Not your brand, if you take a page out of Nutanix's playbook
After encountering disinterest from the media sites, one tech brand built its own award-winning content brand. Now its audience checks The Forecast regularly.
By Ann Gynn
Now is the time for businesses to invest in publications they own and control. “There’s no one you need to pitch to have your stories placed,” advises Christopher Penn, chief data scientist at Trust Insights, who outlined the decline in mainstream media sites last fall. With the remaining tech media mostly dedicated to covering the big players (Google, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and other enormous companies), it’s hard for smaller players to earn any attention. Enterprise software company Nutanix had the foresight to tackle that challenge in 2019 by creating its own editorial property, The Forecast. Designed to raise awareness of the Nutanix brand and showcase its experts’ thought leadership, The Forecast helps the company attract audiences it might not reach with traditional public relations and demand-generation marketing. Since its May 2019 launch, the site has attracted nearly 400,000 unique visitors, 600,000 page views, and more than 1,200 weekly newsletter subscribers. Nutanix optimizes for leads by retargeting visitors to the publication. The Forecast earned high honors in the 2020 Content Marketing Awards, landing finalist nods in three categories: Best Overall Editorial – Digital, B2B Branded Content Campaign of the Year, and Content Marketing Launch of the Year. This behind-the-scenes look at The Forecast’s rise offers useful lessons for any brand looking to build awareness without relying solely on earned media.
The initial idea and business direction for an editorial-driven news site came from Ben Gibson, chief marketing officer, Tonya China, now chief communications officer, and Jennifer Massaro, now vice president, global public relations and social media. The concept, according to the team, is to “explore ideas and technologies that are changing the way we live and how business gets done.”
“There are so many great stories to tell from the intersection of technology innovation and human experience,” says Jennifer, who serves as The Forecast’s executive director. “The Forecast gives us an authentic way to chronicle the times, define trends, and interview leaders and changemakers across different industries.”
Editor-in-Chief Ken Kaplan leads the editorial strategy and design. The guiding editorial mission is to “inform readers and help them overcome fears or apprehension about cloud computing’s massive impact on businesses, industries, governments, and our daily lives,” he says.
“Understanding why these technologies exist and how they work can help leaders build a better future.”
Taking an industry insider’s perspective and using journalistic storytelling, The Forecast covers tech and business stories, practical advice for tech workers, and profiles of leaders in the tech industry.
In addition to articles, the site also features original video content and provides a home for its podcast arm, Tech Barometer.
The site publishes three to five new stories a week and shares those stories on Nutanix social channels and through a weekly newsletter.
The Forecast’s target audience includes IT influencers, company investors, tech decision-makers, and people forging a career in IT. Between January 2020 and January 2021, traffic from organic search grew from 8 to 21%, which means readers seek and find Forecast content. Social, newsletter, and link referrals contribute about 18% of traffic as of January 2021. More than 450,000 Tech Barometer podcast segments have been downloaded.
While there is an element of paid content promotion, organic search traffic on the site has grown exponentially.
The Forecast ranks in the top three search results for 141 targeted keywords and on the first page for 257 other priority keywords.
For paid content promotion, The Forecast enjoys 80% lower cost per click and more than 300% higher click-through rates than industry averages, according to Michael Brenner of Marketing Insider Group who worked with the Nutanix team to build and implement its content marketing strategy. He says The Forecast is the fastest-growing content marketing platform he’s worked on and attributes the success in part to its strong editorial focus on thought leadership, which attracts engaged audiences. And it is getting attention both inside and outside the company, helping Nutanix raise its profile among industry influencers and beyond.
Nutanix Co-founder Dheeraj Pandey, CIO Wendy M. Pfeiffer, CMO Ben Gibson, and other leaders across the company connect the editor-in-chief with experts internally and externally. This access allows The Forecast to turn thought leadership into compelling articles. Ken, its editor, also has a presence beyond the site. He has been invited to share The Forecast experiences with content experts on industry panels and in social channel conversations.
“We’re thrilled to see The Forecast grow and be recognized for the groundbreaking work we’re doing,” Jennifer says. “We’ve built an engaging site and now we’re determined to grow by leveraging our audience insights, journalistic instincts, and powerful publishing platform.” CCO
Ann Gynn edits the CMI blog. Ann regularly combines words and strategy for B2B, B2C, and nonprofits, continuing to live up to her high school nickname, Editor Ann. Former college adjunct faculty, Ann also helps train professionals in content so they can do it themselves. Follow Ann on Twitter @anngynn or connect on LinkedIn.
