What B2B content marketers get wrong

You know that advice that every piece of B2B content should have a clear CTA? It's bogus. In fact, the piece of content I wrote that had an immediate impact in terms of bringing in a sales qualified lead for a six-figure annual contract the day after it was published had no CTA at all -- not even a hint about having to schedule a demo.

What it did have were features that many B2B businesses forget about in doing their own imitation of thought leadership outlets and removing all content from individual identity.

Here's what the article had:
☑A vivid description of the challenges he experienced in his work that others in the same line would identify with
☑A clear presentation of the company's solution and how it directly addressed these pain points
☑Mostly important of all, it had a name associated with a bio and pic for the expert in the insurance industry who served as the source of information for the article and related his own experience.

💡Why was this most important? As it turned out, that was the lead's way of marking his interest in the solution. He know the featured expert, maybe even had direct dealings with him in the past. That made him not just trust what he said but also feel comfortable enough to reach out to him directly rather than to a general company contact or form to say he was interested.

One of my pet peeves about B2Bs is that they offer no point of direct and immediate contact. Many of them refuse to list a phone number, and some won't even put in an email. No, they insist, if people are real prospects, they'll fill out the form that makes it easy for us to automatically feed their information into a CRM and send it on to sales people.

This foolish delusion prevents easy access to people who don't want to have to be treated as just prospects you'll get to at your own convenience. They want to get a response while they're thinking that your offering may be just what they need. Keep them waiting, and they'll start looking elsewhere for that solution, and you may not even know you had a prospect that got away. That's the wrong way to attract inbound.

Learn more about the #WriteWay by following The Write Way Pro LinkedIn page and connecting with me on that platform.

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Yes, I did include a CTA here. I didn't say never to have a CTA -- only that you don't have to have a CTA for every piece of content. But I'm going to break another rule here and give you yet another course action. You can check out my portfolio here: AriellaBrownPortfolio.blogspot.com

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The 6 step plan that fails

Photo by Aleksejs Bergmanis: https://www.pexels.com/photo/aerial-photography-of-concrete-bridge-681347/

I should have known better, but I still  fell for it. 

I put in my information in order to ungate and  download the tantalizingly titled "How to build pipeline with content in 6 steps" from a company I won't name here. Disappointment doesn't begin to express my feeling at this one-pager that only someone who has never created business content wouldn't know.

The first step is: "Do some research" in order to know you customers.  Obviously, that is your starting point. But it doesn't give you any advice on how to go about this. That's what many businesses who fail to understand their customers really need help with. Surveys are ignored, and few take the time for really in-depth talks because all conversations turn to upsells and not to fostering understanding.

Step 3 is another obvious step for any content creator: "Tell a story.  That was to be the bridge to step 4: using data and the claim that first-party data is the best (definitely debatable).

But the real goal of the whole piece was to declare in step 5 that you need the right tool -- the one the company that put this out offers -- to track engagement. Step 6 is to track engagement (no doubt, with this tool).

The dichotomy that's wrong

What struck me more than the blatant selling in this presented-as-helpful-guide  was the assumption of step 2, which focuses on a division of content that must appeal to people who love categories but that is, ultimately, counterproductive.

It says: "Determine if your content is tactical or 'experience-driven'.” It then goes one to explain that "collateral related to the business image like presentation decks, press releases, and thought leadership" all goes into the "tactical" bucket.

That is presented as distinct from "collateral related to demand gen activities, supported by personas, nurture content, event material, and industry-specific content" go into the "experience" bucket. The chef's kiss here is that the writer (I picture a college student intern using Chat GPT) adds in this note: "(hint: this is the one you want to focus on for demand gen)."

Now, if were to uphold this division of content type, something I don't advocate at all, I would definitely put thought leadership into the experience/demand gen bucket. No question about it that it belongs there. On the other hand, there is a very important form of content for the tactical bucket that is not named -- case studies or success stories.

Ultimately, though, the division seems to be about the more direct sales enablement materials that would be considered tactical vs. the brand and relationship-building content that is more often associated with demand gen. The delusion of this division is that the former works for immediate conversions-- at least to the point of an MQL while the latter is the stuff you put out to get the person primed for the tactical stuff.

But in reality, your target customer won't be pushed into a linear funnel, neatly progressing from your ToFu to your MoFu to your BoFu content and take the action specified as soon as they hit the tactical content. The buyer's journey is a lot more complex and recursive than that, and recognizing this reality should be part of your first step in building your pipeline.

