Matt Hartley isn’t a marketer.

And but, he’s a 2022 B2C Content material Marketer of the Yr finalist.

Although seemingly incongruous, it’s not. Corporations don’t all strategy content material (or advertising) with the identical organizational construction.

Matt leads editorial technique for TD Financial institution Group as a senior supervisor within the company and public affairs division. Underneath his management, TD Tales took residence prime honors for Finest Content material Advertising Program in Monetary Providers and earned finalist mentions for Finest Content material Advertising Launch and Monetary Providers Publication within the 2022 Content material Advertising Awards.

These outcomes show that division, title, and reporting construction don’t matter if the content material works.

“We inform tales aligned with (the corporate’s) communication objectives. We’re not essentially trying to promote one thing. It’s about model constructing, thought management, monetary literacy,” Matt explains.

Right here’s how a non-marketer finalist for Content material Marketer of the Yr constructed an award-winning program.

If the #Content material works, particulars like reporting construction, title, and division don’t matter, says @AnnGynn through @CMIContent. Click on To Tweet

Launching the newsroom

In 2018, Matt joined TD as a content material strategist. He was employed partly due to his background in reporting and creating new content material merchandise. Matt had labored as a expertise reporter at The Globe and Mail and the Nationwide Put up. He additionally created the Monetary Put up Tech Desk, a house for Canadian and worldwide tech information, and was the founding editor of the Put up’s arcade video-game information website.

TD management had acknowledged the shifting media panorama. They noticed fewer earned media alternatives and turned to Matt to assist scale a TD-owned channel known as TD Newsroom.

Whereas TD Newsroom aligned with the exterior communications objectives, it ended up with an inner viewers – lower than 10% of tourists got here to the location from outdoors the financial institution.

Turning the content material program inside out

TD Newsroom’s significance grew when the pandemic hit in 2020, making some types of conventional buyer outreach unattainable. Not simply one other software within the communication toolbox, TD Newsroom grew to become pivotal.

“Creating our personal content material and with the ability to distribute it grew to become crucially necessary to us,” Matt says.

The TD Newsroom workforce targeted on creating branded service journalism (content material supposed to assist prospects), and visitors to the location elevated considerably. Subjects akin to banking duties you’ll be able to perform on-line, budgeting for revenue impacted by COVID, and planning an emergency fund took heart stage.

That was the start of the TD Newsroom evolution.

“We have been rethinking how we did content material and the place the client was of their journey,” Matt says. The workforce additionally doubled down on data-driven content material and refined its content material technique.

In 2021, TD Tales debuted. “It locations the client on the heart of the story. It tells tales that resonate with prospects and colleagues,” Matt says.

The location’s tagline – “Enriching lives one story at a time” – displays this mission.

TD Tales organizes content material round 5 pillars (as proven within the website navigation within the screenshot above):

• Your Cash options monetary suggestions and recommendation.
• Innovation highlights new applied sciences to create extra personalised banking experiences.
• Group options tales about TD’s involvement within the communities the place it operates and the place its staff reside.
• Colleagues tells the tales of staff.
• Insights options thought management from the financial institution’s executives.

TD Tales locations the client on the heart of the story, says @thehartleyTO of @TDnews_Canada, through @CMIContent. Click on To Tweet

Making the whole lot rely

“We’re a small however mighty workforce inside company affairs. It’s a flat workforce – everybody brings concepts to the desk. It actually wouldn’t work if it wasn’t as cohesive as it’s,” Matt says.

The digital content material workforce additionally capabilities a little bit like an company. In company affairs, they work with relationship managers for classes akin to private banking, insurance coverage, US banking, and many others., in addition to product, partnership, and philanthropic managers.

“We work with them to create the tales. We could pitch to them, asking for a subject skilled to assist us inform a narrative, and many others.,” Matt explains. “We couldn’t exist in a vacuum.”

He oversees a digital content material workforce that features a data-driven technique function that has been essential within the TD Tales evolution. That added focus has helped the workforce in its content material improvement.

For instance, the financial institution’s editorial calendar revolves round repeating deadlines and patterns. Deadlines for retirement plan contributions and revenue tax returns happen throughout the identical interval yearly. And every spring, extra individuals start home looking.

With TD’s digital content material workforce amping up the content material measurement technique, Matt and workforce can analyze how properly these yearly content material items carry out. In addition they can higher perceive what individuals are looking for, to allow them to refine and enhance the subsequent content material iterations.

“We are able to take these moments and make these moments contemporary,” Matt explains. “We are able to make sure the buyer will get the very best and most correct info doable.”

The metrics replicate the workforce’s dedication to excellence. In 2021, visitors to TD Tales grew greater than 125% year-over-year. Nearly all of the visitors (98%) comes from exterior sources, together with 25% from natural Google searches.

Realizing the true purpose

“On the finish of the day, the content material isn’t the tip purpose. The purpose is to assist educate the client and assist them really feel extra knowledgeable and financially assured. Whenever you hold that in thoughts, the precise construction of a narrative or each sentence is a method to an finish,” Matt says.

Educating the client is the purpose – story and sentence construction are the means to that finish, says @thehartleyTO of @TDnews_Canada through @CMIContent. Click on To Tweet

That’s a part of the key science of model journalism. As Matt explains: “Take the targets of the enterprise and marry them with tales that the shoppers discover participating and helpful.”

And that’s an award-winning components no matter division title, title, or organizational construction.

Cowl picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content material Advertising Institute