openmarketing - content marketing and the buyers.pdf

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Content Marketing and the Buyer’s Journey: How They Fit TogetherContent Marketing is the

new face of marketing for

companies selling business-

to-business as well as for

companies selling goods and

services to consumers that are

a considered purchase.

In these two categories – B2B and

considered purchase – the buying

landscape has undergone a seismic

shift. Today’s buyer is in charge of the

buying process. Buyers put in the time

on the web to research, learn, and

acquire the information they need to

make an informed purchase decision.

Social media plays an important role

here as a way for the buyer to seek

out the advice of experts, friends, and

colleagues. As the buyer journeys

towards your company, you will find

that you are coming into contact with

prospective customers earlier than ever.

However, most of this contact happens

online versus face-to-face. As a result,

your sales people are engaging with

prospects later and later in the sales

cycle. Research shows that many

buyers don’t want to engage with a

sales person until the last third of the

buyers’ journey.

This changes how you look at

marketing in a way that is fundamental.

Previously, many companies looked at

the job of marketing as one of creating

awareness and perhaps generating

leads for the sales force. Today, the

role of marketing is to understand the

buyers journey, create the content

needed to take the buyer from one

stage to the next, and to create

campaigns that not only generate

leads but also nurture those leads over

time until they are ready to buy the first

time and buy again so as to create

lifetime value.

In this context, your website continues

to play a role in your marketing, but

the focus is shifting. David Strom, a

respected blogger who writes for the

blog “Read Write Web” had this to say

on this topic:

“It used to be that you created brand

awareness and a destination for your

customers by having your own site. No

longer. Now, there are plenty of others

who will do it for you, and often they will

do so without you having to pay them.

Remember the phrase OPM? It used to

mean other people’s money. Today it means

Other People’s Marketing.”

Source: No Corporate Website? You Don’t Need

One. Welcome to the Post-Web era.

David goes on to talk about the

importance of Twitter to his business

as a technology blogger and the

importance of Pinterest to his wife

Shirley’s business as an interior designer.

Here at Open Marketing, we continue to

believe that your website can be used to

generate leads and drive business. But

we also agree with David. To remain

competitive, you need to market beyond

your website, to leverage your own

content and Other People’s Marketing

(OPM) muscle.


Here are 10 tips on how to align your content marketing with the buyer’s journey so as to accelerate sales:

10 Tips to Leverage Content Marketing to Accelerate Sales

Go Beyond Your Website

Blog Frequently. Blog Often. Just Blog.

Diversify Your Content Portfolio.

Focus on Findability.

Spread Your Content Around

Make the Content Compelling. Damn It!

Understand Your Buyers’ Pain Points.

Build a Content Map.

Don’t Think the Job is Ever Done.

Close the Loop When you Measure.

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Go Beyond Your Website

Tip #1

Today’s buyer spends a lot of time

online. But they aren’t going to spend

a lot of time on your website. You are

lucky if you can get them to spend 3-5

minutes engaging with your website.

Which makes marketing’s job to go

beyond the website, to provide content

that reaches the buyer where they

spend their time online. Studies from

the Comscore and others show that

people – depending on their age group

– spend anywhere from 6-10 hours

online between work and leisure time.

The majority of this time is spent in social

media sites and visiting a handful (<10)

of special-interest sites. What do we

mean by special interest sites? If you

love sports, you are probably going to

rack up a lot of hours on ESPN or sites

similar to that. If you are “into” design,

Design Milk might be just the ticket. Our

point is only that your site is unlikely to

become a “go to” destination for your

customer unless or until you put content

on your site and refresh that content

often.

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5678

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10 11

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13141516

To play, you

need great

content

Social media

integration

works!

My ebook is

better than

your ebook.

No it isn’t.

Content

refresh kicked

butt

Of course,

you have to

do it right

Ooops.

Lose a

turn. Your

content is

boring.

Digital or die

You do a big

campaign

You slack

off on your

content

refresh

You get

some really

good work

done

Are you still

alive?

You barely

make the

deadline

Your

content gets

approved

You are only

as good as

your next

campaign

You get 100

new “likes”

Web traffic is

good today


Blog Frequently. Blog Often. Just Blog.

It turns out that the single best content

you can create that will help to turn your

website into a customer acquisition tool

is a blog. But this only works to the

Tip #2

Company Blog LinkedIn Facebook Twitter

60%

40%

20%

0%

% of Channel Users Who Acquired a Customer Through a Specific Channel

Customer Acquisition By Channel

57%57% 57%62%

48%52%

42% 44%

2011

2012

Less Than Monthly

Monthly Weekly Daily

100%

50%

0%

% of Blog Users Who Acquired a Customer Through Their Blog

Blog Post Frequency vs. Customer Acquisition

56%43%

66% 70%78% 44%

2-3 Times per Week

Multiple Times per day

92%

extent you update your blog frequently,

syndicate the content, and make your

blog part of a greater community. (Yes,

we can show you how to do that.)


