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When it comes to brand publishing, there's probably no better example to look at than a digital marketing agency, those who actually advise brands themselves on how to launch a media.
Today, Intuiti is a lot more than this. They're now not only a marketing agency, but also a media in and of themselves, under the name Decriiipt. Publishing content in a variety of formats, holding events, sending out a weekly newsletter… The success of this media is clear. The best bit? It directly benefits the overarching Intuiti business in a whole host of ways.
Which is why I recently spoke to Quentin Franque, Head of Marketing and Communications at Intuiti, to discover how the experts in digital marketing turned to publishing to bring more business to their brand.
Before Decriiipt
Like most online businesses, Intuiti ran a content marketing strategy through their on-site blog, sharing articles, white papers and webinars with the goal of moving users through the funnel towards purchasing.
It was actually after the success of one of these formats, a short, very focussed newsletter, that led them to brand publishing.
We'd just launched our first newsletter – a very short, succinct content. It was our first attempt, a proof of concept. On the one hand, we knew that the idea of sharing very concrete advice and solutions in a newsletter was a good one. But, on the other hand, we realized that this wasn't enough. To go even further, we needed to develop a variety of formats that would suit a wider audience – unfolding a problem in longer content, analyzing a strategy, sharing insider insights into a specific job, a specific company… it needed (and had the potential) to be so much more than just a newsletter.”
Quentin Franque
A deep-dive into Decriipt's brand publishing strategy
A light, airy user experience that brings the focus straight to the content itself – no distractions, you're here to read.
Lead generation is carefully integrated into the homepage without interrupting the user experience, encouraging readers to “stay connected” by signing up for the newsletter.
Sent every other Thursday at 9am, Decriiipt aims to form a habit, increasing frequency of visits and quantity of content consumption.
A short form to reduce friction, a clear value proposition to encourage conversion and the whole sign up process without leaving the page.
Today, Decriiipt has an average newsletter open rate of 40%:
- They understand what audiences want and need thanks to continuous data collection, tests and analysis
- The team is always keeping an eye on the industry, being signed up to a wide variety of newsletters (free and paid), continuously crawling Medium, Linkedin, TikTok, Google…
- Deep analysis that goes into great detail without making the content long or hard to digest
- Each week, we contact 30 newsletter registrants to hear about what they think of our content
- Each week, we contact those who no longer open our newsletter (this allows us to understand who receives the email in their spam folder or find users who simply changed jobs/email address)
UX formats designed to increase engagement, including the “Top 6 most read”, appealing to our natural human desire to fit-in and be part of a wider shared conversation.
Article collections (“dossiers” or folders), facilitate high volumes of content consumption, especially for those looking to deep dive into a specific topic.
A variety of content formats engage audiences in different ways, including written articles, webinars, in-person events and podcasts.
Podcasts, for instance, not only invite guests to share their expertise, but also include podcast series that bring listeners back the following week for the next episode. We're encouraged to sign up to the Decriiipt newsletter in order to receive each episode in our inbox.
The value of brand publishing
Of course, as a digital marketing specialist, the team knew this move to brand publishing would prove beneficial for business. But, as Quentin started listing this value, he didn't seem to stop… “pft, what value didn't we gain!”
- Giving credibility to Intuitii's expertise: showcasing intuitiii's understanding of the market not only through content but also through the entire transition of content marketing on Intuiti to brand publishing on Decriiipt
- Showcase Intuiti's methodology and digital marketing skills: content provides a teaser of the potential work that Intuiti can do with a client, and in a way that isn't sales-focussed
- Differentiate the brand from competitors: there's a huge number of digital marketing agencies for brands to pick from, but what better company to work with than one who's successfully applying their own strategies to increase business value?
- Develop a culture of analytics internally at Intuiti: set Decriiipt content as a standard for employees to follow, both in their ongoing understanding/monitoring of the industry and in their work with clients
- Support recruitment efforts: positioning the group as a leading expert in the digital marketing field makes job offers more highly sought after and encourages people with more industry experience to apply
- Collect leads for potential customers to intuiti: Quentin shared that roughly half of Intuiti leads come from Decriiipt, which has led to the overall number of leads tripling and the customer acquisition cost (CAC) dividing by 5
- Visibility for their service of supporting brands to move into publishing: Decriiipt in and of itself proves Intuiti's consultancy expertise, showcasing the potential outcome for prospective clients. Quentin mentioned how some brands even got in touch to ask who they worked with to build the media, not knowing Intuiti was behind it…
- Additional content and expertise to share with clients, supporting retention efforts
- Improve SEO performance: thanks to Decriiipt's content, the group is now positioned on double the number of keywords than the brand website, Intuiti, proving invaluable for audience acquisition
Given all these benefits of brand publishing for Intuiti, I was curious as to what Quentin considered as the north star metric to measure success.
Interestingly, reader feedback.
Both quantitative, in that they aim for 5 positive comments per month, and qualitative in the sense that someone in the team gets in contact with people in the reader community to ask their opinion. The latter takes time, but can prove hugely valuable to every section of the business.
One clear proof of this positive reader feedback is the success of Decriiipt's events, particularly Audio Days, a podcast event focussing on user experience and marketing strategies with 1651 participants and over 12,000 podcast listeners in February 2022. Producing content is one thing for brand publishers, but organizing an event with this kind of attendance is truly a great measure of success.
What shouldn't you do when moving to brand publishing?
- Don't get stuck in a single content format: once you find something that works, it's easy to stick in what you think is a safe zone. However, it's through innovating and developing your strategy that you'll increase and continue to engage audiences
- Don't abandon ideas too quickly: give them a chance! If you lose motivation or think it's not going to work, get others from the team involved, brainstorm and run tests to better understand your audience's reaction to this idea
- Don't lose the sense of being a media: topics, strategy and content may well change and develop over time, but don't lose the sense of being a media. It should be a core focus from day one
A final piece of advice from Quentin on turning to publishing as a brand:
“If you're launching your own media, you'll know all too well that the quality of content and attention given to diffusion are essential for success. But the key is to not keep what you're doing to yourself – share results, successful strategies, user feedback… and not just with your colleague but with the whole team, company shareholders and even to readers themselves. Share everything, all the time, to everyone.”
Quentin Franque
