It should come as no surprise to the regular readers of this blog that we’re about to propose that you spend some time planning. Don’t worry – we’re not talking about the 25 people on a corporate retreat in the Bahamas, hire a professional meeting facilitator, boondoogle-esque planning session (although that does sound like a good time).

In step 5, you took a content inventory. You’re now familiar with the weapons at your disposal. You know what you have, don’t have, and what needs to be revised and optimized. Step 6 is all about creating a content roadmap that will guide you throughout the year.

The content roadmap doesn’t have to be a complicated piece. There are dozens of ways to attack this step, with thousands of slight variations to be made specific to each organization. That being said, don’t touch this step unless your core message has been refined and you know the target audience you’re trying to reach (and influence) with your content.

So let’s lay out a simple way to build this content roadmap. Start with a table. It doesn’t matter how or where you build it – use Word, use Excel, create an HTML table in a web page – whatever works for you.

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For those of you reading this as an isolated post, fear not. Let’s get you caught up. This is the 5th in a series of posts designed to help B2B marketers design an effective B2B lead generation strategy. Here’s what we’ve covered thusfar:

B2B Lead Generation Step #1: Start with the Right Mindset
B2B Lead Generation Step #2: Build a Strong Roster of Stakeholders
B2B Lead Generation Step #3: Identify the Metrics that Matter
B2B Lead Generation Step #4: Revisit, Refine and Simplify Your Core Message

If you followed step 4 and your messaging is now in good shape, the next step should seem very natural. Regardless of the type of lead generation programs you are going to execute, you will inevitably need content. If you are running a content-free lead generation program, you’re likely an advertiser – not a marketer. That’s ok, but this series may not provide a lot of value for you.

While taking a content inventory and prioritizing content holes may seem like a daunting task, it doesn’t have to be. I am going to give you a very simple method of attacking this step.

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Whether you live in the Baltimore/Washington area like we do, or have only heard about it on the news, everyone knows we’ve been hit here by record snowfalls.  I saw yesterday that Baltimore just passed Syracuse NY for first place as the snowiest city in the U.S. this winter.

While technology has allowed me to continue working on just about everything I would in a normal day, some of the down time “snowed in” got me thinking about how people might use some of that down time to address items on the “marketing list” (you know, that list some people never quite get to).

With that mind, I went back through some of our posts to highlight 5 pretty tangible and actionable items you can think about, evaluate and improve right away.  And while I tried to avoid the “clip show” format — Didn’t you always hate when sitcoms did those episodes that were just recycled material? – It did seem to work best in this format.

So here you go – 5 Marketing Fixes for a Snowy Week.

1). Fix Your Core Messaging:

We all know how important it is to have a clear and consistent message – But do you have a messaging problem?

Your Marketing Message in 30 Seconds

2). Diversify Lead Generation:

In an ideal world, you are managing multiple buckets of leads, each bringing a different volume, a different quality, and a different set of metrics.  But are you putting all your eggs in one basket?

Buckets of Leads

3). Convert More Visitors to Leads:

Make sure you are getting the most from your online visitors.  Tune up your contact forms and landing pages by looking at 5 common problems.

Better Contact Forms = More Prospects

4). Improve Your Search Marketing:

Writing ad copy for pay-per-click ads, particularly for Google AdWords, is an extremely challenging task.  Are you getting the most from your paid search campaigns?

The Most Challenging Copywriting Job in the World

5). Update Your Website:

Your company may have all kinds of exciting things going on – new customers, partners, upcoming events, etc.  But if from the viewpoint of the random website visitor, you’re not doing much lately it may not be worth taking the next step to get in touch.

Keeping the Newsroom Fresh

Implementing these 5 fixes will help you to upgrade your marketing — And give you a reason to avoid that snow shovel.

Will Davis is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing.  Don’t hesitate to drop Will a comment on this post.  If you liked this post, follow@willdavis on Twitter for more commentary like this.

