Marketing Interactions

Many B2B Websites Still Suck Wind

Why is it that B2B websites are so terrible at engaging the people they're designed to serve?

The simple answer is because companies tend to design websites based on what they think is important, rather than what their prospects and customers value. This has been said again, and again...and again. In fact, one of my most highly read posts, even today, is B2B Websites Not Effective—a post I wrote June 5, 2006.

The other issue is that websites are political hot potatoes. For some reason, there seem to be a lot of territorial turf wars. Not sure why, when the goal is to engage prospects and customers to build new and ongoing relationships that result in your selling more stuff.

But, that's a conundrum for another post.

What I'd like to know is who wrote the rule that says all corporate websites must follow a standard navigation format?

You know what I mean. That siloed, uninteresting and uninformative menu that includes stuff like:

• Products
• Solutions
• Resources
• Case Studies
• News/Press
• About Us

Does this navigation say "All About You" or "All About Us?"

Confronted by this navigation, visitors look at your homepage to try to find a clue about what to do next based on their purpose for the visit. [Read try to find something valuable to them.]

Unfortunately, the top half of most websites is now consumed by a big banner graphic or flash widget that immediately requires us to scroll down if whatever it features is not why we came.

Then, perhaps there are a span of boxes across the bottom that offer choices like:

• Latest News/Press - see more about why we're so terrific.
• Solution Focus - click to learn more about our product feeds and speeds.
• Customer story - gosh, I hope that's about a customer like me...oh, only the first paragraph. The rest of it talks about your products with a couple of obnoxiously Rah! Rah! testimonial quotes called out in the sidebars.

Or maybe you're featuring a new white paper with a snazzy cover on a topic I'm actually interested in learning more about.

Now we're getting somewhere. Oh...you want me to give you 20 fields of my personal information? Hmm. Let me go do a search and see if I can find out the same stuff somewhere else...

Hmm. The only other text on the page says, "We're the leading provider of..."

Oh, wait. There's a tiny link to your corporate blog up in the little navigation at the very top of the page. Maybe I can find something interesting there...click. Hmm. More stuff all about you. No wonder independent blogs are more highly thought of than corporate ones.

Doesn't this scenario make you wonder what you can do to improve user experience at your website? Your company's website may not be this bad, but I'm pretty sure that it can use some improvement to meet your prospects' ideas about value delivery. [Read immediate gratification for dropping by.]

Here are a couple of tips:

• Figure out the top 3 reasons people who need what you sell visit your website. If it's a complex sale, I can guarantee you that they're not looking for the "contact a sales rep" button on their first visit. Then make sure your homepage addresses those three things in a noticeable manner.


• Create navigation that actually makes sense to your website visitors based on the problems your offerings help them solve. [Even if you must keep the standard format, you need to figure out how to immediately engage your visitor traffic. Hyper links, call outs in your sidebars, something.]


• Eliminate dead ends. When your visitors have enough gumption to click on a link, make sure you deliver on the promise for that click and that you've got a pathway to pull them more deeply into the topic they've just told you they find valuable.


• Make engaging with you simple. Allow them to dole out their information a bit at a time in exchange for content they value. Choose when you do that carefully. For example, you might provide an excerpt or executive summary of a white paper to prove it's worth it for them to part with information. Be sure you're only asking for information you need right now based on our relationship.
  
  For example, do you really need my street address when I download a white paper? Short forms will deliver a much higher opt-in rate. Just saying.

Addressing your website engagement is not about structural redesign so much as it's about the words used and the options provided. Nothing a little website content renovation can't fix, in most cases. It's all about perspective. Theirs—not yours.

I'll leave you with the same quote I used to end the 2006 post. For many b2b companies, this quote is—unfortunately—still true:

"Companies are still designing for themselves rather than for their customers. They place serious barriers in the way of prospects who use the Web to discover companies to put on their shortlists."

 

B2B Marketing Content Turn Offs

Content marketing is growing in leaps and bounds. The formats and types of content that engage your prospects are multiplying. The majority of B2B buyers turn to the Internet first to begin their research. In fact, research by Interwoven shows that 22% of global marketing spend (read $1.5 Trillion!) is allocated to content origination, publication, syndication and promotion.

So it just won't do to put all that effort into content development if it only results in turning off your prospects.

