Online publishing has changed the game. Yes, the Internet changed everything. You've heard it before. But, what many B2B marketers haven't yet grasped is the shift from start and stop marketing campaigns to approaching online publishing as a Content Marketing Continuum.
To make this shift, marketers need a framework, not just the ability to publish content. Marketers are under pressure to create a sustainable buyer experience that results in a profitable outcome. Pushing out stand-alone events or campaigns that stop and start and continuously change in focus is not going to accomplish this goal.
Online publishing is easy to execute, but a bit more difficult when considered in terms of context, consistency and sustainability over time.
"A continuum approach is based on delivering escalating value for buyers in every online interaction to create digital dialogues that drive momentum that results in sales and continues on across the entire customer lifecycle." - How Online Publishing Changes the Game
The importance of the continuum takes on more urgency when you consider that buyers report they only spend 21% of their time during the purchasing process with salespeople. The rest of it is spent searching for and engaging with content (56%) and in conversations with colleagues (23%). [IDG Connect] This shifts much of the burden for informing, educating and establishing relationships with buyers to marketing.
Marketers, in response, must determine how to shift this change in their favor by adopting eMarketing approaches that get salespeople into better conversations with buyers faster.
To help B2B Marketers develop a framework for achieveing that goal and addressing the continuous, sometimes overwhelming, requirements of content marketing, I developed the Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum series of 4 eBooks, published by Hoovers.
The first eBook:
How Online Publishing Changes the Game
is now available for download.
This eBook provides the foundational tools and background marketers need to get started in taking advantage of the opportunities made available by developing a continuum approach.
Topics covered include:
- Defining the Content Marketing Continuum
- How online publishing changes the game for marketers — as well as for buyers
- How to differentiate your content to get found amidst the vast clutter of online content
- The attributes of attention and which kind you need to attract
- The buyer experience funnel, buying stages and buyers' questions — and how they work together
- 5 Steps to building buyer personas
- The necessity of integrating online marketing channels
