Content is King… but only with an Effective Content Marketing Strategy

 Did you know Alaskan Red King Crab fishermen can earn $60,000 in 4 weeks?  

Alaskan Fisherman can earn $60,000 in one month

That’s right, they can earn an annual a salary in about one month.

Their salary reflects the risks they take - this is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.  

And they fish in extreme conditions... along the Bering Sea... in November.

But fishermen don't simply get on a boat one day and ship out to rough waters in the winter.

On the contrary, Alaskan fishermen plan systematically. When they’re out to sea for weeks, resupply presents an issue. To succeed, they follow a tested strategy supported by a systematic plan.

Similarly, your company can earn most of its annual revenues in 4 days… at your annual trade show. To succeed, you need a content marketing strategy and systematic plan.

As you know, B2B content marketing is growing quickly. Your competitors have jumped on the content bandwagon. But most B2B marketers believe their content marketing is ineffective.

Translation: More content does not mean better content. And content without direction and focus falls short of expected results.

But… with a content strategy, you can boost effectiveness by up to 600%!

How do you achieve that?

Develop a B2B Content Marketing Strategy

Trade shows result in more revenues than any other sales event. Many companies earn most of their sales during a week.

To maximize this opportunity, you’ll need professional, persuasive and potent marketing content. But content by itself won’t earn your business its annual revenues.

But… combine your content marketing strategy with trade shows and you have a winner.

With this strategy, you can catch two fish with one worm.  

Content is King with a Content Marketing Strategy

Here’s how you do that.

• Identify the Audience (prospects and clients)

• Identify the Purpose of your content

• Identify the content types to be published

• Align your audience, purpose, and content types

Let’s look at these four steps in more detail.

Identify the Audience

Anytime you write content, the first step is to single out your audience. Which clients are you targeting? Prospects, customers, both?

Know Your Audience

You’ve heard of personas, which represent the various client profiles you’re targeting.

In planning content for trade shows you have various audiences comprised of decision makers, such as CEO, COOs, CFOs, CIOs, CTOs, etc.

However, you also have an operations audience consisting of operations managers, supply chain managers, and warehouse managers. Finally, you have a technical audience of engineers, accountants, and technology specialists.

As you can see, we’ve identified three main categories for your audience, all of which consume information differently. They have different perspectives, interests, and levels and kinds of detail.

Decision makers want high-level information focused on the “Big Picture” and maybe some level of details concerning important aspects of a product or service. Technical personnel, however, want the details. They want to go into the weeds.

Next, you need to consider the purpose of your content. Specifically, what do you hope to accomplish with your marketing content?

Identify the Purpose of Your Content

When you identify the purpose of your content, you get at the specific goals and objectives you hope to achieve.

• Lead Generation: For trade shows, you obviously want marketing content that generates leads. With about 83% of trade show attendees having influence over the buying decision, you’re operating in a target-rich environment for lead generation.
• New Products and Services: Your purpose may be to feature a product or service that reflects the industry’s latest business practices, technologies, or products your company has to offer.
• Branding: Additionally, with so many decision makers and influencers at trade shows, you’ll want to showcase your company’s brand. All your content should reflect your business's core message.

At this point, we’ve identified three key audience categories and three different purposes for your marketing content. Working with this mix, let’s see how to identify different content types.

Identify the Content Types to be Published

Print Content 

We’re halfway there in developing a content marketing strategy based on trade shows. Now it’s time to consider the types of content you should publish. You have many choices: text documents, graphics, video, audio.

• Text documents: white papers, case studies, point papers, presentations
• Graphics: company photos, infographics
• Video: company overview by CEO, featuring of special/new products
• Audio: Podcasts of individual products and services being featured by COO, CIO, etc.

Align Your Audience, Purpose, and Content Types

Align Your Audience, Purpose, and Content 

You can address this in two ways. First, consider the audience you’re targeting (decision makers or technicians), and how they prefer to consume their content.