I was speaking with a few colleagues the other day about the different benefits of social media as a whole, and blogging in particular.  The folks in the room had varying levels of social media involvement, from no involvement at all to heavy involvement.  Each of us discussed what we hope to get out of social media, why we blog or might consider it, and how businesses can benefit from blogging.  The discussion went on for some time, covering the wide ranging benefits from SEO opportunities to more frequent customer touch points and everything in between.  After a while, it quieted down a bit and somebody asked me if they had missed anything on the list.

Skip the First Meeting

While our blog serves many purposes, one of them I hadn’t heard mentioned by the group was one of the things that I find most useful.  Having a well planned blog and social media presence, with what we hope is interesting and insightful content, allows us to Skip the First Meeting.

So what do I mean when I say Skip the First Meeting?  Unfortunately, despite how well you may try to vet things ahead of time, inevitably in our business you run into an opportunity that 5 minutes into that first meeting, after you’ve sniffed each other and gotten a bit more of a sense of your businesses –  you both know isn’t a fit.  You don’t think alike, you don’t value the same things, really whatever those components may be.  Of course generally by this time somebody has ordered food, or driven out of their way, or fired up a PowerPoint or laser lights show, or something else entirely, and it’s too late to do anything but spend the next 45-60 minutes or more there despite you each knowing this isn’t going to work out.

Now, we often head this meeting off at the pass.  We’ll send a contact or prospect a link to our blog ahead of time, and also encourage them to connect with and follow us on social networks, and ask them to read through these pieces ahead of time before scheduling that first get together.  By doing this, we make much more efficient use of their time and ours.  We try to convey the idea here that we want to be involved in strategy and planning and believe in taking a holistic view of marketing, and that shines through in our posts.

When we discover the poor fit, we each save ourselves the time of an unproductive meeting where we just won’t be a fit for each other (although sometimes we do miss those laser light shows).  And just as importantly, for those that could be a fit, we’ve fast forwarded over the glossy part of the first meeting and are digging right into the important and meaningful parts that are usually saved for a second meeting.

So while there are probably 100s of reasons to blog and to get involved in social media, if it works for your business you may want to try to Skip the First Meeting.

About the Author: Will Davis is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing.  Don’t hesitate to drop Will a comment on this post.  If you liked this post, follow @willdavis on Twitter for more commentary like this.

In my initial post on the B2B lead generation topic, I wrote:

This is the first in a series of posts that will address the creation and execution of a B2B lead generation program in a step-by-step manner.  We’ll post another tip each week, and when the series is complete we’ll compile all the tips into one document and distribute.

That was October 16^th, 2009.  Oops.

My apologies for the programming interruption, but we’re back on track.  For those that missed the first few posts in this series, here they are:

B2B Lead Generation Step #1: Start With the Right Mindset

B2B Lead Generation Step #2: Build a Strong Roster of Stakeholders

B2B Lead Generation Step #3: Identify the Metrics that Matter

Let’s get into the 4^th step, which involves messaging.  The good news is that we’re seeing a healthy shift to a metrics-focused mindset amongst B2B lead generation marketers.  While that mindset may elicit a “No duh Mike, lead generation is all about the numbers” response from some, the truth of the matter is that until a few years ago, the metrics-centric mindset wasn’t that prevalent.

That brings us to the bad news.  Somewhere along the way, many lead generation marketers forget about the importance of the core message and the value it brings to lead generation efforts.  While the message is only one of many moving parts in B2B lead generation, it’s a critical piece that must be addressed.

When messaging is ignored in the lead generation program building process, the most common cause is an impatient executive with a “no one cares about the message” attitude, and of course the program administrator/leader who accepts that attitude and proceeds to ignore the messaging component.

Given that the executive we’re referring to is often times a strong and influential stakeholder in the process, let’s figure out a way to address messaging without offering the impression that you want to overhaul every web page, press release, brochure, video and tweet ever created.

My guess is that there are hundreds if not thousands of approaches to message development.  I’ll offer up the two that work best in the circles we travel in.

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