Garnering Success Through Content Strategy
Finding fresh ways to engage at each stage of the buyer’s journey is crucial to maintaining a consistent flow of prospects through the marketing funnel, especially in light of the fact that traditional content is oversaturating the web and overwhelming prospects. A complex blend of entertaining, educating, and convincing, content marketing calls for the use of numerous formats. Businesses may approach prospects in a totally unique way that strengthens their relationships and advances the business after understanding how to blend several content formats and strategies.
Once touchpoints that need to be optimized have been identified. It’s time to create an effective content strategy that suits each touchpoint (and persona) to create a positive experience. We advise approaching this per customer journey phase and business objective to achieve synergy.
Awareness Phase
Once a customer enters the awareness phase, they are searching for solutions, resources, education etc. As a marketer, you want to provide valuable content that can underpin all these actions and inspire the customer to go even further. Stong awareness strategies will allow the customer to discover solutions and identify new challenges they might not have considered in the past.
For example, a MarTech provider can highlight solutions using case studies, but helping a customer understand why they might be experiencing challenges by identifying gaps in their internal team workflow, can distinguish the business from competitors by going the extra mile.
As previously discussed, a one size fits all approach does not exist regarding content; this allows marketers to understand that some content strategies can be more valuable than others. For example, customers seeking explicit solutions to a well-known problem could benefit from the strategic application of a thought leadership campaign that’s supported through strong downloadable white papers, video tutorials, written research, and blog posts.
In addition, virtual events can promote the collection of a significant number of qualified leads (attendees) as long as the material (or in this case content) shared is current, unique, and offers solutions. Furthermore, virtual events allow for real-time feedback collection, allowing marketers to understand the real-time desires and challenges customers might face.
It is important to note that while B2B continues to transition into largely digital, B2B firms today continue to see success offline. Speaking engagements, panels, trade exhibitions, conferences, and other networking events continue to propel business visibility and nurture strong relationships that will support cultivating a reputation as an industry authority.
Consideration Phase
Your customer is well aware of who your brand is and might be closer to making a decision. This stage isn’t the time to offer promotions or a curated sales pitch. Instead, this is the time to nurture the lead with relevant intel. Helping individuals assess options, distinguish between providers, and minimize any risk connected with their choice is the main goal of the consideration material. At this point, content ought to answer questions like “why do I need the service or product you provide?” and “why is this one the best one?”
The latest to get better results from your content marketing efforts is to set up personalized nurture journeys. Based on the actions that customers have performed on your website, automation systems can nurture prospects. For example, marketers may program automated emails and chat prompts that are tailored to the assets that users have downloaded, the pages they have browsed, how often they have visited your website, and much more.
In addition, gated material, like eBooks and whitepapers, is effective at this level since it allows you to remarket to leads and move them further down the sales funnel. In-depth information is provided by other instructional materials like case studies and vendor comparative guides, which also highlight your brand’s domain knowledge.
At the same time, a popular strategy in the consideration stage is to target accounts that have already visited your website with Google remarketing advertisements (Paid Media). In the B2B market, LinkedIn has seen an increase in the use of paid media. With the help of LinkedIn retargeting, marketers can establish audiences and retarget people depending on their behavior, including whether they watched a video ad or interacted with the corporate page. In addition, studies reveal that 96% of executives prefer to find content on LinkedIn.
Decision Phase
This phase is the time to explain to leads how your product or service works, what they can expect as customers, and what discounts and assurances you may offer.
The objective is to turn promising prospects into business opportunities and, naturally, customers. This objective paves the road for the marketing and sales team to work very closely and execute content that will inspire your prospects to close the deal.
It is essential to leverage the collected data from the prior phases to create the “perfect” personalized demo. Where marketers open the doors for customers to experience the product or service, adding personalized touches that have been captured while nurturing this lead while showcasing how solutions operate and how incorporating this product or service will help their customers business achieve greater success.
Once a customer makes a decisions. There’s opportunity to increase return on investment by exciting your customers and giving them a cause to promote your business to others.
B2B: Looking Ahead
The word “everchanging” will continue to describe the B2B sector best. While new technology continues to inspire ways to access customers and influence the journey, it is the marketer’s responsibility to stay ahead of the game by understanding the meaning of the present while predicting how the future will soon change.
One space B2B brands will have to figure out sooner rather than later: TikTok! We remember when we had to convince our B2B marketing partners to hop on the Facebook train over 10 years ago. We’re now having similar conversations with TikTok. B2B brands don’t get it yet, this is the next Facebook x10. Those that don’t adopt and understand this channel soon, will surely miss out on a target audience that is about to make up a majority of tomorrow’s buying power
Final Thoughts
B2B customer experiences that are personalized and meaningful continue to demonstrate enhanced business outcomes. In addition, the trust that new customers have in goods and services is increased by loyal customers, who also have the potential to bring repeat business. The growth opportunity that can be obtained by developing a solid client base that repurchases, renews, and advocates for your brand makes investing in your B2B customer journey strategically valuable.But remember, each customer’s path can be unique. So we continue to inspire and invite marketers to ask themselves two questions:
- How continuously can you scale improvements and customizations to every customer experience?
- How can customer loyalty be used to drive growth?
Lastly, by pleasing buyers at every stage of their journey—from lead to prospect to customer to repeat customer—marketers must aim to build their trust and raise the worth of each connection through the development more customer-centric methods that will battle the shift from the hard pitch to the more responsive to connections made from personalized and intentional interactions.
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