The evolution of B2B marketing has forced companies to extend the transformations and pivot points made during the pandemic to more permanent changes in marketing driven by evolving consumer preferences for the discovery, consumption and interaction of information. B2B marketing has evolved as a digital first practice and there is no going back.
While most marketers understand that simply relying on push marketing tactics and advertising is not enough, they nonetheless rely on these familiar and comfortable tactics.
Today’s business customers have more choices of content in text, image, audio, video and interactive formats on more devices than ever before. They expect more than just useful information from the brands they shop from.
In response to many of these technological changes and increased needs for information, many companies have made the decision to create more content. more information to satisfy the insatiable appetite of search and the social web.
B2B marketers are responding to this need. Annual research by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs on the subject of content marketing consistently shows that marketers are committed to the use of content in their marketing.
Unfortunately, simply creating more digital first content is not the solution. The competition for customer time and attention is fierce and raises the bar for content, from simply providing information to delivering meaningful experiences. In order to stand out from the crowd, get involved and stimulate action, companies today need to operate smarter, customer-centric content marketing.
The shift from traditional digital marketing to a focus on integrated content experiences requires companies to rethink their approach. To make this transition, you need to understand some key changes:
Information overload
According to a study by IBM, we create 2.5 trillion bytes every day – enough that 90% of today’s data worldwide was created in the last two years alone.
The competition for attention has grown exponentially as brands evolve their publishing efforts and consumers are increasingly empowered to self-publish. Blogs, social media sharing sites and networks are based on branded and user generated content, all of which compete for time and attention.
Since most consumers are faced with thousands of marketing messages every day, it is important that companies understand their customers and those who influence them. With the right tools for everything from influencer discovery to topic optimization, brands can continuously work to improve the performance of their content investments.
Data analysis and optimization tools bring knowledge to the surface about specific customer segments and their pain points, goals and those who influence them. Armed with these insights, marketers are better prepared to craft meaningful content marketing experiences to exceed customer expectations and compete. Businesses need to think beyond the mechanical and move to a more meaningful approach to PR, search, social media, and content marketing.
Disorder or Evolution?
Traditional publishing models have been significantly influenced by these changes in technology and consumer preferences for information. Print-based publications are on the decline, resources and staff in editorial offices are shrinking, and the roles of brand publishers and traditional media publishers have been exchanged.
Driven by the customer journey
The variety of information options and access through myriad devices gives consumers more power to make decisions before they ever react to an intention to buy. The customer journey from awareness to willingness to buy to purchase meanders through channels such as search, news and social media in a dynamic path that is seldom linear and increasingly numb to push messages.
Those companies that can attract and retain consumers earlier can build stronger brand loyalty and influence sales despite greater content diversity and increased competition.
Developing a content marketing plan across the customer’s buying cycle enables marketers to plan content topics that matter to each stage: awareness, interest, willingness to buy, customer loyalty, and advocacy. Finding, consuming and trading content at each stage can then be planned to optimize the customer experience.
Great content is only great when it is discovered, consumed and implemented.
Rethinking a content marketing strategy and integrating it with search, social media and PR requires a solid definition of content marketing:
Content marketing is the planned creation, promotion, and optimization of brand stories aimed at creating useful and meaningful experiences that attract, engage, and inspire a target audience of customers from awareness to purchase to advocacy.
With this definition, marketers can craft a content marketing strategy that leverages both consumer insights and brand goals to create great content that is optimized for discovery, engagement, and execution towards business goals
Next steps and key questions:
- What business goals could more useful and meaningful content solve?
- Which target groups does your company need to reach? What are you interested in? What are your goals?
- Develop an editorial calendar that takes into account how each target customer segment discovers, consumes, and reacts to the information they need during their buying cycle.
- Incorporate search, social media, and media optimization best practices into your content planning and promotion efforts.
- Continuously analyze key performance metrics and business results to optimize the performance of your content marketing investments