In order to eliminate the turn offs from your marketing content, you've got to assume your prospects perspective and give your content some tough love—before you let it fly.

Here's a down and dirty 7 Point Content Value Audit:

1. Jargon, Hype, Fluff, and blatant Puffery have no place in compelling content.
   Do I need to say more? Actually, Go Thump Your Chest in the Gym a post from the Phoenix Rising blog, makes this point crystal clear.


2. Generalist focus without specific value statements.
   This is like telling your prospects to do something just because you said so. It's imperative that you help them understand the value—for them, not you. And, if you think about it, in order to present a value that resonates, you've got to have a specialist focus, not a generic one-size-fits-all approach.


3. Lack of evidence to prove promised results.
   Even if you have value statements, they're only frivolous promises without the evidence to support that what you say is true.


4. Inflated, tedious writing style.
   Try reading your content out loud. Do you struggle for breath when reading a single sentence? Even when we read, our brain has the same interpretation as our lungs do when we speak. Plus, the thought gets lost. Aim for 35 words or less in a sentence. Make your points clear and compelling.


5. No connection to industry trends or issues.
   Your prospects want insights related to trends and issues that could impact their business results. Your content should show your ability to look beyond just your product and apply whatever it does to real world scenarios.


6. Ambiguous takeaways.
   See my recent blog post, Plan B2B Content for the Takeaway, to learn the difference between takeaways and calls to action. Your content needs both—and yes, they are different.


7. No humanity.
   Is your content written for "Jerry" or a role within a company with 300 employees generating revenues higher than $100 million? The best way to engage people, gain pass along and create great recall is with content written for people - not vague, one-dimensional images.
   
   For those of you wondering why recall is important, it's that wonderful response from a prospect when you follow up and they say, "Oh, yeah, that was  great white paper. You know, I was wondering if you could tell me more about...

Here's why you have a huge opportunity to have an impact on lead generation and move prospects through those lengthening sales cycles faster:

According to CMO research on content ROI, "Only 22 percent of respondents say they are very satisfied with the caliber of technology content." And, when you consider that IT buyers also say they only find relevant content 42% of the time, expending the effort to eliminate content turn offs has some serious payback potential.

Plan B2B Content for the Takeaway

There's an evolving list of all the things you need to consider when developing B2B marketing content. One of the components often discussed is the call to action. And, yes, you still have to do that. What's important to understand is that the call to action is not the takeaway.

A call to action is what you want your prospects and customers to do next.

A takeaway is the specific impression or memory the audience walks away with after reading your content.

A good takeaway is:

• Conceptual - produces an idea your content helped generate.
• Conversational - inspires sharing of that idea in the their own words
• Recommendable - promotes people to pass the content along to others
• Transferable - applicable to their own specific situations
• Visual - something they can "see" happening—not pie-in-the-sky thinking

Quite often I read content that's technically correct. It may even offer some valid insights. But, yet it doesn't inspire me to think of anything on my own. In B2B, that's often because the content is written without consideration for the prospect's perspective.

Content like that usually spends more time telling me what I'm supposed to think than providing ideas that help me think.

The easiest way to grasp the difference is to remember what happened when your parents told you that you had to do something. How many of you did the opposite, just, well, because?

Your prospects and customers want to be in control of their buying process. They want takeaways they can ingest that build their knowledge, increase their confidence and help them make the best decisions. In order to take action, they need to take ownership of the choice.

And that's often due to their ability to lower or eliminate their concept of the level of risk related to the choice. You can tell them all you want that your company is an expert. You can tell them not to worry because you're the best. You can tell them that research shows X, so they should do Y, but unless the content presents that finding as a takeaway, it's only just a statement.

I see articles and research reports all the time that display statistics like, "96% of an average organization’s Marketing Qualified Leads fail to make it closure."

My takeaways could be:

• We're much better. Only 75% of our MQLs are lost. (proof we're better than average)
• Sales isn't doing their job. (pass the buck - not my problem)
• Marketing needs a better definition of an MQL. (What should I do?)

B2B marketers need to plan for the takeaway. In the article used above, their takeaway is a big one. The idea that companies need marketing automation. (I agree, btw) But, there are also a number of smaller ones such as sales needs to participate in nurturing programs and applying resources across the entire opportunity lifecycle.

