Marketing Interactions

Why B2B Marketers Must Address Status Quo

When I do stategic planning workshops with my clients, we get into a lot of discussions about buying stages. Anyone who's followed me for a while or read my book knows that I always start very early in the process with the stage of Status Quo.

My definition of status quo is the buyer's current situation. We get to that by answering questions such as:

• How are they doing what your product enables today?
• What workarounds may be in place that could be escalating pain?
• Why should they care about what you're talking about?
• What would get their attention?
• What would they need to learn to become motivated to change?

In a recent conversation, a client voiced concern that we were starting too early in the process. Comments such as "this is a mature market, they know they need to change" came up as I probed deeper.

My response was, "If that's true, then why aren't they actively pursuing change?"

There's a big difference in knowing change is available and actually agreeing that change is needed and taking steps to do something about it.

Regardless of what you think your prospects and customers already know, they still have a status quo. If you can't motivate them to move from that position, you can't sell them anything. Period. End of discussion.

Heck, I "know" a lot of stuff, but I don't necessarily act on it. Even if I "know" it will be good for me.

But addressing status quo goes much deeper than determining their current position. It means you have to figure out why they aren't changing and what might make them reconsider their stance that status quo is good enough.

When looking for an approache to dislodge status quo, try applying some of these questions:

• What trigger event would cause them to pursue change?


• Is the way they've been offered the idea of change not aligned with their perspective?


• What business objective might they miss achieving if they don't change?


• What future opportunity might they miss if they don't start changing now?


• Is there a cultural "elephant in the room?"


• What move by a competitor might get them out of the gate?


• Is an industry development moving their market right while they're still going left?


• Is a regulatory or compliance change coming that they will need help addressing?


• Are they losing market share even while growing revenues?


• Are they meeting their KPIs, but still leaving revenue on the table they don't see?


• Will a looming merger threaten their market position?


• Is there a new market opportunity that they're missing due to their status quo?


• Who is an obstacle? (In B2B, there's nearly always a consensus that must be reached)


• What is an obstacle blocking change (process, legacy equipment, TCO, etc.)

Those are just a few ways to look at how you might position marketing content to catch your buyers' attention and arouse their curiosity about the costs of status quo. Just make sure you're creating a business-relevant dialogue, not a treatise about why your product is the best choice.

The goal in this stage is not to get them to choose a product, it's to get them to choose to pursue change. Big difference.

In today's market environment, good enough isn't a strategic growth plan, it's a recipe for obsolescence.

What will it take for you to reach buyers and make them reconsider their adherrence to status quo?

What other questions would you add to the list?

Hello Mr. Customer; It's Me...Your Vendor

According to research by BtoB Magazine, 58% of B2B marketers say that marketing involvement never stops and must continue across the entire customer lifecycle. Be that as it may, marketers are focused on driving qualified leads as their most important mission.

So where does that leave customers?

Research from the CMO Council finds that companies lose 10% of their customers each year, on average. Would it shock you to learn that 68 percent of customer defections occur because customers perceive "an attitude of indifference?" (American Society for Quality)

Content marketing across the customer lifecycle can play an important role in reversing this perception of indifference. Considering that even a 5% reduction to churn can increase profitability by at least 25%, it’s definitely time for marketing to create a continuum for content marketing that reaches beyond the sale.

Thankfully, there may be a change brewing. I certainly hope so.

According to Google's 2011 B2B Marketing Outlook report:

87% of marketers invest in customer retention, and 2/3 say that this is where the majority of their marketing dollars will go in 2011.

To use content marketing for customers, marketers must consider the differences between content designed for prospects and content designed for customers.

This is easier when marketers realize that their marketing automation platform is not just for pre-sales use. By using the profiles and activity histories developed during the customer acquisition process, marketers have great visibility into the intelligence they need to continue to deliver relevant and valuable communications after the deal closes.

In fact, given the data marketers should have available, it should be even easier to develop relevant content for customers than it is to do so for prospects.

