Content marketing is an important strategy but can be challenging to master. Your buyers desire meaningful content that is shares keen insights and is backed by facts (statistics, client testimonials). On top of this, content marketing is notorious for consuming valuable resources. In fact, Forrester estimates that 65% of produced marketing assets go unused because they are irrelevant. Luckily, there are two main aspects that make content marketing a bit easier: sales and marketing teams working together and customizable content.
REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF WASTED, VALUABLE RESOURCES
Align Your Sales and Marketing Teams
With over half of marketing assets going unused due to irrelevance, how can you ensure that will not happen to your organization? The fact that there exists a disconnect between sales and marketing teams in B2B is no secret, but be careful to discount the impact this disconnect has on your content marketing efforts falling flat. Understanding how sellers interact with buyers is crucial to creating successful content.
The unfortunate truth is that many of the resources your marketing team creates go unused because it can be difficult for your salespeople to translate into pitches. Why? In many cases your sales teams lack the proper resources, such as examples and case studies, that buyers covet. The best way to bridge this gap is to align your sales and marketing teams. It can be as simple as your teams having a conversation where your salespeople explain what they need for buyer meetings, from which your marketers can translate this into resources used for both marketing and buyer pitches.
Create Customizable Content
The best way to achieve this alignment is for your marketing teams to create relevant content that is easy for your salespeople to adapt and quickly employ in sales pursuits. Just like your value messaging, your content should resonate and be tailored for buyer needs. This is where your teams will need to work together.
What pains are your buyers facing? What resources does your organization offer to aid these pains? Upon answering these questions, your marketing teams should craft content that aligns with the answers. That is what draws buyers in to the “dialogue”.
Once you have aligned your selling and marketing teams and are producing easily customizable content, it is time to choose the best type of content that resonates with buyers.
USE CONTENT TYPES THAT RESONATE WITH YOUR BUYERS
The good news is that all types of content will resonate with some buyers but let us narrow that down. All content is objectively correct, but some types resonate more with buyers depending on where they are at in their buying journey. You can also align where your buyers are at in their journey with the marketing funnel to make things more clear.
When your buyers are just starting out, they are gathering information. A DemandGen Report from last year showed that the following content is best for buyers in the beginning stages of their journey:
- Webinars (57%)
- Research reports (53%)
- Blog posts / news articles (52%)
In the middle stages, buyers are searching for facts that will help them decide between one solution over all the others on the market. The report showed:
- Case studies (62%)
- Analyst reports (49%)
- Webinars (47%)
In the final stages of the buyer journey, the buyer is ready to decide on which solution to choose. The DemandGen Report showed:
- Demos (62%)
- User reviews (55%)
- ROI calculators (48%)
- Case studies (48%)
Creating customizable content for each stage of the buyer journey not only increases your engagement rates, but also enables your sales team to share this content with any buyer at any stage of their journey. In turn, you will realize increased revenue performance.
GO AN EXTRA STEP AND SEEK GUIDENCE FROM EXPERTS
You have the tools to create a successful content marketing campaign! If you find yourself in need of some extra assistance, consider visiting our solution marketing webpage. There you will find the basics, additional free resources and the ability to contact a Mereo expert.