[This article could actually provide fodder for 3 or 4 nurturing articles with planned takeaways that build the case for marketing automation in step with prospects' thought processes.]

This is a good, informative article, and I love Sirius Decisions research. My point is that for prospect nurturing content, you will do better if you focus on emphasizing one takeaway. Seed one idea that the prospect can build on.

Then present the next nurturing takeaway to build from that foundation. This doesn't mean you can't mention anything else, but it does help you to develop content with a specific intent. By helping your prospects and customers create ideas they can make their own, they'll return to your content to help grow their ideas into business cases.

The beauty of the takeaway approach is that as you enable the prospect to build these ideas they relate their confidence and knowledge to your company. It becomes a natural conclusion for them to consider your company credible, trustworthy and a great choice as a partner to help them when the time comes to buy.

Kitchen-Sink Content is a Recipe for Failure

We’re all on the receiving end of email marketing messages. The problem is that most of them appear to try and do too much. It often feels like marketers have a list of all the stuff their solutions do and they want to cram it all into one message to make sure they say something that interests you.

That kind of content makes my head hurt. It’s confusing. It takes too much effort and I can’t be bothered to listen to someone who’s so unsure what to say to me.

Talk about impersonal. That’s about as general as you can get. At a time when buyers can filter the content they choose to read, you can’t afford to use kitchen-sink content.

Besides that, it’s lazy. And one of the most obvious traits of kitchen-sink content is that the message becomes so convoluted that it doesn’t make sense.

Here’s an example of a marketing email I received from a PR firm the other day:

I hope you don’t mind the follow-up. [Company’s] platform offers a unique Website Reengagement tool (different from shopping cart abandonment) that lets companies track and recognize customers who visit their website. With [Product], companies can tailor an email to abandon customers based on the web page visited to reengage them. They also offer a social networking tool which lets companies enable their subscribers to create their own social networks where all centered on the company's branded community center. This is only a few of the many unique services they offer their clients. [Company] has a long extensive list of happy clients that have seen tremendous ROI and invaluable results.

Yes. It was all in this one paragraph.

What really irritated me was that the PR firm probably charged this company for creating this drivel. Not only is the grammar awful, but the intention is muddy. I still really don’t have a clear idea of what this company does or why I should care. Unless, of course, I want to “tailor an email to abandon customers.”

The elements of kitchen-sink marketing are:

• Trying to say too much without understanding what it is you want to convey.


• Tossing in terms because you think they’ll catch attention – not because they make your message better or more easily understood.


• Displaying a self-oriented focus that doesn’t serve anyone well.

The effects of kitchen-sink marketing on your audience include:

• Instant delete or abandonment


• Negative credibility for your company

Obviously, this kind of content doesn’t create engagement. Nor does it enable marketers to sustain interest across a complex buying process. Suffice it to say that this is a surefire way to lose people, immediately, who could become qualified leads over time.

Tech Buyers Use Collateral for Purchase Decisions

Eccolo Media conducted a study to learn which collateral tech buyers use to make purchase decisions. Their premise was to prove that content development is more than a cost sink or requirement for doing business. The survey report, Eccolo Media 2008 B2B Technology Collateral Survey, definitely provides validation for their premise.

The survey results will also be helpful to B2B marketers who're planning for nurturing content development. It also validates the need for content that provides information buyers need, not just what you want to tell them.

Eccolo Media set out to learn:

"We asked them about their preferred collateral types, how they used content, if they shared it, and just how influential it was on their final technology purchase."

Worth noting, 67% of participants were decision makers, 33% influencers - all from U.S. companies. They were asked if "the collateral was viewed, listened to or read in the six months prior to a technology purchase."

5 types of content were included in the survey:

1. white papers
2. case studies / success stories
3. podcasts / audio files
4. video
5. product brochures / data sheets

Here are some of the survey findings:

• white papers were thought extremely or very influential by 44%
• brochures were the least influential at 33%
• 48% responded that case studies were very or extremely influential
• videos only hit 39%, but it's interesting to note that studio quality was considered important by 93% - casting doubt on that do-it-yourself idea being touted by social media folks. Well, at least for tech purchases.

