How to Match Your B2B Content to Your Sales Funnel

800-‐920-‐7227 | www.pinpointe.com www.pinpointe.com

HOW TO MATCH YOUR B2B CONTENT TO YOUR SALES FUNNEL

A Strategy for Success

Presented by Reggie Brady

800-‐920-‐7227 | www.pinpointe.com

PRESENTER

Reggie Brady Expert Email Consultant Reggie Brady MarkeBng SoluBons Strategic e-‐Marke=ng Agency [email protected] | 203 838-‐8138 www.linkedin.com/in/reggiebrady

MODERATOR Eryn Branham Pinpointe On-‐Demand, Inc. [email protected] 800-‐920-‐7227

•  Strategic marke=ng leader with 20+ years of experience on the client and service side

•  Target Marke=ng Magazine -‐ Advisory Board

•  Current NYU Adjunct Professor


•  Employing compelling content to engage your lead

•  Mapping content to the sales cycle

•  How to iden=fy where your lead is in the sales funnel

•  4 takeaways you can put to work for your business


EMPLOYING ENGAGING CONTENT

“To create great content that has the poten<al for people to share it … you can’t be talking about your products. You need to think about the informa<on you can create that will help solve the problem your audience cares about.”

Image source: ZakPrauer.com

David Meerman ScoN Marke=ng Strategist and

Best-‐Selling Author


GOALS FOR CONTENT MARKETING

Marketers are adop=ng content marke=ng strategies to achieve a variety of goals.

Source: Content Marke=ng Ins=tute & Marke=ng Profs B2B Content Marke=ng 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends


B2B AND NURTURING LEADS B2B has many challenges: •  Sales cycles are typically long

•  Prospects are at different stages of the buying cycle and the company needs to deal with each stage in an orchestrated fashion

•  In sales driven organiza=ons it’s all about qualifying a lead to determine there’s true interest before a salesperson actually contacts the lead


B2B AND NURTURING LEADS Most B2B leads are not ready to turn over to sales – 73% are not qualified enough.

Marke=ngSherpa B2B Marke=ng Benchmark Survey 6-‐11


DON’T GET OVERWHELMED BY CONTENT CREATION…


MOST MARKETERS HAVE MANY CONTENT SOURCES

•  Email newsleeer ar=cles from past and present

• Website ar=cles

• White papers

•  Research reports •  Case studies

• Webinars and webcasts

•  Videos •  Tes=monials

•  eBooks •  Trade show collateral •  PR releases


CONTENT MARKETING AUDIT

Step 1: Take an inventory of your content

This can be mind-‐numbing … but you need to know what content you

have. To start, do this for top 150 pieces of content. Sample Content Inventory Tracker from Kim Gusta Marke=ng


•  Content marke=ng done right takes =me. •  Any new content you create (which takes company

resources and a =me investment) should be leveraged across channels.

Tip: Every new piece of content should be leveraged across 4 – 5 channels and/or content publishing methods.

LEVERAGE YOUR CONTENT


Let’s use today’s session as an example. I could re-‐purpose this content into: •  One or more blog posts •  A feature story in my email newsleeer •  An ar=cle in trade publica=ons •  A short YouTube video •  A white paper •  A How to Get Started Guide

The content would be different in each channel, but I am maximizing my =me investment.



To get the word out, I could also post links on my site, on my social channels and even send out a press release. If you can’t figure out ways to re-‐purpose new content develop ini=a=ves, they may not be worth pursuing



MAPPING CONTENT TO THE SALES CYCLE

•  Content and offers need to change depending on where a lead is in the sales cycle.

AWARENESS

INTEREST

EVALUATION

COMMITMENT

BUY


B2B CONTENT FOR NURTURING LEADS EMC Strategy for Personalized Content

3 BUYING PROCESS STAGES 9 SOLUTIONS OF INTEREST ①   Backup & Recovery ②   InformaBon Security

③   Business ConBnuity ④   Content Management

⑤   Oracle

⑥   Microsof

⑦   SAP

⑧   Storage ⑨   VirtualizaBon

①   Early: prospect researching a soluBon •  High level overviews •  Analyst whitepapers

②  Middle: prospect evaluaBng vendors

•  Customer case studies

•  In-‐depth technical notes

③   Late: prospect ready to buy •  Product spec sheets

•  Technical whitepapers

Three stages Bmes 9 Tracks plus staged communicaBons Source: Joel Book – Exact Target Advanced Email Marke=ng


MAPPING CONTENT TO THE SALES CYCLE

•  Depending on the stage email focus will change:

•  Early Stage Provides EducaBon •  Reach them with links to online demos, white papers, eBooks, webinars, YouTube content, and other thought leadership resources

•  Middle Stage Provides Targeted InformaBon •  Provide them links to buyers guides, seminars, live demos, technical white papers, and RFP templates and industry informa=on to help structure research

•  Late Stage Provides Answers •  Give them links to product comparisons, free trials, case studies, pricing, and company-‐specific informa=on to help evaluate and reaffirm selec=on