Diversify Your Content PortfolioIn addition to blogs, there are at least 12 other types of content worth considering:

Tip #3Video

Webinars

Infographics

Q&A content

Case studies

White papers / eBooks

Podcasts

Reviews

Presentations

Apps & tools

Curated Content

eNewsletters

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Focus on FindabilityContent alone isn’t enough. You need to make that content

findable in search and sharable through social media. Search.

Studies show that 93% of purchase cycles will start with search:

Tip #4

Source: Marketo: How to Build a Better Inbound Marketing Machine.

colleagues what products are worth

considering or putting on their short list

for evaluation. You can see this type

of activity happening on Quora and

LinkedIn in a structured manner, but

it also just as frequently – albeit less

formally – on Facebook, Twitter, and

Google+. The Word of Mouth Marketing

Association estimates that the typical

American mentions 60 brand names

per day. (Source: http://womma.org/

word/2011/10/16/infographic-the-word-

and-the-world-of-customers/).

And social media is increasingly used as

the conversational tool of choice.

93%

Buyers tend to search first for solutions

to problems they are having – products

and services often come second unless

you compete in a category where

the products and services are well

established.

Social media. Consider this diagram of

the consumer decision process based

on in-depth interviews completed by

McKinsey and Company with over 2,600

consumers. Here there are 4-distinct

phases to the consumers’ journey with

the journey itself looping around in on

itself.

When a consumer creates the initial set

of brands to consider and also when

he or she is in the active evaluation

phase, social media plays a significant

role. The consumer asks friends and

Active EvaluationGather Information

Consumers add or subtract as they evaluate what they want

Post-Purchase ExperienceOn-going Exposure

After purchasing a product or service, the consumer builds expectations based on experience to inform their next decision journey

Loyalty Loop

Moment of PurchaseUltimately, the consumer selects a brand at the moment of purchase

Initial ConsiderationThe consumer considers an initial set of brands, based on brand perceptions and expsure to recent touch points


Spread Your Content Around

Tip #5

As content is shared and spread through networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, the reach of the content can grow virally. This

can lead to substantial increases in visibility.

Along with improve-ments in search engine

rankings, content marketing can create

massive buzz and consistent referral

traffic, as well as drive sales or leads.

As content is picked up and syndicated from site to site, many links can be built to the company’s blog or home page. These

links can significantly improve the site’s overall visibility in search engines.

What is Content Marketing? Some of

the most effective inbound marketing

tactics include content marketing and

social media participation.

Social media is especially

important when it comes to

getting your content out there

and into the hands of your

buyer as they journey towards

your company. Consider

LinkedIn and Twitter. These are

places people go to share links,

ideally links to your content.

Due to the amplifying effects of social

media, it pays to create content that can

be linked to easily so people who find it

relevant can share it on Twitter, LinkedIn,

Facebook, and/or Google+

Consider Slideshare. While you could

put your slide presentations on your own

site, presentations are far more likely to

get found, picked up, and shared if you

use “Other People’s Marketing” muscle.

This is why we place your slide presen-

tations on a site like Slideshare that with

60MM uniques can greatly extend your

reach beyond the audience your website

alone can reach.


Make the Content Compelling. Damn It!Of course, the content you develop can’t do its job if no one

notices it. Today’s buyers are bombarded by many more

advertising messages than ever before. In 1971, we estimate that

people were exposed to 560 messages in a typical day. Today, it’s

more like 3,000 messages a day, a significant difference.

Source: Shenk, in his book Data Smog, as detailed here: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=56750

Tip #6

To break through the clutter, you

must present yourself in a way that is

relevant to your buyer, speaks to them

in language they can relate to, and

compels them to take some sort of

action. No one ever bought a product

or service because they were bored.

Getting this right isn’t easy. You need

to be just brash enough to be noticed,

but not so edgy and out there that it

gets in the way of building a powerful

and meaningful relationship with your

potential customer. Brand credibility

and trust is important, especially if you

are selling a product or service that is

associated with a high price point or

is complex in nature. Today the buyer

has a lot at stake when they make a

purchase decision; a wrong purchasing

decision has significant risk attached.

When it comes to content this

is not a rhetorical question

The answer is always: NO

No one ever bought because

you bored them to death

Boring logo from Boring, Inc at http://boring.com


Understand Your Buyers Pain Points

Tip #7

To be successful with content marketing,

you need to understand your buyers

problems and pain points. By pain we

don’t mean the literal pain the buyer

feels when they have a backache. We

mean the psychic pain that occurs

because their business or home is not

functioning the way they want and need

it to.

Whether your buyer is considering an

enterprise software solution that sits

“in the cloud” or is a high-net worth

individual looking to build a vacation

home, they go through the same

4-stops along the way to a purchase:

• Defining the problem

• Searching out solutions

• Evaluating a short list of companies

• Validating what they have learned

about your company – and its

competition – by talking with sales

people or the principals of your firm

Some buyers may move very quickly

from stop to stop, perhaps even within

a single meeting. Or, it can take weeks

or months between stops. All buyers

follow much the same cognitive journey.