• Do your customers get their information on the web?
• Do they want high-level or detailed data and information?

Some of this is a judgment call, but if you’re talking to your customers, you’ll have a good idea of how they prefer to consume content.

Second, in addition to providing content based on your audience’s preferences, you should consider distribution. What should you provide online and what should you provide in hard copy. And, of course, some content should be distributed both digitally and in print.

Here are a few examples:

	Blog	Social Media	Video	Audio	White Papers	Brochures	Case Studies
Digital	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Print					X	X	X

This only represents a sampling, as you have more content types from which to choose like data sheets, spreadsheets, direct mail, press releases, web content and landing pages. In any case, you should take the time to consider your audience’s preferences and the type of data/information being conveyed.  

Assessing Your Trade Show Content Marketing Strategy

Now it’s time to review what you’ve done and assess it in terms of your overall content marketing strategy. To quickly recap, you’ve identified your audience, your purpose, your and content types, and you've aligned them.

When you've completed this process, whether you realize it or not, you’ve just built a solid foundation for your overall content marketing strategy.  

Why?

Some companies realize up to 80% of annual sales at trade shows. So, if you plan and prepare a content marketing strategy focused on your annual trade show, you’re also developing your overall content marketing strategy.

Conclusion

This blog post lays out a different approach to developing a content marketing strategy based on your annual trade show. It maximizes time and effort spent on what’s important. It represents a disciplined approach that easy to implement if you plan.

You’ll be surprised at the difference this approach makes compared to leads generated last year. Your ROI will improve as well as your sales and revenues.

Try it and let me know how it worked out for you.

Alex Milo, CSCP, CPL

B2B Copywriter

Phone: 256-886-4684
Email: amilo@b2bcopywriting-alexmilo.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandermilo

http://www.b2bcopywriting-alexmilo.com

P.S. Here's a link to a presentation on this using trade shows as a content marketing strategy: Perfect Your B2B Content Marketing Strategy with Trade Shows

B2B Branding: Influence Customers with Brand Messaging that Promotes Trust

It Takes Trust to Inspire Action

Inspire Confidence with Trust-based Messaging

In last week’s post I wrote about the value of branding. One key feature of branding was that buyers trust brands that mitigate (personal) risk. 

My post touched on building trust by mitigating risk. The risk I addressed dealt with risk associated with the product or service.

Today, I’ll expand on that. This post examines other ways you can strengthen your brand by building trust focused on your marketing content.   

Trust Builder #1: Develop Your B2B Brand with Social Engagement 

If you’re a frequent reader of my posts, it’s no surprise I favor LinkedIn and Google+. You can add YouTube to the list. These three sites are especially suited for business.

But other social media sites may also work well for your business.

Social engagement means providing useful and entertaining content online for your followers. B2B consumers search the Internet for relevant information. Therefore, your site should be the most authoritative source on your products and services.

Social media also affords customers a direct link to you. Interacting directly on a personal level helps foster trust. This builds long-term engagement. Over time, you’ll build loyalty through responsiveness and transparency, as executives and employees interact with customers online.

Direct social engagement with existing and potential customers builds trust.

Trust Builder #2: Create or Re-create Taglines in Your B2B Branding

According to an Adweek article, the usefulness of taglines is waning. The article falls short in calling for the death of taglines as proclaimed in its attention-grabbing headline, but it suggests taglines’ utility now has a shorter-term impact. Thus, taglines need to be more flexible.

That said, taglines are still important.

Why? 

Because well-crafted taglines convey the essence of a company or its’ product(s) and service(s).

Namely, first-rate taglines help B2B buyers remember your company, keeping it top of mind. 

Second, taglines help differentiate your brand from your competitors.

Taglines that communicate the core of a business serve as a powerful marketing device that helps build trust and confidence in your B2B brand. 

Trust Builder #3: Focus B2B Branding on What Matters to Your Customers 

According to a Forbes article, most B2B businesses miss the mark in their brand messaging. Businesses look inward focusing on their products and services. They tend to highlight their social responsibility, sustainability and global network. 

