What are my Marketing Content Needs?

Marketing is a tricky game, be it digital marketing or physical. Whether it is business-to-business (B2B) marketing or business-to-consumer (B2C) - it is challenging to know whether you are doing the 'right stuff'. In B2B marketing specifically, one of the key strategies for demand generation traction is to focus on content marketing initiatives. But where to start? Bluntly, start with prioritizing your company's marketing content needs. This is particularly important for startups and new product launches.

Do you Need a Framework?

In an earlier article I questioned whether we truly need a framework or structure for good content creation (Content Marketing Funnel: Obsolete or Here to Stay?). There are differing opinions about the subject. I critiqued one consulting group's attack on the marketing funnel for content generation. They argued that as far as content strategies go there is no need for the concept of a funnel. Instead, just focus on creating great content that highlights, accentuates, and drives home the customer pain points. Then provide resolutions to those emphasized points that drive the prospect to your offerings, products, or services.

This is an excellent idea. In fact, when the passion and motivation hits you, just start writing. It may even work for you on an individual basis. But, an unstructured approach will not ensure you are covering all the bases. After all, there isn't just one type of customer. Consider too, that as startups and launches grow - you need to think about co-ordinating efforts across your staff, agencies, freelancers, and even other teams. Using an 'off-roading' method could lead you to writing nothing but white papers. While these are exceptional top of the funnel content pieces they aren't the only thing that prospects seek to make their decision on your offering. Precisely because the buyer meanders through the stages of the buying cycle - you need to ensure a variety of informative material are available to address the buying stages (see funnel diagram below).

What a framework does, is provide a map to the client's content needs. As the B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks: Insights for 2021 Researched shows:

• 60% - of MOST successful content marketer have a documented strategy, whereas
• 21% - of the LEAST successful content marketers had a documented strategy.

With stats like these, it should not take more than a moment to decide whether you want your company to be represented in the most or least successful category. Given that even a small amount of planning does not have to be onerous, the choice is clear.

Customer Journey Progress

A consistent, high-quality content creating team - needs a plan. First, understand what you are trying to do with your material.

Get the attention of a prospect or potential customer! So, develop your high-quality content, then build the resource and landing pages that show up on search engines. The right keywords (think SEO), phrasing, and the fact that you are answering prospects' questions - should bring them to your website. Fortunately, they are interested in seeing or reading the material described on the landing page. So, they download your material. Bingo, you have just started the lead generation process!

Having developed content that is educational, answers questions, emphasizes and even highlights the pain points, and provides a solution option. All this done in an educational format that is neither salesy, nor pushing your brand too emphatically. Rather than being salesy, you are doing this to build trust and credibility. Here a blog post, fundamentals or 101 white paper, podcast, or infographic will do the trick.

Next, go a little deeper. Provide more information to help the reader better understand their own pains, and options that can help. As pointed out above, on pain points, accentuate and even aggravate them. Show the reader how the pain can fester and become worse if unattended. Here deeper material like an in-depth e-book, case study, report, or webinar might help them further.

The plot thickens further. By now the prospect deeply understands their pain, more fully. They may have even discovered a few issues not realized when they started their journey. Now they want to better understand your specific solution to their problems. So, they search for testimonials, customer stories, datasheets, specifications, benchmarks, competitive comparisons, demonstrations (demos), and may want a consultation with one of your staff.

This progression is the customer journey through the marketing funnel.

Marketing Funnel

A marketing funnel is a way of breaking down the customer journey, into a several stages. Use it to guide the tactics and materials used to encourage progression along the buying cycle. It provides a guideline for creating an editorial calendar to outline your marketing collateral needs.

The funnel shown above outlines the intended progression from the awareness stage, to the consideration stage, and finally to the decision stage. Consideration is the phase at which you have the client's attention, and they are enhancing their understanding as they delve deeper into the subject of their own pain points, and how they truly do need a solution. At the decision phase, the client starts choosing which solution or provider is best suited to give them what they want or need. This forms the basis for the ACD (awareness, consideration, decision) marketing funnel.

In the Content Marketing Funnel: Obsolete or Here to Stay? article several marketing funnel options are listed. There are many models and acronyms from which to choose. Each articulates variations on a similar theme. A few include:

• AIDA - Attention | Interest | Desire | Action
• ACPP - Awareness | Consideration | Preference | Purchase
• KLT - Know | Like | Trust
• CAB - Cognitive | Affective | Behavior --> Stages
• ACD - Awareness | Consideration | Decision

Choosing which model you are most comfortable with, is a personal preference. For our purposes ACD serves to help our planning, well. It is also quite easily understood by marketers and other business professionals, alike.

Outlining Your Marketing Content Needs

Tactically, the ACD funnel maps out to the chart shown above. Different collateral map to each stage of this buyer's journey.

The outline above does not mean that customers at one stage of the buying cycle cannot or will not appreciate content meant for another stage. Customers meander. Sometimes they binge on your material. Rather than trying to force them into one particular journey path, encourage the binging, letting them take what they want. What is important is that they are taking, reading, and educating themselves using your content. This builds a sense of trust associated with your brand - so long as the content is helpful, informative, or in some way tactically useful.

A key takeaway from this chart, is to make sure you have some material available for each of the stages. If you are completely devoid of content for one stage, it does NOT mean you won't get deals. You may still be able to lock-in sales. But, think of it as having a choice to either take the stairs, or the elevator to the 50th floor. Both can take you there, but one option eases the burden.

What are your Marketing Content Needs?

Whether you are using email marketing, physical, SEM, SEO, events, ABM or other techniques - content marketing is a vital part of any B2B marketing strategy and mix. Some argue that the marketing funnel is dead. Yet, it serves an important purpose. It provides a guide and reminder that customers at different stages of the buying cycle will seek different marketing materials.

To answer the opening question - what are my marketing content needs, look to the different stages of the buyers journey. Then audit your own marketing collateral - to identify gaps. But, don't fill those gaps blindly. Consider whether the material is truly needed or desired by your clients. If it is, and you don't have it to provide - then obviously you have a gap. As such, you have then identifies your marketing content needs - and gaps to be filled. Mission accomplished.

Now ... how to write compelling content ....