B2B Content Marketing

Our last post talked about using surveys as a “listening post” to get an understanding of your client’s requirements.  A new study, “How Customers Choose Solution Providers” from Lexington, MA based IT Services Marketing Association (ITSMA), concluded that marketers need to engage customers earlier than ever before.  They have also identified three major stages of the buying cycle: epiphany, awareness, and interest. With search engines being used in the quest for solving a particular business issues, it is vitally important to align your solution to the stage your client or prospect is in.  Survey’s can be used to identify where a client is in that buying cycle. We all know and probably deal with companies who like to spout how amazing and innovative their products and solutions are without being thoroughly aware of their customer’s issues.

Analyzing and publishing survey results allows your customers to have the floor first. It allows them to express the business issues they are dealing with in full and though carefully constructed questions and technique allow them to share their vision for solving problems.  If you do not have this knowledge, you may unwittingly offer something that they would not be receptive to or even worse, something they are totally against.

After a through analysis of survey results is completed, craft messaging from what they have shared.  Focus on relevancy concerning the business issues you can solve and differentiate your solution to solving their problems.  Be sure to tailor your content to the business issues in their industry or role and where they are in the buying cycle

Publishing survey results will help you build strong business relationships. Your clients will see you as a partner who helps them achieve their business goals instead of a company trying to sell their services. All businesses want solutions to their specific problems, not a one-size-fits-all product. You don’t want to be seen as another company scrambling for business. It is important for your clients to realize that you genuinely care about the things that matter to them and the concerns they face in their day to day business endeavors.

Laura Ramos of Forrester Research transformed her recent interview with Eric Rogge, VP of Marketing at Exalead, into Part III  in her series, B2B Marketing,  Obsolete, Really?  Laura’s blog highlighted 3 points to help marketing and sales shift from “obnoxious bullhorn to respectful partner.”  Coming from the sales rank at Gartner, I often touted their Dataquest offering as a way to garner “user wants and needs,” a listening post so to speak.     I couldn’t agree more with Eric’s 1st point:

“For marketing to evolve, we need to learn to listen more than we talk. We need to create listening posts throughout the Web that reveal what the market wants, prospects find interesting, and which problems are worth solving. Technology can help us do this, but not without human brains behind it to filter out the noise and tell us what’s important.”

No doubt, thorough knowledge of clients and their needs is the most valuable information any business can have.  One way to  “create listening posts”  to gather useful and timely information is a survey.  Surveys and subsequent detailed data analysis can provide important knowledge about and for your clients. They can help a company diagnose problems that are plaguing it by seeing that other companies in the same or similar sectors are experiencing certain issues and what they are doing to solve them. Surveys can also help bring understanding to new trends, providing the tangible proof that many people need before implementing change. They even provide data a company needs to make sure it reacts to changes in the market place as they arise.

In today’s economy B2B marketers have to look for creative ways to generate market demand. Survey’s offer valuable, timely and accurate information that B2B marketers can use through press releases, articles, podcasts and other media that strengthen credibility, increase demand for service and build a loyal following.

As you build your carefully constructed surveys to glean the information that will help your customers do their business better, there are several things to keep in mind. Make sure the information you are gathering helps to shed light on some trend that is relatively new, but not well understood.  Focus on neglected aspects or the fine details of certain issues that have been around for a while, but are still not perfected. Regardless of the survey content, your data analysis must be very detailed and subdivided into sectors, so companies can see how issues and trends affect their particular industry or role more clearly.

By including these aspects throughout the process of designing, administering and reporting on surveys, your not only listening more,  you will have a fountain of relevant, timely data to share with clients and potential clients.

Developing and releasing content with a specific stakeholder population in mind helps achieve the mantra of content marketing: provide quality relevant content. Further, in this age of information overload, anyone who can provide information that directly addresses the needs of a particular population can gain loyalty. Individuals waste enormous amounts of time looking for specific information. Often, even after all the searching, they may not find what they need and end up giving up. By directly speaking to and meeting the needs of a stakeholder, you are telling them “I understand your needs and I can meet them.” By saving the individual time and therefore, money, a regular user of the content is created.

There are challenges, a stakeholder approach to content also means understanding the preferences one has for receiving information. Business owners, for example, may appreciate information in a white paper format that lays out information in a problem and suggested approach format rather than the conversational approach of a blog. While the key part of the content marketing equation may be content, format is close second for many users.

Further, to effectively  develop a relationship with a specific stakeholder population, it is necessary to elicit their feedback. True in today’s online world, much of the feedback a marketer requires can be done with a survey instrument and a few clicks of a mouse. However, asking the target population about their needs without a previous connection or trust is difficult to attain.

The ever evolving world of content marketing can be hard to keep up with. Further trying to adapt every new approach to your needs may be a mistake. Stakeholder content marketing may have a very real and important use for your organization. However, it is necessary to first assess who the stakeholders are and how to reach them. Perhaps, you’ll find that the populations are not that different. You may also discover you have a myriad of stakeholders to reach and need to define your new target audience in an attainable way. Whatever your situation, remember providing relevant and useful information is key.

Below Mary Driscoll, President of Dover Business Research and Research Fellow at APQC  discusess “role based content.”

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