WORKSHOP: CREATING A CONTENT STRATEGY TO ALIGN

WITH THE B2B FUNNEL

Jonathan Burg

@jonmburg

Alan Belniak

@abelniak

@MassTLC #MassTLC #B2BContent

INTRODUCTIONS

Jonathan Burg (@jonmburg)

Director of Demand Generation at Apperian Led demand generation teams at three

leading Boston technology companies Focused on using content to drive

significant increases in sales pipeline

Alan Belniak (@abelniak)

Led content and social initiatives at threecompanies over past five years (two B2B)

From social networking to launching a blog to brand journalism to standing up and implementing a content strategy

AGENDA

Level-setting: what ‘is’ content, why it matters for the B2B funnel, and the state of the union

WHAT is holding some of us back from crushing it?

WHO are your buyers? Do you really know them?

WHAT content do you need? WHAT content you already have?

WHERE does (or will) your content live? HOW will it get read? HOW often will you produce it?

B2B AND CONTENT MARKETING

of a buyer’s decision is done digitally

67%

The real message behind the 67 percent statistic is that every marketing organization must view its inbound efforts as absolutely critical to success at all stages of the buyer’s journey. Do not ignore the role of inbound marketing at later stages of the buyer’s journey, […]

-- Sirius Decisions – B2B marketing experts

WHY ‘CONTENT’?

Paid media is important, but once it gets turned off, it goes away

1. The first ranking position in the search results receives 42% of all click-through traffic

2. The second position: 12%3. Third position: 8%4. The fourth placed position on page one: 6%5. The others on the first page are under 5% of click through traffic

Focus on useful and helpful… instead of sales-y

… because your competition is

PAID VS. ORGANIC

6%

94%

click on paid search results

click on organic search results

WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATE OF CONTENT MARKETING?

How many of you are here?

BIGGEST CONTENT MARKETING HURDLES

To produce content that engages, that can be integrated, the right amount, the right variety…

You need to ask the right questions

There are a lot of excuses, but also ways to overcome these challenges

WHO IS YOUR BUYER? DO YOU REALLY KNOW THEM? Who are you talking about?

Why?

Do you fundamentally understand?

Let’s talk personas

• not the same as “buyer profiles”• understanding who your buyer really is

“IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S ME.”

IF CREDIBILITY IS THE GOAL…

ALIGNING CONTENT TO WHAT YOUR BUYERS NEED

SiriusDecisions 2014

PERSONA DEVELOPMENT

“Are you marketing to buildings or people (SiriusDecisions 2014)?” What is their industry? Who is the company? Where are they located? Who are the buyers and who are the users? What are their goals? What are their challenges? How do they solve their challenges? What is their day-in-the-life? Who are their team members? Where do they get their information? What is their commute like? What do they do for fun? What do they like to eat?

Write, design, and create for your personas

GROUP DISCUSSION

What keeps your audience up at night (honestly)?

Not “how you want to speak to your market” but instead “these are the issues that they really have; that our sales team hears; that we see on Twitter”…

Focus on each different influencer, buyer, and user.Do you know how your audience currently solve these pains? If so,

how? If not, why not?

What pains do you currently talk about solving for your audience (once you know their pains)?

Do they care? Vitamin or medicine?

KEY TAKE-AWAY

Listen to your customers

Shadow prospecting calls Go on customer visits Create team goals to generate a culture of customer

orientation

Create + use personas

Segment, segment, segment Know who your buyers, users, and influencers in your

segments are Use personas to drive your campaign messaging framework

WHAT CONTENT DO I NEED?

What content do I need to fuel my go-to-market plan?

How do I make order out of the current content I have?