Some interesting things to note:

Although product brochures weren't considered all that influential, they had high consumption rates, which makes sense at some point in the buying cycle, so you still need them. You just need to pay attention to when they're needed.

The younger the respondent, the more likely that they've listened to a podcast or viewed a video, so knowing who your buyers and influencers are can dictate content formats to some extent. And, even though many decision makers are older, the shift to the digital generation will happen.

Over 70% of white papers, case studies and product brochures were viewed on the computer screen, not downloaded. This means it's critical to think about format and design your content for consumption on computer screens. For example, do you really think people like to scroll up and down to read content in columns laid out in portrait format?

Pass along is alive and well. Over 60% shared collateral with other decision makers and influencers within their organization. So, think about how you can be even more helpful by offering versions that answer the specific needs of the decision makers and various influencers on the buying committee for your customers.

And, it's important to note that they don't just forward content to one person. Forty-four percent pass along white papers to 4 or more people.

For those of you only targeting decision makers with your content, consider this:

"White papers are very viral for influencers. While 66% of decision makers said that they share white papers with others, influencers shared them more often by a wide margin (83%). This may relate to respondents’ role in the purchase, with influencers passing on relevant information and decision makers considering the content more often than sharing it."

Your buyers want information focused on objective discussions of technology, not products. Gee, go figure! The length decision makers prefer is 4-6 pages, while influencers will go for 8 pages. Consider that influencers need to formulate discussions and learn how to speak to the issues to sway decision makers' perspectives. So, keep that in mind when targeting your white papers and help them out. Yet another validation for content designed for specific audiences.

This report is chock full of useful information that can help you not only prove the value content can provide during the buying process, but also to position it for higher consumption.

You can download the report with a fairly painless registration.

Address B2B Buyers' Gut Instinct

When B2B marketers set out to develop marketing content, they often focus on the benefits or results their customers can achieve by using their solution. Hopefully more than they focus on the product, itself. With longer, complex buying cycles you need lots of different content to answer the wide variety of informational needs for both decision makers and influencers.

One type of content often overlooked is content focused on past experiences that have become "anchors" that color your buyers assumptions about solving their problem. Those "anchors" of past experience are often subconscious for the buyer and related to gut instinct.

Past experiences internalized to the extent of gut instinct are usually the bad ones. You know, the ones where you make deals with the devil if the project will just work out. In exchange, you promise to NEVER, EVER make that same choice again. Those are the kinds of things that stick with you.

What gets internalized as the "anchor" for a specific gut instinct can be either emotional or rational. In order to address past experience with your content you need to look to potential points of failure almost experienced by your customers.

Think about this as the flip side of customer success stories for just a minute and stick with me.

Complex sales have a variety of obstacles to overcome. Some of them include:

• Complexity (got you on that one, I know)
• Risk - both professionally and personally
• Change - usually pretty major

The result of these can stall the buying process in its tracks. And you can say over, and over, again how successful you are in implementing your solutions or tout your customers' successes until the cows come home, but these buyers' gut instincts will win.

To get beyond that gut instinct, you need to address it head on. In order to do this you'll need to do some research and learn about all the potential points of failure your customers were worried they'd experience during their projects.

• Start by looking closely at the objections your salespeople are hearing. Try to deduce what's behind them—emotional or rational concerns.


• Talk to your project/account managers and find out what kinds of fires they've had to put out during implementations.


• Ask your customers what concerns they had during their projects.


• Don't forget to include your customer service reps. They likely deal with problem resolution more than anyone else in your company.

Once you've gathered all your potential points-of-failure intelligence, take a good hard look at your buyer personas and create stories that address their concerns as personally as possible. Make sure you do this thoughtfully.

Pay appropriate attention to the concern and be humble about addressing how you help your customers' avoid it. But also let your expertise shine through. This can also serve to increase the buyers' perception of the value add choosing your company can bring.

The purpose of addressing your buyers' gut instinct is to restore their confidence in their ability to choose wisely. [Obviously with your company as that choice.]

Purchasing a complex product is risky. Despite best intentions, implementations can be time intensive and messy. Companies have high expectations about the outcomes they'll be able to achieve with that large capital outlay. Your buyer has to make sure their choice lives up to those expectations. If they've been burned before, making sure you quell their gut instinct  is critical to getting them to take the next step in the buying process.

