Tom Kennedy, director-marketing communications, Republic Financial Corp.

“Our most effective content marketing initiative has been the creation of customer case studies and then making them available on the Web. In fact, this strategy has been so successful—resulting in high-quality leads and subsequent sales in distinct vertical markets for an enterprise software company—that we are now focused on converting those written case studies into video items. Under the notion that most people would prefer to watch and listen to their industry peers instead of reading about them, we are going back to many of the same customers and transitioning to video interviews. Furthermore, we are recommending that our other operating company C-level execs consider the same investment. The good news is that each operating company has customers who are eager to talk about their business and how it has been positively impacted by a particular product.”

Janet Roberts, CMO, Syniverse Technologies

“Syniverse works at the center of the mobile ecosystem, bridging the space between mobile operators, cable operators, ISPs, application providers, enterprises and more, so it's no surprise when I tell you our mobile-enabled Web outreach is our most effective marketing initiative. In 2011, we launched our website with innovative HTML5, digital content, video and advanced SEO tagging and analytics to continually measure and optimize our presence online. Our analytics show that videos are the most popular content on our website, and that viewers spend more time on pages that contain video. In addition, feedback from our audiences tells us that video is an optimal tool to convey solutions to complex problems. As a result, we constantly update and add video content to offer a rich experience for visitors, and we've taken the same approach on our employee intranet as well. Ongoing content optimization based on measurement is critical as our business evolves in new global markets as well as to include the growing number of new entrants to the mobile ecosystem.”

Jonathan Becher, CMO, SAP

“For many organizations, content marketing initiatives encourage marketers to generate more content. More content generated through more channels to reach more eyeballs. Quantity over quality. Under the mantra "less is more,' we're delivering a personalized Web experience through the Your SAP.com section of our flagship website. This nurturing approach allows visitors to identify key areas of interest across the entire universe of SAP solutions, industries, LoBs [lines of business], services, etc., so that SAP.com can be personalized to their individual needs. Using our knowledge of the visitor, we can also personalize our outreach, engage them in an ongoing dialogue and nurture the relationship. The results thus far have been staggering: a 350% increase in click-through rates. We're building a more relevant, personalized customer experience that generates leads automatically, drives better opportunities to sales and accelerates deal close.”