4 months earlier than its January 2022 debut, GO! Journal was solely an thought.
The content material group 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 group knew journal publishing, however that didn’t cease them.
Two weeks after they pitched the thought, GO! Journal moved ahead. Impressively, the group stayed on schedule and revealed the digital and print variations of the now award-winning journal as deliberate.
“In hindsight, it was ridiculous and loopy, however superb that we managed to do it,” says Nick Lake, senior director of world advertising and marketing at Pega.
That bold content material mission 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 realize it wanted, in line with Pega’s Content material Advertising and marketing Awards submission. Matters lined within the inaugural challenge cowl themes essential to the model and its potential prospects: automation journeys, IT unicorns, citizen builders, easy methods to lead higher, inclusivity within the workforce, decoding the bias of AI, and Pfizer’s frictionless drug-development mission administration system.
GO! took prime honors for finest new publication design and finest general design. The mission additionally earned finalist honors for finest new print publication, finest general editorial, and finest distribution of a expertise publication. The group’s Tech Developments 2025 report earned a finalist nod for finest use of authentic analysis in content material advertising and marketing. Way forward for Work earned finalist mentions for finest B2B branded content material marketing campaign and finest 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 revealed in 4 months felt ridiculous, loopy, and superb, says @NickLake1 by way of @AnnGynn and @CMIContent. Click on To Tweet
At first
When Nick joined Pega 4 years in the past, the corporate didn’t have a devoted content material advertising and marketing program. “We had plenty of content material, however we didn’t have any type of construction or course of or governance round it,” he explains.
It fell to Nick to develop a program and sort out the problem drawback. His first step? Conduct a content material audit. He discovered Pega wasn’t totally different from many firms – many of the content material produced didn’t get used.
Beneath Nick’s management, that’s all modified. Content material doesn’t get created if it doesn’t serve a goal. And that goal 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 shoppers make choices based mostly on,” he says.
By organizing and constructing a strategic content material group, Nick helped others within the firm acknowledge how important content material is to the enterprise. It acts because the gasoline to energy the model’s go-to-market applications.
And Nick’s function? “Typically, my job is to be a inventive individual. And generally it’s to be a visitors cop (to the remainder of the group),” he says.
A strategic content material group is important to enterprise – it’s the gasoline that powers go-to-market efforts, says @NickLake1 by way of @AnnGynn and @CMIContent. Click on To Tweet
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Pega challenges the standard
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 towards high-profile, big-name manufacturers with larger budgets. “As a challenger model, Pega must do issues otherwise and present up otherwise,” Nick explains.
On the similar 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 increased over the past couple of years.”
So Pega adopted a test-and-learn mentality to assist it zero in on content material that breaks by way of the noise. “We’ll strive 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 group’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 experiences 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 commonplace state-of-the-nation experiences, which cowl what’s occurred or occurring immediately. As a substitute, they illuminate what 3,000 senior managers and frontline IT workers say they anticipate 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 group the credibility to strive GO! Journal, which is localized for six international areas.
Assembly the bold launch timeline took collaboration and creativity in drawback 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 shoppers. “We needed to ensure that we had an amazing voice for shoppers by way of this journal,” Nick says.
However the group knew that each one work tales and no enjoyable would make GO! a boring learn. So the journal additionally contains horoscopes and different gentle content material (like easy methods to make a stress ball).
An in-house inventive group created the content material’s robust visible id. In addition 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 mission 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 mission administration abilities to assist us hit that deadline,” Nick explains.
Placing the content material to work
Shifting the needle on model consciousness and engagement by way of content material is barely half the job. Nick acknowledged the necessity to allow salespeople with the content material, too.
GO! Journal’s data-driven views on what’s occurring and the place the market’s heading give the gross sales group a strategy to showcase the Pega distinction in shopper conferences.
“Hopefully, these shoppers or prospects are extra inclined to work with us as a result of they see we’ve received insights to carry to the desk – a extra consultative method,” 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 the event you’re bodily giving it to them, it’s a visual reminder of the model and the energy of the model,” he says.
It additionally distinguishes Pega’s content material from many rivals’ all-digital method.
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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. Nevertheless it’s been impressively fast. From the technique carried out only some years in the past to the four-month GO! Journal launch, Pega is discovering its content material not solely is used nevertheless it’s a key differentiator in a crowded market. It additionally stands tall inside the group.
“What began as a group to create content material and a construction round that content material is now a hub group 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