This type of content is best used later in the buying process. Depending on your buyers, it could be best employed by salespeople in one-on-one situations. Work closely with your sales team to discover where in the buying process gut instinct content will help pull the buyer forward.

And do not overlook that the person with the gut instinct that can hold up a purchase decision could be an influencer. This is why it's important to know and engage as many members of the buying committee as possible.

By taking the time to address issues that could be anchors for your buyers' gut instincts, you have a better shot at enticing your buyer to move beyond them. And you'll garner a lot more respect than competitors who only present the rose-colored glasses view of solving the problem.

Use an "Exclusive" Mindset for B2B Nurturing

The biggest consideration for B2B Lead Nurturing is often the continuous need for fresh content. If your prospects' buying cycle has lengthened, you need even more content to keep your B2B lead nurturing program rolling forward. But even more than that, you need content that pulls people forward in their consideration to buy from your company.

Just staying in touch isn't enough to generate movement. I wrote about this concept in my post, Strategy Beyond the Send.

I'd like to present an extension idea to that post. I'd like to see you take that problem-to-solution scenario for content development and really pump some muscle into it.

Let's talk about privilege. Everyone loves to feel privileged. Don't you love it when you get the best table in a restaurant, front-row seats at the theatre, a customer service rep who solves your problem with a smile in their voice or the offer of a special preview to something your friends (or colleagues) would kill for?

You can create that same "exclusive" feeling with your nurturing content.

This actually isn't rocket science, although it is often overlooked in B2B marketing programs.

Provide something that's not otherwise available.

If you've provided an article about a topic a prospect shows interest in, augment that with a related, behind-the-scenes customer story that tells more than that company-oriented case study you likely have posted on your website.

Help your prospects step into your customers' shoes and visualize solving the problem, themselves. Give them extra insights they can't find somewhere else - like a side issue that arose mid-project and almost derailed the implementation, and how it was overcome.

There's likely a lot left on the cutting room floor that your prospects would love to know about. Even if you need to throw a veil over the customer to tell the story.

What about a video of your CEO talking about the business impact of industry trends with an analyst that can't be found on your corporate website...or on YouTube?

Perhaps a how-to tip they can use right away to alleviate an aspect of their pain while they work toward choosing a solution to their problem.

Can you say trusted advisor?

You get the point.

Exclusives go back a long way. Every journalist always wants to break a story - be the first one to let us in on the details. The trick to making your prospects feel privileged is to also make sure that the exclusive is highly relevant. That should go without saying, but I thought I'd mention it. Exclusives that produce pipeline momentum are definitely not one-size-fits-all.

The other thing to consider is that an exclusive is no longer exclusive once it's gotten distribution, so you need to plan for this type of content development in your content strategy. If your nurturing programs are already providing content your prospects value, an exclusive focused on a topic of high interest can be an effective way to nudge your prospects forward in their buying process.

Just make sure to make it meatier than your other content. Give it an "insider" feel. Expose your expertise in ways you've not done before. Think deep dive, not surface stuff.

Don't get me wrong, setting your content free is a good strategy for creating inbound interest. But it's not the only one. Holding some content close to the vest, so to speak, can provide an advantage in nurturing. Giving your prospects a feeling of privilege makes a lasting impression. Not to mention helping to raise your trust perception with the people you'd like to do business with.

Narrow is the New Wide for B2B Marketing Content

Sometimes marketing communications make people feel like they're getting deluged by a fire hose. Marketers cram all these big ideas into one white paper or article trying to cover as much as possible in their effort to gain the attention of prospects.

It's the equivalent of saying,

"Hey, we're not really sure what you need, but in case this one BIG point doesn't get you, how about all these other ideas?"

Stop it.

Your prospects can't take it. When you leverage a fire hose mentality you overwhelm them.

Lead nurturing during a complex buying process is about reeling out small, potent, viable and strategic ideas in a way that helps your prospects embrace them. Once they've attached to one great idea, they'll more easily (and eagerly) dig into the next meaty topic you cover.

And here's the great part. Nurturing with one idea at a time allows you to measure more precisely for interest levels. If you cram a bunch of ideas into one piece of content, how the heck do you expect to know just what it was that caught your prospect's attention?

Which type of content allows you to learn more through prospect behavior?

