{"id":225,"date":"2013-09-07T15:47:26","date_gmt":"2013-09-07T15:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/socialagendamedia.com\/digital-pr-blog\/?p=225"},"modified":"2013-12-09T17:46:41","modified_gmt":"2013-12-09T17:46:41","slug":"b2b-content-marketing-lessons-strategies-for-2014-interviews-with-thought-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/socialagendamedia.com\/digital-pr-blog\/b2b-content-marketing-lessons-strategies-for-2014-interviews-with-thought-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"B2B Content Marketing Lessons & Strategies for 2014: Interviews With Thought Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Scientific Revolution of the 16th<\/sup> century transformed views about society and nature, replacing religion, superstition and fear with an emphasis on reason and knowledge. That shift, which journalist H. L. Mencken described as \u201cThe Pope [losing] his hold on the secular mind\u201d led to the Age of Enlightenment and its encouragement of arts, education, human rights and challenge to traditional ideas of government eventually expressed in the French and American revolutions.<\/p>\n

Among the cultural effects of the Internet Revolution of the 21st<\/sup> century is a similar shift toward the individual and society at the expense of institutional powers. As the Post-Digital Age eats away at the heart of print journalism and network TV, it also connects, informs and empowers the crowd in new ways that create revolutionary opportunities to reshape our lives.<\/p>\n

The revolution in communicating the information related to marketing, where, according to Hanley Wood Business Media seventy-eight percent of CMO\u2019s now think custom content is the future, shows power is shifting into the hands of consumers. And they clearly want businesses to engage in conversations that respect that power. Hubspot<\/a> reports companies that blog get more than 15 times the amount of traffic than companies that don\u2019t and Content+ says companies that blog collect 97% more leads. Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing, and per dollar spent, generates 3 times the number of leads, proving the paradigm is \u201cI don\u2019t care about your business unless you focus on what\u2019s in it for me.\u201d This, of course, explains why it\u2019s now called social<\/i> media.<\/p>\n

All this makes it interesting to talk to those on the cutting edge, redefining marketing in the world ruled by content.<\/p>\n

Our thought leaders on this topic:<\/p>\n

Joe Chernov<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span>,<\/span> VP Marketing at Kinvey<\/b>. Before Kinvey, Joe ran content marketing at Eloqua, where he won Content Marketer of the Year.<\/p>\n

Michael Brenner<\/b><\/span><\/a>, <\/b><\/span>Vice President of Global Marketing and Content Strategy for\u00a0SAP<\/b>. Michael developed an award-winning inbound marketing content destination site for SAP called\u00a0Business Innovation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lisa Rhodes,<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span> Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Verne Global<\/strong> where she is responsible for all aspects of customer interaction, marketing and public relations.<\/p>\n

Frank Donny<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span>,<\/span> <\/b>Founder and CEO\u00a0at\u00a0Marseli<\/b>. Frank has 25+ years of experience at Fortune 100 and start-up organizations driving marketing and sales operations.<\/p>\n

