Don't Let Basic Flaws Doom Content Marketing

Content marketing may top 2016 agendas, but, as Ernan Roman, president of ERDM, points out in an insightful post for Forbes magazine's CMO Network, too many content strategies are headed for failure. Roman notes that although 81% of marketers are involved in content marketing, only 28% of organizations say they are effective, and he can cite five sources of that ineffectiveness. He starts with a basic failure to craft content based on customer research rather than general assumptions. Second, even if marketers know what engaging content looks like, too many don't know what an effective content strategy looks like; research shows only 32% of companies actually have a documented content marketing strategy, he points out. Third, part of the strategic vacuum is lack of content marketing success metrics. Such metrics could include increased lead quality/sales, increased web traffic, brand awareness lift, increased SEO ranking and increased renewal rates/subscriber rates, Roman suggests. Fourth, companies may not fully commit to content marketing because they don't realize its impact on brand perception; Roman points skeptics to research showing 60% of consumers seek out a product after reading content about it, and 82% feel more positive about a company after reading custom content.  Finally, with inbound marketing delivering 54% more leads than traditional outbound marketing, marketers miss ROI if they fail to use content to drive inbound web traffic. For the full post: http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2016/03/07/five-ways-cmos-are-failing-at-content/#6a926bc8420a

Poor Map of B2B Buyer Journey Leads to Lost Sales

If inbound marketing fails to guide the buyer’s journey with relevant content, traffic and leads fail to become sales. Business-to-business marketing faces a special challenge because a purchase may involve a team of prospects--each with different personal and professional concerns--points out a recent Hubspot blog post by business consultant Ed Marsh. When B-to-B marketers don't have one decision-maker to woo, they must build content for the role and concerns of each prospect "persona" at different points in the buying process. Plus, marketing must choreograph segues between personas to prevent sales from slipping through the cracks, creating a "series of 'yeses' that keeps buyers moving" to the close. Marsh suggests what he calls a "3D corporate buying journey" framework. Start with a good understanding of your prospective buyers' industry--the hand-offs, push-back and analysis to which projects are subjected--and get the details by conducting real interviews with each persona at target companies, he advises. When you do so, make sure to get the objections on the table so your content can address them. Then map the buying process like a GANTT chart, a linear process that is full of interdependency, precedent and constraining factors. Note the hand-offs and create content for a smooth transition. This requires content that helps your prospects sell on your behalf and that overcomes finance, legal, production, HR, IT or other departmental hurdles by resonating with each discipline. For the whole post, see
http://blog.hubspot.com/insiders/why-your-existing-buyer-personas-might-not-be-working

Why Inbound Can't Replace B2B Direct Marketing

Inbound strategies are grabbing more marketing budget these days, and that can be bad news for business-to-business prospecting. Inbound marketing -- social media, e-newsletters, video, podcasts, white papers and some permission marketing -- should not displace traditional direct marketing -- cold calling, networking events and direct mail -- for three reasons, argues a recent article for LifeHealthPro.com. First, inbound marketing is designed to leverage a prospect's knowledge of needs. But, except for industrial commodities, most businesses aren't aware of the need for discretionary purchases until persuaded by a sales contact. This is especially true for business financial and insurance sales. Second, most business owners and executives are so busy with daily management that there is little window for inbound to break through. That's why the "interruptive prospecting techniques" of traditional cold calling, events and direct mail have higher response, the article proposes. Finally, if the goal is to increase leads while lowering cost per sale, marketers should be aware that the addition of inbound marketing may actually raise cost per sale. For example, if all inbound costs for an appointment with a decision-maker are included, the cost of cold calling alone is cheaper on a cost per lead basis than combining inbound marketing and cold calling to boost leads, based on the article's actual campaign data analysis. Assuming the same conversion rate for leads, the cost of sales is thus increased by adding inbound to a cold calling campaign. That's not to say inbound doesn't have its benefits in warming up prospects, providing compelling online support, or developing targeting data to improve response. The point is that b2b inbound marketing is no substitute for b2b direct marketing, since "waiting for the phone to ring has never been a particularly good strategy," the article concludes. For more on the analysis, see http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2014/03/05/is-inbound-marketing-right-for-prospecting-to-busi?t=life-practice-management