To construct a content marketing program for customers, do the following:

Reset Their Status Quo
Once a prospect becomes a customer, their status quo is different. They no longer have the problem they set out to solve as a prospect. Any marketing content developed must take into account the customer’s current situation as the foundation from which to address why more change and evolution is beneficial to their future success.  

Define New Needs and Priorities

• Given the customer’s current status quo with your solution in play, what new needs or priorities have been created now that the original problem was solved?


• What features might your customers not be using that can help them reap even more value than they required during the initial purchase?


• Are there industry trends that point to the need for customers to proactively take next steps that you can help them achieve?

Create content that showcases your company’s expertise in helping your customers meet their future business objectives. Use in-depth customer success stories that show just how you’ve expanded your role to create richer, enduring value for other customers like them.

You DO have a Relationship, Right?
Theoretically, your company already has an established relationship with your customers.

Unfortunately many companies act like they’ve never met their customers. This is evidenced by sending them information that’s no longer relevant to them after the purchase or pushing up-sell offers without foundation. Even worse, acting like you don’t know them diminishes your credibility as a partner and works to establish that perception of indifference that leads to defection.

Our customers are our greatest asset and the importance of continuous engagement across the entirety of the customer’s lifecycle cannot be overstated. Marketers need to focus on continuing to grow the relationship established during the pre-sale instead of starting over once the ink has dried.

Zap the Excuses Limiting Personalization
During pre-sale marketing, it’s a challenge to target and personalize our marketing content appropriately because we're often using a number of assumptions.

With customers, marketers have the data to do so. Or we should. If marketers are leveraging their marketing automation systems for customer communications, continuing to expand profiles, monitor interests and respond to online behavior is less complex.

Integration with CRM systems will help us work with account managers to increase visibility into how we can best provide continuous value to each customer. With the ability to use marketing automation technology to finely tune our customer segmentation, messaging can become highly relevant to each niche a company serves.

Leave No Customer Behind
Growing revenues is not just about net-new customers. It's about extending the lifecycle with those we have and increasing the value that we provide to them over time. Let's face it, a customer relationship is a terrible thing to waste. Especially when we've got the tools and the data to create content and conversations that increase loyalty and spend from those we've already sold.

Lead Generation is NOT IT

As the latest research, surveys and reports about content marketing begin surfacing, I'm wondering if  B2B marketers are really embracing change or if they're stuck in the past? Time and again, I see lead generation as a top priority goal while lead nurturing comes in at the bottom of the heap - behind web traffic and brand awareness for crying out loud.

Lead Generation is a hello and a handshake.

Lead Nurturing is the art of building a relationship with purpose.

Big difference. HUGE.

To be successful, marketers need to integrate them both into a lead management process.

In the 2010 B2B Content Marketing Trends report from Marketing Profs and Junta42 they found:

"Marketers report that content marketing supports multiple business goals, led by brand awareness (78%), customer retention/loyalty (69%) and lead generation (63%); the least widely employed goal for content marketing is lead management/nurturing."

And "Web traffic is the most widely used success metric (56%)"

In another recent survey completed last month by TechValidate, they found that the biggest reason marketers create content is for a lead generation campaign (60%), but only 2.9% cited the need for a lead nurturing campaign.

Interestingly, they also report that thought leadership content is more effective than lead generation content and that 3rd party analyst content is more effective than content written in house.

Does anyone see conflict in the way effectiveness of content is matching up to goals? And, I might add that, with 3rd party content, you don't know if the person is interested in your company or the analyst information that they'd have to pay $ for elsewhere.

First, let's dispel this idea that an opt in is actually a lead. Because they're not. They're someone who was interested enough in the offer presented that they chose to fill out a form to gain access to it. Period.

What they choose to do next in response to your content and communications is a critical pivot point. One that won't happen if marketing programs stop at "lead" generation.

The evidence exists that buyers spend more time self-educating via the Internet than they do in conversations with salespeople. There's also proof that, due to this change, sales is only invited into the last 1/3 of the buying process.

