5 keys to using content for effective lead generation

5 KEYS TO USING CONTENT FOR EFFECTIVE LEAD GENERATION

Kim Gustakim@kimgusta.comwww.kimgusta.com

What is Content Marketing?

Creating and distributing valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

Source: Content Marketing Institute

Source: “B2B Content Marketing:2010 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends” by MarketingProfs and

Junta42

Source: “B2B Content Marketing:2010 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends” by MarketingProfs and Junta42

Buyers Have Changed

Buyers find relevant online

content only 42% of the time.

Source:“Technology vendors may be losing close to 50% of their potential sales due to inadequate online information,” IDG Communications, 2008

95% of B2B buyers chose a

solution provider for a recent purchase who:

“provided them with ample content to help navigate through each stage of the buying process.” Source: “Inside the Mind of the B2B Buyer,” DemandGen and Genius.com, March 2010

Self-education

Fewer than 1 in 3 peopletrust marketing messages.

Source: Edelman Digital’s 2010 Trust Barometer

The Good NewsBuyers want high-value

content

But….No sales pitches

The New Sales Process

Source: Ardath Albee, “eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale”

Source:”B2B Content Marketing: 2010 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends” by MarketingProfs and Junta42

Benefits of Using Content

• Lower cost of sales• Shorter sales cycles• Better qualified leads• Builds relationships

The 5 Keys

Key #1

Understand your buyers

(Really, really well)

Get out of the office and talk to them.

How do you do it?

1. Win/Loss interviews **2. Informational interviews3. Casual (but directed) conversations

• Do interviews regularly (at least 3-5x/quarter)

• Focus on prospects, not customers

Questions to Ask

• What are their most important responsibilities?

• What are their top obstacles/problems? • Why haven’t they considered a product like

yours?• What alternatives do they believe will help?• How does their boss measure their success?• Where do they look for new information?

Key #2 Focus on

“How can we help you?”

versus “What can we sell you?”

Don’t be this guy

Adopt a helpfulness mindset

From: Who are these guys? I'll take a chance and click this link to see.

To: Hmm. That was an interesting article.

From: Oh, another article on this topic.

To: They have good information. I'll forward it to Joe and see what he thinks.

From: Oh, good. A webinar showcasing a customer like me.

To: I'll register and see how these guys solved the problem.

From: Ah, they simplified the complexity. This might work for us.

To: Now I have a question.

From: Good answer. Thanks for the follow-up links, too!

To: I can tell my boss about this.

Buyer’s Thought-Cycle

Source: Ardath Albee’s Marketing Interactions Blog “Payoff for B2B Content Marketing is Movement”

How do you do it?

1. Freely give away great content that addresses your buyer’s concerns.

2. Resist “selling.” Think “educate.”

Key #3

Nurture your leads

Only 10-15% of sales leads are qualified and ready to buy.

- MarketingSherpa

Build a Content Path

• Determine what content your buyers want at each sales cycle stage

• Create a plan that maps content to buyers and sales stages

How to do it

Polling Question

What is your biggest content marketing challenge?

Source: “B2B Content Marketing:2010 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends” by MarketingProfs and

Junta42

Key #4

Create outstandingcontent frequently

Avoid content creation overwhelm

Think Economies of ScaleFrom one white paper: • Article series• Blog posts• Video interview with author• Scripts for slide deck• Webinar on same topic• Stand-alone executive summary

sheet

Adapted from Ardath Albee’s Marketing Interactions Blog “The Rule of 5 for B2B Content Development”

• Create content from scratch• Re-imagine/re-purpose

content in other forms• Curate content from other

sources

How to do it

Key #5

Expect incremental buyer movement

• Set expectations with Sales and Senior Management

• Resist pressure from other teams to go for “quantity vs. quality”

How to do it

Where Do I Start?

60 Day Plan

1. Interview 3 buyers.2. Inventory your existing content.*3. Develop preliminary content mapping plan.4. Determine gaps between what you have

and what you need.5. Pick two most pressing pieces of content

to create.

*Download Word template from www.kimgusta.com/templates1

For More on Content Marketing, Download:

“How to Engage Technology Buyers with Remarkable Content: 7 Steps to Developing a Content Marketing Process”from www.kimgusta.com

Kim Gustakim@kimgusta.com

www.kimgusta.com Technology Content Marketing Blog:

kimgusta.com/blog