Technology is disrupting the way businesses communicate and interact with customers. Consider this: each day 1,400 new blog articles are post, 277K Tweets are shared and 204M emails are sent. In this crowded digital landscape, companies must find innovative ways to strike the delicate balance of communicating their message and creating content that resonates with their audience. As the speed of content creation continues to increase, how can modern day content marketers keep up with the pace of content and rise above the noise? Topics covered include: - Defining your content structure and creating a content strategy that wins - How innovative companies are leveraging distributed teams to keep pace with rising content demands - 7 best practices for creating results-driven content About the presenter: Rich Pearson leads the marketing and categories teams at Upwork. Prior to joining Upwork, he led marketing and business development at Posterous through its acquisition by Twitter, and previously held senior marketing positions at Yahoo!, Attributor, Homestead, Segasoft, and Del Monte Foods.

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Marketing at the Speed
of Content
How to keep pace in a content-driven world
Rich Pearson · SVP, Marketing & Categories · @pearsonisms

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Winning by changing the rules
2

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Content marketing has
reached a tipping point
3

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Because content marketing works!
4
60%
Of people are inspired
to seek out content
after reading content
about it
Of B2B buyers
increasingly rely on
content for purchasing
decisions
Content marketing
produces 3x more
leads per dollar than
paid search marketing
~70% 3X

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Content is being created at record speed
5
● Email users send 204,000,000 messages
● Blog writers post 1400 new blog posts
● Facebook users share 2,460,000 pieces of content
● Twitter users tweet 277,000 times
● WhatsApp users share 347,222 photos
● Instagram users post 216,000 new photos
● Vine users share 8,333 videos
● Pinterest users pin 3,472 images
● Youtube users upload 72 hours of new video
Every minute...

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But only 42% say it’s effective
6
Why is that?

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How can a marketer keep
up with the pace of
content?
7

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Create your strategic content plan
8
WHO CONTENT DECISION MAKING PURPOSE OF
CONTENT
END GOAL
● Manager or
executive
● Operates
based on
needs of the
corporation
● White paper
● Case study
● Thought leadership
article
● Long-form article
● Blog
● Direct response
● Longer sales
cycle
● More layers
for approval
before the final
sale is reached
● Builds brand
identity
● Establishes
trust, value
● Drives leads
● Client or
consumer
● Operates
based on
needs of the
individual
● Promotional
● Entertaining
● Engaging
● Direct response
● Social media
● Faster sales
cycle
● Usually sole
decision maker
● Sparks
emotion
● Builds
awareness
● Increases
trust
● Aims to
entertain
● Increase
sales and
engagement
B2BB2C

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Define your content structure
9
CONTENT
HUB
B2C
Email
SEO
e-books
How-to’s

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Creating great content takes great people
10
Unfortunately, great people are hard to find...
320% More marketers report trouble finding content
marketing professionals over last year

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Marketing skills on the rise
11
● Print design — 99%
● Content writing — 43%
● Lead generation — 36%
● Graphic design — 35%
● B2B marketing — 22%

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CostSpeed
Quality
PICK TWO
The dilemma we all face

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Job openings unfilled after three months
Build your own team...in 4+ months

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You could hire an agency...

15. By 2020, nearly half of the U.S. workforce will be freelancing
The Freelance talent pool is exploding
53M
Freelancers
in the U.S. now

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Tracy G.
Content
Strategist
Danila V.
Content Manager
Druv A.
Content
Producer
Firmo S.
Writer
Leverage a distributed content team

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Amy
Belleville, Ontario
Carey
Richmond, VA
Brenda
Sparks, NV
Peter
Slovakia
Blake
Los Angeles
Stanislav
Kiev, Ukraine
Upwork’s own distributed content team

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The Situation:
A global e-commerce marketplace had a major initiative to boost SEO traffic to their site. To create
the content, the marketing team had to source dozens of writers across a wide range of categories
and topics—and engage them quickly to meet their ambitious goals.
The Solution:
Their content marketing team source a team of more than 30 writers to develop in-depth and well-
researched, long form content for the site.
Results:
Developed more than 10,000 articles | 300 articles per quarter
7 days to source more than 30 writers
Scaled content created by 5x with freelance writers
18
In just 7 days, I was able to source a team of more than
30 writers to develop long-form content for our site.
Content writers: high quality content at scale

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The Situation:
Global CPG firm was spending over $8MM for an annual program where each division needed to
produce a rich media video.
The Solution:
Formed a team of video production specialists from around the globe with careful consideration
to time to results, quality, and cost savings.
Results:
Delivered equal or better quality on results
Cost of $800k (10% of baseline cost)
70%+ savings and 50% reduction in cycle time on 90 videos
Turnaround time decreased dramatically
19
It’s amazing, not only did we save money, but the platform’s
freelancers raised the bar on the actual quality of the videos as well.
Video Production: Delivering quality at the right cost

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Copywriters
Designers
Photographers
Video
Popular Skills
Avg. Hourly Rates
(Avg & Top 1%)
Articles & Blogs
eBook Writing
Graphic Design
Infographics
Illustrations
Web & Print Design
Social Media
SEO Writing
Digital Photography
Photo Retouching
Image Editing
Adobe Photoshop
Videography
Video Editing
$16 | $88
$13 | $64
$12 | $42
$11 | $62
Audio $23 | $76
Voice Talent
Audio Production
Voice Over
Video Production
Who is available online?

21. 1 Just get started. You’ll lose months waiting for the perfect plan.
2 Map your content to each stage of your funnel.
3 Be prolific (within reason) and see where you get traction.
4 It takes 60 days to build your content marketing muscle.
5 Once you hit ~100 posts, spend 30% of your time optimizing old posts.
6 Don’t measure your content marketing team solely on conversion.
7 Your tip here . . .
7 Content Marketing Tips

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Thanks!
Ask me anything
Rich Pearson · SVP, Marketing & Categories · @pearsonisms