Aaron Goldman<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>CMO of Kenshoo<\/b> and the author of \u201cEverything I Know about Marketing I Learned from Google.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amanda Maksymiw<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Content Marketing Manager at Lattice Engines<\/b>. Amanda is a Content “Tactician” responsible for setting and managing the company’s content marketing strategy.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: “Rather than create billboards with their social fan pages, centered around contests, giveaways and special offers, marketers are finally beginning to understand that it\u2019s through content that they influence and empower their fans. Building influence requires a strategic and sustained approach to developing and distributing valuable content across multiple platforms. What innovative content strategies have you implemented and what are the most common mistakes you still see major brands making?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chernov:<\/b> \u201cI’ve seen innovation at all levels. Intel was wildly innovative when they made public their social media policy. At the time that was remarkable transparency for a company of that size. At Eloqua, where I used to run content, we published our “Social Media Playbook” for free. It was our own internal resource, made available to anyone. No form was even required. And then there are really nimble creative brands, like a startup design firm called Beutler Ink, that creates timely content around pop culture trends — like an elaborate <\/i>infographic on Breaking Bad<\/i><\/a> — which allows them to enjoy major PR for a company of their size. But what do these all have in common? They all deliver value and ask for nothing in return.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Rhodes<\/b>: \u201cInnovation sometimes comes out of necessity and that was our situation. \u00a0We knew from day one that our value proposition was unique so our sales and marketing approach also needed to follow a non-traditional path. \u00a0We decided to lead our messaging campaign with industry insights versus information about our company. \u00a0It was from there we discovered Curata, which provided a platform for us to curate content for a newsletter focused purely on green ICT and use social media as the primary outreach method for the newsletter. \u00a0We believe the brands who provide unique and valuable insights to their customers are the ones getting the most traction in any industry.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Brenner<\/b>: \u201cWe\u00a0have found the most effective content is that which best meets the needs of the audience. List posts and \u201cHow to\u201d articles go a long way to building this kind of credibility but they aren\u2019t enough. This kind of content needs to be balanced with deeper thought leadership that also inspires our customers to think differently about the challenges they face. The biggest mistake brands make is in creating too much content that is focused on the brand and not enough content that is focused on helping the audience.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Maksymiw<\/b>: \u201cContent marketing has been used for decades as a means to build influence. That is nothing new. But more and more companies are utilizing content marketing strategies to engage their audiences, drive conversions and build passionate brand followers. Some of the most innovative strategies I have implemented to do so include developing a content hub and incorporating influencers. A big mistake that brands are still making is providing company-centric or product-centric content only. Social audiences aren’t necessarily interested in learning about your offerings. Instead they want to engage with your brand and in most cases, they want to do so on the social platform, not on your website.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Donny<\/b>: \u201cMy answer is based on a B-to-B sales environment where the sales cycle is longer and more complex \u2013 more than 60-days and more than one buyer that requires a buyer process (they will put a seller through a process and the seller will put the buyer through a sales process).<\/i><\/p>\n

There are two main types of content.\u00a0 Content that gets a potential buyer interested in your company and content that will help sales people engage and sustain a buyer along the buyer\u2019s journey with your company.\u00a0 Both are critical.\u00a0 Let\u2019s discuss both.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

In the first type, it is critical to have content that is mapped to a buyer\u2019s personal profile (the person\u2019s role, industry, needs\/challenges).\u00a0 Second, there has to be engagement strategy based on how the potential buyer engages your company.\u00a0 Not how you want to engage them.<\/i><\/p>\n

The biggest mistake is marketing not understanding the buyer and what they need and when they need it.\u00a0 This is not about selling something.\u00a0 It\u2019s about educating the buyer and providing them with useful content\/insights that will allow them to do their job better and make more informed decisions on how to improve performance.\u00a0 Make it personal.\u00a0 The more it is about the issue that they are facing and about how someone in their role would solve the issue is paramount to success.\u00a0 This again goes back to understanding the buyer persona and journey.<\/i><\/p>\n

Next is to then have a content strategy for each persona and engagement along the journey.\u00a0 Failure to have ongoing current and relative content is a death sentence to any marketer.\u00a0 Let\u2019s discuss a few examples.\u00a0 Successful content marketers will develop content for a wide range of \u201cconsumption\u201d formats \u2013 audio, video, PDF, blog \u2013 as different people consume in different ways.\u00a0 So, when content is developed, each needs to be released through all types of media.\u00a0 Using only one media (like just blogging or video) will only allow you to capture a small part of your audience.\u00a0The next strategy is reverse engagement.\u00a0 Say what?\u00a0 Yep, get your market to engage you first.\u00a0 Offer a platform for feedback, idea submittal, guest blogging on your blogs and social sites, etc.\u00a0 Social is a two way street.\u00a0 Get your customers, prospects and market to generate content for you.<\/i><\/p>\n

The second type of content is that which influences a buyer who is already in a sales process\/engagement.\u00a0 This is about understanding what your sales people need to succeed in each stage of their process.\u00a0 They don\u2019t need 1,000\u2019s of articles or content assets.\u00a0 They only need a few very key and very relevant assets per sales stage or situation. \u00a0Quarterly interviews with sales reps and managers and customers will help to uncover those assets that are most and least useful.\u00a0 This also requires strategy \u2013 on managing the content and sunsetting documents that are no longer of use.\u00a0 The key here is to listen to reps and customers about what worked and did not work.\u00a0 Having a customer content board is a great way to keep content relevant and to bounce new content ideas off of a group before they are launched to the market.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Goldman:<\/strong> “We\u2019re telling stories through data. I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s the most novel or innovative approach but it\u2019s working. By mining the $3 billion in ad spend running through the Kenshoo platform, we\u2019re able to keep our fingers on the pulse of the industry and help our customers identify trends that are impacting their business. Kenshoo tries to strike the right balance of quantitative and qualitative content so that it\u2019s easy to digest the insights while clearly showing the supporting evidence.<\/i><\/p>\n

