2013 came and there are a lot of talks regarding the rise and fall of trends that would dominate the B2B marketing space. Out of these one of the trends that have created the maximum buzz is Content Marketing. Most B2B marketers who for long have depended upon SEO or pay-per-click ads are turning towards a more reliable and affordable way of creating leads – Content Marketing.
Finding the way through 2W1H (WHY, HOW, and WHAT!)
WHY content marketing is so important?
Best way to answer different queries: Everyday thousands of people visits site that they are interested into and stating questions on various search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. It is a great way to answer those queries through micro-blogs, videos, blog posts, podcasts, slideshows and many more and be a front runner among your leads.
Result includes organic based content: Similarly, many people avoid paid ads and go for organic based results as they are keyword rich content in the form of blogs, articles, and podcasts.
Rich content is valuable and helpful: Yes they are, for sometimes over optimizing your SEO tricks can locate you in the spam. Use good content for attracting qualified leads to your website.
HOW can you use content marketing to maximise your lead generation, depends on how well you can attract – engage – convert prospects into customers.
HOW- The Steps!
Step 1 – Segregate customers within the buying funnel – TOFU (Top of funnel), MOFU (Middle of funnel) and BOFU (Below the funnel). Content can best work when they are in the middle of buying funnel.
Step 2 – Step 1 is incomplete without understanding the buyer personas. For ex – If your target market is engineers and scientists, they would prefer how to videos or whitepapers explaining new technology, similarly small business owners would be more interested to download e-books and read on there i-pads.
Step 3 – Create credible campaigns to stay on top of the mind of prospective buyers. If they watched your video on a particular topic, invite them to your next webinar on that topic or suggest a related whitepaper. If they attended your webinar, follow-up with an email offering download of an eBook. Also try and follow them or friend them on social media and engage with them there.
It does not end here, without understanding WHAT content you should endorse on your websites to draw maximum traffic?
WHAT, what is that!
1. Content that would fulfil customer’s goals and your most important business goals.
2. Content that would help customers to make an informed decision.
3. Content that is relevant to your customers, generate revenue and retain customers.
4. Content that would tell your story in an authentic way towards your prospective customers’ circles of trust.
5. Content that you need for other personas and people that do not directly enter into a pure commercial relationship.
So, a good chance exists for B2B marketers to cash upon on Content Marketing agenda and score up their prospect numbers by a perfect Content marketing campaign in 2013!!
Resources:
http://www.smarteinc.com
http://www.b2bmarketingzone.com
http://www.esalesdata.com
Linda Mentzer is a published author and senior marketing manager for an information management company that has helped sell thousands of software products on a global scale. With over 11 years of experience in electronic marketing techniques, Linda has authored articles for several leading business journals, worldwide.