\/a><\/li>\n
- Four Season’s Magazine<\/a><\/li>\n
- Marriott’s Meetings Imagined<\/a> and Travel Brilliantly<\/a><\/li>\n
- WestJet Magazine<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Other Industry\u00a0Content Hubs<\/h3>\n\n- Blackboard Blog<\/a>\u00a0(Education)<\/li>\n
- WorldVision Blog<\/a>\u00a0(Non-Profit) “Building a better world for children.”<\/li>\n
- US Government White House Blog\u00a0(Government)<\/li>\n
- British Gas The Source<\/a> and Business<\/a> Blogs (Energy)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Make Your Content Hub Strategic<\/h2>\n
When you have a solid\u00a0content marketing strategy, your content hub is what can bring it all together for your audience. It also creates a central platform for sharing the strategy \u2013 inviting hub visitors to more than a blog post or a video but the whole pie, all in one, convenient location. It gives you more space to get your brand story clearly across than a single piece of content, and more opportunity to show your buyers just how useful your content \u2013 and by extension, your brand \u2013 can be in their lives.<\/p>\n
A successful\u00a0content hub is one that your target audience will want go to regularly for information, insights and\u00a0solutions to their toughest challenges and problems.<\/p>\n
Once you\u2019ve built your content destination, you can use social media to help distribute and amplify your content to drive more customers to your brand-owned\u00a0platform.<\/p>\n
So how do you go about building your\u00a0content marketing hub? Here are 5 tips to help you get started:<\/p>\n
1. Craft Your Content Marketing Mission Statement<\/strong><\/p>\n Who is your target audience? What content topics are they most interested in? What value can you provide to your customers, knowing their needs, pain points, interests and business challenges?<\/p>\n You need to put your customers at the center when determining your content marketing mission statement<\/a>, while making sure that it also supports your overall brand mission. This step is crucial as your content marketing mission statement is the foundation of your content marketing efforts.<\/p>\n 2. Determine How Branded Your Content Destination Will Be<\/strong><\/p>\n Will your content marketing hub be a part of your brand\u2019s domain, like Adobe\u2019s CMO.com or will it be on a completely unbranded site, like GE\u2019s Txchnologist<\/a>?<\/p>\n For an on-domain destination, you will want to make sure that your creative direction supports your corporate brand to some\u00a0extent, so that the content experience is not completely off-brand and is consistent with other touch points and interactions with your brand.<\/p>\n For an off-domain destination, you have a bit more creative freedom, but ultimately it\u00a0should support with establishing your content marketing hub as the go-to destination for your given topic and industry.<\/p>\n 3. Think Like A Publisher<\/strong><\/p>\n When you act as a publisher, it means creating and publishing the content your audience wants, but it also means so much more than that.<\/p>\n On any publisher site, you will find that they typically cover a variety of topics, with content coming from different authors. Publishers also make it easy for their readers to find the content they want to read, such as adding clear categories to show the topics their content destination covers.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll also include a clear call-to-action or offer for your readers, and\u00a0provide a way for them to reach your brand directly. And don\u2019t forget to include social-sharing options to make it easy for your readers to help promote your content.<\/p>\n A great publisher is always thinking about growing their owned audience on their branded platform. Subscriptions are excellent indicators of your reach, engagement and conversion, as well as tracking\u00a0what content resonates with your audience. So make sure you always include calls to subscribe to your updates, and use this data to help optimize your content marketing efforts.<\/p>\n 4. Publish Regularly And Consistently<\/strong><\/p>\n Readers visit and return to a publisher site for a reason. They know there is new content published regularly on the\u00a0topics they\u2019re interested in. So establish\u00a0a regular content cadence and commit to maintaining\u00a0it.<\/p>\n When starting out, try publishing at least once a week. If you\u2019re covering two topics, you\u2019ll want to publish at least twice\u00a0a week. If you have the resources, I would even suggest publishing new content every day on the topics that will help drive\u00a0the right audience to your content marketing hub.<\/p>\n 5. Determine How You Measure Success<\/strong><\/p>\n You can\u2019t improve what you don\u2019t measure. But one of the biggest challenges content marketers face is determining what to measure since there are so many metrics you can track.<\/p>\n My advice is to start small. Start measuring metrics like the number of new and returning visitors, page views, social shares, comments, average time spent on site, subscribers, and submission forms, or asset downloads if you offer ebooks and whitepapers, for example.<\/p>\n By tracking these areas, you can more effectively measure and optimize your content marketing efforts and demonstrate your ROI.<\/p>\n There are major advantages to creating a content hub on your website. It\u2019s easier, more streamlined and it\u2019s connected to your products or services.