In digital era, content can make or break marketing

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing is undergoing a tectonic shift and companies will need to be ready for a world driven by technology, social media and interactive multimedia.

Check the website of any company in the B2B space and you will be surprised to see how they increasingly look like a B2C where technology, marketing and journalistic writing take prominence.

Even though technical content is still there, and is a must, there is much more than before—video demos, customer talks, and even special effects.

Today’s B2B marketers know that it is critical to find fresh and new ways to attract, and more importantly, engage with potential customers.

Social media is important but then most B2B folks have been slow to wake up to it in India. There have been heated discussions on numerous forums about “Social Media 3.0”, the next wave of social media.

B2B marketers must have a plan in place for these unchartered waters. The so-called social media experts talk of a brand new world where marketers are more like publishers and are focused on creating content.

We have seen this happen in B2C already. Examples of leading brands in the consumer-product industry (Oreo, Dove, etc.) are often quoted in the Indian media. Even movies have been doing a lot more social media and viral marketing. B2B marketers are now getting clarity on using content for building brands and engaging their customers.

In a world where content will be the king, B2B marketers need to get their game right. What are the key things B2B marketers should or not do?

Experts differ but there is some agreement on the best practices for using content as a marketing tool. They talk about cross-learning from media companies and mimicking their styles. Time is of the essence—for all of us, and more so for our customers. We must, therefore, ensure we give good value for the time our audience is investing in.

Know your audience 

Good media companies know the pulse of the audience, bringing in the right content and getting readers’ attention for a longer duration, at least longer than their nearest rivals.

When commissioning content, marketers should consider the same factors as media companies. Keep in mind the target audience, their needs and pain factors and what kind of stories they will find engaging.

Content teams should be provided with people, money and time. It is crucial to support the content team to help it do its job—source and develop good content.

To manage a winning content-marketing programme, they need good people, money and time. According to a new study, barely 17 percent of the marketing budget is allocated to content- marketing programmes, much below international levels.

Customers today are not very comfortable with businesses as a whole. Just as they have lost faith in most politicians, they also view businesses as corrupt and without a soul. Blame it on the numerous scams involving business-to-business companies and politicians or on misleading promises salespeople make. Therefore, content is a great way to bring transparency into your business and build trust.

Take good care while sourcing and distributing content. Make sure to give credit to the source of the content rather than writing hearsay.

If you or your agencies have done a sponsored research on your products or services, or the industry itself, that too should be mentioned to avoid any conflict of interest or data sanity.

A leading columnist and blogger in the B2B space recently conducted a research among the B2B community and found that globally over 78 percent of B2B marketers today use content marketing than a few years ago.

A new age calls for a new strategy

We do not have relevant data for the Indian industry but I reckon it will be much lower. B2B marketers feel that traditional media strategy will not work in new media and so they are trying to focus on content to create awareness, drive leads and interact and engage prospects.

As a previous study showed, more than 37 percent of marketing funds are allotted to content marketing in the US markets. In the Indian industry, content marketing is new for most B2B marketers.

We conducted an informal study among some of our B2B customers and found that they did not have much understanding of content marketing and lacked the resources and talent to drive it.

The other serious challenge is taking the content to the target audience. As always, measurement of the efficiency of content marketing will come as the next big challenge for these companies.

Another challenge for B2B marketers will be making a strategic plan for their content-marketing initiative. The fundamental questions on who they are trying to target and how they should position the content for them will be the key.

From there, it will flow to segmentation of the content through products or services, industry verticals, buying behaviour, buying stage or strategic accounts. Market segments and product or service categories will be prominent in this segmentation.

When content strategy becomes clear, the business can look to the future with confidence. We have been doing this for companies across the globe for a few years now.