Using content to engage and convert A definitive guide
What’s the use of measuring speed if you don’t go in the right direction? Jerome de Flander
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B2B Marketing has changed for good. Gone are the days when salespeople actively ‘sell’ to prospects and marketers ‘interrupt’ the journeys of customers regardless of their level of interest.
Marketers are realizing that interrupting prospects who have not expressed interest in their products or services is not a sustainable nor effective way of gaining trust and attention.
This has led to the advent of personalized content marketing as we know it, with Social Times estimating that 78% of CMOs now believe that custom content is the future of marketing†. It’s time to get personal!
Our definition of content marketing: creation + curation
information + entertainment that provides unility
find out why
The distribution of useful content in order to engage, understand and influence a target audence towards a commercial goal. change perceptions + behaviors
revenues - costs known personas
pull towards you www.idioplatform.com
† Source: DemandMetric - www.demandmetric.com/content/content-marketing-infographic
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Defining and implementing strategy A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim. B2B marketers with a clearly defined strategy tend to be more successful than those without. It is a fundamental element that establishes confidence in content marketing. 66% of B2B marketers consider themselves far more efficient with a documented content strategy, compared to 84% who feel ineffective without one.
It has become evident that there is need for a codification for creating strategy that allows marketers to leverage the power of content marketing to realize their business objectives. According to CMI, 44% of B2B marketers have a documented content strategy†, and indeed a considerable majority (86%) of the most effective B2B organizations ensure they have at least one dedicated marketer to oversee content marketing strategy. The power of a written strategy to bring a business closer
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your goal Determine , ot intention Direction, n your determines . destination you Where are ? trying to go the pain II Get to spects Of your pro our way? What is in y
to its KPI metrics, as well as clarity for its affected teams, is highly underrated. Content marketing as a concept is attractive but also ubiquitous, meaning there are innumerable directions a marketer can go when they decide to leverage content within their processes. A well crafted and customercentric content strategy is what marketers need in order to effectively leverage the power of content marketing to achieve long-term goals. This paper is a discussion around how to put that plan together in a 5 step process, namely;
IV Engage se it’s Just becau ’t make it true doesn interesting ou mean it! Say it like y V Measure prove what You can’t im valuate you don’t e re yet? Are we the
a map III Create yclopedia Not an enc you get How could ugh it? around/thro
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† Source: CMI B2B Content Marketing 2014 Report www.iab.net/media/file/B2BResearch2014.pdf
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Chapter I:
Your direction, not intention, determines your destination
On goal setting & success metrics In order to have success in your content marketing, success metrics need to be clearly laid out. Not only do they need to be known, but they need to be aligned with and directly attributable to the overall goals of the entire business. Currently, only 45% of CMOs feel confident that they know which metrics their key stakeholders should keep an eye out for†, yet the pressure to demonstrate quantifiable results is indeed reflected as
‘measuring the effectiveness of content marketing’ has risen from a number six priority (28%) to number four (38%) this year††.
† Marketing Charts: www.marketingcharts.com/wp/online/only-1-in-2-b2b-marketers-agree-thatmarketings-financial-value-is-clear-to-their-business-36369
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†† Source: CMI B2B Content Marketing 2014 Report - www.iab.net/media/file/B2BResearch2014.pdf
The process of goal setting alongside overall company strategy is a means to ensure that marketers will align their direction (execution of strategy) with that of the business, rather than try to marry the two together further down the line.
A good set of questions to ask during this crucial process:
• What is the overall goal of the business for this financial year? (i.e “How much ££ are we expecting to make?”)
• What are the number of deals we need to seal (as a business) in order to achieve this?
• How many sales opportunities do we need to generate in order to do this?
• How many marketing qualified leads will be required to meet the sales opportunity quota?
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• What is the realistic expectation on Marketing in terms of contribution to sales opportunities?
• How many prospects will we need to convert to leads to meet the MQL quota?
• How many marketing qualified leads will be required to meet the sales opportunity quota?
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In light of the answers to the above questions, marketers can set out internal goals to ensure they meet the overall objectives of the business. They can also be held accountable based on their performance against those metrics. The next question arises: ‘what is the role of content in helping to realize overall business objectives?’ Content marketing budgets, while still meagre, are slowly getting more financial allocation every year as businesses identify how key content is to engaging consumers and driving brand awareness. As a direct result, areas within the marketing department, from company blogs, to social media, to email campaigns, are integrating an increasing amount of both in-house and outsourced content. The top content formats that marketers have seen most success in (and therefore push harder towards) are articles (at 76%) and videos (at 60%)†. 79% of top-tier marketers rank blogs as the most effective content marketing tactic, while B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than those that don’t†.