<\/p>\n SEO<\/strong><\/p>\n This advantage works both ways. The dynamic appeal of your hub\u2019s media mix will boost your website\u2019s SEO<\/a>. At the same time, you won\u2019t have to start from the ground up to generate traffic and optimize a separate site for your content hub because your website\u2019s users can stay on your site to explore the hub.<\/p>\n Lower resource commitment<\/strong><\/p>\n With limited resources, it\u2019s a lot easier to build upon the website you already have than to create a standalone hub, promote it, optimize it, and make it into its own worthwhile online hot spot for your audience. This makes building onsite appealing to smaller businesses who don\u2019t have the resources to create and cultivate a separate online entity.<\/p>\n Streamlined analytics<\/strong><\/p>\n Your content hub will give you a lot of analytics as it tracks the way users interact with your hub\u2019s content. When it\u2019s an extension of your corporate website, this data can be streamlined with your other website data, giving you a clearer picture of your audience instead of having to differentiate between the two different sources of content data \u2013 and possibly, different buyer segments (unless that’s exactly what you are going for).<\/p>\n On-site hubs elevate the overall website, making it a greater source of value for your buyers and a more attractive destination. With smaller companies or if your hub is clearly aligned with the ideas, value propositions, and has the same SEO and target market you\u2019re appealing to (and learning about through analytics), building your hub as just one more destination on your website makes a lot of sense.<\/p>\n REI\u2019s content hub\u00a0is an excellent example of a successful onsite hub.<\/p>\n When visitors click on the tab for REI\u2019s CO-OP Journal, they stumble into a sea of well-organized content. The hub is user-friendly as it\u2019s divided into multiple topics and subtopics \u2013 activities, gear, how-to\u2019s, and local content. REI clearly positions themselves with their hub as an ultimate source of outdoor enthusiasts and adventurers. But it also uses the space to connect visitors with branded content that really drives home the REI story, which they may not have originally sought out, like their content surrounding sustainability and social responsibility and REI\u2019s unique series \u2013 Take It From Me and Wild Ideas Worth Living.<\/p>\n REI\u2019s content hub has enough complexity to deserve a microsite. But why take your audience to a different site when your products are a click away from inspiring content?<\/p>\n As practical as building your content hub on your site is, there are situations where it makes more sense to create a standalone content hub.<\/p>\n When your big company is also slow to adapt<\/strong><\/p>\n Depending on your organizational structure, keeping your hub separate may be a smarter strategy. For example, in larger companies where there is a lot of red tape to make anything happen to the website, it may be wiser to let the content marketing team work at its pace to build an unfettered content hub.<\/p>\n When your hub itself is too big<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the reasons to build a hub for your content in the first place is it improve the customer experience. Hub visitors can quickly access the information they want and can see, at a glance, related content they may be interested in. If your hub is loaded with different types of content, combined with different landing pages to pick up subscribers, event registrants, webinar sign-ups, podcast followers, and more, then your hub may need a home of its own. This allows you to create a better user experience and to better control the way visitors interact with your content.<\/p>\n To differentiate sales and content<\/strong><\/p>\n When your content hub is all about establishing industry authority, it can be smart to make a standalone hub. This allows you to keep the sales pitch a mile away from the thought leadership articles, content created by your employees, curated content, and other content that is focused more on the message than the actual company.<\/p>\n To reach a new or specific audience<\/strong><\/p>\n A separate microsite gives your content marketing the ability to take off in a new and exciting direction because it\u2019s somewhat removed from the brand\u2019s online corporate base. This also makes it a smart move if you want your hub to cater to a specific buyer segment.<\/p>\n The Hartford Financial Services has a dedicated content hub for targeting small business owners.\u00a0SmallBiz<\/a>\u00a0is packed with helpful articles on topics small business owners and entrepreneurs would be interested in, as well as a SmallBiz podcast.<\/p>\n This how having a separate content resource center makes more sense. It appeals directly to a certain segment, creating a better experience for these viewers. This also makes it easier to generate leads as the entire hub directs viewers to one primary action \u2013 to sign up as a subscriber.<\/p>\n When deciding where to build your content hub, you can use this checklist summarizing TriComB2B’s Chris Eifert’s advice to help narrow down what online space makes more sense for your brand and your content marketing strategy.