What is the Blog Function Gap? (And why does it attract the wrong audience to your data blog)

If you're a data tech software vendor, chances are you've got a blog. A blog consists of many posts, and here is where we hit a big problem:

The vast majority of all these blog posts fail to generate tangible sales opportunities.

There are a bunch of reasons for this, but I'll pick on the main issue - The BFG Problem.

The BFG Problem

BFG stands for 'Blog Function Gap'.

It's a prevalent problem in the data sector, but I've seen it across the entire tech space.

It's also common within the data consulting/services space, so most of what I write below applies to data consultancy blogs.

Your blog's function is to attract new opportunities. Some marketers will tell you their blog is designed simply to build a presence, create links for the website, share exciting news, demonstrate thought-leadership, and so on.

But let's be honest, that's just a bit of bluster for: 

"Our blog doesn't generate any leads, and we're not sure why".

Yes, a blog can educate customers. 

Yes, a blog is good for SEO and many other side benefits.

But the outcome of any vendor blog strategy should be to create a steady flow of new clients. If it doesn't, it's failing, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Which leads us back to the BFG problem...

The goal of your blog content should be to answer the key questions and challenges your Ideal Client Profiles (ICPs) are wrestling with at the point of solution consideration and adoption. 

When your blog fails to address ICP questions, either through a lack of blog posts, or sufficient detail within existing blog posts, you have a Blog Function Gap problem.

Case Story: The 'Analytics Leader' Question Gap

Several months ago, I ran a content planning workshop for a data analytics software reseller.

Despite creating a 'ton of content', their blog and LinkedIn presence had historically created zip all in terms of lead gen.

I started with a 'Value Vault' exercise. This helps to profile and understand your best customers. During this process, we identified a specific Ideal Client Profile (ICP) segment of Chief Data Analytics Officer or VP of Analytics.

When we looked back at their blog, it was mostly short, 'tricks n tips', on creating dashboards, designing macros in Excel, and various other technical how-to posts.

I wrote down their ICP role titles on our virtual whiteboard and asked the client marketing team what topics they thought these ICPs would be interested in at the points of solution consideration and adoption.

If you think of any serious buyer at these stages, they're typically interested in challenges such as:

• Getting funding
• Building a team
• Figuring out the IT/staffing costs
• Reviewing tools, creating benchmark processes
• Creating test beds to assess the best solution
• Getting started with pilot initiatives

It hit the marketing and leadership team like a sledgehammer that there was a glaring gap between what content their ICP needed to consume and what content their internal bloggers were churning out.

Why does the BFG problem exist?

The BFG problem is created because most data firms find it easier to write about what they know instead of what their ideal prospect wants to know.

In most firms, they're lucky to have any content on the blog, so they're not too picky where it comes from as long as it's vaguely related to a data topic that ties to their offering.

But the ideal client has specific information needs at each point of their buyer journey, and if they don't find those needs answered on a blog (quickly), they'll bounce to another information source (or vendor) who can meet those needs.

Let's pick an imaginary VP of Analytics, called 'Anne', and track her content journey to explain this further.

Anne starts in the 'Why' phase of content discovery because she may not understand why a technique such as 'predictive AI-driven analytics' is necessary for her role.

She's currently got a team crunching Excel spreadsheets with data from the HR system to help the people resources function improve their staff onboarding process and reduce staff churn. She heard about predictive AI analytics at a conference, and it's nagging away at her, so she investigates further to see how it could help improve HR.

Anne finds thousands of articles on the topic and is soon overwhelmed with the amount of awareness content. There's so much content because awareness topics are generally the easiest to write, and it's what many vendors assume they need on a blog.

Many tech vendors also outsource their content creation to external writing shops who regurgitate similar material (typically 300-500 word fluff), so this 'why' type of content washes up in all corners of the interwebs.

So, after a few months of reviewing content, Anne figures, "Hmm, I gotta get me some predictive AI analytics". 

But the question she next has is how do I implement this type of stuff in my organisation, with my tech, team size, budget, etc.