What content does as a first step is acquaint prospects on owned, earned and paid channels with information that helps them to resolve a challenge that they are currently experiencing. This trend is encapsulated, for example, in the 54% of B2B buyers who say they begin their buying process with informal research about business problems, with almost 80% of that time spent researching online†. As a result, the second step in crafting an effective content strategy is to lay out the “pain points of your customers”. In other words, they should be able to come across your messaging and articulate how your products and solutions soothe those tensions or resolve those challenges. We look at this in the following step 2: GET TO THE PAIN.
† Source: CMI B2B Content Marketing 2014 Report www.iab.net/media/file/B2BResearch2014.pdf
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Chapter II:
Get to the pain (of your prospects)
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Content that “gets to the pain” always facilitates a “defining moment” where it exposes new truths or explains old truths in a new way giving the reader a fresh perspective on their perceived challenges. This kind of content leaves the consumer empowered and inspired to take a next step - whether that is to share that content, request more information or factor it into some internal planning that the prospect may already be doing. ‘Getting to the pain’ allows the prospect to have room to move forward with you.
An additional advantage for the internal team is that pinpointing problem areas for consumers enables marketers to understand which product resolves a particular problem, and better position that product to future and existing consumers.
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‘Getting to the pain’ narrows your focus to pre-empting the potential reasons your prospects may come looking for you or your competitors. It is the process of answering the following questions:
ects our prosp e r a s n io ens • What t t we can resolve? a facing th lp our an we he c ls a o g ter? • What ealize fas r s t c e p s pro e ospect b r p a ld u o irectly • What w or that matches d looking f r? t we offe s with wha ng block li b m u t s t be re the • What a s may no t c e p s o r p ay that our ow but m n t h ig r f aware o r soon? encounte
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As you have identified and ‘solved’ a problem point that a consumer faces, you must then aim to lead and convert that initial content interaction into an entry point in the consumer journey, ultimately resulting in the fulfilment of a business goal, (whether that be lead capture, lead qualification, or sales, etc). In light of this, when you are deciding to craft content, you should do it with the journey of the customer in mind, with your content acting as the map that points them to a resolution of their challenge, which we discuss in the following chapter.
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Chapter III:
Create a map (not an encyclopedia)
Once you have clarity around what problems you solve and you’ve done some prospect profiling, the next step of building your content marketing strategy is to map out how you provide relevant content at every stage of the customer journey. 60% of consumers are reported to feel more positive about a brand after having consumed content from it, while a whopping 82% like reading content from brands ‘when it’s relevant’ giving you a hint to the importance of ensuring this content is relevant. What these statistics convey is useful: because prospects will come across your content for a variety of reasons, your repository of content should be able to provide “defining moments” at every stage in the customer journey. A reported 90% of consumers find custom content on websites useful,
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and 78% believe that organizations behind such content are genuine in their aim to build good relationships with readers†. It is worth mentioning at this stage that this is not an attempt to make the customer journey a linear process, but to prepare for all possible stimuli that may result in prospect engagement with your content. Linear customer journey mapping merely provides a framework around which brands can build content plans but does not suppose that the customer will necessarily follow that journey strictly.
† Source: The CMA - www.the-cma.com/uploads/documents/cma-01.jpg
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A simple mapping of the content needed at each stage in the customer journey is important. This may be constructed by establishing whether or not your content provides answers to the key questions at each stage in that customer journey.
It is important to note that your customer’s needs evolve and so should your content. Content should adapt to meet the needs of the customer as well as to position your offering as the natural solution to any challenges the prospect is facing. The process of matching customer needs with your content and ultimately your solution, requires a robust engagement strategy.
Some leading questions you can ask in addressing this: • Is this interesting or useful? Is your information packaged in such a way that it grabs the attention of the passer-by? • Am I motivated to keep reading? Could this solve my problem? A question of motivation.
Customer engagement relies on realizing that just because content is true doesn’t make it interesting, which we will discuss in the next chapter. There is still an art to baiting prospects into a piece of content especially if you are going to require the surrender of credentials in order to access the content. How your content gets in front of your prospects needs to be intentional and
• Will it be difficult to do? How will this actually resolve my problem? A question of application. • Can I afford to ignore this? Am I compelled to do this now? A question of inspiration. • What are the things I need to know to make the most of this? How do I use this tool/framework/ software? A question of education.
creative.
• Will I be/am I happy with the results? Does it do what it said it will do? A question of satisfaction.
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Chapter IV:
Just because it’s true doesn’t make it interesting
Once you have a workable framework for mapping customer journeys, it is important to place signals along the the path-to-purchase that allow your prospects to arrive at your products and services. The signals equate to: • How you place and promote your content in key channels • What content you place and promote depending on the prospect data you hold. Each interaction with content - response to a signal - is a data point that can inform the next part of the customer journey. Effective customer engagement leverages a rich understanding of the customer
in order to make the ‘next step’ in the journey towards purchase as natural as possible. In order to have a successful engagement strategy, you need to think in terms of how to use data effectively to place and promote your content on Paid, Owned and Earned Media, which we discuss next. But remember: data provides the relevance, content optimizes the experience.
