Top Insights from the Unwebinar,
The King Has Fallen: Content Is the New Emperor
Content has been “king” for quite some time, but with roughly 80% of the B2B buying journey now taking place online, it’s quickly shifting to the emperor of your marketing universe. Decision-makers increasingly prefer self-service discovery to identify solutions to their challenges. How are you leveraging content marketing to place your organization in their line of sight?
To help you on your quest, Frost & Sullivan recently convened a royal line-up of B2B content marketers including leaders from Finastra, Cisco, iQor and others. All came prepared to share the latest content victories and defeats from B2B fortresses near and far. Read on for their five keys to conquering the content kingdom….
KEY #1 Partner with your customers: As Shahed Amanullah, Global Vice President, Customer Experience at Frost & Sullivan stated: “Customers have changed dramatically over the last ten years. Smaller bits of information and more two-way conversations are common…and the nature of the relationship has changed from a transactional model to more of a partnership model.”
Companies that can harness this new norm can truly have customers for life. Look to companies that have established great relationships and partnerships with their customers when designing and implementing your content strategy.
KEY #2 Leverage the many dimensions of storytelling: Share your content via compelling, dynamic stories. Use audio or video – in addition to print – to reach prospects and customers and keep them engaged. Amanda Hildago, Global Content Strategy and Operations Manager, FARO shared, “We use content every step of the way to tell the FARO story and help B2B customers.”
Ideally, your customer has a permanent role in the stories you share and is placed “center stage” whenever possible. It’s important to remember that the internet has fueled a true democratization of content, making it increasingly necessary to share your stories where B2B customers are, whether that’s a website, a user group or social media.
KEY #3: Embrace analytics and personalization: For more effective and successful communications, our panel of content experts decreed the following:
- Get to know your audience via keyword research
- Leverage AI enabled, dynamic, creative approaches: Use AI and data to determine and deliver personalized offers at the right time. (B2B companies are having great success with this approach.)
- Regularly measure engagement and pipeline velocity
- Don’t get too attached to your content marketing plan, it’s more important to follow evolving data
KEY #4: Deliver quality content from a variety of sources. In an increasingly online B2B space, offering quality content from both internal and external sources can be a key differentiator. Combining internal content with external thought leadership from those within and monitoring your industry is one way to achieve this. According to Gary Robbins, Senior Partner, Brand & Demand, Frost & Sullivan, “If content only comes from internal sources, its credibility will be tested as you are battling the perception that it’s merely a corporate brochure.” (i.e., it can appear too sales-focused). Lisa Matherly, Vice President of Marketing, [24.7].ai, adds: “It’s good to have a balance…partner with influencers that compliment your story to help educate the buyer along their journey.”
Key #5: For greater customer engagement, be sure you’re offering relevant content. The relevance and timing of the content delivered to customers and prospects is a key part of content delivery, and is too often overlooked. As Nick Mason, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, TURTL, states, “You need to offer the right content to the right person at the right time.” This might entail asking your customers what kind of content they prefer, and when. Finally, it’s important to know when it’s time for the content to end and the sales touch to begin. Consider experimenting with giving your sales pros leads at different stages to help determine what works best and when prospects are ready for conversion.
These are just some of the lessons shared by the B2B industry leaders who participated in the Frost & Sullivan unwebinar, The King Has Fallen: Content Is the New Emperor. To access all their expert insights, watch it here.
