Not once, not twice but three times. I have heard it, read it and said it a thousand times, content is king.
In the era of instant information, every B2B marketer wants to provide content that is compelling, relevant and persuasive to help customers and prospects come to decisions that lead to sales. Every B2B marketer wants to have content good enough to land in the top search results on the topic. Every B2B marketer wants to have content that is worthy of a prospect’s contact information in exchange for the information.
At MCC, we spend a great deal of time mapping out strategies and tactics to get content in front of our clients’ customers and prospects. They include paid, earned, long and short form, webinar presentations, infographics, video and any and all other forms that may be compelling for the audience.
We also focus on measuring how well the tactics engage customers and prospects with the content.
More often than not, the content development itself is the most difficult. It happens because great content requires great insight, forethought and vision. Generally, that insight, forethought and vision comes from many points within the organization. It may be product marketers with deep industry and product knowledge. It may be engineers with deep technical and application insight. It may be financial experts who have mapped total cost of ownership and return on investment for new methods that include the product or service. Generally, these individuals are fully engaged in their primary responsibilities every available minute of most days.
It is not uncommon for content marketing plans to be put in place first, followed by plans to generate the content. It makes sense. Why develop content if it has nowhere to go? Unfortunately, deadlines often creep up, so the content isn’t ready and the effort becomes rushed. The content has to be delivered. The experts have limited or no time to generate content with the insight and depth to be as compelling and persuasive as possible. The promise of a content series turns into a compromise with a single piece of content distributed in as many places as possible.
These simple steps can help.
- Evaluate the content currently available in your market from research and analyst firms, competitors, media outlets and other sources.
- Identify the gaps that will help customers make better decisions even if it means that your product or service may not be the best solution in every single case.
- Establish a process and timeline for creating the content. Be realistic.
- Identify and gain commitment from experts who will provide insight, forethought and vision.
- B2B consumers appreciate content that is created for the platform as long as the content is well matched to the outlet or platform.
If you need a partner to help you plan, execute and manage your content so that it meets the royal standard, let us know. We can help.