With a complex sale, there's a lot of knowledge transfer that must happen. If they're not getting it from you during a nurturing process, which competitor are they relying on? And why do you think you'll suddenly pop up on their shortlist if you haven't been there, being helpful, all along?

And, if salespeople are cherry picking all the "leads" you toss them, what's happening to all the others? If they were interested enough to fill out a form, they may eventually become buyers.That's up to what you do in an effort to build a relationship [read nurture].

After all, the subject is top of mind enough to cause them to pay for content with information. So, what's the benefit of spending all that budget to let non sales-ready prospects languish unattended?

Some of the problems that are cited with content development are that it's too time intensive, too labor intensive, too costly and that companies lack the expertise necessary to create great content. I don't think avoiding solving these issues is going to help. In fact, I'd wager that it would be a good idea to solve them before jumping on the social media bandwagon - which seems to be one of the top goals for marketers these days.

Content marketing is a critical skill set. It's necessary to get beyond the "lead" generation mindset to prove contribution to revenues.

What will it take to get this status quo focus on lead generation to change?

Marketing Automation Provides Tactic Validation

I was just reading a post by Mac McConnell, You've Got Marketing Automation. Now What?, and one of the points Mac made really resonated with me. He was talking about what could be referred to as throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

One of the things that marketers must get better at is the ability to measure the effectiveness of every element of their marketing mix. In the scenario that Mac shared, his client had stopped doing tradeshows because they didn't think they were as effective as other tactics.

According to Adobe's 2010 Analytics Survey, 44% of 1,000 marketers surveyed said they could not allocate sales and costs to marketing campaigns. Given this, it's not really surprising that 76% of marketers cannot measure full marketing ROI.

Which is why many marketers are still playing the intuition game.

So, back to Mac's story. What his client did once they had marketing automation to track lead disposition was to divide their spend equally across 3 demand generation initiatives:

• list rental
• content syndication
• one trade show

Guess which one is driving 2.3X more pipeline than the others after 6 months of tracking and measuring activity and results?

Yes, that would be the trade show the company had eliminated from their marketing plan because they thought the event wasn't successful.

There are a lot of new marketing technologies, processes and tactics available [read shiny new toys]. But this doesn't mean that the more traditional tactics aren't effective - well at least some of the time. The important thing is to gain insights to deeper data that can prove how close your intuition is to the truth.

Mac's post also provided a great chart showing the difference between engagement with content that prospects find valuable and that ridiculous "look at me" content that many companies are still cranking out.

The difference is striking - click over to Mac's post and see it for yourself.

Although I have to say that the customer story statistic surprised me. The questions I'd have for Mac would be during which stage of the buying process was the customer story used? And, was it a valuable story that showcased the problem-to-solution process or a glorified 2-page brochure that touted brand and product names without any meat on its bones?

Use Marketing Content as A Pipe Cleaner

The other day I spoke with a company that sounded like they really had a grasp on their content marketing programs. It appeared that they were doing everything well. They segment their lists, they provide great content their buyers will find helpful and they employ marketing automation to monitor behavior and tune their efforts.

As they were telling me about the solution they wanted to create higher adoption for in a specific industry, I asked a lot of questions and started hearing a recurrance of two issues:

1. They were having a hard time creating priority recognition and opt in.


2. Once they'd accomplished that, prospects moved along nicely and the handoff to sales went well — and then stalls would occur resulting in no decision to move forward.

The first issue is rather common. We don't start early enough in the buying process. We assume that our prospects know they need our solution, they just need to decide to buy it from us — instead of someone else.

This is the first bottleneck in the demand generation process. We've failed to address our prospects' status quo situation. We're already too far ahead of where they are to be relevant.

People are masters of the work-around. Most of your prospects probably have PhDs in work arounds. Making tweaks to what they have in order to continue to get the job done is the most acceptable level of change for both people and companies.

Think about all the things you could do (probably should do) to make your life easier, more fulfilling and happier, but you put off because it's too much trouble to change right now. Maybe next week, you think. And, pretty soon you've "next-weeked" yourself into next year. It's the same thing for your prospects.