A. A white paper that sets up a problem you know your prospects are grappling with and then talks about every feature of the solution that can be thrown at solving the problem.

B. A series of articles about the problem with each one focused on helping the prospect by answering a question they may have about solving it.

If you use the white paper example, all you know is that they may have the problem. If you use the article series, you've got the possibility of learning which questions and concerns may be more important. You've also got the chance to see how interested they are in solving it. In other words, how high a priority that problem is for them. If they read the whole series, that tells you something different than if they read 3 out of 5 articles in the series. 

Even if it's 3 articles, you now know which three questions the prospect was interested in and can tailor nurturing touches that dive deeper into those subjects to see if you can gain a higher level of engagement.

Take a look at the prospects who read those three articles. Are they in similar roles, industries or company sizes? Are they influencers or decision makers? You may be able to spot trends that help you get very targeted in how you interact with specific segments. Basing segmentation on expressed interest can give your marketing more traction.

B2B marketers need to take a more customer-focused approach. This is really hard to do if you can't pinpoint a specific issue or interest that your prospect will actively engage in dialogue about.

Just because you think an issue is important, doesn't mean they do. By breaking your content down into smaller ideas, you can explore them in greater depth. Instead of glossing over ideas because you need to cram them all into one content asset, you can take your time and be thoughtful about the expertise and insights you share. You can also learn if a question you think is important, isn't even on their radar.

Go look at your web analytics and see how long people spend on specific web pages. Let's say it's 1.56 minutes. Can they actually read the content on that page in that length of time? Attention spans are shorter. People want to get the information they need and get out. They're busy.

Providing a valuable exchange for their attention is the end goal. When you do that, your prospects respond with interest. Plus, shorter and targeted is likely easier for them to digest. That's because you can take a complex issue and break it into simple parts. As you expand the conversation with additional pieces, the parts weave together to make solving that complex issue an option that's appealing because you've become someone they've relied on over time.

A complex sale doesn't happen with one white paper download. Or even with just a series of articles. But, the more often you have interactions with your prospects that they see as helpful, the higher your credibility and value as a trusted resource.

B2B Content Marketing to Impact Status Quo

Earlier this week I talked about the payoff for B2B content marketing to focus on producing movement. Now, I'd like to back up just a tad and share some thoughts about what it takes to shift status quo. Because until or unless you can get people to shift from status quo, the movement you'll get from your B2B marketing content will be, well, zip.

So back up to the situations your prospects are facing and look at the severity of the pain they're dealing with. Ask the question, what would it take to make embracing change worthwhile FOR THEM?

If the answer isn't around a pretty impressive "shift" from where they are now, they won't change. It's not worth the effort, risk and stress. It's easier to stick with the devil we know, right? That's human nature.

Before you can develop a content strategy for complex sale nurturing, you've got to define the reasons why your prospect's would rather be inert than active about solving the problem.

Resistance to change can be about:

• aversion to making a mistake
• uncertain about what to do
• concern about what they don't know
• lack of justification and/or validation for the change
• overwhelming complexity
• losing face and professional standing
• influence of bad past experiences
• and more...

Many of these ripple beneath the surface and are not obvious from an outside view, but that doesn't mean they don't count. The point is that when all these thoughts are going on inside your prospect's head, your content has to produce a pretty big shift in thinking—and potential opportunity—to outweigh all that internal chatter.

In order to sway tolerance for status quo you've got to build a story that helps portray the movement toward outcomes your prospects consider important, while addressing resistance factors at the same time.

Talk about a result you know your prospects are challenged to achieve and the problem that's causing it to persist.

• Faster time to market impacted by supply chain issues
• Better decisions for action ahead of your competitor's advances.

Let them know that they're not the only ones facing the problem and that they don't have to take it anymore.

• Related industry trends and research data used in support of urgency.
• Customers like them who've successfully dealt with the issue at hand.

Showcase the impact in a context they understand.

• A CFO will get the impact of percentages of improvement against margins.
• An LOB manager strapped for human resources will get the impact of more hours to apply to priority projects.