So Anne moves into the 'how' phase of content discovery.

There's far less content than why material because how content is more challenging and time-consuming for vendors to create. But she perseveres and eventually has a good understanding of how to build a predictive AI analytics capability.

At which point, Anne figures that if she knows the why, and the how, it's now time to find a tech solution - so she moves into the 'who phase' - who can I trust to partner with our team to build out a capability.

And this is where she'll start to think about technology, integration partners, suppliers and all the 'who' questions she needs to answer to draw up a shortlist.

So she'll read Gartner, Forrester and Bloor Research to study product quadrants/comparisons. She'll assign a junior to scan G2, Capterra and TrustRadius etc.

But she'll still be left with a big question - who should we select to work with?

As an editor and data group owner on LinkedIn, I see this play out every day with our members asking for product recommendations. They're consumed by the 'who' problem, despite all the information available.

When Anne stumbles on a vendor tech blog, what does she find? 

Lots of topics about creating dashboards and fancy algorithms, but nothing at all about who to select a tool or services from, and how to manage the entire launch and enablement process.

There's nothing on pricing, team skills, length of time, typical roadmaps, common blockers, business case formation – nothing.

She doesn't need 'Analytics tips n tricks' because she hasn't got the technology yet, and that topic is for the techies in her team anyway. She also doesn't need any 'Why' content because she gets it, she's read the books and articles - now she's ready to get started.

How I Solved a Data Migration Lead Generation Problem

Back in 2005, I had a data migration/quality consultancy. But back then, I was also hopeless at sales.

So I figured, who is my ICP? Program leaders of migrations.

And what are they wrestling with? Forecasting, planning, strategy formation, getting started.

So I created a Data Migration Project Planning Checklist, and a Pre-Migration Impact Assessment service to address those pains.

I created content on these topics to garner market attention, and today, even though I quit consulting on data migration some years ago, I still get 15-20 emails registered a day.

What's interesting with this trip down memory lane is that I didn't even need to create any content around 'who to select for data migration', the strength of my 'how' content was enough to get regular gigs. Great 'how to content' will do this for you.

So to attract clients, I would stand up on stage or speak on webinars and say: 

"This is how you deliver a data migration impact assessment, step-by-step". 

And a portion of the audience would book me to do it for them! So, very often, you answer the 'who should we buy from' question, by producing the best 'how to' content, but only if that 'how content' relates to the problem your ICP is wrestling with during the solution consideration phase.

And that's the gap most vendor content falls into. Their 'how to' content provides helpful information.

But for the wrong audience!

Fixing the BFG problem

As discussed, there is often a gap between the desired function of a blog (attracting ideal clients) and the default function the blog has unwittingly occupied (mostly educating other data technicians and practitioners).

To solve the problem, you need to speak to your ICPs and find out what were/are they wrestling with at the point of solution consideration/adoption.

There are plenty of ways to do this research:

• Through account reviews
• Webinar and live stream chats
• Direct outreach
• Book reviews on Amazon
• LinkedIn surveys
• ...and lots more

You then want to create content to address those problems. If you're a tech vendor, my advice these days is not to focus too much initially on awareness content (i.e. why they need to do something), because you'll attract readers who are far too early in the sales cycle.

For example, when I used to help sell Data Governance software, lead times could be 16 months from the point of 'Why you need data governance' through to outright purchase.

If we'd have done more content on 'Which Data Governance tool to buy?', we'd have attracted buyer profiles straight out of the gate.

By creating content for those struggling to make a decision on a data challenge that your solution solves, you're far more likely to attract prospects who have a problem and urgency right now.

Next Steps

Creating an outstanding blog in the data sector requires expertise, not only on how to create content, but get that content promoted, consumed and converted into clients.

At myDataBrand, we were first to create some of the leading industry data blogs since 2007 and we've coached and supported some of the largest (and smallest) data vendors ever since.

If you need expert help to quickly build a compelling content and lead generation strategy for your data consultancy or software firm, book a discovery call today or visit www.mydatabrand.com for more details.