Maybe they don't know why they should change.

Maybe they don't understand the cost of the way they're doing it now.

Maybe they don't have enough confidence that change will get them what they want.

Maybe it just seems to darned hard.

Go figure out their status quo and create content that addresses their current reality and how things can be better, faster, easier, more lucrative, etc. if they consider alternatives.

The objective with status quo content is to get them to open their mind to new possibilities and arouse their curiosity enough to get them to look into what change might mean for them. Not to sell.

What you want them to do is to learn enough to agree that the issue is worthy of a priority position on their to do list and to start investigating what that means by asking for more information — in other words, opting in to get more of your content.

The second issue is what I call Step Backs during the buying process. It's what happens when prospects have been moving through the pipeline nicely and suddenly stall. This is when the "what if..." scenario stomps on the brakes.

What if my users won't adopt the new system like you say they will?

How can I be sure we won't run over budget getting the results you promised?

Oh, wait - how will this new process impact Mary's team in product design?

Maybe the risk is really higher than I thought...

Your job as a content marketer is to figure out what all these hesitations can be and create content and sales collateral that can be used to address them, alleviating your prospects' concerns, or the concerns of other stakeholders that may arise at the last minute.

Go talk to your salespeople and your customers (newer customers are optimal because the process is still fresh in their minds). Find out what kinds of concerns customers had and learn about the conversations your salespeople have with prospects at each stage that produce a change in behavior. Learn the good changes as well as the bad as you can use both to design compelling content that keeps momentum from stalling.

Figure out where the bottlenecks in your pipeline occur (not just these two places) and create content that will serve as a pipe cleaner to clear the way to more decisions being made in your favor. Sometimes, as with the conversation I noted at the beginning of the post, talking with someone outside of the process can help highlight things you won't see because you're too close to it.

Marketing Automation Preparedness

Over on the Software Advice site, Jeff Pedowitz wrote an interesting article, Why the Marketing Automation Market is Floundering & 5 Fixes to Fuel It. He raises some great points at a high level about what marketing automation vendors can do to improve purchase and adoption of the technology.

All of them have merit, but there are a couple that I think warrant further exploration.

Complexity: The whole idea of automating content marketing is staggering in its hugeness. There are so many moving parts. Intellectually, the concept has great attraction value. Realistically, it's really hard to know where to start.

Jeff makes the point clearly when he states:

"The concepts and processes that drive successful adoption of marketing automation are often beyond the core skill sets of daily practitioners."

We need to help marketers better prepare to adopt and use marketing automation. Several issues that have stopped this intention in its tracks include:

• Lack of market definition. This means personas. But it also means understanding how to create a dialogue with those people. Just sending an email isn't the point. If it was, we could all keep our ESPs and be as productive as the next company. Creating contagious content is a skill that's dependent on how well marketers know what their audiences care about and how to talk with them—not at them.


• Lack of clean, usable prospect and customer data. Let's face it, most databases are a mess. We have all these forms that collect massive amounts of information, but we don't collect it in ways that help us use it to create better interactions. We need to improve our data collection processes and we need to do it purposefully. Every field on a form should be there because it helps us better connect with people interested in hearing from us. And don't get me started on customer data. It's even worse - and we know them, or we should.


• Lack of content strategy, development resources and process. How the heck can you create perpetual marketing programs without these key components? Yet they seem to be an after thought for many. I often create annual nurturing programs for companies that include 18 content assets and 36 email messages plus other tie-in pieces and related sales collateral—and that's for one persona + product/solution combination. The scope of requirements to use marketing automation successfully across a complex buying process can be daunting, but they don't have to be. We need to help companies develop methods for streamlining that process and determine how to make it something manageable that also delivers on goals.

Education: Webinars that purport to educate prospects share a lot of great ideas that motivate them, but also leave them wondering just how to put them to work. Some companies even get to the point of deciding prove the concept. This could mean taking advantage of a 30-day trial that some vendors offer or even a more formal 3-month pilot. And, shamefully, we let them, often without setting parameters and expectations.

