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Creating content is easy. Open a Word document, next quarter’s new product development plan, and put sentences on the page. That’s it. Thanks for joining me.
Some version of that scenario might be why only 30% of B2B marketers think they are effectively using content marketing. There is, however, a commitment to becoming better that shows through all the advice published on the topic every day.
That advice has grown for a good reason, too. B2B companies, especially those in the competitive technology space, have no other medium that provides the opportunity to describe in exacting detail the issues that their product solves, and trends that show why they’re on the bleeding edge.
While advice on how to write a more clickable headline has its place, a content marketing program begins and ends with gathering information, creating a strategy, developing content and evaluating performance. Here’s a look at the first two steps to launching or revising a content marketing program.
Gather together what’s known
When preparing to develop a content marketing program, first sort through all the available customer information. In How Brands Grow, professor Byron Sharp has one of the clearest suggestions on determining what matters: “[Marketers need] to know how buyers buy their brand, when they think of and notice it, and how it fits into their lives.”
Whether existing in a rough sketch or through refined research, details about each of these topics will guide a content marketing strategy. In the B2B technology space, you’ll want to include the following details:
- Problems that products solve, including messaging for each and for the company as a whole. These are the reasons for staying in business, after all, and it’ll be important to know what resonates with customers.
- Competitors in your category that customers have to choose between. Familiarity with their messaging and branding can show in what ways you’re distinct. Estimating their promotional spend and focus can make you aware of potential threats and opportunities when reaching customers.
- Sales channels can also be considered an audience to write for, and examples of sales channels should be included when developing content. Including integrators, resellers, and other channels in content will also prime readers to think about solutions in specific contexts.
- Questions sales people hear provide relevant, short-term topics. These questions are urgent enough that a customer or lead is actively reaching out for information.
- New product development strategy can be used to limit what messages and content are appropriate for the year. When adopting cloud-based technology, developing content about the old, physical infrastructure isn’t recommended.
- Editorial calendars for trade publications let you know what trends the industry and select markets think are important. Knowing what’s common will uncover needs to develop or refine messaging.
Investments into a better understanding of customers is important – when you have the resources. An actual analysis of the purchasing process, for instance, provides an in-depth view into how a customer experiences your company, or details into when and where your product is most noticed.
Determine where to focus
Strategy is figuring out where to allocate scarce resources like time and money, and deciding what counts as a successful content marketing program. In other words, after pulling together the overview of your customer and competition, it’s time to make all the hard choices.
A content marketing strategy will provide your best chances at success since it establishes expectations that can be checked throughout the year, such as whether your team can continually produce and support the scheduled content. How the exact strategy you outline will read varies by what you’ve learned in the first step, but the document should include:
- Three or four messages for the year that provide overarching themes. Each piece of content will include one of these messages that should make your company or product noticeable to the customer.
- Hub content and cadence is what you’d most like customers to see and how often. A new piece of hub content can be released each week if it’s of a high quality and that schedule can be maintained. This content often lives on your webpage or blog, and is worth submitting with contact information or when speaking with sales.
- Spoke content and the promotional mix is used to tease, summarize, and otherwise promote a piece of content. Activities include SEO research, media relations, advertising, account-based marketing, etc. To continually drive traffic to hub content and reinforce messaging, it’s important to have a regular promotional schedule.
- Evaluation assesses how well selected messages were received by your customers. The metrics used to assess a content marketing plan often include reach, share of voice in key publications, and mental availability.
After working through and documenting the content marketing strategy, it’s finally time to open that Word document and put sentences on the page.
Are there content marketing topics you’d like to know more about? Many, many pages could be filled on evaluation or editorializing content, and I’d like to know what’s on your mind!