Publishing content in context
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So much of marketing relies on a limited dynamic: business decision makers who spend time absorbing a variety of digital content. Since 78% of B2B buyers consume three or more pieces of content before speaking with a salesperson, this shouldn’t be surprising.
But relying on this dynamic yields limited results. Not every decision maker is so frequently looking for content, let alone engaging yours specifically. Marketers can’t predict which professionals or organizations may be seeking out services like theirs at any given time.
The internet is saturated with content; but relevant, high-value content rises above the rest. The right material provides your buyers with what they really want, when they want it, no matter who they are or how often they seek it out.
Start at Square One: Get to Know Your Future Customers
Collecting the right data and publishing content that aligns with buyers’ interests builds a bridge between you and those interested parties—no matter who they might be. When you put the value of your product or service in the context of a relatable challenge, then introduce a desirable and viable solution, you deliver real value your prospects will remember.
Start by establishing how well you know your customers:
Do all your buyers have similar titles and roles, or do they differ from company to company?
In which verticals do you typically sell, and in which would you like to do more business?
Will the challenges you solve for customers differ from company to company, and how?
What are your customers’ hopes and frustrations when approaching the problems your product or service will solve?
What have been your existing customers’ biggest successes, and how are they relatable to future prospects?
Your responses to these questions are building blocks for your research, the results of which you can leverage for powerful content.
Engage Your Buyers through Context
Many marketers take a “list” approach to marketing—they buy a list of job titles, then push out content they think will be relevant to job titles on that list. But people aren’t job titles, and you can only engage people successfully within the context of the real challenges the face.
For example, when we talk to marketing professionals, they are rarely interested in ‘content solutions for marketing professionals.’ They’ve heard that before. More often, they express their goals in unique contexts, with real challenges we can help them solve.
Here are some unique challenges we’ve heard recently, paraphrased:
‘Our buyers don’t think about companies like ours until they absolutely need us. Their decision makers don’t always have the same job titles, either—they can come from anywhere in the organization. We need them to find us the moment they need us, and realize the value of what we can do for them right away.’
‘Our biggest problem is generic content. We want to align our content with data and become a thought leader in our field, so our partners take us more seriously when they talk about us with their own customers. We can’t do that without real data and a message our partners think will resonate with their customers.’
‘We know who our customers are, and we know how to solve their problems, but we’ve barely thought about content. There’s no service like ours in the market, either; we don’t know if our prospects are actively looking for it because we don’t know if they’d even know what to look for.’
Most marketers have already made up their minds about content. Most often, they’ve settled for less. So if you’re coming to the conversation with questions, or if you’ve barely thought about content at all, you’re actually in a good place.
Get answers to your questions about potential customers first. When those answers come with powerful insights about the context of their challenges, you can build a true foundation for engagement.
