In the era of the social web, the medium is the messenger

Marshall McLuhan’s famous soundbite, “The Medium is the Message”, provides explanatory power for the dominant media of different eras. He penned that as the medium of television was close to its peak power in the 1970s. Marketing mavens took advantage of audiences ‘leaning back’ to practically ‘program’ their audiences to desire the objects that they were selling.

Today, the influence of television and other broadcast media are in rapid decline. The social web is the dominant medium of our time, where people have unprecedented power to choose their content and block out vendors. Companies have responded by ‘becoming publishers’ and churning out large amounts of content in an attempt to build relationships with their customers and prospects. And then ‘nurturing’ them with a high tempo of invasive emails.

This represents the state of the art for marketing at many B2B companies. How well is content and nurture marketing working in this age of the social web?

It’s breaking down with astonishing speed.

Your content marketing machine is broken ...

• 83% of buyers feel overwhelmed by the amount of content marketers push out
• 60% of CMOs are missing their targets
• Only 9% of B2B buyers trust vendor content like white papers

Customers have become more skeptical, inundated by massive amount of content noise. They distrust the company messenger - and its message.

A main message of the inbound marketing revolution that has captivated many of today’s marketers is that companies should be publishers. Unfortunately in today’s noisy environment, this has the effect of them getting lumped into the unfortunate category as broadcast media, shouting about themselves instead of influencing in an effective way. The story of the social web is that the medium is the messenger - a trusted and relevant messenger. Today’s buyers do not want to be programmed. They want a transparent purchasing process managed by trusted people.

Why is this happening? Today’s company-driven B2B content is polished and perfectly branded, but it’s impotent, self-referential and dry. You’ve seen it a thousand times before. It’s the glossy collateral left on a trade-show floor. It’s yet another newsletter you may possibly have subscribed to at some point, but rarely read. It’s another insipid stock photo that you have seen dozens of times^.

3 out of 4 marketers prioritize inbound approach to marketing, but these techniques are being pushed to its logical extreme and only 1 in 3 marketers now think it is effective.

So how do evolve your approach? B2B marketers need to step away from the keyboard and look at what is working well in the consumer space right now: brands that amplify the voice of customers sharing their stories, observations, experiences. That’s relevant Advocate Generated Content - it is not as glossy or polished, but it’s authentic, raw and it resonates. It persuades. Just ask Instagram, AirBnB, GoPro, Apple or Starbucks:

• 92% of buyers trust the recommendations from people they know
• 70% trust consumer opinions posted online
• People love it: 6,000 GoPro videos are posted each day. Apple’s “Shot on iPhone 6” got submissions from around the world and narrowed it down to 77 best images to use for the campaign.

Today, more than ever, the medium is the messenger. You need others to tell your story; do your marketing by trusted proxy. You need to turn your loyal customers into passionate advocates and mobilize them. Visionary B2B marketers and companies are putting their advocates at the center of their content approach, and prospering:

• Billtrust, a cloud-based payments software provider, received 56 customer videos and testimonials within weeks of launching an advocacy program
• Pearson, a global leader in post-secondary education, unleashed an army of student ambassadors to write more than 300 blog posts, boosting content reach and student engagement by 10%
• Edmodo, a network that connects teachers and students all over the world, took advantage of user-generated content and saved $500K in support costs alone.

The winners in the era of social media build authentic movements around their companies and products. Brands that survive and thrive in the social web era are built by the customers, not by marketers in smoky back rooms. Build advocates for your ideas, company and products, then mobilize them, to win your market.

Are you with me? Check out our manifesto on where content marketing is going. Let’s make 2017 the year where your advocates take center stage in your content strategy.