Content Marketing Emerging As “Secret Sauce” As Marketers Rely On Nurturing To Build Dialogue

Needles emphasized the importance of the changing buying patterns and how nurturing can supplement marketers’ efforts to build that meaningful dialogue with prospects. “Information consumption patterns of BtoB buyers are rapidly changing,” Needles said. “This is affecting a massive power shift. Sellers decades ago (with fewer channels) might have had more power. But sellers today have no power and buyers have tremendous power.”

Highlighting the impact that building a relationship and dialogue with prospects can have, Needles pointed out that standalone email blasts typically only get 2-5% open rate, while nurturing campaigns can generate between 20% and 40% open rates.

Content: The Secret Sauce

To supplement the growing need for companies to have an efficient dialogue with prospects and buyers, Needles pointed to content marketing as the “secret sauce” for nurturing. “Content is now dialogue,” he said. “If we can’t have the upstream conversation directly, then we’re still having conversation and nurturing a dialogue with a buyer, but we’ve got to be doing it through content.”

To build on the buyer-centric approach to demand generation, Needles said marketers should focus on education versus selling to maximize the value proposition and establish their company’s credibility. Providing critical information on specific topics that are relevant to prospects, marketers can move the buying process forward by taking a more educational approach.

Needles said that a vendor’s site is important at the early stage of the buying process, but it becomes increasingly important through various stages of the process, as buyers gradually seek more information from that vendor as a resource. The need to provide compelling web content is growing, as SiriusDecisions has estimated that more than 75% of leads will be generated over the web by 2015.

Levers of Nurturing

Needles pointed to 4 nurturing levers widely used to support the buyer-centric approach:

1.    Email: 89% of marketers use email, as it’s the primary tactic for sustaining engagement. “Think about email as a way to serve up your reports, research, calculators, etc.,” Needles advised. He said it’s a great way to interact with prospects marketers have already engaged with and have a relationship with, but warned against using the channel as a way to repeat mass offers to buyers you don’t know.

2.    Progressive Profiling: While profiling is a traditional tactic to getting to know your prospects and understanding their needs and interests, Needles said marketers shouldn’t be concerned about acquiring extensive data upon the first interaction with a prospect. Needles encouraged marketers to collect bits of information at each interaction, starting with the basics and adding incremental fields with more sophisticated questions at later stages.

3.    Web Content: Staying true to the “content is king” mantra, Needles advised that a company web site should be a key resource. As prospects are getting inundated with over 15 email compressions per week, the need to use web and inbound content aggressively is alive and well to get prospects’ attention. Needles pointed to blogs, downloads, social updates, webinars, white papers and video as strong web content.

4.    Inbound to Outbound Lead Generation: “Take an integrated approach to nurturing,” Needles said, pointing to “people, process content.” Marketers must engage with buyer 2.0 on his or her own terms, and serious web content can foster a meaningful, positive dialogue and experience.

Other educational sessions at the B2B Marketing University event also addressed the nurturing theme, including presentations from LeadSloth’s Jep Castelein, Jay Hidalgo of The Annuitas Group and Mac McIntosh of Acquire B2B.