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Visualizing the customer journey

How content marketing keeps things R-R-R-E-A-L

 

Content marketing is the heart of an organic growth strategy. When you do it right, you keep things RRREAL, as you increase:

Reach, as more people in your target market become aware of your brand
​Retention, thanks to nurturing the relationship with relevant content
​Revenue from gaining new customers and increasing the LTV of existing ones
Engagement, as people read, like, respond to, and share your content
Authority in the eyes of readers and Google's algorithms as your content gains more clicks and rises in the ranks  
Leads when people in your target market who respond to your content connects with you

Learn more here: WriteWayPro.weebly.com

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What to expect from a content marketing strategy

 

                                   Content marketing strategy  photo by Kindel Media on Pexels.com

What makes content marketing distinct from other forms of marketing is that its primary goal is to engage your target audience’s interest rather than lead immediately to a call-to-action to buy. The content can take many forms, ranging from single pictures with captions on social media posts to extended articles, eBooks, and videos.

Part of planning an effective strategy is selecting the medium that is most likely to capture your audience’s attention. For a B2B that means showing awareness of business pain points and insights into what's happening in the industry now. For B2C, you want to connect with the consumers in your target market repeatedly by offering them helpful tips or engaging stories.

For example, a kitchenware seller may send out recipes or blogs that offer advice on healthy substitutions to make guilt-free desserts. It can also use video content effectively to demonstrate techniques in cooking or offer a downloadable app that converts cooking measurements from ounces to grams or milliliters.

​What all the approaches described above have in common is that they position the brand as a credible source of information within its own defined niche. Over time that leads to a deepened relationship with your audience.

Typically, you can expect 6-9 months of consistent content marketing posting to see an uplift in B2B sales. That's because B2B sales typically involve longer cycles, more approvals, and a lot more money than B2C.

 (One exception was a B2B blog I ghostwrote that brought in sales qualified lead the very next day).

As businesses don't tend to very receptive to cold calls and emails from businesses they have not heard of, the support of content marketing and demand gen leads to greater success in outbound sales efforts.

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What makes content marketing effective

 

Hairstylist spraying hair. Photo credit: Rene Asmussen on Pexels.com

 The hairstylist and the photographer

​Once upon a time (in the year 2005 ) I created a print magazine and managed both its content and ads. I brought the two together in what everyone today calls content marketing.  encouraged advertisers to write articles to give readers more context than an ad alone provided.
​
In one issue, I had articles from both a hairstylist-- who got it exactly right -- and a photographer - who got it totally wrong. What she did was offer tips that they could apply to their own hair. He, instead, opted to write about himself and his approach to photography with no takeaways of use to his readers. 

What was the result of the two approaches? The photographer admitted many people told him they saw his article, but they didn't contact him for his services. In contrast, the hairstylist reported that the article brought her more customers than any advertising had ever done. 

The moral of the story

The photographer failed to offer value to the audience  because he was solely focused on self-promotion.  The hairstylist, on the other hand, instinctively understood what content would appeal to her audience and was rewarded for giving it to them.  The key to successful content marketing is not to make it all about you but all about offering useful information for your audience that makes them trust you.  

​
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Coke' Misappropriates Vermeer With AI

A 3D billboard at Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo is showcases  Coca-Cola's "Masterpiece" campaign by animating Vermeer's  "Girl with a Pearl Earring" as a girl whose life purpose it is to put bottles of Coke into a pipe that leads to the vending machine for the soft drink. 

This is not "real magic TM" as the Coke video declares. It is a travesty of art that reduces a masterpiece to a Disney-style short film. 

I can just picture the thought process behind this with a discussion of the creative team that went like this:

Rich: We need something everyone recognizes as a masterpiece!

Josh: But it has to not be under copyright!

Rich: Right! 

Dave: How about Mona Lisa?

Rich Maybe, but can we find something else?

Dave: Vermeer!

Rich: What?

Dave:  ChatGPT says one of his paintings is really famous because there was a movie about it.

Josh: Oh, yeah, "Girl With a Pearl Earring." So long as that's not under copyright, it should be good. 

Rich: Yeah, any woman in a famous piece of art acting as a waitress to get you to buy Coke should work.  

High fives all around.

And so you have it. The enigmatic subject of Vermeer's masterpiece is reduced to Disney-heroine-as-serving girl to allow Coke to appropriate high culture to sell you brown-colored carbonated water filled with ingredients that are detrimental to your health.