If the company's average sales cycle is 9 months to a year, just what do you think a 3-month pilot will prove? Sure, if you're lucky, you can scrape that 15% of sales-ready leads off the top, but they could have done that on their own. So what should have been an exercise in proving value for engagement, momentum and contribution to downstream revenues ends up being a glorified, short-term sales campaign.

If we're going to invite companies to try out the software, we need to ensure that how they do so will prove value that they can't already produce on their own. And, we need to help them prepare to get that value in a limited timeframe. Otherwise their pilot stalls and so does their interest in the technology.

Business case: In his article, Jeff makes the point that, "The very person that Marketing Automation seeks to empower – the marketing executive – has the least power on the senior management team to buy." In his fix, he says, "Start selling to sales executives, CFO’s, CIO’s and even the CEO. Make this an enterprise play, not just a marketing one."

I agree. We need to start helping companies view marketing automation from the perspective of a critical business system and the impact it can have beyond lead generation and qualification. There's a case to be made for all of the roles Jeff indicates. How many vendors have expanded their reach beyond marketing executives to enlist other executives in the conversation? How many help their marketing prospects understand how to have those conversations with their colleagues?

Marketing automation preparedness applies to the company's who will buy the solution as well as the companies that sell it. It's the foundation for everything that comes afterward.

Go read Jeff's article - he covers a lot of ground and makes some key points that could change your game.

Where to Start Your Lead Nurturing Program

Getting started is often the hardest thing to do once you decide you want to create a lead nurturing program. Lead nurturing is about continuously engaging B2B prospects across their buying process by providing the right content at the right time to help them take the next steps toward purchase.

Your lead nurturing programs will differ based on how they are populated. So, consider the source of lead origination as you create your program. The first touch in a lead nurturing program after opt in should be related to the reason the prospect chose to raise their hand.

If you think about this, it's highly unlikely that a lead downloads a white paper because they're really saying "call me now, I'm ready to buy." So knock that off, will you?

If they opted in by downloading a white paper, for example, it's because they were interested in what they thought the information in the white paper would share with them. This means the first place to start in this case is with the white paper landing page - not  the white paper itself.

What's promised on a landing page to promote conversion can be much different than the information in the white paper. How many times have you been disappointed by a white paper after you've downloaded it? I can't tell you the number of PDFs I've downloaded that were touted as research white papers which in reality contained a couple of analyst quotes and a product features dump over 4 pages.

Assuming none of you would do that, make notes of the key promises on the landing page. Then assess the white paper to see how well those promises were delivered on. The promises caused the prospect to complete the conversion. How else can you use them to create additional content that will compel the prospect to click on the links in your nurturing emails?

The sources for lead origination will vary. A webinar is also a great source of lead generation. The same process applies - start at the source. Take a good look at it from your prospect's perspective. Step into your prospect's shoes and go through the process yourself. Review the email invitation messaging. Look at the promises made in the landing page content. Listen to the webinar again. Pay close attention to the Q&A and the post-webinar survey responses.

To create the first touch points in your nurturing program you need to consider your prospect's status quo.

Ask yourself questions such as:

• What current business situation could they be dealing with that made the promise compelling?


• What business goals would make the promise(s) relate to their top priorities?


• What further information than what was showcased in the white paper will help them learn more about solving the problem or reaching their goals?


• Which persona is most applicable to the types of prospects who downloaded the white paper, or will I need to segment the list?


• If I segment the list, how do the answers to the first 3 questions above change?

Once you've got your first idea, create an outline for developing the content.

• Include a premise. A premise is a short orientation paragraph that includes the promise of the content, what you want the prospect to learn and why it's important to them.


• Jot down three bullet ideas about what you'll share in the content article, to flesh out the premise.


• Note the white paper and any reference materials you know about. For example, I often do searches on topics when I'm brainstorming. I'll memorialize links to some of the best ones to help get my mind back in sync with the topic once I start writing.