Every interaction your customers have with you on a digital channel is a data point that you can leverage to ensure that the most relevant content is being delivered to each individual customer thus improving the overall customer experience.
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Media type
Owned media
Paid media
Earned media
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Examples
The Role
Benefits
Challenges
• Web site • Mobile site • Blog • Twitter account
Build for longer-term relationships with existing potential customers and earn media
• Control • Cost efficiency • Longevity • Versatillity • Niche audiences
• No guarantees • Company communications not trusted • Takes time to scale
• Display ads • Paid search • Sponsorhip
Shift from foundation to a catalyst that feeds owned and creates earned media
• In demand • Immediacy • Scale • Control
• Clutter • Declining response rates • Poor credibility
• WOM • Buzz • “Viral”
Listen and respond earned media is often the result of well executed and well coordinated owned and paid media
• Most credible • Key role in most sales • Transparent and lives on
• No control • Can be negative • Scale • Hard to measure
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• Paid Media - Advertising. This is well understood by most businesses and, as Julie Fleischer, Head of Content, Data & Media at Kraft Foods stated, ‘if your content is worth creating, it’s worth paying to promote’.
• Earned Media - Getting your brand free publicity through mentions or shares on channels you do not control and do not pay for.
• Owned Media - Owned media is a channel you control. There is fully-owned media (like your website) and partially-owned media (like Facebook fan page or Twitter account). Owned media creates brand portability. Now you can extend your brand’s presence beyond your web site so that it exists in many places across the web - specifically through social media sites and unique communities.
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A blend of Paid, Earned and Owned Media is what the analyst firm Altimeter refer to as “converged media”. The converged media approach to customer engagement is at the heart of customer-centric marketing because it accepts that the customer journey is non-linear but also recognizes that a deep understanding of the customer results in the promotion and placement of the right content and on the right channel. It is worth noting that if you are going to employ a multichannel content marketing strategy, the formats need to match the domains on which the content is being placed and promoted. From white papers, definitive guides, infographics to slideshares, blog posts and social ads - the format of the content needs to fit the channel all the while maintaining its integrity in its goal to help the prospect resolve a challenge they may be facing or reveal something new and/or innovative. The key ingredient for successful
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customer engagement is high quality data and because of that, measurement is fundamental to a successful customer engagement strategy, not to mention a key factor for B2B marketers in justifying (55%) and allocating (52%) a brand’s marketing budget. True, many marketers believe that the most challenging areas to measure and analyze metrics are: having access to accurate and trustworthy data (33% ranked this as a high-ranking challenge), but some CMOs have been able to pinpoint three top metrics used to measure success: website traffic (63%), sales lead quality (54%), and social media sharing (50%). You cannot improve what you don’t evaluate. Measurement allows you to collect first-party data on the effectiveness of your engagement strategy and as such gives you the information needed to change direction or shift focus as need arises.
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Chapter V:
You can’t improve what you don’t evaluate
Measurement & evaluation: a series of questions for marketers One of the major challenges that content marketers face is that they don’t know which part within a process they should be focusing energy on, or whether existing processes are working efficiently. According to a recent study published on Business2Community, measuring the effectiveness of content marketing has become a key imperative after it emerged that over 60% of marketers felt they were not successful at tracking content marketing ROI.
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Source: contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2015_B2B_Research.pdf
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It is impossible for content marketers to achieve their goals if they are not effectively tracking their performance as they cannot optimise what they are not measuring.
Insight:
Measurement allows you to identify areas of your strategy that are most in need of attention and allows for a dataled approach towards tactical and fundamental changes.
• What is the most popular content?
So what should you be measuring? Here is a list of questions every marketer needs to answer, ranging across three categories:
Engagement:
• How much is the content being engaged with? • What conversions are directly linked to content marketing?
• What are the most popular topics within that content? • What are the least popular topics?
• What are the conversion rates linked to the content? • Email open rates? • Number of web visits through content promotion?
Content: • How much is being produced?
• Dwell time on site?
• What is the cost of content production?
• Newsletter subscriptions?
• Demo requests? • Purchases?
• What are the topics we are creating content around? • Where is the content being promoted? • What is the cost of content promotion?
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Conclusion The goals you set for your content marketing strategy should be aligned with the overall objectives of the business if you are going to enjoy content marketing success. Once these goals have been set, the approach to realizing them needs to be customer centric. Customer centricity is fundamentally about resolving the challenges of your customers and educating them through your content. How well you “get to the pain” will determine the authority and the trust you gain, that is necessary to progress your journey with your prospects. Along that path to purchase, it is crucial to provide practical “next steps” that ensure that you are the content concierge that facilitates the realization of commercial goals. For more insight into how to maximize the value of your content marketing, catch-up on our highly recommended webinar with Forrester Research’s Senior Analyst Ryan Skinner entitled “Proving The Value Of Your Content Marketing.” at www.idioplatform.com/resource-archive/prove-the-value-ofcontent-marketing/ 30
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