This is episode #2 of Season 2 for The B2B Marketing Leaders Podcast. Today we talk with Tom Treanor. Tom is the Director of Content Marketing and Social Media at Wrike. Wrike (https://www.wrike.com/?utm_source=Triblio&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_campaign=B2Bmarketing) is an online project management software that competes against products like Slack, Asana, and HipChat, it's even been called the "The Anti-Slack" by Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/sites/benkepes/2015/05/06/with-new-series-b-wrike-aims-to-be-the-anti-slack-or-box/).

Wrike was founded in 2007 and has been growing steadily and acquiring clients like Paypal, Salesforce, Adobe, MTV and even celebrities like Redfoo (https://www.wrike.com/blog/wrike-it-down-with-redfoo/) (from LMFAO), they now have 8,000 organizations using its paid product. On May 6, 2015 Wrike's CEO, Andrew Filev announced (https://www.wrike.com/blog/wrike-raises-15m-series-b-funding/) that they raised $15 million in Series B funding from investors Scale Venture Partners and DCM Ventures.

(http://theb2bpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/wrike-logo-300x106.png)
Prior to Wrike, Tom Treanor was the Head of Digital Marketing at the Meltwater Group, ran his own marketing agency, and has worked at HP as well as at PwC Consulting. He has been featured on Copyblogger (http://www.copyblogger.com/author/tomtreanor/), Social Media Today and several other industry sites. You can find him writing today on the Wrike blog (https://www.wrike.com/blog/?utm_source=Triblio&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_campaign=B2Bmarketing).

How important is content?

Content is extremely important and is the fuel that you need today to get the word out about your company. Aim to be helpful by providing guides and useful content. Tom believes that content is a principal way of building trust with the prospective buyer.

How do you manage your content marketing team?

Tom manages a small team of content marketers at Wrike. Having team members and a leader with great project management skills is essential for modern marketing. Content marketing involves many multi step processes and people. You need to be organized and know who's getting what done? when are the deadlines? What are the goals? and so much much.

Tom recommends the following management tips:

* Set Goals Quarterly - Decide what are the big pieces of content that you'll be producing, who you'll be targeting? What marketing experiments are you going to run?
* Attach Goals to OKRs - OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results . This is where you get to know the granular detail of the plan for how you're going to hit your goals.
* Create a Content Calendar - Tie in the calendar to your quarterly goals and OKRs
* Execute The work has got to get done. Time to do it.
* Meet & Discuss Make the time to review details of your team's content projects twice a week in a short stand up meeting style.
* Publish & Promote Besides regular content promotion make sure to involve other departments outside of marketing.
* Always Optimize Go back and review ask yourself what you could have improved.

 

What channels are working best for Wrike?

For Wrike the blog has been a foundational element and working very well. Their content has also helped with search and visibility on social media. Retargeting was also an effective channel for Wrike.

 

How do marketing and sales work together?

At Wrike; Sales, Content Marketing and Product Marketing work very closely together. Together they dig into the profile of the ideal customer, their main pain points and how Wrike can solve their problem.
Tom also communicates often with his sales team to find out about the type of content they would love to provide their prospects with and then proceeds to create it. Recently, a Wrike Sales Executive came up to Tom and mentioned how content helped him close two new accounts. Wrike has developed a very strong content marketing and sales synergy.