Given the above, once your prospect has the information from touch one, what else will they need to learn about? A lead nurturing program should present a logical progression of ideas focused on helping them solve a specific problem as they move through their buying process.

The best way to get started with a lead nurturing program is to engage your audience on their terms in relation to the interest they've expressed upon opt in. In other words - get to their status quo and you'll find higher engagement because your content is talking about something that's instantly relatable to them.

Content Marketing for Customers Instead of Prospects

I recently received an email from someone who's read my book. He asked how to go about creating content to nurture and retain customers rather than prospects. I love this question as so many B2B marketers are solely focused on lead generation at the expense of building relationships with customers.

Customers you have are highly valuable. Marketers need to start paying attention to the entire lifecycle - including the development of post purchase relationships.

Just as you'd map content to the buying cycle, you can create a content map for the customer lifecycle.

The major difference in getting started with a customer nurturing program is the starting point. Their status quo is different than a prospect's.

• They already have your product.
• The problem you educate prospects about solving is solved.

Given those assumptions, create a baseline for their current situation by considering what the questions are that they need answered to move them from the status quo of the points above. Examples could include:

• What opportunities are now available with that original problem solved? Fixing one can open up the possibility of fixing another that was unseen at the time.


• How can you help them move from "beginner" status to "expert" status in how they use your product? In other words, how can you help them get even more value than they ever hoped to get when they made the original purchase?


• Why should they ante up for a support or services contract?


• What other related products could help them achieve new strategic objectives?


• Were other departments affected by the change your product brought that you can now help to solve?

As you create your customer nurturing strategy, you need to consider that their expectations are different than your prospects. They expect you to know them, as well as their situation and which products they're using. And, rightfully so.

They expect personalized, valuable communications, not blanket emails that could be for anyone. (Okay, that's similar to prospect expectations) In essence, the threshold for screwing up is much lower, so take care and do the proper planning.

The one thing I want to make really clear is that the content you create for prospects is not the content your customers want or need. This should become obvious when you answer the questions above.

The best part about customer nurturing is that you can actually gain access to them to truly learn what content will be most helpful. You should have a way to segment them appropriately given what you know about them. You've also got access to the service people who support them. A veritable treasure trove of information exists if you'll just go after it.

Customer attrition is largely based on indifference.

Replacing customers is very costly.

I highly recommend that you put customer nurturing programs at the top of your priority list for 2011. If you want to prove accountability and contribution to revenues, this is a great way to gain traction with your company.

Don't forget that your customer content marketing strategy isn't just about marketing programs but can impact customer service and support interactions as well as account management activities. What content do those people need to help nurture your customers?

Don't forget about the word of mouth and referrals that can come from highly satisfied and loyal customers. Nurturing customers can also pay high dividends in net new business. Especially in a social business environment. Just saying...

Send Your Marketing Content to Med School

Much too often I hear B2B marketers say that their prospects already know they need the solutions their company sells. Quite frankly, if every prospect in your database isn't beating a path to your door—check in hand—this belief is a costly delusion.

Face facts. You know too much.

Just as you know all the reasons why purchasing your solution should be a no-brainer, that without your solution, your prospects will struggle longer and unnecessarily to attain the business objectives they desire, they don't see it that way.

Nope. Your prospects are hunkered down in their situations, dealing with their reality. From their perspective, the workaround that employees are grumbling about is getting the job done. They're eyeing that new compliance requirement, trying to modify existing processes to address it as efficiently as possible. They may not even realize that this is an issue that could be addressed more productively with outside intervention.

The truth is that most of your prospects just aren't prepared to discover another way. They need help diagnosing issues and framing resolutions that deliver more value to the company than the way they've always done things.

Ultimately, this means B2B marketers need to create Diagnostic Content for the pre-buying stages. Yep, that's right. You need to provoke ideation and motivate the desire to change. Marketing content needs to start before prospects raise their hands, prompting them to recognize that there is value in further exploration.