Buyers don’t skip stops along their

journey. Neither should you or your

company.

Remember a buyer who has not yet

defined the problem isn’t ready to

get a data sheet or cut sheet that

describes your product or service in

glowing detail. What they need is

something that helps them with pattern

recognition … to see that the problem

they are having is one that your

company is adept at solving. The right

content early on in the buyers’ journey

could be a success story video, an

infographic, or a photograph placed on

someone else’s blog showcasing how

you solved the problem for a similar

type of buyer.


Build a Content Map

Tip #8

Awareness Research Comparison Purchase

Blog Posts,

Social Media

Updates

eBooks

Webinars

Industry

Reports

Case Studies

Demos

Customer

Testimonials

Analyst

Reports

Detailed

Product Info

Buying Cycle

Knowing when a buyer gets to the

tipping point of action and moves from

one stage in their buying journey to

the next and mapping your content to

these different stages lies at the heart of

good content marketing. It’s important

to appreciate and understand that your

content needs to change to suit the

different stages of the journey. Different

stages require content that assists the

buyer with the decisions faced at that

stage of the journey.

Content marketing allows you to

maintain a relevant conversation with

your prospect. Clearly at early stages

in the buying journey a prospect is

not necessarily ready to acknowledge

anything particularly needs to change.

So your efforts need to focus on

awareness around the benefits that

your solution can provide. Later in the

journey, when your buyer is aware of

the benefits, they are more interested in

understanding exactly what your product

or service can do for them.

The process of figuring out what content

to provide when and where in the

buyer’s journey is called building the

content map.


Nurture Leads Until They Are Sales Ready

Tip #9

Today’s buyers want to take control of

their own journey. They want to talk to

sales but only AFTER they are aware

of their problem, researched potential

solutions, and compared companies.

And the conversations they want to have

with your sales people or the principals

at your firm often takes the form of

validating what they have learned about

your company in their own research.

Which makes it important that you not

hand leads off to sales prematurely. Use

email to nurture leads – to keep you

top-of-mind with your potential buyer –

until they are ready to buy. If you know

the average prospect takes 4 months

before making a buy decision and

typically visits your website 60 times

– as is true for enterprise software

products (Source: Demandbase, 2011)

- set up your lead management system

and the handoffs between marketing

and sales accordingly.

Remember. Most people would rather

have their teeth drilled than talk to

a sales person. Introduce sales into

the equation only when the time is

right and you’ll actually find that your

close rate will go up, resulting in more

revenue.

Site Traffic

Website

Landing Pages,Microsites, Forms

Convert traffic into leads

Leads Database

Lead Scoring

Site Interactions

Sales-Ready LeadsAutomatic routing to the right

sales person at the right time

Customers

Closed-Loop FeedbackMeasure, refine, and repeat

Optimized Lead Generation System


Don’t Think the Job is Ever Done.

Tip #10

When developing content to align with

the buyers’ journey, we find the job is

never done for two reasons. First, clients

tell us that producing the kind of content

that is engaging and producing enough

content are there two biggest marketing

challenges.

You need to be constantly refreshing

your content, to bring in new buyers with

new problems and also to make yourself

findable in search and social media.

No coincidence then that the Harvard

Business Review

reported that 53% of companies

plan to outsource some or all of their

marketing function.

Second, after the sale, the buyers’

journey continues.

It makes sense to continue to leverage

content marketing to showcase how

your company is delivering value to the

Producing the Kind of Content

that Engages Prospects/

Customers

Producing Enough Content

Budget to Produce Content

Lack of Buy-In/Vision from

Higher-Ups Inside Your Company

Producing a Variety of Content

Budget to License Content

customer. A

deeper understanding of the value you

are delivering will drive your customer

to be more loyal, spend more with you

over time to up lifetime value, and turn

that customer into an evangelist for your

brand. All activities proven to reduce

your overall sales and marketing costs

and up your profitability.

Need we say more?

B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarkts, Budgets and Trends

41%

20%

18%

12%

7%1%


Today buyers’ are in control of their own buying experience, a process we’ve

referred to here as the buyers’ journey. We’ve talked about 10 ways you

can align your content to the buyers’ journey so as to generate leads and

accelerate leads.

To get started with content marketing that aligns with your buyers’ journey,

email us at [email protected]

Next Steps

156 2nd Street

San Francisco, 94105

1-415-578-7060

[email protected]

https://www.facebook.com/openmk

http://www.linkedin.com/company/openmarketing/

http://twitter.com/openmk

Open Marketing is made up

of talented professionals

prepared to parachute in to

solve your toughest content

problems. Get the content

you need to accelerate sales

and tangible results you can

measure.

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