By Izi Singleton | @DigitalLead_Iz
I have been fortunate enough to work at DLA for nearly ten months now and am frequently in awe of the people I get to call my colleagues.
In an effort to get to know them all a bit better; to find out what makes them tick; to get under their worldly and wise skin, I have decided to interview them.
This week, the spotlight is on Peter Springett, our Head of Content. I work closely with Peter and learnt very early on, when it comes to all things content, this is the man you want to speak to.
Enjoy.
IS: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?
PS: I’ve always been fascinated by technology and the media. My misspent youth was spent largely in front of an early home computer programming games, and at the local Odeon cinema. Next stop university where I studied literature. All things considered journalism, marketing and then digital content strategy were natural career progressions. Although I started out writing news, features and general copywriting, today I’m most fascinated by the next wave of technologies, including AI and machine learning, and how these are going to overturn the existing content publishing cycle.
IS: How important is good content to a marketing strategy?
PS: It’s fundamental to success. But define good! Not so long ago catchy headlines and crystal-clear copy were the main measures of quality. Now you must ensure that any content – copy, video, photography, graphics – is optimised for SEO, social media, locality to name just three. Take video. A user generated clip might be perfect for Instagram where authenticity trumps production quality. It’s a different story on your website or YouTube channel where broadcast values are more important. So ‘good’ means understanding how different styles, tones of voice, production qualities operate in a ‘multi-dimensional’ content arena.
IS: Can great content get you leads?
PS: Yes, it can. But you need to be mindful of the customer journey from the ‘broadcast’ to the checkout. You can create the most original campaign, backed up by a suitcase of advertising dollars, but if your message isn’t authentic you can wave goodbye to those conversions. So how do you make the connection? Increasingly you need to disseminate content and message via the social-media influencers that steer opinion in your marketplace. And by the way, there’s a lot more to this than celebrity Instagram endorsements! Building relationships with credible industry experts matters most, but this takes time and you need to work with content and social strategists who already have those connections or can build them quickly.
IS: What are the benefits of being reactive and current when creating content?
PS: It’s the most effective way of building relevance and credibility in what can be a bruising, crowded marketplace. Your content team needs to be supremely well-informed and curious when it comes to current affairs from politics to business to technology. They should be able to respond to breaking news with insightful articles or video that enables you to join conversations and steer the agenda, if you have the authority. That’s one side of the story. You also need to support them with a basic ‘newsroom’ production environment so that they can interview in-house experts and publish videos and podcasts as well as blogs rapidly enough to match the current news cycle.
IS: What would you say are the top 3 things to consider when implementing a content marketing strategy?
PS: Aside from the earlier points about quality, you need someone who understands fully the digital marketing landscape and how everything from social, web and SEO underpins successful content. Good communication is also essential. You’ll need total commitment from the people who own these activities and getting their buy-in is paramount. Finally, you must be efficient. How do you squeeze every last drop of value out of high-value assets such as white papers and broadcast videos? Are you poised to take advantage of artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the reach and engagement of your content?
IS: What would you personally consider to be success?
PS: Analytics matters. Can I measure the ROI of my content in a way that is genuinely of value to the business? Does my content convert customers? I’m a geek at heart so the tools that enable to me to analyse, measure and report are key to the way that I work. That said, the human touch is important too! Content must always provoke a reaction whether it’s a smile, laughter, an opposing point of view. When you see people engage with content on a human level, that really lifts the spirits. I’m also a keen coach and mentor and enjoy seeing people produce great content and engage on social with confidence – whether it’s the newest member of a marketing team, or a senior exec.
IS: What would you personally consider to be failure?
PS: It’s the other side of the above! If I can’t measure and learn from the performance of content than the exercise has failed. The same goes if I can’t convince other people of the importance of content to the marketing team and the business at large.
IS: If you could invite 5 people to dinner, dead or alive, who would they be and what would you talk about?
PS: There are so many permutations when answering this question! But considering what’s on my mind right now, I’d take people who contributed to the evolution of computing throughout the centuries so that we can talk about what surprised us in the past and what we hope for the future. Aristotle, Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, Alan Turing, your invites are in the post. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, you’re all in as long you can share the last seat. That should add to the entertainment value.
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