Diagnostic Content addresses:

• What: Issue Identification
  Develop content that points to the causes of issues your prospect may be dealing with. Why don't they see the issue as a priority to resolve? What would make them recognize that the current situation is an obstacle to results worth eliminating? Issue identification is about helping prospects reach that "Aha" moment that catches their attention and motivates them to want to learn more. Issue identification is where you can plant the seeds of dissatisfaction with current situations, but also provide hope that there's a better way. Think carrot, not stick.


• How: Paths to Improvement
  Once you've helped them identify an issue, you need to help them see a path to addressing it. If you're hoping they'll figure it out on their own, you've missed the point. Your prospects are busy, overworked and short on time. The simpler you can make it, the more likely they'll follow the content bread crumbs you place before them. But, simple is not effective without clarity and recognizable value. Your path to improvement must have all of those facets. Connect the dots by making next steps easy to take. Expect huge leaps and your content marketing will need emergency resusitation. Perception of the effort required to engage with your ideas can either improve the health of your relationship with prospects or kill their momentum.


• Why: Value Quantification
  You must show them how they gain more value with your solution than they can achieve without you, and it cannot be unrealistic. In fact, the more specific you can make it, the more personalized to their specific situation, the better your chances. Remember to match the value to your prospect's objectives. Giving a line-of-business manager financial information valuable to a CIO—while needed for a business case—may lose the attention of the manager who's goal is to reduce a process cycle time from 2 months to 2 days. Relevance rules!


• When: Now vs. Later
  There is a big difference between a "maybe someday" solution and an "I need it now or the world will implode" solution. In today's restained economic environment, you need to help your prospect get to that second conclusion. Urgency must be a factor in diagnostic marketing content. Is your marketing content prescribing chicken soup for the common cold or the antidote to a terminal disease? [Okay - a bit dramatic, but it's all in the positioning.]

Prospects have changed. IDC's 2010 Customer Experience Survey found that vendor content was the most highly influential component of the pre-purchase decision-making process for IT purchasers. Marketing Sherpa finds that 78% of B2B marketers say generating high quality leads is their biggest challenge.

Get infront of your prospects earlier by creating diagnostic content that helps them identify issues, choose a path to improvement and quantify the value specific to their needs. Helping them to recognize it's critical to diagnose and solve the problem now, rather than later will aid in the development of those high quality leads B2B marketers need in their pipelines.

In order to create truly relevant diagnostic content, you need to forget all the stuff you know and put yourself in your prospect's shoes. Marketers tend to start too far down the road when developing marketing content. Back it up and help your prospects diagnose their issues by sending your marketing content to med school.

Start at Status Quo to Create Buyer' Momentum

I hear a lot of B2B marketers say that their prospects are already aware of the problem, so they believe this indicates that marketing content should focus further down the buying pipeline. This perspective can set you up for a long haul. After all, if prospects are "aware" of the problem, but not motivated to fix it, there's no momentum.

Think about how hard it is to go from 0 to 60 without an accelerator?

It's like pushing dead weight up a hill. Imagine Sisyphus with the boulder on the mountain and you'll get the idea. That's what you're facing if you ignore the status quo position of your prospects and think you can jump ahead to helping them solve the problem. They aren't there yet.

There's a big difference between awareness and urgency.

Urgency drives the motivation to solve the problem. Urgency is directly equivalent to the amount of pain the problem is producing. Your content will be ineffective unless you've got prospects who consider their problem urgent enough to solve. This means you need to help them get the problem to the top of their priority list.

Oh, wait.

You think your prospects are already motivated to solve the problem?

Really?

Who motivated them?

Whoever motivated the prospect to take action is likely to be who you're now competing against to get their attention to switch to your company. Problem is that you're late to the game. You've allowed the prospect the opportunity to develop a reliance upon another company for the information that motivated them to take next steps.

Your challenge now is to:

• unseat that competitor
• develop more credibility with the prospect than the competitor has already established
• catch and keep their attention 
• pass the comparison test over the duration of the buying process

It doesn't have to be that hard. Decide to focus on the entire buying process and eschew the shortcuts that really only make your job more difficult than it has to be. The trade off is worth the extra effort.