I'm fine with a brand promoting itself and with showing off 3D effects and other high tech. But it should have gone the route of creating its own character for this rather than stealing art that is not copyright protected.

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7 Habits of Highly Effective Content Marketers

1. Offer value
What you present has to always center around your customer concerns rather than your own latest offering or uniqueness, so no shameless self-promotion and no clickbait. 

2. Offer relevance 

While you can and should jump on seasonal and news trends, the core of your content should always be relevant to your target audience beyond the current news. That will help your SEO.

3. Compose concise titles
Write headlines that are on target, to the point, and short enough to be read on a phone (no more than 65 characters).

4. Offer curb appeal

 Even if you’re using words as your primary medium rather than video or photos, remember to pay attention to visual appeal with an attractive layout and images that  not only catch the eye but fit the story you tell.

One caveat on this: be sure that your graphics load quickly. If they take several seconds to load, people will just leave the page without waiting for them to populate, and your SEO will suffer, too.

5. Engage with your audience  

Use your social media channels as another avenue of content marketing, not just to link to your blogs and videos but to engage directly with your audience there with discussions and shares that are not just broadcasts of what your brand is doing.

6. Use analytics

Check your stats every month or so to see what’s performing well and what isn’t to inform and optimize future content

7. Be reliably consistent

Plan to put out content continuously and consistently to build your authority  and keep your audience coming back rather than treating your video or blog as a one-and-done.

Quality, consistency, relevance, and engagement go a long way in connecting  with people. Over time that translates into improved brand recognition and goodwill that also increases customer loyalty.  

Do you think this level of content is beyond your budget? Think again. Poor quality content not only fails to deliver the ROI you get from high quality content; it can actually harm your brand by demoting the the site ranking you've invested so much in building up.

What you really can't afford is poor quality content. Hire a seasoned pro to craft the right message for your organization and your demographics. Learn more here and book a free consultation call.

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Make your content as accessible as possible

 

The certificates above show that I have just completed the HubSpot Academy courses on content marketing and SEO. I did pick up a few tips, but the best part of it was the feeling of gratification that my understanding of best practices from years of experience was spot on. Unfortunately, the businesses I sometimes worked for often deviated from such best practices.

Unlock those gates!

For example, I'm generally not in favor of gating good content. You want it to be read, so why create barriers to getting it read? I fully understand that you want to force people to give you their contact information to follow up with potential leads. However, as the course points out, you can encourage some kind of opt-in even without blocking the content.

Semrush, the online visibility platform, agrees that introducing a layer of friction -- even if it is as simple as entering an email address -- will turn away readers. That is not something you want to do in the awareness stage when you wish to attract as many eyeballs as possible.

"You usually wouldn’t start a relationship with gated content. You have to woo your readers first, showing that your content is worth their time and — later on — their personal information." - Semrush

HubSpot's course suggestion was to have the content accessible with an option for the reader to download it as a PDF. People will voluntarily download content they like to have available to read at leisure, particularly longer form content. My guess is that seeing things first the first time on a smartphone likely contributes to that practice even more.

Keep it simple!

I also felt particularly gratified about another explicit guideline it gives that I've clashed with some clients over in the past. That is to use clear, direct language rather than jargon or what you believe is a very impressive vocabulary filled with the types of words students used to memorize for the SATs. It's a mistake to believe that you sound smarter by using big words, as the really confident person will explain even more complex topics as clearly as possible (think "explain it to me like I'm five").

I still remember what my composition instructor said about Winston Churchill, who was a highly capable speaker and writer. As the British Prime Minister during WWII, he didn't say, "The received communication from France is extremely unfavorable." Instead, he said, "The news from Paris is very bad."

The contrast to Churchill's direct and honest approach appears in Emperor Hiroshito's observation after the devastation of two atomic bombs, "The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage."

Consider which statement you would consider more trustworthy as a source, and remember that when crafting your own content.

screenshot from https://app.hubspot.com/academy/21390613/tracks/15/377/2059

I took the liberty of grabbing a screenshot from the HubSpot video as proof of what I tried very tactfully to convey to a few of my recent clients. Unfortunately, they refused to get the point. In one case, they insisted they have to avoid using "layman" terms. In the other, they insisted that really smart people speak that way.

P.S. Semrush also corroborated that point in a tweet that went up just today. Here's the final step in its short thread on how to format your content for search engines & target featured snippets:

✍️ Finally, tighten up your page’s copy. Try to use short, direct sentences with language that isn’t too complicated. Good luck 👋

— Semrush (@semrush) February 9, 2022

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