B2B Content Marketing Playbook

B2B Content Marketing Playbook

B2B Content Marketing Playbook This white paper will outline a series of factors that are the backbone of a successful B2B Content Marketing strategy, addressing not only production and Buyer personas, but also the creation of relevant content designed to Engage, Nurture and Convert the Buyer at each point along their purchase journey. According to a 2015 benchmarking study from the Content Marketing Institute, 86% (down from 93% in 2014) of organizations surveyed are using content marketing (newly defined as a strategic marketing approach), but only 35% (down from 44% in 2014) of those have a documented content marketing strategy. It s important to note that this year s study redefined content marketing to include the word strategy a more mature definition as many perceived content marketing to be any written content. According to the study, 70% of organizations are producing more content in 2015 than they did in 2014. But tracking effectiveness is still the biggest challenge, with only 21% reporting they are successful in tracking ROI. Another big challenge ANNUITAS has uncovered in our own B2B Enterprise Demand Generation Study in 2015 is that producing the kind of content that engages buyers just adds to the difficultly for marketers. A recent buyer behavior survey from B2B marketing publication Demand Gen Report agrees, as buyers ranked relevance of information provided as the most important attribute when selecting a vendor. This disconnect is representative of the very tactical way B2B marketers are addressing content, losing site of the fact that getting the most from content is not about how much content is able to be produced. It is about developing the right content that aligns to the buyer and their purchase process and the only way this is possible is by adopting a strategic Demand Generation mindset and moving away from the tactical editorial calendar. A true content strategy is about aligning content to the buyer.

The Need For A Defined Content Strategy Contrary to the advice of all of the lists and how-to articles, building a B2B content strategy cannot be done in an afternoon, in 5 easy steps or a half-day workshop. ENGAGE: Strategic Content Educational thought leadership. Relevant regardless to whether they become a customer or not. NURTURE: Engaged Content Lightly brand specific, but primarily relevant to the pains and triggers associated with a prospect who is close to trying to address their pains. CONVERT: Brand Content Specifically related to how your products or services relate to the pain of the Buyer. POST SALE: Land and Expand Educational content on how to get the most out of your products or services, or content related to any other pains that other products in your portfolio address The actual production of content is a problem that can be tackled and overcome, as there are always potential writers on your team that can be persuaded to provide 500 words for a blog or a few dozen slides for a webinar. Outsourcing is also an option, as there are a growing number of content production firms or freelancers cur rently crowding the marketplace. Production is only part of the equation, however, as the real challenge comes to creating the right content. Where does it fit into the bigger picture into a holistic Demand Generation Strategy? Are prospects looking to begin the education process with the latest description of the features added to the products or services in the vendors pro duct portfolio? Probably not, as in the early stages they are likely more interested in thought leader ship and instructional content that is relevant to their role and to their company s strategic priorities. According to the 2015 CMI study, production of content is a problem but the top three challenges were producing engaging content (54%), producing content consistently (50%) and producing engaging content (49%). As ANNUITAS EVP and Principal Jennifer Harmel wrote in a recent article,...more often than not a product marketing manager will create a white paper and pass it along to marketing with instructions to promote it or even build a campaign around it. The problem with this is the tactic is 100% based on a specific product instead of the pains, issues and possible solutions the buyer is dealing with or looking for.

Understanding What the Buyer Wants Creating content that serves the needs of the buyer is a fundamental rule in any good Demand Generation Strategy. Understanding and serving those needs, however, begins with a deep understanding of the buyer and the approach they take to researching and selecting their vendors. Building core buyer personas based on buyer insights and market trends, and under standing the strategic priorities and motivations that trigger their buying journey is foundational to a strategic approach. Marketing and sales alignment around these buyer personas is also critical, but it is important to expand the development of personas beyond just marketing and sales. It should also include customer support/service, product marketing, product management and the partner channel. In addition, customers and prospects (as well as third party research) need to be included as resources for gaining key insights into the buyer s challenges and pain points. At its most basic, an internal team comprised of marketers, salespeople and customer-facing personnel should focus on: The power users or project managers with whom they interact The influencers involved in the buying decisions The ultimate decision-makers The users, influencers and decision-makers all have a stake in the buying process, but often have very different priorities or pains that drive them to make a purchase decisions. Content that is relevant to the power users is often very different than the content targeted at engaging a member of the executive team. One might be interested in time-saving functionality or bells and whistles, while the other might be more focused on integration, reporting and driving revenue. All of these personas need to be served with the content that is relevant to them, their interests and strategic priorities. Multiple content marketing tracks should be developed to serve the needs of all of these prospects. buyers go through three major stages of a buying process Engagement, Nurture and Conversion. While moving through these stages, their content interests are going to change and become more specific to their problems, pains and priorities. It will be helpful to think of these stages as the content architecture is defined. SAMPLE POWER USER/ PROJECT MANAGER CONTENT INTERESTS Features, functions, ease of use SAMPLE INFLUENCER CONTENT INTERESTS Performance, speed of deployment, integration SAMPLE DECISION MAKER CONTENT INTERESTS Driving business results, enabling revenue growth, reducing costs

