The phrase Content Marketing is THE industry buzz word at the moment it seems. Why? For one simple reason, when done right it's very effective at generating high quality and well qualified leads.
If you are a B2B marketer it's important to become familiar with the concept and the practice of Content Marketing. So what are the benefits of having a content marketing strategy?
- Don't scare off your leads. Recent studies have shown that buyers are increasingly self educating and grazing on content generated by web searches. Buyers are engaging later and later with your sales team, usually the last third of their buying cycle. A pushy sales rep engaging too early will waste their own time, drive down their succes rates and increase your sales costs and worse still will put off your prospect altogether. Lead nurturing using content marketing is about understanding that in the initial stages, your buyers are too busy educating themselves to think about making a decision.
- Personalised content increases your chances of success. As B2B sales usually require approval from multiple decision makers, B2B marketers should build a detailed content map that corresponds to both the buying stage and to each person involved in the buying process.
- Build your credibility and trust. As buyers research online content it's often the first time they will come into contact with your firm. Your content must aim to do something useful and genuinely add value to the buyer's decision making process, as opposed to shamelessly plugging your products or services. This is not a new concept, but one that is constantly abused by over zealous marketers.
In a nutshell, content marketing is about appropriately matching your awesome content to each stage in the buyer's journey (a concept developed by our partners MathMarketing). Build and distribute free content that expands the understanding of your buyers' issues, assists them to clarify what's wrong, and helps them understand how best to fix their problem.
For more information please feel free to download our complimentary eBook on The Content Marketing Revolution.
Which aspects of content marketing would you like to understand in more depth?