Using active words to simulate the impact of your ideas can help. Business impact is evaluated based on whether it makes something go up (e.g. revenues) or brings something down (e.g. expenses):

Up words: increase, accelerate, escalate, raise, grow, gain, add, boost, ramp, scale, extend, expand, improve, attain, acquire, amplify, win

Down words: decrease, minimize, reduce, diminish, lessen, shorten

Do not mistake active words for buzz words and product features. If you do this then you end up with a bunch of gobbledygook that has no meaning for your prospects.

Focus on helping your prospects visualize the impact of how your ideas and expertise (not your product alone) will position them for success. People buy outcomes, not widgets.

But the real trick in moving people from status quo is also in the size of the shift they'll experience if they listen to you and take action. You've got to do some research and discover what that means for them. Then quantify it through expanding the idea to get them to reach farther than just solving the current problem.

For example: It may be appealing for an LOB manager to gain 40 hours back each month in man hours, but to push them to actively explore change, consider addressing what that means in real terms. What could they do with that 40 hours that makes not taking action to get those hours back unthinkable?

To shift status quo, it's also helpful to focus on short term gains. Long-term goals are important, but if getting to the good stuff is too far out, it's harder to vote for change. They won't see the pain diminishing fast enough to take action. We live in an instant gratification world. It's wise not to forget that in your B2B marketing communications.

Payoff for B2B Content Marketing is Movement

For some reason, B2B marketers tend to jump the gun when reacting to prospect behavior. Just because someone accesses your content doesn't mean they're sales ready. In fact, if you treat prospects that way—without a darned good reason—you've missed the point.

Here's an example to consider:

A company with a complex sale sees an average buying cycle time of 6 to 8 months.

Their nurturing strategy includes 7 touches orchestrated over the period of 30 days.

These touches include a combination of phone calls and emails.

All of you have probably experienced these kinds of campaigns. I know I have. But, here's the rub; pestering a prospect to move faster makes them dig in their heels and stay stuck, or even reverse their intention to change. [Think delete, unsubscribe and voicemail jail.]

Why? You've just scared the bejezus out of them. It's the equivalent of walking into a car dealership and getting the hard sell. Nobody likes to be pushed. Especially when we're "just looking."

The goal of marketing content should be to produce incremental movement.

Movement doesn't mean leaping from I downloaded your white paper to I'm ready to buy. Believe me, if they were, they'd contact you on their own.

Consider the idea of movement in small steps across their buying process:

From: Who are these guys? I'll take a chance and click this link to see. 

To: Hmm. That was an interesting article.

From: Oh, another article on this topic.  

To: They have good information. I'll forward it to Joe and see what he thinks.

From: Oh, good. A webinar showcasing a customer like me.    

To: I'll go register and see how these guys solved the problem.

From: Ah, they simplified the complexity. This might work for us.

To: Now, I have a question.

From: Good answer. Thanks for the follow-up links, too!

To: I can tell my boss about this.

It reads faster, but all of that happened over the course of about two and a half months. It was comfortable for the prospect and gave them time to choose to participate at their own pace. Granted, it's a simplified view, but what's important is that each content resource worked to produce movement.

Not huge leaps in movement, but incremental steps that build a relationship over time. The benefits of building relationships over the long haul are numerous. When each marketing touch point demonstrates consistency, care and a valuable exchange, your prospect's confidence in you—and themselves—increases. They begin to trust the interactions they have with your content and communications.

They don't feel threatened that you're going to pounce on them with a sales pitch as soon as they raise their hand for dialogue.

They can begin to visualize getting the results you're talking about by solving their problem in the way you recommend. You're becoming a valuable resource they can rely upon.

This is why it's important to map content to buying stages. You've got to plan touch points across the entire buying cycle. If you cram everything into a fraction of that time, you stand to lose all the prospects who have a longer horizon. Not to mention driving potential customers away when you're too aggressive and annoying.

Your buyers are busy. All their day-to-day responsibilities don't just vaporize when they have a new problem or priority to solve. There's a lot of complexity to work out. There are a lot more people involved in the process. Every dime they spend has to produce results, and there's that risk element that slows down everything else.

Marketing effectiveness will improve when your content and communications are focused on helping buyers solve problems at their own pace. Nudges are acceptable. Trying to push people to buy because you have sales goals to meet is not.

So plan the goals for your marketing content around producing incremental forward movement. Then monitor for patterns of acceleration and create more content paths like that to pull buyers forward—because they choose to take that next step with your company. Not because you decided they should.