We now can generate extra content material than ever earlier than, however ought to we? What if we knew what consumers wished and made extra of that as a substitute of manufacturing what’s quick and/or simple?
Final month, I shared insights from our analysis highlighting the hole between content material advertising and the customer’s journey.
Particularly, roughly 80% of closed gross sales offers we evaluated couldn’t be linked to advertising content material. Naturally, that led us to the query: what content material did we discover that we may hook up with the journey?
The forms of content material that resonate with purchasers
We analyzed shopper gross sales and advertising information from 5 industries and carried out main analysis with consumers and gross sales representatives (SDR/BDR/AM/CSMs). The content material we found match into one of many following 4 classes.
Case research/use instances
Opposite to standard knowledge, we discovered that case research have been used/consumed at the start of the customer’s journey relatively than later. BDRs/SDRs used business case research or solution-specific use instances to construct credibility early within the dialog.
Occasions
Content material associated to person occasions acquired appreciable consideration. Business occasions the place firms sponsored or offered audio system additionally carried out very nicely.
Webinars have been hit and miss. Most curiosity went towards subjects associated to business developments or use instances. We additionally discovered that attendee-to-lead conversion was more and more harder in late 2023 and 2024.
Analysis
Analysis carried out nicely in sure industries. In skilled providers, cybersecurity and life sciences analysis on sizzling subjects (AI, threats, market dynamics) have been the most effective performers.
We discovered that content material syndication generated curiosity however didn’t convert nicely to sales-qualified leads (SQLs). Moreover, interviews revealed that analysis was, for probably the most half, under-leveraged by gross sales.
Dig deeper: A B2B marketer’s information to long-form content material
Web site
Whereas not conventional content material advertising, a web site is a supply of content material. Utilizing GA, Demandbase and 6Sense, we discovered that consumers hit the net at the start and finish of the gross sales course of.
Nevertheless, we didn’t discover a constant sample. As a result of advertising directed audiences to particular touchdown pages, it’s tough to measure real curiosity. We did discover that electronic mail campaigns, in contrast to content material syndication campaigns, led to spikes in net site visitors.
Recognizing your viewers’s content material preferences
That is under no circumstances an entire record. As I discussed, visibility points between gross sales and advertising programs did restrict our capacity to see all content material.
Even so, right here’s the purpose. Prospects have a choice for sure content material. The identical will be stated for consumers and clients. Understanding that choice may current a possibility to do extra with much less.
Consider it this fashion: We discovered that some firms have a bit of content material that’s, in a way, a “model.” It may very well be one thing well-known within the business or produced yearly, just like the report talked about above.
As an alternative of being on the content material hamster wheel, pumping out increasingly content material, you might deal with getting extra worth out of the branded content material and “atomizing” it.
What does that imply? For instance, the analysis report I simply talked about will be mined for brand spanking new, smaller items of content material. Most stories have a heavier cognitive load than most consideration spans will tolerate at one time, so breaking the insights into smaller items will improve consumption.
Take a bit every quarter and switch it into an book that includes one subject. Use eye-catching graphs for month-to-month social media posts. Create a quarterly webinar on a discovering and use the attendees to construct your survey record for subsequent yr’s report.
The identical factor will be performed with occasions. Over six months, tease the audio system, venue, attendees, presentation, and so on.
There’s an undervalued alternative to create better-performing property by leveraging what you may have already constructed relatively than constructing new ones. It’s onerous to achieve mindshare with audiences. When you have identified content material, hold reinforcing the worth of the data.
The purpose of content material advertising is consumption, not creation. Focusing extra of your efforts and assets on doing extra with what’s being consumed will cut back the necessity for creating new content material.
Dig deeper: B2B content material advertising: Driving success by strategic content material creation
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