If your lead nurturing programs use "evergreen" content then you can feed new prospects in at touch one and keep this nurturing program running for longer periods of time with periodic refreshes and updates. It stands to follow that if you're creating content based on objectives, priorities and problems that your prospects care about, this content will lead to conversations around those topics. Do you have any past advertising campaigns that are still producing leads 6 years later Obviously, I've got a counter for that. But it will. " Seriously! MORE >>

This becomes obvious when you look at the "about" statements for companies in a specific niche and each of them leads off with "the leading provider of." Brand positioning is becoming critical as more B2B marketers turn to content marketing across a range of channels to cultivate standoffish, self-service buyers. Your corporate positioning should be used as the backbone for your content strategy. This is what will hold it all together to ensure consistency and keep your storylines on track—no matter the channel in use. If not, they wouldn't be in business. MORE >>

One program must feed another, each channel supports, enhances and leads to others, etc. When alignment is discussed in marketing, the usual application is to sales and marketing alignment. This has been an ongoing conversation for nearly as long as I can remember. And I've been in the business environment for quite a while. The issue that comes up for me is that there are some alignment issues before we can even get to sales and marketing alignment that could have major implications for brands, if they took stock. marketing misalignment. customer misalignment. Product marketing. MORE >>

Our Expertise - if your thought leadership content is relying on the expertise of others, without including our own perspectives, we're only reporting - not leading the thinking on a subject. Many B2B marketers cite a goal of their content marketing programs as establishing their company as thought leaders in their marketplace. This is an admirable goal, as prospects are looking for experts, not just products or solutions. However, becoming a thought leader takes a bit more effort than you may think. innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share. Be specific. MORE >>

Marketers need to reframe the way they think about the CTA, flipping it from what they ultimately want (qualified leads that will buy from their sales team) to what will be helpful to their prospective buyers. During my keynote at the B2B Content 2 Conversion conference on Tuesday, one of the questions the audience asked was about a slide I used when discussing how to create a content flow. To sum it up, I suggested that each "touch" should be based on three components: The question your content will answer for a persona. call to action (CTA). Go out and build a great one! MORE >>