There’s certainly room for discussing these topics in your business communications. But not in your brand messaging.

Instead, business should look outward and focus on the B2B buyer.

So what do prospects and customers care about?

According to the article, customers care about, “… honesty, responsibility across the supply chain and level of specialized expertise”.

Don’t talk past your customer. Turn the focus away from your business, and focus directly on what matters to your customers. Fortify trust by publishing marketing content relevant to your buyers. 

Trust Builder #4: Achieve Consistency in B2B Branding with All Marketing Content

Former governor of Rhode Island, Lincoln Chaffee said, “Trust is built with consistency”.  Easily said, but not easily done.

With the growth of platforms to deliver your message, consistency becomes a challenge.

In terms of branding, you should strive to communicate a consistent message. Your messaging must be in harmony.

Your online communications must support your offline messaging. Brand messaging in your blog posts, social media must match messaging in white papers, case studies, and direct mail.

Consistency in messaging helps you stand out from the crowd because over time it makes your brand more easily recognizable. It helps to shorten the B2B buying cycle where long buying cycles are the norm.

Trust Builder #5: Create Connections with Storytelling 

Storytelling helps build a strong emotional connection, which promotes trust. At the Content Marketing Institute annual event, guest keynote speaker, Kevin Spacey said the goal of all content marketing is to connect with your audience.

So, don’t sell… tell stories using social media.  A well-developed social media tactics focused on storytelling will enrich your brand messaging. Telling compelling stories is easier than you might think.

Simon Sinek who has the Number 2 most-watched TEDS video (more than 21 million views) says that to get people to take action you have to start with “Why”.  By that he means you should focus on “why” you do what you do, rather than on “what you do”. Focus the core of your story on the "Why” and you’ll inspire people to take action.

Remember, buyers buy from businesses and people they know, like and trust. By engaging your followers with compelling stories, you’ll encourage trust as your relationship develops. 

Use these five ways to promote trust and confidence with your current and futures customers.  Again, you can build trust in other ways. (My previous post explains how you can use a focus on your products or services to build trust.)

These methods focus on your business communications. You can influence and even inspire customers to take action with clear, consistent and compelling branding.  Online and Off.

If you liked this post, please let me know and feel free to share it. And if you have any questions or would like to know more, just leave a comment.

Have a great week!

Alex Milo

B2B Copywriter and Consultant

“Helping Transportation and Logistics Companies Generate Leads with Compelling Content”

Phone: 256-886-4684
Email: amilo@b2bcopywriting-alexmilo.com

LinkedIn

Google+

www.b2bcopywriting-alexmilo.com

B2B Branding: Google Study Reveals Decisive Impact on Your Bottom Line

B2B Branding's Value Conclusively Proven

In a joint study, Google and CEB Marketing Leadership Council debunk several myths. Their findings were unexpected and shed new light on the hidden power of B2B branding.

The study conclusively shows that B2B branding: (1) significantly outperforms B2C branding, (2) greatly influences purchase decisions,  and (3) helps command premiums.

As a B2B marketing professional, you can leverage this little known fact to your advantage. 

B2B Branding Impacts the Bottom Line

Imagine taking your branding to the next level. 

Effective B2B branding helps you:

• Build trust that helps build enduring customer loyalty.
• Shorten decision cycle increasing annual sales and profits.
• Build long-term relationships that help even out sales cycle.
• Maximize favorable pricing resulting in higher average profits per sale.

You can achieve the results listed above by following a proven branding approach. 

Let’s look at the key findings from the Google-CEB study.

Finding #1: The Impact of B2C Brands Pales Compared to B2B Brands

In B2C, between 10% and 40% of consumers connect with B2C brands. Google and CEB studied nine B2B brands. The data revealed that connections to seven B2B brands were greater than 50%. 

What’s the reason for this high affinity for B2B brands? In a word, risk.

