Developing Customer-Centric Nurturing Content

A Better B2B Marketing Clinic

by Nolin LeChasseur Brainrider

@Brainrider | @Nolin

Better Content is…

•  Driven by objectives •  Customer-focused •  Demonstrates subject

matter expertise •  Supports your programs •  Easy to publish & share •  Measurable performance

YOU ARE HERE

(Your Customer is here) @Brainrider | @Nolin

Better content!is not about !

you.

Customers Want Content That Helps Them Solve Problems…

@Brainrider | @Nolin

… Aligned To Their Buying Decision

5  

If your customer is asking:

What’s my problem

How do I fix my problem

Are you right for me

They want:

Education & Thought Leadership

Solutions & Product Suitability

Credentials & Decision Support

What to share

with them:

• Trends • Benchmarks • Analyst coverage • 101 Education • How to guides • How other people are solving this

• What is the solution & how does it work

• Solution comparisons • Pitfall analysis • Readiness & suitability assessments

• How do I choose a vendor

• Pricing • Bench strength demonstration

• Case studies • ROI/TCO • How to buy • Working with us

@Brainrider | @Nolin

… Aligned With Your Programs

If your customer is asking:

What’s my problem

How do I fix my problem

Are you right for me

They want:

Education & Thought Leadership

Solutions & Product Suitability

Credentials & Decision Support

What to share

with them:

• Trends • Benchmarks • Analyst coverage • 101 Education • How to guides • How other people are solving this

• What is the solution & how does it work

• Solution comparisons • Pitfall analysis • Readiness & suitability assessments

• How do I choose a vendor

• Pricing • Bench strength demonstration

• Case studies • ROI/TCO • How to buy • Working with us

Program Objective:

ACQUIRE  PROSPECTS  

NURTURE  PROSPECTS  

DETERMINE  SALES-­‐READINESS  

@Brainrider | @Nolin

How to Build A Content Strategy

q  Prioritize measurable objectives

q  Articulate the business you’re in using customer terms

q  Profile your target customer segments

q  Identify content that’s working now

q  Develop content aligned with what your customer wants to know

@Brainrider | @Nolin

Identify customer needs & pains

•  How to … •  How do I … •  Do I need more/less … •  Should we … •  Comparing … •  Choosing a …

@Brainrider | @Nolin

How the process might look

9  

Organize by customer needs & pains

How the end result should look

@Brainrider | @Nolin

Better Nurturing Content Clinic

q  Be Customer-Focused

q  Start with Light Content

q  Make It Findable

q  Measure What Works

@Brainrider | @Nolin

Clinic: EnergyCAP - Barry

TARGET AUDIENCE §  Corporate energy managers and/or their information-gatherers §  Stakeholders in monitoring and reducing energy use and cost

(accounting/sustainability/admin).

PROBLEM(S) YOU SOLVE Leverage historical energy data to create actionable energy management objectives.

HOW ARE YOU DOING NOW? We think we have created a website that explains what we do pretty well up front, and provides decent search and navigation so the interested visitor can drill down into the details of our full-featured application.

Clinic: EnergyCAP - Barry

Organize navigation in a customer-focused way

Clinic: EnergyCAP - Barry

Raise the profile and interactivity of customer

needs & pains

Track engagement with nurturing and sales readiness content

Clinic: SURFACES – Kelly & April

TARGET AUDIENCE Floor covering manufacturers/suppliers and industry professionals such as small, medium, large retailers, distributors, installers, designers, architects, and home builders

PROBLEM(S) YOU SOLVE Buy and sell products, network with peers, receive continuing education credits

HOW ARE YOU DOING NOW? Website serves its main purpose which is to give attendees and exhibitors the information they need to register or sign up to participate in our show and it provides key information pertinent to the show, but falls short in providing rich, relevant content that drives traffic to the site year round.

Merchandise and feature content that is useful and

educational

Increase the visibility of content and programs

designed for customers

Enrich and leverage your

educational content

Even the trade news site isn’t using relevant

categories yet.

Clinic: Frontline K12 – Ali & Julia

TARGET AUDIENCE K-12 School District Administrators  

PROBLEM(S) YOU SOLVE Automate processes that take a lot of time and paperwork: scheduling substitute teachers, tracking teacher absences, tracking time worked, managing teacher evaluations

HOW ARE YOU DOING NOW? I think our content does a good job explaining the product and the benefits. I think we could do a better job of highlighting the specific problems so that people see their pain points and resonate with them – and then we provide them with the solution and benefits.

Clinic: Frontline K12 – Ali & Julia

Condense the About You content into less (and

less valuable) real estate

Make your 3 pain points the stars! These can serve as navigation & categories.

Clinic: Frontline K12 – Ali & Julia

Expose the 3 topic areas here, and make them bookmarkable pages

Clinic: Frontline K12 – Ali & Julia

Nice engagement tracking work!

Capture more leads.

Clinic: GPS Insight - Ryan

TARGET AUDIENCE fleet managers and executives for service companies covering an array of verticals. ex: HVAC, plumbing, delivery, construction, energy, oil & gas, etc.

PROBLEM(S) YOU SOLVE Track vehicles to cut fuel costs, improve employee productivity, reduce labor costs, increase safety, improve response times to service calls and emergencies, and increase customer service.

HOW ARE YOU DOING NOW? We have worked really hard on our website and think that we do a good job at presenting the wealth of information we have to our potential customers. We make the most important information easy to find and provide a ton of resources for our prospects to utilize.

Nice use of needs/benefits as features. These can be further elevated and used to

organize content throughout the site.

Should be merchandising content assets here.

Reduce the # of clicks.

Same needs/benefits categories should apply to blog resources, too.

Add Pardot tracking code.

Merge with main site.

What next?

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