Towards the end of last year, I had the distinct pleasure of talking with Joe Chernov, the Director of Content from Eloqua. I have been impressed with what they are doing in terms of content marketing, and Joe gave me the inside scoop for a case study that I wrote for CMI (seriously – check it out – great ideas!).
While I had so many takeaways from Joe, one of my favorites was a story he told about two of his most popular pieces of content: The Content Grid and the Social Media Playbook.
Did you know that these two pieces of very well-received content both started off as internal documents?
The Content Grid
The Content Grid was actually Joe’s job description, which he developed when he made the case for content marketing. Joe was trying to explain what the Director of Content Marketing would do. His boss, Brian Kardon (CMO) was on board with the idea, but he needed more specifics to take the concept from theory to reality.
As Joe explains, “I couldn’t write the job description, but I could draw it.” The resulting sketch eventually became the Eloqua/JESS3 “infographic,” dubbed The Content Grid. “The act of describing the job became the actual execution of the job,” says Joe. And, it also became one of Eloqua’s most popular pieces of content – it’s been retweeted over 1,200 times and has been included in numerous blog posts, presentations and more.
The Social Media Playbook
Similarly, the Social Media Playbook was the giveaway they provided when they trained employees how to use social media. As Joe describes, it’s a fun and charming piece that was so well-received that they decided to open-source it and share it with the world.
Like the Content Grid, the Social Media Playbook has been shared extensively.
Just brilliant.
Do you have anything that you drew on the back of a napkin or something else that captured the attention of your employees? You may have just found something that you can use as part of your content marketing efforts.
Want to get more insights from Eloqua? Download our case study. Seriously – I’m using lots of ideas from Joe for CMI in the coming year. I’m sure you will get some ideas as well!
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