A quote from Napoleon aptly captures the significance risk plays in B2B purchases:

“There are two levers to set a man in motion, fear and self-interest”.

In B2B, purchases represent huge investments running from six to seven figures. That's why purchase decision are cautious, deliberate and slow in-the-making. 

B2B purchasers have a lot at stake including business and personal value such as business success and professional reputation. Even one’s job may be at risk.

Finding #2: Personal Value-Linked Brands Impact B2B Buying Decisions

The Google-CEB study defines personal value as personal, social, and emotional benefits.  Personal value appeals to your right brain. It appeals to creativity, intuition, and curiosity.

The study, meanwhile, relates business value to functional benefits and business results. It appeals to your left brain, which is rational and logical.

When B2B buyers perceive personal value, they are almost 50% more inclined to buy a product or service. Business value, on the other hand, has less of an impact.

In a study of 14 business outcomes,  business value influenced only 21.4% of B2B purchasers. The analysis further revealed that 42.6% of buyers were influenced by emotional considerations.

These results are not what most of us would expect. However, when you consider that fear and self-interest lead to risk aversion, the outcome doesn't surprise.

Finding #3: B2B Brands that Convey Personal Value Command Premiums

In the same study cited above, B2B purchasers are 8 times more likely to pay a premium for similar products and services when personal value is present. 

With personal capital at stake, buyers look for assurance, assistance and ways to mitigate risk.

So logic and reason was about half as important to buyers as emotional considerations. (Source: CEB/Motista Survey; CEV Analysis.)

As you can see commonly-held notions of B2B branding are untrue. 

• The data show that B2B branding is significantly more important relative to B2C branding. 
• B2B branding that addresses personal value plays a more important role in influencing purchase decisions than commonly believed. 
• B2B branding that emphasizes personal value (rather than business value) significantly reduces resistance to paying premiums.

Remarkably, most B2B companies focus on business value. 

But appeals to emotion are more powerful than addressing features and benefits – business value. As surprising as that may be, it uncovers a veiled opportunity.

Finding #4: People Trust B2B Brands That Mitigate Risk

These findings fly in the face of conventional thinking. But they make sense when you examine why personal value and emotions play a major role in decision making. B2B buyers don’t like risk. 

That’s understandable given the value and impact of their purchases.

Teddy Roosevelt said, “Risk is like fire: If controlled it will help you; if uncontrolled it will rise up and destroy you.”

Therefore, B2B branding must help customers control risk.

 

The branding message must consider its customers’ needs, wants and desires on a personal level. When businesses mitigate risk, they can help drive favorable outcomes and command premiums.

To impact the bottom line, B2B branding must address personal risk that buyers encounter. To uncover the personal values at risk, you must answer these questions. 

• Will a product or service be easy to use?
•  Does a service or software solution require extensive training?
• Will the solution positively affect the bottom line?
•  Will accuracy, speed, and visibility really improve?

To connect with customers and close sales, B2B marketers must address the right brain because its people who make these weighty decisions. 

How to Exploit B2B Branding to Outflank the Competition

The business outcomes should be addressed in terms of their personal values. They include career progression, social recognition that comes with a good buy decision, and personal confidence.

Branding must consider these. Because as risk increases, the power of emotional connection increases.

Are you missing out on the hidden power of branding?

I'd be interested in hearing your comments. Just leave a post to the right. And share this post with your friends, if you liked it.

Call me if you want to know more about how to motivate decision makers to buy your product or service. I’d love to hear from you. My contact information is below.

You can find the complete Google-CEB white paper here.

Next week, I'll cover another interesting aspect about B2B branding.

Alex Milo

B2B Copywriter and Consultant

“Helping Transportation and Logistics Companies Generate Leads with Compelling Content”

Phone: 256-886-4684
Email: amilo@b2bcopywriting-alexmilo.com

LinkedIn

Google+

www.b2bcopywriting-alexmilo.com