B2B marketer with a content DNA | Head of Marketing @Stryber | Content creator at ๐
Have you noticed? ๐ฎ By now, most questions related to marketing success can be answered with '๐ด๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ป๐'. > Want to generate leads (and revenue?) -> Create great content. > Want to run ads that convert? -> Treat your paid ads like content, not advertising. > Want to position anyone in your company as an expert? -> Turn them into a content creator. > Want to create awareness and build affinity for your brand? -> You guessed it, great content is the answer. The problem is that 90% of businesses usually start to think about content because '๐๐ฒ ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐น๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐'. As a logical consequence, they create bare-minimum content to run ads. After months (and even years!) of frustration and poor results, they ๐๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ๐ decide to do things differently. And by 'differently', I mean: > They also start considering their audience's needs apart from their own targets > They start creating content regularly and spend an equal amount of time on their distribution strategy '๐๐๐๐ ๐ฐ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด' won't be enough in 2022 and beyond. ๐๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐ป๐ผ๐ ๐ป๐ผ๐ ๐ฎ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ธ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ผ๐ผ๐น; ๐ถ๐'๐ ๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ด๐. *** #marketing #b2bmarketing #contentmarketing #branding #socialmediamarketing
Companies that fail with content don't give it the same level of effort as they do their product or sales or even your landing page copy. It's import to create content that actually educates your audience and distribute/repurpose content so that it gets in front of them. I ask companies to think of content almost like a free "loss leading product" - you give your audience value for free by educating them and they will not only learn about you, but will also naturally see as a solution.
Itโs in the name, itโs called content marketing and not content pubslishing for a reason: Content = creating content that aligns with your goals AND serves your audience Marketing = making the above visible to your audience intentionally and systematically
A good place to start is answering questions that customers already ask/have about your product. Put them on your website. Next best thing is being active and listening on social or wherever your ideal customers are.
Marketing needs to serve customer needs more so than the actual product the company sells. Help them understand and make sense of a complex busness landscape in your niche. Remember, you are not the hero of this story. You are the guide for the hero-customer who will experience challenge, transformation, and outcome. Thanks for a great post Sara!
Well said. Content is usually treated like a cost, this always shows in the materials they make. ๐ค๐
You absolutely nailed it, Sara. Content is the key to drive awareness and demand with your target buyers... but too many B2B companies make their content boring (and never get it to their buyers). ๐ฅฑ They: 1. Copy what others are doing. 2. Create content for search engines. 3. Write for fictive personas. 4. Focus on web content alone. 5. Use social to drop links to blogs and white papers in the name of distribution. 6. Try to be on every channel and spread themselves too thin. 7. Never involve people who your buyers already trust. 8. Focus on quantity. 9. Create product pitches masking as educational content. 10. Use corporate tone, akin to the way big mining corporations communicate. 11. Chase MQLs.
True. Talking about โcontentโ only can be misleading. Maybe we, as marketers, should talk more about educating our customers, exciting our customers, entertaining our customers.
Sara, I totally agree. The quality of your content and content distribution can be your company's strategic differentiator.
The amount of content out there is simply overwhelming! Don't know if you were aware but we now see over 5,000 messages a day from various sources. It's so important your brand can really capture your audience's attention otherwise you will simply just be part of the noise.
100% โ the greatest mistake companies make is treating content like merely a marketing tool to generate leads, when it's a core business function that powers everything else. Hiring, finance, sales, investor relations, product development, customer support โ and yes, marketing โ all need content. Content-first companies gain a greater edge over everyone else. This is because you can build an entire audience and gain unparalleled insights by creating content and tracking the feedback you get from it.