In B2B Content Marketing, Message Trumps Format

In business-to-business content marketing, substance beats format, or what you say is more important than how you say it, advises a leading B2B strategist. Consider how that affects implementation of findings of the 2015 B2B Technology Content Survey by Eccolo Media. Eccolo Media's survey respondents rated the helpfulness of 10 types of content at each of four stages in the technology buying process: pre-sales, initial sales, mid-sales and final sales. The two most highly rated content types for the pre-sales phase were blogs and e-newsletters. Tech buyers tapped white papers and case studies as most useful in the initial sales phase. By the mid-sales phase, content preferences shifted to detailed tech guides and videos. And detailed tech guides and e-books were most desired in the final sales phase. That's good information for both B2B tech marketers and general B2B marketing, but, to succeed, each content type stills needs to meet some key criteria, advises B2B marketing consultant David Dodd in a recent Business2Community post. The three attributes of successful content, in descending order of importance, are right message, right length and right format, Dodd summarizes. First, comes the right message, meaning content that meets the needs of a potential buyer at the appropriate stage in the buying process. So the right message at the pre-sales stage, whether delivered in a blog or e-letter, will focus on making the prospect aware of the problem or challenge that the product or service can address, for example. Next in importance is the right length of content. Continuing with the example of the pre-sales phase: When the potential buyer may be unaware of the problem, content needs to be delivered in bite-sized pieces that engage without a big time investment. Finally, successful content marketing uses the right format to engage the buyer. Because buyers have such different preferences, the best tactic is to present the same message in multiple formats, Dodd advises. Hopefully, coupling basic content criteria with buyer preferences will set B2B marketers on the road to more sales. For the full article: http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/content-marketing-substance-matters-format-01144993