B2B Lead Generation - the content that will work for you
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Content and lead generation should be the closest of bedfellows, yet recent research discovered that very few UK B2B marketers have a content marketing strategy, let alone one that considers its role in lead generation. This session will outline the strategies that you can employ to improve your content, assets and email lead generation campaigns. Key points to be discussed: • Current B2B lead generation and content marketing trends • How to design the perfect content strategy for lead generation • What content works for email lead generation (and why) • 7 golden rules for asset download (and the 7 things that will doom your campaign)
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B2B Lead Generation - the content that will work for you
- 1. B2B Lead Generation: making content work for you Presented by: Mike Convey, Commercial Director, emedia
- 2. Running Order Who are emedia? What are the current B2B content marketing and lead generation trends? How assets correlate to the buying cycle Real-life examples Do‟s and Don‟ts
- 3. Who are emedia? A leading provider of business lead generation services. A division of Operating since 1999, Reed Business advertising and lead Information, generation services to Europe’s largest business B2B and B2C clients. publisher. 75+ UK email bulletins sent Offer a range of tailored to subscribers via services to provide turn-key permission-based lead generation. subscriptions. Strong subscriber engagement to deliver effective, asset-backed lead generation and awareness. 500,000+ business leads for customers each year.
- 5. B2B content marketing trends Independent research into UK-based B2B marketers‟ plans for lead generation and content marketing. Overview: Lead generation is marketers’ primary goal Few have a clear content strategy (26%) Little cohesion to align content to lead generation Assets being produced are better suited to converting existing leads Email ranked most effective lead generation channel and the most important channel for distributing content.
- 6. B2B content marketing trends What are the 3 most effective channels you use to generate leads? 1
- 7. B2B content marketing trends 90% of B2B companies What are the main marketing objectives that you are market with content, trying to achieve with the content that you produce? spending 26% of their budgets on it.1 78% of marketers say driving sales and leads is the main goal of content marketing.2 Developing content is the biggest challenge that marketers face when undertaking lead generation activities.3 1. Content Marketing Institute/Marketing Profs Survey 2011 2. HiveFire - B2B Marketing Trends 2011 3. B2B Marketing - Lead Generation & Nurturing Benchmarking Report 2012
- 8. B2B content marketing trends What will be the two most important channels in the next 12 months for distributing your content? The most effective lead generation channel is email. + The main use of content is for lead generation. + The most important channel for distributing content is email.
- 9. B2B content marketing trends What types of content do you expect to be producing in the next 12 months? Does the content you produce best fit your objectives and the channel you plan to use?! “Content Marketing is all the marketing that’s left!” Seth Godin
- 10. Content for lead generation Content has 5 main functions within B2B marketing: Provide Prove Educate and evidence capability inform the that you’ll fix and status in audience their your field problems Create Differentiate confidence from your in your competitors solution Good content for lead generation won’t necessarily work for nurturing, conversion or thought leadership purposes.
- 11. Map your buying cycle Map your buying cycle and identify prospects’ positions in it. Evaluate your Force them to Identify need/ Find solutions/ solution/ act/ Purchase Realisation Awareness Consideration Decision Experience/Repurchase Target prospects within each zone…. plan content production to fulfil stage-specific information needs.
- 12. Asset types that fit your funnel Infographics Realisation Articles and newsletters identify need Market guides Blogs How-to guides Awareness White Papers seek solutions Webinars Product guides Demonstrations Video Consideration evaluate solutions Case studies Testimonials Press releases Events Decision Product comparisons Price matrixes Purchase
- 13. Assets for email lead generation So what makes the best assets for email lead generation? An asset that fits within the realisation, awareness or consideration stages. One that: Sells the problem (or opportunity) Proves you know what you’re talking about Shows their problem can be fixed (by you) Displays that you’re credible and different Demonstrates that you’re easy to deal with.
- 14. Assets for email lead generation The 7 GOLDEN rules for top lead generation assets: 1. Keep it short - or at least break up into manageable sections 2. Keep it fresh - old, outdated content will frustrate the prospect 3. Keep it accessible - free from jargon and convoluted acronyms 4. Mix it up - use all the tactics at your disposal 5. Highlight the benefits - note the features 6.Tell a story - give them something they want to read 7. Killer headline - make it as alluring as possible.
- 15. Pitfalls of assets The 7 thing that will DOOM your lead generation assets to failure: 1. Sales-led conversation - a sure-fire way to turn-off your prospect 2. Data-heavy insights - give it some visual representation 3. Dishonesty - always strive to provide what you offered 4. Inconsistency - buyers need a constant, consistent message 5. Dull & un-engaging - get creative 6. Lack of targeting - map your persona profile and use 7. Visually uninspiring - looks matter.
