4 months earlier than its January 2022 debut, GO! Journal was solely an thought.
The content material staff at Pega thought {a magazine} might work effectively as a pure extension of the model’s profitable Way forward for Work content material marketing campaign.
Nobody on the staff knew journal publishing, however that didn’t cease them.
Two weeks after they pitched the thought, GO! Journal moved ahead. Impressively, the staff stayed on schedule and printed the digital and print variations of the now award-winning journal as deliberate.
“In hindsight, it was ridiculous and loopy, however wonderful that we managed to do it,” says Nick Lake, senior director of world advertising and marketing at Pega.
That formidable content material venture was one of many causes Nick was just lately named 2022 B2B Content material Marketer of the 12 months.
GO! Journal is the publication the tech world didn’t comprehend it wanted, in accordance with Pega’s Content material Advertising and marketing Awards submission. Subjects coated within the inaugural subject cowl themes essential to the model and its potential prospects: automation journeys, IT unicorns, citizen builders, the best way to lead higher, inclusivity within the workforce, decoding the bias of AI, and Pfizer’s frictionless drug-development venture administration system.
GO! took prime honors for greatest new publication design and greatest total design. The venture additionally earned finalist honors for greatest new print publication, greatest total editorial, and greatest distribution of a know-how publication. The staff’s Tech Tendencies 2025 report earned a finalist nod for greatest use of authentic analysis in content material advertising and marketing. Way forward for Work earned finalist mentions for greatest B2B branded content material marketing campaign and greatest built-in content material advertising and marketing program (print/digital).
However the GO! story started a number of years earlier than its quick-to-market debut.
Taking a model journalism launch from thought to printed in 4 months felt ridiculous, loopy, and wonderful, says @NickLake1 through @AnnGynn and @CMIContent. Click on To Tweet
To start with
When Nick joined Pega 4 years in the past, the corporate didn’t have a devoted content material advertising and marketing program. “We had numerous content material, however we didn’t have any form of construction or course of or governance round it,” he explains.
It fell to Nick to develop a program and deal with the problem downside. His first step? Conduct a content material audit. He discovered Pega wasn’t completely different from many corporations – many of the content material produced didn’t get used.
Below Nick’s management, that’s all modified. Content material doesn’t get created if it doesn’t serve a objective. And that objective should align with Pega’s technique and messaging.
“The standard of a corporation’s thought management content material is probably the most seen illustration of the model. It’s what potential purchasers make choices based mostly on,” he says.
By organizing and constructing a strategic content material staff, Nick helped others within the firm acknowledge how vital content material is to the enterprise. It acts because the gas to energy the model’s go-to-market packages.
And Nick’s position? “Generally, my job is to be a inventive particular person. And generally it’s to be a visitors cop (to the remainder of the group),” he says.
A strategic content material staff is vital to enterprise – it’s the gas that powers go-to-market efforts, says @NickLake1 through @AnnGynn and @CMIContent. Click on To Tweet
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Pega challenges the traditional
Powering the corporate’s advertising and marketing isn’t a easy feat. The model’s low-code, AI-powered decisioning and workflow automation platform competes for purchasers in opposition to high-profile, big-name manufacturers with larger budgets. “As a challenger model, Pega must do issues in a different way and present up in a different way,” Nick explains.
On the identical time, the content material market is noisier than ever. “The pandemic was a large wake-up name. Organizations needed to speed up their transition to digital advertising and marketing,” Nick says. “The bar has gotten greater during the last couple of years.”
So Pega adopted a test-and-learn mentality to assist it zero in on content material that breaks by the noise. “We’ll attempt issues. In the event that they don’t work, we’ll fail quick. But when they do work, we’re going to double down,” Nick says.
One of many staff’s first tries got here within the type of Pega’s Way forward for Work report, based mostly on the corporate’s authentic analysis. When that labored effectively, Pega spun off gated reviews centered on area of interest audiences with the Way forward for IT, Way forward for Operations, and Way forward for Advertising and marketing. This fall, they’ll add the Way forward for Buyer Service to the content material ranks.
These aren’t your normal state-of-the-nation reviews, which cowl what’s occurred or taking place in the present day. As a substitute, they illuminate what 3,000 senior managers and frontline IT workers say they count on will occur – and what to do about it.
The Way forward for Work content material marketing campaign works effectively, attracting the audiences Pega values and incomes nice engagement from these readers.
Go for GO!
The success of Way forward for Work gave the content material staff the credibility to attempt GO! Journal, which is localized for six world areas.
Assembly the formidable launch timeline took collaboration and creativity in downside fixing.
Nick employed a contract managing editor with journal expertise (and a community of world-renowned journalists on the prepared) to guide the content material. She rapidly put her connections to work on the journal’s characteristic tales.
These tales embody interviews with many Pega purchasers. “We wished to ensure that we had an incredible voice for purchasers by this journal,” Nick says.
However the staff knew that each one work tales and no enjoyable would make GO! a uninteresting learn. So the journal additionally contains horoscopes and different gentle content material (like the best way to make a stress ball).
An in-house inventive staff created the content material’s sturdy visible id. Additionally they developed a thematic design system so every web page unfold might work by itself digitally and move collectively for the print journal.
Artistic expertise alone received’t get {a magazine} from thought to publication in 4 months. Nick credit Pega’s advertising and marketing venture supervisor (Kate Sutherby) for making certain all of it got here collectively so rapidly. “We would have liked somebody with that actually strong set of venture administration abilities to assist us hit that deadline,” Nick explains.
Placing the content material to work
Transferring the needle on model consciousness and engagement by content material is simply half the job. Nick acknowledged the necessity to allow salespeople with the content material, too.
GO! Journal’s data-driven views on what’s taking place and the place the market’s heading give the gross sales staff a approach to showcase the Pega distinction in shopper conferences.
“Hopefully, these purchasers or prospects are extra inclined to work with us as a result of they see we’ve received insights to convey to the desk – a extra consultative strategy,” Nick explains.
Pega opted to print 1,500 copies of the inaugural GO! Journal to be used in gross sales conferences. “It’s about getting the journal into the fingers of salespeople and gross sales enablement kits … In case you’re bodily giving it to them, it’s a visual reminder of the model and the power of the model,” he says.
It additionally distinguishes Pega’s content material from many rivals’ all-digital strategy.
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Powering forward
Constructing a strategic content material advertising and marketing program at Pega wasn’t an in a single day success. But it surely’s been impressively fast. From the technique applied just a few years in the past to the four-month GO! Journal launch, Pega is discovering its content material not solely is used but it surely’s a key differentiator in a crowded market. It additionally stands tall inside the group.
“What began as a staff to create content material and a construction round that content material is now a hub staff within the advertising and marketing group. We’re the engine home,” Nick says.
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Cowl picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content material Advertising and marketing Institute
