Triblio, a startup that says it’s bringing “science to the art of content marketing,” is announcing that it has raised $3.4 million in seed funding.
Content marketing startups (i.e. the ones that help companies produce blog posts, videos, and other content that can indirectly promote their brand) have announced some big rounds this year — NewsCred raised $25 million, Percolate raised $24 million, and Contently raised $9 million. And if recent product launches are any indication, there’s an appetite for more data around this content, too.
Triblio’s CEO Andre Yee was previously vice president of product development at Oracle-acquired Eloqua, and he told me that Triblio is different in a couple of ways. For one thing, he noted that many of these content marketing companies are trying to sell their tools to outfits that market to consumers, while Triblio is more focused on businesses that sell their products to other businesses. Second, he said that unlike the competition, he’s less focused on “the process of production” and more on “the science of content.”
“What is my buyer interested in right now?” Yee added. “What conclusions can I draw about their propensity to engage with me? What’s the next piece of content that needs to be served up to them in order to engage them? We provide the intelligence to make that happen.”
He said that there are three main pieces to the Triblio platform. First, it looks at users visiting your website or engaging with your company on social media and assigns them a certain persona. For example, a company trying to reach customer service managers can create a that persona in Triblio and identify the common characteristics of customer service managers — then Triblio will determine what stories are popular among those kinds of people and recommend content that’s likely to be relevant to them.
Second, there’s “a content development kit” with things like a content calendar and workflow management (so Triblio isn’t ignoring the production process entirely). Third, Triblio tracks the effectiveness of content on your website and on social media. The company just left private beta, and it says its customers include Deltek, Parature, Vocus, and Neustar.
As for the funding, it was led by Longworth Venture Partners and Kepha Partners. Kepha’s Eric Hjerpe and Longworth’s Jim Savage are joining Triblio’s board of directors.