One Content Asset Can't Do Everything

With all the focus on creating content for marketing programs, many marketers are still missing a critical point. Many still believe that one piece of content must do everything. Where did marketers get the idea that B2B marketing over a long-term buying process aimed at selling a complex product was a one-shot deal?

My guess is that these marketers are still so focused on creating sales opportunities in the near term that they're overlooking the necessity for evolving a relationship over time, aka nurturing.

One of the biggest wastes in B2B marketing is tossing leads not ready to buy into a black hole while pursuing only those who are deemed "sales ready." Sadly, many companies are mistaken about just what that term means.

A lot of marketers I speak with are certain they know exactly what their buyers want. But some of their reasoning has me questioning whether this is true. Or, perhaps they do know, but have unknowingly reverted to company focused communications. Habits are hard to break.

Take a look at these examples:

We've got to talk to them about pricing first. Otherwise they'll think they can't afford our solution and they won't engage.

• Does your prospect care about pricing if they don't even know that the product or solution is valuable to them based on their goals and objective?


• How will your buyer even evaluate the idea of budget or funding if they don't know much about the potential impact of what you're selling?


• Context > Understanding > Interest > Confidence > Engagement

The idea for that content asset is pretty good, but we need to add customer examples, product extensions, discount information, link to our next webinar, etc. in order for them to get the full picture.

• Attention spans are shrinking. Buyers want shorter-form content, but they still want it to contain valuable insights they find helpful.


• The "full picture" won't happen with one article (or even one white paper) for a complex solution. Think series instead. One brick at a time is how a house is built.


• Be careful your helpful information doesn't turn into a sales pitch. Because that's where your head is when you start gloming stuff onto a topic that can stand on its own - if you'd just let it.


• Try to cram too much information into short-form content and it loses value because you're now so high-level you've left no space to talk about what interests your buyer.


• 1 premise + a few supporting ideas > easy assimilation > better experience

I'm hearing more of this rush to make one content asset do a bigger job. But it's not going to sell your complex product any faster. In fact, it kind of wreaks of desperation and may send prospects right over to your competitors who let their expertise shine through without being pushy.

You want to create urgency on the buyer side, not display yours. Content will serve you best if you follow the KISS principle and keep it simple and focused on what the buyer needs to know given his/her stage in the purchasing process. One content asset will not win the sale.

This said, grouping a number of related content assets together to present a comprehensive resource area can work wonders. It allows prospects to pick and choose what's most relevant to them, not shove it all down their throats at once.

Comments

[Stephanie Tilton]

Ardath -
I couldn't agree more!

Recently, a prospective client told me that his company just wanted to put together a one-page PDF about its offering and send out a blast email. That's it -- there would be no other content developed even though he acknowledged that the buying cycle is typically a few months.

When I pointed out the weakness in the plan, he said "I get it, but we don't have time. We need to accelerate the sales cycle."

If that's all it took, wouldn't every company use that "strategy"?!

[Bob James]

Digesting and serializing content require that a marketer think like a publisher, as David Meerman Scott said so well in his "New Rules of Marketing and PR." Sales-driven executives resist that advice, because it sounds to them like "failure to close." And task-oriented executives don't like it because it sounds like "too much work." The only antidote to this old-school thinking is case studies that prove drip-style content marketing eventually converts leads.

[Henry Bruce]

Wow. Someone as frustrated about this evolving mindset as I am. I spoke to a mutual acquaintance Jim Burnes over at Avitage about this very issue last week. Yes, we are seeing desperation in the ranks of B2B markets. I believe that most execs (CEOs especially) realized mid-2010 that they really don't have the right skill sets in their sales orgs to market and sell during a recession or in very crowded markets as we have now. If you saw Dave Stein's post on this topic last week [http://davesteinsblog.esresearch.com/2011/04/11/its-time-to-throw-generic-onboarding-overboard/, you will see just how deep the problem is.

Marketers are fighting an uphill battle because most orgs (especially in B2B tech software) have woefully ineffective sales orgs and processes. The volume of calls I get after downloading a simple white paper from a web site has gone up significantly over the past 6-9 months. No one does even the simplest look ups on me before calling to see I am a consultant, NOT a buyer.

The churn and burn focus on lead quantity is getting worse, not better IMHO. I am beginning to think that Laura Ramos (formerly of Forrester) was right back in 2006 when she wrote a series reporting that B2B marketers are running the risk of becoming obsolete. Sometimes, as a Lead Nurturing/Lead Management evangelist, I feel like I am howling at the moon.

[Ardath Albee]

Hi Stephanie,

Thanks for sharing your example. I'm seeing so much more of that type of thinking right now. It makes no sense. And, sadly, by the time they figure out that it's not working, they could have nurtured leads through their pipeline with interesting, relevant content focused on what their prospects care about.

Frustrating for folks like us!

[Ardath Albee]

Hi Bob,

You point to a terrific resource. David gets it, shares it, evangelizes the publisher mindset. It's so critical for today's marketers.

You nailed it with the "failure to close" statement. Companies seem to be reverting to what they want at the cost of delivering what prospects want. It won't work.

Thanks for stopping by!

[Ardath Albee]

Hi Henry,

Yep - frustrated is a good way to put it! And I'm with you on the white paper calls. Those are the most ridiculous calls of all. I think I received four just last week and not one of them had anything useful to say to me. Nor, as you report, did they bother to take a quick look to see that I'm a consultant - not their buyer.

Thanks for sharing Dave's post. I hadn't seen it, but it is definitely indicative of a bigger problem that spans both marketing and sales.

I tend to agree with Laura's prediction about B2B marketers becoming obsolete. But this can be avoided by upleveling skill sets and then learning how to prove value from the new approaches to the powers that be.

I'm voting for that option!

[Michael Selissen]

I can hardly remember a client in recent history who, when asked to identify the intended audience for a content piece, didn’t come back with a laundry list: “Developers, the end user, the CTO, CFO. And, oh yeah, our sales people too.”

Most of these folks are seasoned marketers. And, as Stephanie noted, they know they could do a better job developing the communication strategy and creating messages with more nuance than “faster, better, cheaper.”

To a large extent, marketing really is constrained by limited time, people and budget. But, too often, I suspect that there are other factors at work – such as a strong sales culture or product managers who control the content. Maybe what needs to happen is for marketing to step out from the shadows and take charge of their own destiny.

[Ardath Albee]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. That last sentence presents an interesting opportunity - one that's long overdue.

What do you think it will take to get there?

[Michael Selissen]

The answer will vary depending on the specific company. But, in general, marketing leaders need to call a truce with sales and development while advocating for more independence in defining strategy and process. They also need to turn the tide of defensiveness when challenged to justify every deliverable.