Content Strategies

To begin the B2B buying process, many prospects go to the web sites of potential vendors to get a feel for what each company can offer. Since the company web site is often the first touch point for potential customers, vendors must find ways to provide relevant content up front.

To accomplish this, B2B marketers are increasingly turning to web site personalization to provide content that is specifically geared towards individual buyers, largely segmented by industry, department, function or role. Some are even taking it to the next level and presenting company-specific content to visitors.

Buyers are looking for answers everywhere — on social media, in conversations with their peers and plugging key words into a search engine.

“Integrated marketing means your brand is the best answer when and where your buyers need it,” Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, told an audience at the recent 2014 Marketo Marketing Nation Summit.

When B2B marketers watch content from B2C heavyweights like Oreo and Red Bull go viral, it can make them yearn to do the same. While they may not have the same reach, there are some things that B2B marketers can borrow from B2C content marketers and traditional publishing and even go beyond that model.

“In reality, content is a struggle for most of us,” Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer for MarketingProfs, told an early-morning audience at the recent 2014 Marketing Nation Summit. “Let’s take what we know works in traditional publishing and give it a makeover. We need content that conveys empathy and experiences that go beyond articles and blog posts.”

By gaining a greater understanding of what triggers the brain to buy, marketers can create an almost irresistible impulse to purchase.

In his presentation at the upcoming B2B Content2Conversion Conference, David Lewis, Founder and CEO of DemandGen International, will discuss how that can be accomplished through neuromarketing. This new field of marketing research, which studies how consumers’ brains respond to marketing stimuli, is shaping the future of content marketing.

Content marketing has become an integral part of the B2B landscape. Interactive and video content are gaining significant traction as marketers seek more engaging alternatives to standard white papers and E-books. According to the 2013 Demand Gen Report B2B Content Preferences Survey, 50% of respondents said they had viewed a video to research a B2B purchasing decision in the past year.

Video and interactive content offer a rich set of metrics and the ability to add more compelling calls to action based on how the buyer engages with the video or interactive content. If, for example, a buyer exhibits an interest in a segment of a video on a particular feature of your offering, they can be directed to a white paper for more detailed information.