Early Stage

Little or no brand recognition – many competitors

A new problem or new solution or both

Marketing Mix

High quantity High quality

Events Sponsorships Direct MailSEO/SEMAdvertising

Surveys3rd Party

ResearchSeminarsWebinarsWhitepapers VIP Events

Ou

trea

chO

ffer

s

Credibility Trial ChampionAwareness Interest

DemosCase Studies

ALIGNING CONTENT AND CHANNELS TO THE BUSINESS

Even Distribution

Some brand recognition – a few competitors

A new solution to an existing challenge

Marketing Mix

High quantity High quality

Events Sponsorships Direct MailSEO/SEMAdvertising

Surveys3rd Party

ResearchSeminarsWebinarsWhitepapers VIP Events

Ou

trea

chO

ffer

s

Credibility Trial ChampionAwareness Interest

DemosCase Studies

ALIGNING CONTENT AND CHANNELS TO THE BUSINESS

Late Stage

Strong brand recognition – consolidated

An accepted solution

Marketing Mix

High quantity High quality

Events Sponsorships Direct MailSEO/SEMAdvertising

Surveys3rd Party

ResearchSeminarsWebinarsWhitepapers VIP Events

Ou

trea

chO

ffer

s

Credibility Trial ChampionAwareness Interest

DemosCase Studies

ALIGNING CONTENT AND CHANNELS TO THE BUSINESS

AUDIT YOUR CONTENT

10

5

10

15

20

25

30

Demo/VideoResearch/SurveyWebinar WhitepaperProduct InfoCase Study

Buying Stage

As

se

t C

ou

nt

GROUP DISCUSSION

Describe the current state of your content.

Do you have content now that speaks to your audiences?

Based on what you’ve heard so far, and understanding your buyers and markets, decide on which areas/facets you should be auditing your content.

What gaps do you have (or have had)?

How are you going to fill these gaps?Or, how have you solved these in the past?

KEY TAKE-AWAY

Align your content to your go-to-market and industry

Audit what you already have

Audit everything, and on all relevant criteria

Ensure or work toward having enough content for all stages of the buy cycle

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR CONTENT?

INBOUND TACTICS (FOR TODAY, JUST SOCIAL MEDIA)

You need to activate that content

Let people know it’s there

Promote, smartly, via

LinkedIn Twitter Google+ Facebook (notice the order)

Be where your customers are

Know that social networks are rented land

The goal is to get them back to your site – you own + control that

OUTBOUND TACTICS

Early

Content syndication / advertising Partnering with top publications Integrated programs to subscribers

Middle

Digital and Live events Integrated programs of subscriber

base

Late

Appointment setting Target account acceleration tactics and

programs

All tactics and programs bound by messaging framework

ANOTHER TYPE OF AUDIT Where do your buyers go?

Need to populate with the publisher audit

THEY SUBSCRIBED … NOW MAKE IT EASY

TAKE AN INTEGRATED APPROACH WITH CONTENT

Start with buyer persona/s

Develop content aligned to the different stages

Think about the optimal channels for disseminating that content

Have inbound, outbound, and nurturing tactics / programs all align with your core message

Your inbound, outbound, and nurturing programs will all rise

MESSAGING FRAMEWORK & CONTENT STRATEGY

= PERPETUAL CONTENT MARKETING

INBOUND+

OUTBOUND+

NURTURING+

QUALIFICATION

GROUP DISCUSSION

Does all of your content go to all of your channels? Does it all work equally well at driving traffic back to your site?

Where do your customers do their research?

Is it different for different personas?Are some more valuable than others,per stage of the buy cycle?

Do you have a good relationship with a media partner? What does it look like and how did you build it?

How do you make this work all together at your organization?

KEY TAKE-AWAY

Don’t think of inbound and outbound separately

All tactics and programs must be bound by messaging framework and content strategy

Think big, start small. Compartmentalize it:

Quarter by quarter, month by month, week by week ID topics, products, services One to three times a week Mix of creation and curation Vary the formats

Start to build relationships with the three most impactful places to start disseminating your content

Look at the results

WHEN DO I CREATE CONTENT?HOW OFTEN? HOW MUCH? Often enough, but not too often

WRAPPING UP

Start with understanding who you are going after

Understand what makes them tick and what they want

Understand that content that is helpful and less pitchy gets shared

Start with some value, quid pro quo (registration) for more content (conversion)

