Measure Topic Density to Get Closer to Buyers

In a complex B2B sale, downloading one white paper or clicking on one email link is not enough to justify a call from sales or an email requesting 20 minutes of their time to review your product. In fact, it just makes people regret that they took a look.

Because the Internet has become the most prevalent business information source available, marketers need to make some adjustments. People self-educate more than ever and can learn so much on their own that they now control the buying process. And, until they're ready to talk, it's not going to do marketers any good to act like all responses are equal.

They're not.

A complex B2B sale takes a good-sized amount of knowledge transfer. People in research mode are looking for education about the issue they're trying to resolve. Once they feel competent about their grasp of the situation and the options available, they begin evaluating expertise and added-value delivery by vendors. In fact, they're probably making a short list before they even raise their hands.

The point is that you need to consider developing a process for evaluating Topic Density.

Topic Density is the amount of topic-related content they've viewed plus the time they spend viewing it and the rate of frequency in acquiring that related information.

For example: If you send an email that addresses a problem/solution scenario and the lead clicks on the link and reads that article, that's terrific. But what happens next?

Do they click to view the next available resource related to that same topic? Do they leave? Or, do they view something else that's unrelated to that problem/solution scenario?

Is their visitation to your website to access additional resources on that same topic increasing in frequency? Can you see that other contacts within the same organization have also begun viewing the same topical information?

When you can see that type of activity, then you've got Topic Density and a valid reason to reach out to them directly. And, you've got a conversational foundation for beginning an interactive dialog.

Your content can be the best tool you have to determine your prospective customer's issues, interest levels and urgency. But only if you strategically design that content and then measure responses to it in a cumulative way.

Developing a series of content around a problem/solution scenario from the customer's perspective is a productive way of structuring your content to help you determine next steps that build momentum for buyers, not scare them away.

It's no longer good enough to see that a lead has visited the website 4 times and viewed 6 resources. That could mean just about anything--unless of course all 6 resources are part of the story of how to understand, explore and resolve the same issue/problem or take advantage of a prioritized opportunity.

Marketers need to start thinking about how they design and deliver their content to help them learn as much as possible about their potential customers' interest levels. Topic Density gives you a method to get closer to your buyers.