SALES CYCLE CAMPAIGN Scenario 1 -‐ Simple

Day 1 – Automated introductory email offering white paper on registra=on topic of interest

Day 5 – Offer new site content related to first download

and / or subsequent website ac=vity Day 10 – Webinar invita=on related to topic of interest Day 15 – Link to site resources on topic of interest Day 20 – Best prac=ces white paper on topic of interest


SALES CYCLE CAMPAIGN Scenario 2 – Automated

Day 1 – Automated introductory email offering white paper on registraBon topic of interest •  IF did link to white paper; THEN send email thanking them and sugges=ng other

resources •  IF did not link to white paper; THEN send email explaining other benefits of white

paper Day 5 – Offer new site content related to first download and / or subsequent website acBvity

•  IF did link to site content; THEN send email with feature comparison guide •  IF did not link to site content; THEN send informa=on about related ar=cle

Day 10 – Webinar invitaBon related to topic of interest

•  IF did register for webinar; THEN automa=cally send confirma=on and two reminder messages

•  IF did not register for webinar; THEN send a follow-‐up promo=on invi=ng them to aeend and stress different benefits


HOW TO IDENTIFY WHERE YOUR LEAD IS IN THE SALES CYCLE

Your lead will send you signals in several ways: ①   How long have they been interacBng

with your site? ②   What you know about them?

ü Title, Func=on, Company size and Industry ü Source of email address ü Their behavior with email and on site

③   What types of content are they viewing? ④   How ofen are they visiBng the site?

BU

AWARENESS

INTEREST

EVALUATION

COMMITMENT

BUY


Examine your cookies: •  A first =me visitor may be earlier in the cycle •  Someone who has visited mul=ple =mes is probably further along •  Also look at what pages they visit

ü A visit to the home page is certainly not as valuable as those who are viewing specific content

YOU NEED TO USE A COMBINATION OF FACTORS


•  Many site visitors are ini=ally anonymous •  Through cookies and unified tracking you can iden=fy the lead when they provide their informa=on. This allows you to connect the dots.

ANONYMOUS JOHN ü  Mul=ple visits to site ü  Visited blog ü  Read 4 key pages on site

with detailed informa=on

ü  Registered to download white paper Now we know him! And, we can =e back prior behavior.



Be sure to capture appropriate informaBon for future markeBng use as they register for webinars, white papers and other valuable informaBon •  Title can tell you a lot

ü A CFO is not normally involved un=l the final stages of considera=on. ü A lower level =tle could indicate ini=al explora=on and research



Do you have mulBple people from the same company interacBng with you based on the registraBon informaBon captured?

ü  That’s a signal the company is deeper down the sales funnel




Look at what types of content they interact with as they link from emails: •  Does the content relate to how you categorize a par=cular stage of

your sales cycle? •  When they do link to your site, how long do they stay on the page and

do they link to addi=onal pages or resources? ü Can you learn from this?

•  Those who take the =me to fill out registra=on forms tend to have a more serious level of interest ü Again, map the content registered for to a stage in the sales cycle

•  Those who register and then show up for a webinar are evidencing significant interest, since this is a major =me investment


ESP AND WEBSITE INTEGRATION

•  Some Email Service Providers (ESP) offer tracking tools that =e in with major Web analy=cs plarorms

•  This allows marketers to have beeer insights into web visitors as they move from visitors, to prospects and to converted leads


4 KEY TAKEAWAYS

①   Conduct a content audit to understand what you have •  Most marketers actually have a lot of content if they look at the website, past emails, social and marke=ng collateral

•  Evaluate the content – are there any significant pieces that need to be updated

•  Are there any really important gaps?

②   Determine how you will re-‐purpose content for mulBple uses across mulBple channels •  Categorize your content as to what stages of the sales cycle it addresses

•  Leverage your strong assets


4 KEY TAKEAWAYS

③   Put on your markeBng hat and develop a sequence of offers and communicaBons to support the different stages of the sales cycle •  Ideally you should have a minimum of 3 -‐ 4 offers and content for each stage

•  Have a plan to use email, your website and social to support your communica=on strategy

④   Analyze and evaluate •  Site visitors and the signals they send based upon content viewed •  Firmographic informa=on provides informa=on your can use •  What content and offers for each stage are the most compelling? •  For content and offers that are not garnering enough interest, assess how and whether you should develop replacement content and offers


Try Pinpointe’s Email MarkeBng SoluBon for FREE. Easily create automated campaign sequences. www.pinpointe.com/get-‐started Select program & enter code PPTWEBNR FREE MONTH of Pinpointe Service (limit 1 million emails)

THANK YOU! We appreciate you taking the =me to watch this today!

FOLLOW PINPOINTE for marke=ng =ps & info CHECK OUT OUR BLOG

for more great marke=ng content

hep://www.pinpointe.com/blog/ @pinpointe

www.facebook.com/Pinpointe

www.linkedin.com/company/pinpointe

How to Match Your B2B Content to Your Sales Funnel

Marketing

Transcript of How to Match Your B2B Content to Your Sales Funnel