Re-purpose some existing time to focus on new content

Re-use some of what you already have

Get it in front of them in the right places, with a goal to drive them back to your site

QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, STORIES

Ask us anything*

Share what you thought

Tell us one of your stories

* almost anything

SOURCES https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitfall!

http://www.siriusdecisions.com/blog/three-myths-of-the-67-percent-statistic/

http://www.siriusdecisions.com/blog/are-you-marketing-to-buildings-or-people/

http://www.leadformix.com/blog/2013/03/how-to-handle-the-bottom-of-the-funnel/

http://www.siriusdecisions.com/live/home/document.php?dA=CSRBuildingaContentStrategy

http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/07/14/10-facts-reveal-the-importance-of-ranking-high-in-google/

http://digitalsynopsis.com/tools/google-serp-design/

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2200730/Organic-vs.-Paid-Search-Results-Organic-Wins-94-of-Time

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/

http://www.slideshare.net/CMI/b2b-content-marketing-2014-benchmarks-budgets-trends-north-america-by-content-marketing-institute-and-marketingprofs

http://www.recourseresource.com/blog/employee-engagement/its-not-youits-me/

http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/online/what-b2b-buyers-want-to-see-on-vendor-websites-41272/attachment/komarketinghuff-top-b2b-vendor-site-content-establishing-credibility-mar2014/

http://benstroup.com/2013/08/22/the-who-what-and-why-of-brand-journalism/

http://gapingvoid.com/2008/06/13/now-what/

http://www.brassmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CU-content.png

http://www.slideshare.net/KevinCain1/0-to-60

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/

http://www.copyblogger.com/archives

http://moz.com/pages/search_results?q=content%20marketing

http://www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/library/102/content

http://www.contentrulesbook.com/

http://www.velocitypartners.co.uk/

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2014/03/why-we-shouldnt-drop-the-phrase-content-marketing/ (scroll down to ‘Schneider Electric)

HANDOUTS

WORKSHOP HANDOUTS:

CREATING A CONTENT STRATEGY TO ALIGN WITH THE

B2B FUNNEL

Jonathan Burg

@jonmburg

Alan Belniak

@abelniak

@MassTLC #MassTLC #B2BContent

GROUP DISCUSSION #1What keeps your audience up at night (honestly)?

Answer “these are the issues that they really have; that our sales team hears; that we see on Twitter”…

Focus on each different influencer, buyer, and user.

How does your audience currently solve these pains?

What pains do you currently talk about solving for your audience (once you know their pains)?

Do they care?

What is their industry? Where are they located? Who is the company? Who are the buyers and who are

the users? What are their goals? What are their challenges? How do they solve their

challenges? What is their day-in-the-life? Who are their team members? Where do they get their

information? What is their commute like? What do they do for fun? What do they like to eat?

WORKSHEET #1This Pains My Customer We Have This as a

Feature….… that Translates into This

as a Benefit

1.

2.

3.

4.

Influencers Buyers Users

1.

2.

3.

4.

GROUP DISCUSSION #2Describe the current state of your content.

Do you have content now that speaks to your audiences?

On which areas/facets do you think you should be auditing your content?

What gaps do you have (or have had)? How are you going to fill these gaps (or, how have you solved these in the past)?

What Are Your Audit Variables?

WORKSHEET #2A

Asset/format Awareness Consideration Close

List + plot your “go-to” assets

A nice guide

Where are you deep? Shallow?

WORKSHEET #2B  Q1 Q2  January February March April May June

Line of Business 1

Product/Service 1

Product/Service 2

Product/Service 3

Line of Business 2

Product/Service 1

GROUP DISCUSSION #3Does all of your content go to all of your channels? Does it all work equally well at driving traffic back to your site?

Where do your customers do research?

Do you have a good relationship with a media partner? What does it look like and how did you build it?

How do you integrate these efforts at your organization?

Media Partner / Publication Audit

Media Partner / Channel Readership Subscription size Media Channels Topics /

Reputation Value per Program

Weight 30% 20% 15% 25% 10%