Effective Content Starts with Understanding the Purpose to Master the Practice

We all "know" that content is supposed to be powerful for business. But many companies never get to experience that firsthand. And I don’t just mean the companies that haven’t launched content marketing efforts. I mean the ones who have been doing it and still aren’t seeing the benefits.

Often, this happens when we approach content marketing with the wrong mindset. We use it as a tactic, often with the sole purpose of trying to be the top link on a Google SERP.

In this read, I’d like to share some thoughts on what I believe makes content marketing truly effective, and it all starts with understanding the purpose of content.

Why Understanding Purpose is Critical

The driving factor behind failed content marketing efforts may very well be not knowing why content is or should be created. Without having a clear sense of that, we risk putting a substantial amount of time, energy, and money into misguided missions that end up being ineffective.

When I think about B2B, the idea that the single purpose of content is to put the company at the top of SERPs for [insert keywords here] is often what hurts efforts the most. The entire focus becomes about the product/service and reaching the top, and forgets about the prospects, the customers, the touch points, the challenges, etc.

And I get it. Often, there's a higher order demanding metrics that show growth. Maybe sales aren't what they presumably should be. Maybe competitors rank for certain keywords and we've been ordered to overtake them by any means.

There are various, completely understandable reasons why businesses treat content as this sort of... reactive thing.

To react to the uncertainties, we create the idea that if we rank number one, our sales will skyrocket and, therefore, we need to make a huge list of keywords, create content to target them all, get it all out as quickly as possible, and buy a money counter because the chips are about to roll in, baby!

It's that pervasive fear, right? Fear that if we don’t throw everything we can in the direction of these keywords, we won’t be seen and, therefore, we won’t sell!

But when we look at content through this narrow lens, we fail to see the true purpose of content, the many ways we can leverage it, and the impact it can have on our companies.

And this is especially true when we're talking about B2B. Sales cycles are complex. They often involve lots of people and buy-in. There are a TON of potential touchpoints.

And it's easy to ruminate on the thing that’s most obvious — sales numbers — without taking a step back to see all of the surrounding factors that influence those sales and how.

This is where it is absolutely critical to understand the purpose of content and how we can use it as a vehicle to deliver value to the people we want to buy whatever it is we're selling.

We need to think beyond the solution and truly focus in on the people we serve with it.

We need to think about the entire customer journey and all the twists and turns that come with it.

We need to consider the many touch-points before a sale and what influences the people we want to help most to gravitate toward one brand over another. We need to be the clear champions when they have misconceptions around addressing the problems we can help them solve and the nuances of the relevant challenges they face.

We need to stand out as the ones that can help them accomplish their goals.

By doing so, we build trust through empathy and awareness; truly showing up for our prospects, customers, and partners from a digital marketing standpoint, just like we do in business development.

Trust matters. Trust is the difference between committing and turning away, never to return.

Trust shortens sales cycles. Trust influences renewals. Trust improves retention. Trust can turn people who aren't even your customers into brand advocates.

This is why, especially in B2B, we should be focused on closing the trust gap.

Without understanding the purpose of content, our efforts may highlight the solution and “get the word out”, but in a world of misinformation, spam that finds us everywhere, ads that take up 100% of the screen at the top of search results pages, top search results that don’t truly address the user's intent, and the risks that come with making expensive B2B investments that could potentially not fulfill their purpose, we have to ask ourselves if just “getting the word out” will suffice.

Practicing with Purpose: Building Trust to Drive Growth

Content is at its best when it’s used as a vehicle to provide value. And I get that maybe that sounds fluffy for some. But we know this is true if we look at business development.

Especially in specialized services, going through the education process with teams — truly opening their eyes to what caused the issue to better set a course for how to address it — is a game changer!

We practice these things in the business once the engagement begins, but with content, we have opportunities to attract others dealing with the same or similar challenges by meeting them where they are and delivering value that says it for us, "hey... we get it and we know the solution!"

And sometimes we overthink the metrics and the funnels and the conversions and we over-intellectualize and make busy a rather simple concept: providing value is good for business.

Let’s say your company or department is facing an internal challenge and, to take the business to the next level, you need to implement a solution that will allow you to automate certain tedious tasks so people can focus on more impactful work.

But this isn’t like your Netflix subscription, right? It’s a pretty big deal. Paying for this requires buy-in from multiple stakeholders. You might be the actual buyer or an internal influencer the buyer is depending on to make the right call. When you make that move, you want to make sure it doesn’t blow up in your face.

Now you — among the B2B buyers who are as far as 70% through their buying research before they contact sales — are bouncing between two websites to get a better feel for these two companies so you can buy with confidence.

On both sites, you visit their blogs. Both have blogs with at least 20 articles.

On one, you get regurgitated messaging with different titles. I say regurgitated because they all essentially say the same thing to you: here are the features and why they’re great.

Sure the article was titled “6 Insights on Automating in Your Company” or something like that, but really, it should have been called “6 Reasons You Should Buy Our Product” because the only thing you received was a veiled pitch.

You open another article and another and you stop. Every title seems like you'll learn something from it but, truly, these are just soft sales pitches, right?

There are no insights that help you better understand the cause or better articulate an approach to the solution. There’s nothing to build your confidence that this is the right choice.

Often, this happens because the focus is more on keywords and trying to be at the top of a SERP than it is on providing you real value, maybe because there are scarce keyword stats to make it seem like it's worth anything to write about.

This leads to repeated content that ruins your experience as you try to find something of true value.

So off you go to the other site, hopefully finding something of greater value. Something that gives you the confidence that this company truly understands the issues you're dealing with because, if they do, it’s easier to feel confident in their ability to overcome the challenge.

You arrive at their blog to see articles on workplace productivity, the things that hinder that productivity, the challenges businesses face, insights on how to address them, and yes, how to better leverage automation to accomplish your goals.

They also understand the challenges of making a case for a solution like this to internal stakeholders. They have content to help you make that case. They get it (and they've just addressed a challenge you'll have before you've even met that impasse)!

They know the assumptions stakeholders often make and the questions they'll have, so they provide content that helps you better articulate an educated response to those assumptions and questions.

This says that they not only understand the problems that led you to the solution but that they also understand the process and they can help there, too. That's the empathy piece at work.

Now I ask you…

If you went through those two experiences, which company would you be more inclined to want to do business with? Even if the latter solution costs more, it's worth it because without ever getting on the phone with a salesperson, you've already gotten the vibe that they won't just sell you things; they'll work with you as a trustworthy partner.

I think it's safe to say that most people would lean toward the latter. Why? Because the latter company, through value-driven content, is:

• putting you first, knowing that anyone can put their solution out there and say it’s great, but can’t just as easily prove their competence.
• exhibiting an understanding that in your research process, you value transparency and guidance to build your confidence.
• giving you good reason to see them as an authority on these particular challenges.
• focused on providing you with value when you need it (especially after prior disappointment).

This is where the battle is all too often lost in content marketing efforts.

Our focus gets so tight on the solution and selling it that we let it take the forefront instead of putting the humans who need it first.

This is a mistake on our part, especially knowing that truly helpful information along their journey makes buyers 2.8x more likely to experience purchase ease and 3x likelier to spend more with less regret.

So you see, by truly taking a step back to understand not only the purpose of content but the intent and needs of buyers at various stages in their journey, we make it much easier to maximize the impact of our efforts.

It's only then that we begin to leverage content marketing for more than its ability to nudge vanity metrics and experience its ability to inspire action through value.