- 16. Asset matrix Pros Cons Whitepapers • Trusted source of information • Can seem ‘heavy’ and a long read ‘for later’ • Detailed & varied, often structured • Sometimes just downloaded by with problems/ solutions and finish information gatherers with specs Guides, • Quick read that’s easily shared • Short life, high volume lead Top-tips & provider Infographics • Can drive large quantities of leads • Quality of lead can be varied and may need nurturing Brochures & • Very high quality leads • Hard to get volume response, due Webinars to specificity • Easiest type of lead to convert • Can be very ‘salesy’ and unhelpful
- 17. Good assets
- 18. Planning and producing your assets There are 3 common hurdles to great assets: „I haven‟t got the time.‟ „I don‟t have the resources.‟ „My website already has enough content.‟ To get over them, take a logical path to developing your assets: Generate Use a trusted ideas, involving Create a structured those outside your writer/producer wireframe plan silo (internal or external) Use creative design Amend, share to present the internally and information develop interestingly
- 19. Summary Key takeaways: Content Match Email is still Asset titles marketing for the most are key - be assets to lead important relevant and buying generation is channel on-trend cycle stage increasing Different Keep the assets Don‟t push a prospect in produce sales pitch mind different leads
- 20. accelerated lead generation Contact: www.emedia.co.uk enquiry@emedia.co.uk +44 (0)207 098 2200 30 Farringdon Street London EC4A 4HH emedia is a division of Reed Business Information Limited, part of the Reed Elsevier Group plc. Reed Business Information Limited is a company registered in England & Wales. Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey. SM2 5AS. Company Number: 151537 VAT Number: GB 235 7235 65
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Good afternoon everyone.Thank you for joining the session today. My goal today is to try and cut a path through some of the key considerations of Content Marketing. Hopefully you’ll catch a few practical takeaway tips on how best to create and employ your content assets for the purposes of Lead Generation.
- Here’s a summary of what you can expect over the next 25 minutes or so. 2.We’ll have a look at some current trends amongst marketers in the area of content production and lead generation,3. But my emphasis will be very much on practical, usable principles that can be quickly considered within your own businesses.
- 1. Just a brief word about our own credentials, emedia is a lead generation wing of RBI, which is Europe’s largest Business publisher and which is in turn part of Reed Elsevier – the FTSE 100 media Group.2.We generate over half a million leads for our customers over the course of the year. 3. The platform from we use to produce these leads is an evolving suite of email bulletins. So , as you’ll see clearly in just a moment, our business has a very acute interest in what nature of marketing asset works to engage our subscribers on behalf of our customers. 4. Our business depends on maintaining a broad view of what content is trending amongst our readers. We use these trends to inform our coaching of customers as they prepare content assets for campaigns to engage their targets. 5. Increasingly we are also now commissioned to write assets of various types on our customers’ behalf.
- 1. So - lets talkabout lead generation and content marketing – We spotted this bombshell headline on Twitter the other day and I think it helps reinforce a number of key points where content and its purpose is concerned; Quite simply the title, layout and pedigree of a piece have an immediate impact on its audience. If you mislead or overpromise at this first stage you risk a lack of engagement with your ideal audience, and if you aren’t careful you might just engage with a too many Daily Mail Online readers than you’d ideally prefer !
- 1. We’ll look more closely at content asset types a little later, but lets just give a bit of context to what’s happening in our markets right now…2. We commissioned NSM research during Q3 of this year -There should have been a copy of the report on your seats when you came in? If not, come to our stand in the exhibition area and we’ll be able to give you a copy of the findings.3.NSMspoke to 200 active UK-based B2B marketers from a cross-section of businesses.We sought their views on lead generation and content marketing, as well as information about their processes, current practices and future plans.4. In overview there is quite a reliance on email to get content out there to drive leads, but there is surprisingly little co-ordination to make sure the right type of content is created to do this. And most typically its content better suited to nurturing and converting existing leads that is being produced.
- Just sharing a few key findings with you in more detail…As you can see, email topped-out as the best channel for delivering lead generation results – a few points ahead of online and offline advertising. Email traffic has undoubtedly gotten more cluttered in recent years, and some commentators have speculated that this signals its ultimate demise as a channel, but I think its fair to say, (and certainly given the context in which emedia operates), that as a more popular channel email just demands that Marketers get smarter to produce ROI.
