As part of a marketing evaluation we delivered to a client this week, we covered Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and in particular how the volume of indexed content plays a major role in the success of any SEO effort. The situation was simple: one of this company’s biggest competitors showed hundreds of indexed content pieces, and our client showed around ten. Game, set, match to the competitor, right?

Not so fast, my content marketing friends.

First, think about the sales funnel:

While there’s no universally accepted set of steps in the sales funnel, I typically use the following:

• Awareness
• Interest
• Evaluation
• Commitment
• Referral

While volume of content is important, in the B2B world in particular, churning out content generates traffic that typically fills the top of the sales funnel—the awareness phase. So what’s a marketer to do about the middle and bottom of the sales funnel?

Create better content, not necessarily more content.

Thinking in particular about the Interest, Evaluation, and Commitment steps, here are a few tips on creating better content for the middle of the sales funnel

1. Get Sp­­­ecific

Not all buyers are created equal. They occupy different roles. They work for different types of organizations. They have different budgets. They have different needs.

You can’t necessarily create content for each individual, but what you can do is create content for groups, whether it be by buyer persona, type of organization, or size of company. Most importantly, write about specific situations that groups of your prospective customers are dealing with.

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As I sat down yesterday with a couple members of the Right Source team for our check-in on our 2012 tactical plan, I was reminded how our marketing, like that of many of our clients, is heavily dependent on content.  We use the term content marketing all the time in our industry, yet to many folks outside of the industry – and to many of our potential clients – it means very little.  What I’ve realized is that a post Mike wrote nearly 2 years ago – What is Content Marketing and Why is it Hot? - is still incredibly relevant today and maybe even more so.  Why?

Many People Still Need an Explanation of What Content Marketing Is

People in the industry don’t believe it, but it’s true – the term content marketing sounds great but many marketers, presidents, and CEOs have never heard it or don’t know what it means.  A great example of this occurred yesterday.  Mike and I looked at Google’s keyword research tool and see a term like “content marketing firm” has a very high level of competition  - see how many sponsored listings come up when you search it – and yet only 170 or so searches a month worldwide.  By comparison, the term “advertising firm” has 301,000 searches per month, huge difference.

So, it’s clear people aren’t out there asking for it by name, so the idea of effective content marketing takes some explaining and education.

Content Touches Almost Everything You Do

Take a look at your 2012 marketing plan and I’ll bet most all of your initiatives involve content in one form or another.  Whether it’s webinars, blogging, website updates, social media or so many more initiatives, they all require well-planned and well-crafted content.   Like Seymour the monster from Little Shop of Horrors, you need to continue to feed your marketing initiatives great content, or they’ll shrivel up and die.

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When I sat down to build the content marketing plan for Right Source Marketing, I initially had a case of “planner’s block.” I’ve helped a number of clients with this type of planning, and yet I could not figure out exactly where to start. How is it possible that I didn’t have some type of template or process that would push me through this barrier?

The answer was simple. I wasn’t asking myself the right questions, and I wasn’t asking them in the same determined manner that I use with clients. I was letting myself off the hook.

After a good deal of back-and-forth (mostly in my own head), I came up with the following questions, which may serve as a blueprint for building a content marketing plan for your organization.

1.       Why are we doing this?

You heard right. Even someone who makes part of his living on content marketing had to ask that very important question to himself.

I came up with a variety of answers, but none more pragmatic than this one. I’ve seen first-hand what an organized content marketing effort can do for a business, and it’s powerful when done right.

2.       What’s the goal?

There are a variety of ways to answer this question. Some answers will focus on hard metrics like brand awareness, lead generation, or actual transactions. Some answers will focus on softer metrics like prospect engagement or page views. There is no right or wrong answer.

No matter what, though, answer this question early in the process.

3.       What is our unique story?

Even if you think your business falls into the cookie-cutter category, it has a unique story. If you don’t know what that story is, then you may want to go through an extensive process that focuses on company messaging.

If you do know what that unique story is, it ought to inform content marketing themes and be woven into each piece of content.

4.       Who is our audience?

More than likely, you have multiple audiences: prospective clients, current clients, prospective employees, current employees, investors, partners and more.

Then consider the audiences within each of those groups. For instance, you likely have more than one type of audience within the prospective client group. There are likely people that hold different positions, that are interested in different services, and that are engaged in different stages of a sales cycle.

My advice: It seems complicated, but don’t let that stop you. Sometimes you have to build a content marketing plan for your most “common” audience, and then you can take that, tweak it, and apply it to the other audiences.

For more on creating buyer personas, check out Jeremy Victor’s post, Buyer Personas: Where (and How!) to Start.

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With 2012 approaching, many are making predictions for what will happen in the coming year.  While most of us can’t fully see into the future, 2011’s predictions featured quite a few interesting looks into what we thought the year might hold.  This year we once again reached out to some of our friends and colleagues for predictions.  Here are their thoughts on what the 2012 may bring in the world of marketing strategies, marketing tactics, mobile marketing, social media, leadership and management.  Take a look below and add your predictions in the comments section.

——

Big Moves by Big Names
1. Buy, Not Build. There will be a slew of top brands that start to buy established niche media properties instead of starting from scratch.
2. Google will undergo FTC scrutiny for trying to corner the market on the purchase funnel…they buy one too many media companies (i.e. Zagat in 2011) that finally sets off some opposition from social influencers.
3. Facebook indeed surpasses $100 billion in market cap after going public (probably not a stretch, but worth saying… since Facebook is the only company that scares Google).

Many content marketers don’t think beyond the corporate blog, or perhaps the occasional webinar or eBook. Yet if you look hard enough, you’ll find surprising ways to create effective, shareable content hiding right under your nose.

Here’s my quick list:

1. Job Posts—Especially with the difficult economy, people love job matchmaking, and are quick to share job posts. The funny thing is most job posts are awful: they’re poorly written, poorly formatted, and just plain boring.

This job post from a local company is a breath of fresh air. It combines videos, well designed text, and a lot of personality to clearly address the details, but also show why the job would be exciting. Unfortunately for anyone seeking, the job has been filled—but take a look at this post, enjoy, and be inspired for when you create your next job post (or go take it to your HR department).

Whether or not they show your company in the best light, people will share your job posts. You should be proud of them.

2. Unsubscription Confirmation Pages—A while back, Groupon’s unsubscription confirmation page made the viral rounds. Normally, these pages are boring and blank—if you’ve made it to the unsubscribe page, it’s clear that you’ve left the fold of treasured customers. Yet there’s value in creating an unsubscription page that leaves a smile on a former subscriber’s face. It’s likely that unsubscribers don’t hate your company, but just want off your email list. So it’s still in your best interest to make them happy.

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