Mapping Content to the Buyer s Journey In their recent State of B2B Demand Generation Study, Forrester states that only 14% of organizations align their content to the Buyer s Journey. Addressing that need is the core of a Buyer-Driven Demand Generation strategy, as is understanding that those needs may change and evolve at different points along the journey. ENGAGE NURTURE CONVERT ENGAGE Engage targeted buyers via The both goal inbound of Demand and Generation outbound is NURTURE Continue dialog moving from Nurture top-of-mind content issues, can be interests more closely CONVERT Leverage profiling and scoring Conversion to escalate content the dialog is specifically at the to channels in both educate dialog and qualify, via so it related and pain to brand, points and to potential can discuss related right time identifying to how products or and services is top-of-mind imperative that issues, B2B marketers interests solution categories that to would specific map can help the Buyer solve their driving purchase behavior; produce and pain the points; kind of capture content that them to offerings addressing in these Buyer s categories pain points. problems. This content should improving performance of does just that. Engagement content A Buyer that is consuming this kind be a mix of automated and live as a nurturable contact/ progressively profiling and should typically be focused on of content is likely in the purchase interactions. conversion The is via casual better tire-kicker aligning educational engaged lead. thought Outbound leadership that process. scoring It buyer should throughout; also be noted nurturing is perpetual; must be part improving of the overall this assessed information via segmentation or filling out these that is upstream not going signs to spend that the are time finding frames engagement how to deal is often with certain periodic; Nurturing issues inbound and challenges engagement the is Buyer is Demand performance Generation of nurturing approach is via forms, and scoring so it would with never specific be offered purchase someone behavior. at the Conversion top of the funnel. facing. perpetual; A good improving guideline is performance will of be engagement interesting to is target via the program Nurture logic stage and as a scoring. separate If they have been con suming content if this in optimization order to be effective. of content Treating offers, to content requires a combination of automated and live interactions. audiences regardless both targeting and content to whether campaign will cause a gap and along the way at both the Engage and they ever become a customer. The limit the ability to have an ongoing Nurture stages, however, respons es offer relevance and tuning. goal here is to educate and establish dialogue with your Buyers. to Conversion content it is a good your organization as a trusted leader indication that they are qualified and in the space that prospects can look ready to talk with a salesperson. BUYING PROCESS to for advice, insight and information that will help them perform their roles better. IR 1 IR 2 IR 3 IR 4 IR 5 IR 6 IR 7 IR 8 IR 9 Customer-Focused Content An oft-overlooked segment in the content universe is the existing customer. Content should also be created to serve the needs of the current customer, as they are just as important (if not more important) than prospects. It is much more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, and customers are going to engage with their vendors content just as frequently as prospective buyers. When developing content for your existing customer base, the same Engage, Nurture and Convert approach should apply, but the goal is to educate them about alternative products or services that might be relevant to them.

Content Consumption Preferences Part of the development of buyer personas is understanding the content consumption preferences of buyers. While white papers may be a viable option, specific buyers may prefer another medium such as video, ebooks or podcasts. Having a multi-channel approach for content delivery that is tuned to buyer consumption preferences is a better way to make sure the content serves its purpose and is accessed by the buyer. According to the Demand Gen Report 2015 B2B Content Preferences Survey, content plays a big part in choosing a vendor. In fact, 82% of respondents said winning vendor s content had a major impact on their buying decision and more than half of respondenets, 52% consumed two to four pieces of content. While white papers may appeal to the power user, the C-suite may have different content preferences. Tie content tactics to the personas they serve. Also, select content tactics based on the position of the content in the buyer s journey as Engaged buyers will spend more time reviewing content than passive ones. Conclusion Quality Over Quantity Buyers are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of content that is being pushed their way on a daily basis, but underwhelmed when it comes to quality and trustworthiness. As stated in the B2B Buyer Survey, B2B buyers now have a longer buying cycle than 2014 because they use more sources to research and evaluate 82% and spend more time researching purchases 80%. A true Demand Generation strategy should involve a two-way conversation between the company and prospective buyers and customers, using content specifically tailored for them by buying stage, based on their level of interest. Getting the most from content is not about how much content is produced. It is about developing the right content that aligns to the buyer(s) and their purchase process. The only way this is pos sible is by moving away from the tactical, volume-based campaigns and into a strategic holistic Demand Generation program that serves the needs of buyer(s) at every stage of their buying process. ANNUITAS is a Demand Generation Strategy and Change Management firm that helps B2B marketing and sales leaders at enterprise organizations build and execute demand generation that is more buyer-centric, revenue-optimized and operationally minded. ANNUITAS delivers this via its Demand Process methodology. To learn more about how ANNUITAS works with our clients please visit our website at annuitas.com. Headquarters 3399 Peachtree Road, NE, Suite 400 Atlanta, GA 30326 (404) 751-5131 info@annuitas.com 2015 ANNUITAS. All Rights Reserved.