- OK, so I doubt that the surge in attention for content marketing has passed any of us by, but the reasons for doing it are varied – (please note that the above ‘Content Marketing/Sales’ included SEO and sales pieces).Last year Marketing Profs website found that 90% of B2B marketers are now using content. Our research found that the average annual spend for UK B2B businesses on producing external content was a rather surprising £31,000p.a. So content is becoming a very significant part of the marketing mix.
- So its emphatically clear that email is the most effective channel for distributing content and lead generation with a whopping 71% of marketers selecting it as one of their top 2 preferences.But what sort of stuff will actually be distributed through email and these others channels?
- The graph shows the types of content that B2B marketers are going to be producing in the next 12 months. Do these content items always match the objectives they’re intended to however?With so many asset types available, we at emedia often see assets used that are clearly costly to produce or acquire, but which really don’t match the objectives of the client’s marketing campaign. If content assets aren’t aligned to overall business marketing objectives, the result can be real disappointment and frustration.
- Lets think about the role of content and the optimal type of content asset to meet marketing goals. In boiling down some of the commentary out there its fair to say content in the B2B space will seek to achieve one of 5 objectives. Content can be designed to educate your target, prove your capability, empathise with specific problems, create confidence in your solution and be a powerful means of differentiating your business against competitors. If its lead generation you after however, content assets should aim for this first circle – the best way to engage a new lead is to ‘Educate and inform the audience’ .At emedia we’ve learned that the very best assets are focussed and seek to achieve one single objective. We often see content assets created that try to do far too much and, in the end, will simply fail to achieve the audience engagement sought. For example a technical whitepaper can be extremely informative and demonstrate a company’s capability in its marketplace, but squeezing a product specification into the paper in order to allow competitor comparison could confuse the reader and dilute the quality of the engagement.
- So thinking about the lead generation process specifically, the next couple of slides provide a model that may help you Firstlycategorise your target prospects, perhaps a new market sector or email list, according to their position in the buying cycle, then Identify the types of content asset that are most likley to engage the prospect at that point.No matter what industry sector you are serving, I’m sure you’ll have a well-established view of the particular buying cycle you work in.Now this model can’t account for all the complexities of a B2B sale, but over at emedia we’ve been able to class everyone of our own pipeline prospects within one of these zones – and once we’ve done that it becomes very clear which choice of content types we should use in our next communication. We also categorise all prospects in our CRM software using these descriptions to guide our next step and move contacts along the zones of the buying cycle.
- Once again drawing on various studies out there, we can represent our zones of the buying cycle as stages within the sales funnel (or consumer decision journey, depending on your chosen metaphor) …and identify the types of assets that will help them to progress down that funnel or along their journey.Of course particular assets may or may not be appropriate or available in certain sectors, and budgets may or may not allow selections for different companies. But its safe to say that in those key lead generation stages of Realisation, Awareness and Consideration it is that top group of 10 or so tactics that dominate the successful campaigns of emedia’s clients.
- So we’ve seen a range of asset types fit the bill when your prospects are at the key lead generation stages of realisation, awareness and, to a lesser degree, consideration.At these stages it’s a fair statement to say that you are looking to secure credibility with prospects and acceptance as a solution provider that needs to be seriously considered.
- There are a number of golden rules that emedia lives by, in order to maximise the number and quality of engagements with subscribers for our clientsWe’re talking about direct response here, so as well as trying to match your content to the prospect’s stage of the buying cycle, you also need to remember a few fundamental principles of content that makes a prospect sit up, take notice, and download your assets. This slidesgives 7 principles that should be your starting point when thinking about your assets.Whether we’re reviewing the content for a client’s lead generation brief or preparing a content gap analysis for a client, these are the 7 tests that are used every time. If the subject matter is a hot. trending topic, and the assets satisfy at least the majority of these principles, we know we’re onto a winner that will create value for our subscribers and leads for our client.
- The flipside of Golden Rules is, surprise, surprise a set of no-no’s that can pretty much doom a campaign to failure.The main issue we see dealing with various types of content on a daily basis is the sales-led approach. Marketers really must master the art of selling without selling, if that makes sense. Don’t bombard prospects with your sales pitch. You should give prospects something that they see the value in: some insider insight or specialist knowledge, not your unabridged product specification and sales pitch.No-one will deny that the content is there to help prospects move through the buying cycletowards an eventual sale, but if you’re looking at the top half of the funnel we saw earlier, you need to focus on what your prospect requires at those points of realisation, awareness, and consideration.What prospects want is something to capture their imagination. You need to find a way to get and stay top of your prospect’s mind.So get creative with your assets but stick to the golden rules! Tell them a story, keep them engaged and realise the lead.
