2. Why Content Marketing?!
• Content Marketing is one of the most important B2B Marketing Topics
today
• Quote: David Kirkpatrick, Senior Reporter at MarketingSherpa recently
wrote, “According to research from the 2012 Lead Generation Benchmark
Report, content marketing was one of the top four channels for lead
generation budgets for this year (2012). And, as a less quantitative
measure of the importance of content marketing, it was featured in almost
every presentation at the recent B2B Summit 2012, whether the main
focus was lead gen, email, social media or event marketing.”
3. Why Content Marketing?!
• Most B2B Buyers significantly research options before we know they are
interested in making a purchase decision.
• “70% of B2B buyers’ journey is complete before they ever become a sales
lead.” According to SiriusDecisions 2012
• Fundamental question: “How do we influence a buyer before we even know
who they are?
• For a growing majority of B2B marketers, the answer is Content Marketing.
4. Content Marketing Overview!
• Content marketing is not…
- A direct sales tactic.
- It’s not fast, cheap or easy.
• Content marketing is…
- Understanding your target audience,
- Systematically learning what pain they experience, what information
they are likely to need at each stage in the buying cycle
- Providing them that information, even if it does not directly relate to
your specific product and or service.
5. Content Marketing Overview!
• Content Marketing is about building a reputation within your market as a
thought leader, as an information aggregator and as an industry
collaborator. It’s about establishing a connection with buyers by providing
information across multiple channels without the expectation of immediate
gain or short term sales.
• Because in the process of helping our market, we are given the opportunity
to build trust and respect with potential buyers in the first 70% of the buyers
journey.
6. Content Needs Identification, Acquisition and
Repurposing
So letʼs say youʼre interested in getting started and youʼre wondering “Whatʼs the
next step? In answer to that question we put together a 4 point list. #
• Create a Content Needs Assessment: Reach out to your current clients and
ask them a few questions about what information they found helpful or what
information they wished they could have found during their purchasing journey.
Try to gather information that corresponds to the stages in the buying cycle. You
may also want to creatively envision an improved buying journey to provide
information or help your current clients may not have considered. #
• Audit your existing resources for content: Your website, blog, sales
presentations, research and sales collateral materials are good places to look
for existing content. #
• Use User Generated Content (UGC): Social media networks are a good place
to look for unsolicited testimonials and customer experiences.#
• Repurpose The Content You Have: Consider ways to repurpose the existing
content to make it more useful; more easily understood or simply more
interesting. Using information you have to create a SlideShow, or a Video or
Podcast are examples of repurposing content.#
7. Content Creation!
Daniel Burstein, of MECLABS recently shared this three point strategy for
content creation:#
• “Identify your audience and understand their needs. Everyone,
everyone, everyone has pain points.”#
• “Invest aggressively. Social media, especially blogs, aren't free, and
they're not even cheap. This may be as simple as investing your time
in writing rich blog posts that address those pain points in step 1. It
may be investing your Subject Matter Experts' time on the blog. Or it
may go so far as a monetary investment in a brand journalist or social
media manager.”#
• “Focus on helping your customers, not selling. And for this reason...I
do not recommend sticking a copywriter on your blog. But if you do,
make it clear to that copywriter that the point of the blog is not to sell.”#
8. Long Term Steady Gains!
• Content Marketing is a long term effort and itʼs focused on long term gains. #
• Steady consistent progress is best. #
• The goal is to develop trust and name recognition during that crucial first
70% of the buying journey, so that when they are ready to take the next
step, they have been nurtured and guided to consider your solution set.#
• Make plan that identifies your most important content needs, and sets a
realistic goal for steady / ongoing new content creation. #
9. Content Marketing in a Nutshell!
• 70% of B2B buyersʼ journey is complete before they ever become a sales lead. #
• Content Marketing is how we influence a buyer before we know who they are.#
• Content Marketing is about understanding your target audience, systematically
learning what pain they experience, what information they are likely to need at
each stage in the buying cycle and then providing it to them, even if that
information does not directly relate to your specific product and or service. #
• Ask current clients what information they found helpful or would have liked
during their purchasing journey to identify currently available resources and
opportunities for new content creation. #
• Mine your website, blog, social media, sales presentations and collateral
materials for existing content.#
• Repurpose existing content to make it more useful; more easily understood or
simply more interesting.#
• Invest aggressively in content creation.#
• Focus on helping your customers, not selling.#
• Make a plan for the consistent production of new content.#