<\/p>\n If your goal is\u2026<\/p>\n Add to this list, these factors:<\/p>\n According to the \u201cSocial Media Marketing Survey\u201d from Clutch, 78% of enterprises surveyed say social media is the most important tactic for marketing success compared to other marketing strategies.<\/p>\n With shorter attention spans and changing consumer media consumption habits, many brands are realizing video\u2019s effectiveness in engaging, educating and entertaining consumers. In fact, according to the Clutch survey, 23% of enterprises reported that video content outperforms images, offers and promotions, articles and infographics on social media.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s the key takeaway for marketers here? Should you focus all your marketing efforts and resources on social media then? Will social media content will help you generate the most leads and revenue?<\/p>\n My perspective is that this is all wrong. Brands need to first develop their own digital content platforms, then look at social as a means of distribution.<\/p>\n Every day, brands are producing new content, everything from marketing content to sales, product, event and campaign content. It\u2019s not enough to just create and share quality content anymore. If every marketer out there is pumping out valuable, relevant content just like you, how do you know if your target customers will actually engage with your content and not your competitors\u2019 content?<\/p>\n The lifespan of social content is also extremely short. According to Spredfast\u2019s in-depth analysis<\/a>, the average median engagement of a tweet is around 30 minutes, and less than an hour for an Instagram post before they die.<\/p>\n Another study<\/a> found that the half-life \u2013 which is the amount of time it takes to get half of your average engagement \u2013 of a Facebook post is about 3 hours. Keep in mind that your content won\u2019t organically show up in the news feed of all your fans. With the constant changes to news and stream algorithms, you\u2019re looking at less than 5% of your fans.<\/p>\n What these stats tell us is that marketers can\u2019t rely solely on social media for their content marketing success. Social media is only a component of your overall marketing strategy, so it can\u2019t be the only thing you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n And instead of trying to buy an audience on someone else\u2019s platform, you want to build your own content destination to attract your target audience to this brand-owned platform.<\/p>\n One of the best way to show a business the importance of content marketing is to show them all the great examples of companies who are already doing it right.<\/p>\n I like to lead my own content marketing proposals with a few statements. Like these:<\/p>\n I think it often helps businesses, who might need\u00a0that little push<\/a>\u00a0into content marketing, to see what others are doing.<\/p>\n It starts with an understanding that marketing is not about selling, but about the conversation we have with our customers. It continues with investing in a brand-owned content marketing hub<\/strong>, because the difference between just content<\/em> and content marketing<\/em> is the destination<\/a>.<\/p>\n Using this\u00a0intent-based marketing<\/a> and the proof that\u00a0emotion beats promotion<\/a> by more than two to one, any brand can become an amazing example of content marketing.<\/p>\n This list came from my constant desire to learn from others, to recognize those who are creating great content, to inspire those who are looking to build their own content marketing program\u00a0and to help you see what approaches other companies are taking,<\/p>\n You will see a mix of B2B and Consumer brands. You will see a mix of on-domain and off-domain content hubs. You will see examples from companies large and small. You will see examples of brands that include some direct conversions and some that are only looking to build awareness.<\/p>\n When you have a solid\u00a0content marketing strategy, your content hub is what can bring it all together for your audience. It also creates a central platform for sharing the strategy \u2013 inviting hub visitors to more than a blog post or a video but the whole pie, all in one, convenient location. It gives you more space to get your brand story clearly across than a single piece of content, and more opportunity to show your buyers just how useful your content \u2013 and by extension, your brand \u2013 can be in their lives.<\/p>\nThe Pros of Building a Content Hub on Your Website<\/h2>\n
<\/figure>\nThe Pros of Building a Standalone Content Hub<\/h2>\n
<\/figure>\nThe Content Hub Location Checklist<\/h2>\n
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Social Media Is Not Your Content Marketing Destination<\/h2>\n
What Is Your Favorite Content Marketing Hub?<\/h2>\n
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Business \/ Technology Content Hubs<\/h3>\n
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Retail and Fashion Content Hubs<\/h3>\n
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Consumer Brand Content Hubs<\/h3>\n
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Financial Services\u00a0Content Hubs<\/h3>\n
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Healthcare\u00a0Content Hubs<\/h3>\n
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Travel\u00a0Content Hubs<\/h3>\n
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Other Industry\u00a0Content Hubs<\/h3>\n
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Make Your Content Hub Strategic<\/h2>\n