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CEB Marketing to Small Business Leadership Council

Small Business Content Marketing: A New Way Forward

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Small business owners are becoming an increasingly difficult demographic for marketers to reach.

Changes in the greater consumer mind-set regarding traditional marketing have begun to bleed into the small business market, with owners increasingly disregarding or disengaging with once-successful tactics.

As a result, marketers are exploring different strategies (especially content marketing) to overcome the new hurdles in marketing to this segment.

Small Business Owner Marketing Dynamics

Decreasing Attention Span33% of owners only read the title and the first few sentences of a piece of content.

Rising Knowledge and Savvy of Average ConsumerOwners are 63% of the way through the purchase process before engaging with a supplier rep.

Rejection of Commercial Messages54% of owners seldom or never open e-mail from suppliers.

Growing Distrust of Advertising Messages27% of owners are frustrated by pressure to buy when just trying to learn.

An Aversion to Marketing

n = 1,070 (December 2013, North America); n = 1,202 (July 2015, North America); n = 1,284 (August 2015, North America).Source: CEB analysis.

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n = 1,069.Source: CEB analysis.

20+ Pieces Consumed6+ Hours Spent

Nearly 50% of owners who are consuming content are not actively shopping or researching a specific purchase.

Current content marketing strategies that focus on winning attention, recall, and preference don’t meet expectations because:

• Owners struggle to recall authorship details shortly after consuming content.

Despite their lack of content retention, owners spend a significant amount of time and effort learning for their businesses.

An Appetite for Content

Weekly Content Consumption HabitsAccording to Owners

22% Columns by Business Experts

11% Small Biz Case Studies and Testimonials

30% Business Tips and Hints

25% Industry/Market Analysis and Research

Types of Content Consumed% Owners, in the Past Week

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84%of marketers are planning to increase their spend on content.

Marketers still lack confidence in their content marketing strategies:

• Marketers share excitement around content marketing but often struggle to understand its role in the business owner’s purchase journey.

• Many marketers are trapped in a cycle of constantly creating new content without adequately strategizing on its value.

To measure content effectiveness, marketers must identify and facilitate key owner actions.

That is just a start—measuring effectiveness is not enough.

Explosion of Content

Portion of B2B MarketingFrom 2015–2016

B2B Predicted Change in Content Marketing BudgetsFrom 2015–2016

n = 93.Source: CEB Marketing 2016 Content Strategy Diagnostic.

Content marketing continues to dominate B2B marketing budgets.

n = 134. Source: CEB Marketing 2015–2016 Budget & Spend Survey.

Content Marketing

Other45%55%

To create content that stands out, you must do three things.

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53% Browse

Form

Share

35%

29%n = 1,261 (North America).Source: CEB analysis.

Content without a clear directive misses an opportunity to keep owners reading, as well as the opportunity to track engagement. Only 46% of content in our study had a call to action.

Immediately after consuming valuable content, owners want to do more.

• Use short content consumption funnel forms.

• Clearly state what information owners will receive.

• Indicate frequency of communications.

1. Drive Action

Content lacking a directive sabotages efforts to establish content effectiveness.

Owner Likelihood to Take Action on Content% of owners likely to take action after consuming supplier content

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Approximately 80% of small business owners are using social media for business purposes. Sharing is the most powerful action, as small business owners reach out to one another more than any other source when seeking information.

• Scrutinize shareworthy content thoroughly.• Provide a focused list of social media

platform options.• Keep share functionality front and center.• Much of the supplier content that, owners

consume comes from suppliers they’re already a customer of—63% of supplier content is consumed by existing consumers.

2. Foster Sharing

Content must be valuable and easy to share before owners will potentially share with their network.

of owners would be willing to share your content online...

...but only

of these owners shared the last piece of content they saw.

1/4

29%

Features of Shared ContentIndexed Data

Source: CEB analysis.

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n = 1,261 NA.Source: CEB analysis.

“It changed my point of view about the subject.”

“It raised additional questions about the subject.”

3.3x

x

2.2x

x

Unshared Content

Shared Content

Marketers must avoid generically helpful content that anyone could produce and focus on topics where they are especially credible and can offer a differentiated perspective.

Marketers can create content that stands out by making it timely and relevant to the customer needs that their organization uniquely fulfills.

3. Differentiate

Features of Shared ContentIndexed Data

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Putting It All Together

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Download Our Content Marketing Cheat Sheet

Marketers need a content marketing strategy that builds on the attitudes

and actions owners exhibit.

The Role of Content• Produce content that ties

to timely and relevant needs that your business can uniquely satisfy.

• Drive consumption through shareability.

Driving Action Through Content• Insert calls to action

in content pieces and content hubs.

• Make it easy for owners to take action.

Creating High– Impact Content• Shared content changes

perspectives and raises additional questions.

• Producing this type of content systematically requires a defined editorial line.

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CEB is a best practice insight and technology company. In partnership with leading organizations around the globe, we develop innovative solutions to drive corporate performance. CEB equips leaders at more than 10,000 companies with the intelligence to effectively manage talent, customers, and operations. CEB is a trusted partner to nearly 90% of the Fortune 500 and FTSE 100, and more than 70% of the Dow Jones Asian Titans. More at cebglobal.com.

The CEB Marketing to Small Business Leadership Council supports your marketing team at every stage. We help you identify what matters most to business owners when selecting a winning offer among a shortlist of suppliers and show what suppliers can do to tip the scales in their favor and win the sale.

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