- This slide briefly outlines a few of the pros and cons for different types of assets for B2B lead generation. Whilst it is a fairly simple model and by no means definitive, it does rather helpfully categorise assets into three distinct segments. These are the most common types of asset used by emedia customers to drive leads in 2011-2012.In terms of pure response the first two groups tend to perform the best. In the UK it seems more difficult to generate response using webinars and brochures via the email channel. Our cousins over at emedia USA have found that videos, webinars and other assets that tend to take more commitment from the reader, do generally perform better than here in the UK. Whether this is a growing trend and the US are just early adopters I’m unsure. Certainly from a personal point of view I find it much easier to dip in and out of a whitepaper or infographic than I do a webinar. This seems to be preference among emedia’s UK bulletin subscriber base.I think these high-commitment assets tend to sit further down the funnel we saw earlier in the presentation. To my mind they fit naturally at the intersection between consideration and decision. The extra time and effort needed to interact with these assets is indicative of a buyer thinking seriously about their needs. This is the point you can start to intersperse the assets with a more defined sales message as you attempt to force them further down the funnel towards a sale.One of the ways to keep the prospect in your asset cycle is to include content referrals in your all of your assets. So you’ve got a prospect to download an introductory whitepaper on IT storage principles. In the abstract, or somewhere of equal prominence, you can include Amazon-style referral techniques to offer further content that might better suit or further qualify the prospect’s needs. They want to be the boss and wish to decide when to fish for further assets so just simply give them the option. You’ll be surprised how effective this can be and it shows that the asset you’ve provided them with doesn’t work in isolation.
- So we’ve discussed what makes a good and bad contentasset in B2B lead gen, and here are some of the strongest assets we’ve worked with in the past year or so.There are a few reasons why I deem these to be good or bad assets.The asset you see on the right here is an infographic. This was, produced off the back of a reader survey conducted on behalf of one emedia’s clients. So on top of producing some rather interesting profile information via the survey we also produced this neat little graphic to distribute to the survey respondents as well as to use in future lead generation campaigns. The subject area was a little bit dry but with a dose of stylish design, we had an asset that we could take to market to continue the client’s lead gen momentum.The second asset in the middle is a particularly snazzy whitepaper. Now sometimes a whitepaper can be dull as dishwater, but on this occasion it was a bit of a winner. Not only is it visually attractive, the actual content itself is full of informative info and useful insight for anyone who wished to download it. It isn’t a whitepaper in the conventional sense as it was almost entirely made up of graphical information, but I think this is a particularly creative take on the traditional whitepaper, and it is certainly one that our subscriber base responded to going on as it did to produce a great level of interest for the client.The third example is another infographic. Now this is off the Elqoua blog ‘It’s all about the revenue.’, which incidentally is a fantastic source of content on everything to do with B2B marketing. This particular award-winning infographic is Eloqua’s take on the content matrix, called the ‘Content Grid’. It’s simple, eye-catching design and interesting take on the KPIs of particular types of content is something that should excite content marketers.
- These are three of the most common barriers we come up against when we discuss content for client lead gen campaigns. Whilst they may be valid points, the modern marketer doesn’t have much choice when it comes to content marketing. As we witnessed earlier in this presentation, the rise of content-led marketing has been unstoppable in recent years, so marketers must find a way to produce content that will entertain and inform prospects as they travel along their purchase journey.Our response to these barriers is usually:a) make time – you don’t need to re-invent the wheel with every piece of content. Get imaginative and put a strategy in place that allows you to introduce new content assets seamlessly.b) find the resources – if you don’t have the expertise in-house or your budget is tight, there are literally thousands of excellent and inexpensive freelancers who can work wonders. They can bring a fresh eye and may pick up on angles that you miss. Also, their impartial and objective viewpoint can bring a level of credibility to your assets that you may otherwise lack.c) you can never have enough content – now this doesn’t mean you bombard the web with slipshod content that is largely irrelevant to 99% of people. But what it does mean is that there is always a case for updating or re-working your lead gen assets. As we witnessed previously, outdated content that prospects have seen time and again is not ideal. Take the time out to get into the prospect’s shoes and think about what they would want next.this leads us on to the little flow chart you can see on the slide. It’s a very simplistic version of events that we’ve found works well when planning and producing assets for lead generation. Once you’ve got the germ of an asset idea in your head produce a detailed wireframe that the writer/producer can work off.This is possibly the most important part of the process. If the wireframe is detailed and accurate then there should be no surprises when the asset is produced.