Business-to-business companies in AI, IoT, mobile, wireless and telecom know that building revenue means building relationships with potential and existing customers; and that takes a mix of sales and marketing outreach with unique messaging. To create Awareness, Credibility and Trust, you must include marketing that content by including PR and media activity, social media marketing, in-person networking, trade shows, sales presentations and more. But did you know that Content Marketing can be one of the best strategies for supercharging all of those things?
Today, most companies produce a range of blogs, white papers and other Thought Leadership pieces, often destined to live somewhere on a corporate site, and usually optimized for SEO so that they show up in Google search results. But it’s not enough to have a well-stocked knowledge library on your site anymore. The key is to proactively leverage that content effectively (and repeatedly) to gain maximum engagement results from prospects and customers alike.
Here are some tips for making the most of your Content Marketing strategy, starting with diversifying your formats.
Tip No. 1: Leverage Many Content Formats.
Most content strategies start with blog posts and knowledge-based articles, and while these are an important path to establishing your market expertise, they’re not enough. Consider investing the time and effort into creating additional pieces of content, including the following:
- E-books, white papers & Guides: Offer in-depth, educational information on technology topics, aimed at building TRUST with potential customers.
- Case studies: Show that you can demonstrate real-world results and ROI for your customers. These build CREDIBILITY and showcase how you’ve solved problems.
- Infographics: Visually present data and complex information in an easily digestible format, for use on social media, in the press or to illustrate longer-form content.
- Long-form bylined articles: Look for opportunities to contribute longer feature articles or commentaries to industry publications to make your company look bigger than it is, increase valuation and position its subject matter experts as leaders.
- Podcasts: Showcase customers via this platform, discussing how your offerings set trends, solve industry problems, and branding your executives by allowing their personalities to shine through. Can be hosted or a source for other podcasters.
- Short-form videos: “Snackable” video snippets (15 – 45 seconds) are a popular option on social media for their ability to grab attention and build AWARENESS quickly.
- Video tutorials: Leverage YouTube, LinkedIn and your own blog to cross pollinate this good information, which can be used to provide step-by-step instructions to solving your customers’ problems.
- Media Interviews & Analyst presentations: Offer valuable insights and build relationships with key influencers, repurposing multiple pieces of content.
- E-newsletters: Keep customers informed with this important relationship-building tool by talking up new products, promotions, and company updates and providing unique information. Repurpose from blogs!
Tip No. 2: Create Lots of Evergreen Content.
Evergreen content is one of the best ways to keep your existing customers engaged, and for uncovering new prospects. A healthy stable of reference-type materials could draw people in repeatedly as they look for data points to inform their understanding of various topics. Formats that can carry evergreen content include customer case studies, how-to guides, eBooks and white papers, all of which can be made downloadable behind a registration gate, capturing sales leads.
Tip No. 3: Engage With All Audiences at your Customer or Prospect.
All of these content types offer the opportunity to get in front of your customers and prospects across a range of outlets, and in digestible ways that resonate with them. But to really make that content work to fill the sales funnel, it’s important to strategize across your organization.
Always be watching the buyer’s journey and leverage your content to each stage. Specifically targeted blogs or other content can help your sales team in many ways. Objective, non-vendor-specific educational material and flashy news stories will draw people in, but how are you going to get them to remember you? You can include links to product information, sales contacts and calls-to-action (CTAs) alongside the educational content, to help them move to the next stage of the marketing funnel or help warm up a lead that has gone cold.
Know your audience! Salespeople can also use all types of content to illustrate the company’s market expertise or differentiation. For example, certain topics or formats might be best for CEO-level prospects, while others make more sense for developers or the CTO. Segmenting the content into appropriate topics for appropriate audiences will help you stay in frequent contact with your most important customers and prospects.
Content Marketing, as part of an overall sales and marketing strategy, can help gain awareness for your brand amongst prospects, establish your brand as a market leader, and ultimately drive customers to your website (or directly to a salesperson to learn more), potentially leading to a sale. And all this Awareness, Credibility and Trust increases your valuation.
Make sure you’re incorporating key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your Content Marketing, and don’t be afraid to freshen things up to find out what strategy delivers the best results.
Want to learn more about building an effective Content Marketing strategy? Our mantras are: “Snackable,” REPURPOSABLE and consistently messaged. Need help?
Contact Calysto today for more ways you could be using your existing content!