Informa’s Infrastructure Intelligence Division has tapped CFE Media’s ContentStream, a SaaS tool that takes existing publisher content and acts as a content feed for advertisers. Twenty-two Informa brands will be using ContentStream to provide news, education and how-to information in areas such as engineering, manufacturing, power and infrastructure.

Here's how it works: As publishers develop editorial content, it’s stored in a cloud-based content stream database—including text, video and research­—and catalogued by keywords, industries, even performance of the content. CFE sells advertisers a feed to that content which allows them to log in, select topics and preview content, which is initially streamed to the advertiser’s website but can also be repurposed for blogs, newsletters and social media. Publishers can license Content Stream in the same manner for their own markets (more than 40 publications are currently using ContentStream from publishers such as Informa and Babcox, as well as CFE’s own titles).

“ContentStream solves a major pain point for customers who are wanting more customized solutions and more content than ever before,” says Jacquie Niemiec, SVP of marketing at Informa Infrastructure Intelligence. “But finding great content is a huge challenge.  Not only are marketers having a difficult time producing the kind of content that engages customers, they don’t have an efficient way to create content and struggle on how to measure content effectiveness. With ContentStream, marketers will have access to more than 200,000 Informa articles that are verified, accurate and trusted. The platform provides one-stop shopping for our customers.”

Informa has aggressively rolled out marketing solutions over the past year, including account-based marketing and data-driven Marketing Spotlights. “Informa still places a lot value on discoverability and awareness programs but continues to see an upswing in content marketing programs,” says Niemiec. “These programs typically have a longer development cycle, which makes it difficult to fulfill the immediate needs of pushing content out on a weekly basis. With the addition of ContentStream, customers can now have access to content immediately so they can fulfill their ongoing marketing tactics such as social posts, newsletters and website content.” 

Content Marketing Spending Up 38%

According to Informa’s December 2017 B2B Marketing Trends Report, spending on content marketing rose 38% year-over-year. “Content marketing and social media top the list of where marketers will spend the most in the coming year, especially among enterprises and medium-sized companies,” says Niemiec. “Users are also consuming content in shorter, more visual formats and increasingly on mobile formats, marketers are responding by investing in storytelling content such as interactive whitepapers and explainer videos." 

Since CFE Media debuted ContentStream in 2013, the company has seen content marketing demands change significantly. “ContentStream content, used in conjunction with custom content, has grown in both popularity and usage,” says CFE Media CEO Steve Rourke. “Customers want access to the large volumes of relevant, proven content provided by ContentStream but they also want their own custom content which carries more of their unique marketing message and style.  As a result, we’ve seen more and more ‘content bundles’ being proposed and delivered where a customer will license 50 content assets through ContentStream and then add on 3-5 custom white papers, articles, case studies, etc. through our marketing services group. We’re also seeing additional requirements for:
1) more content assets to be available in the ContentStream marketplace and,
2) higher levels of content quality being driven by more effective use of a customer’s marketing automation system.”

Rourke offers three bullets for publishers to be successful with ContentStream:

• From a technology perspective, the process is quite turnkey. The content import API that was constructed by the CFE Technology development team allows our system to ingest large quantities of content assets from any type of content management system (CMS) used by a publisher. This real-time syncing between ContentStream and a publisher’s CMS allows for the latest content generated by a publisher to be instantly available in ContentStream for those customers struggling with content development to support their content marketing campaigns.

• In addition to simplifying the content importation process for publishers, we’ve redesigned ContentStream for version 3.0 to streamline the process of searching for content by end-user customers. In ContentStream 3.0 release, scheduled for 3/30/18, we’ve eliminated the taxonomy selection step for customers, for the sake of a keyword-centric search process. By incorporating basic keyword search, which is similar to how people use Google, with advanced keyword search based on Boolean logic, the speed by which customers can pinpoint their exact content matches is dramatically increased. What this means for end-user customers is an efficient and effective searching and selection process. What this means for publishers who join the ContentStream network is a faster time-to-market since we no longer require a defined taxonomy structure to import the content.

• From a revenue perspective, a publisher needs to be ready to view their existing content assets as a significant revenue source already in place. From a sales process perspective, a publisher needs to be willing to acknowledge the fact that the modern sales process has changed dramatically in the last five years. Specifically, customers want integrated solutions media partners that intersect advertising with demand gen, data analytics and content marketing. By only focusing on traditional media solutions, a publisher is limiting their revenue potential per customer because they’re just not speaking the customer’s language anymore and they’re not tapping into other budget buckets (CMS, CRM, MAS, etc.).

Matt Kinsman is vice president of content + programming at Connectiv, the only association focused on the integrated b-to-b model—including publications, events, digital media, marketing services and business information. Prior to joining Connectiv's predecessor American Business Media in 2011, Kinsman was executive editor of Folio:, the leading information provider for the magazine industry.