The common mistakes we see brands making are not thinking about their audience and just putting out content for content\u2019s sake. We also see brands changing their voice to meet the medium. You don\u2019t have to be cool and hip to use social media. You can (and should!) be true to your brand persona and consistent at all touchpoints.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

QUESTION: What changes in the process flow and use of technologies need to take place across organizational functions in order to simplify, automate and scale integrated campaigns and accelerate the convergence of content, social, search, mobile, and other marketing?<\/b><\/p>\n

Chernov:<\/b> \u201cThis isn’t a technology problem. It’s not an integration problem. It’s not a mobile, social or next-generation-whatever-you-call-it problem. It’s a “muscle memory” problem. Although their “heads” may know that supplying high-value, educational content is the best way to generate quality leads and build a trustworthy brand, most organizations’ muscle memory still draws them toward self-promotional marketing. There’s not a technology in the world that can fix that problem. It’s cultural.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Maksymiw<\/b>: \u201cCreation and distribution efforts will continue to get tighter and tighter around goals. More work will be outsourced in order to leverage the team to its fullest capacity.”<\/i><\/p>\n

Rhodes<\/b>: \u201cContent marketing is our primary method for reaching our target market and we have built the back end of websites to feed leads and analytics directly into SalesForce. \u00a0Our sales team depends heavily on that interface to properly research a company prior to contacting them. Sales can see what content a company is reading, what content they comment on and this helps build instant rapport during the early stages of a relationship. \u00a0We\u2019ve had several instances during initial meetings where the potential client brings up our curated newsletter, Green Data Center News, as an information source. \u00a0That is the biggest compliment.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Brenner<\/b>: \u201cContent marketing does a couple of things for business development. It generates leads directly. We map content to each stage of the buying process so we can include offers and \u201ccalls to action\u201d and triggers as part of our content strategy. That way, whichever stage of the buying process our visitors are in, we can nurture them to the next level. For those who are quite close to being ready to buy, we employ mechanisms to capture them and begin the process of converting them directly into sales.<\/i><\/p>\n

But effective content marketing also provides the content our own social sales teams an inside sales executives need to nurture their own prospects. We enable this by creating weekly \u201cbest of\u201d email newsletters and both internal and external community discussions for sales enablement. Then our account execs use that content to generate interest on the part of the leads they are nurturing.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Donny<\/b>: “Content has to come with a user guide.\u00a0 Meaning, don\u2019t just make content and then pass it to sales.\u00a0 They need to know how and when to use it.\u00a0 Marketing needs to do this with sales and create a strategy based on their needs and the needs of the buyer.\u00a0 What is missing in many cases is teaching sales how to use the content \u2013 how to speak to it, leverage the insights and speak to the benefits.”<\/i><\/p>\n

Goldman:<\/strong> “This could be a very long answer but I\u2019ll try and simplify. More than anything, it\u2019s a matter of mindset. People need to embrace change and be open to new ideas. Try new products. Try new processes. Never stop learning and improving. There\u2019s always another tweak that can be made to get better results. We call this \u201cInfinite Optimization\u201d.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

QUESTION: What changes do you think should happen in 2014 for content marketing operations to experience increased ROI and improved efficiency of both their in-house and outsourced content and social marketing teams?<\/b><\/p>\n

Rhodes<\/b>: \u201cAs a start-up, I think it\u2019s easy to get lost in the product development phase and not put enough emphasis on building trust between your brand and your target audience; something that content marketing offers early and quickly. Sometimes it\u2019s difficult to quantify value from a relationship in the early stages but for us it has provided a key element of brand recognition and a more educated target audience. I think there is real opportunity for platforms, like Curata, to help companies bring together high-value content with a cost-effective distribution mechanism that not only gives them credibility with their target audience, but enables them to become a valued resource as well.<\/i><\/p>\n

For marketing operations to increase their ROI and efficiency in the future, they should closely scrutinize what content has been most successful historically and focus their content generation efforts there.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Brenner<\/b>: \u201cWe are seeing a lot of technology and startups in the content marketing space. There are curation tools, CMS, reporting engines, editorial workflow and calendaring tools and platforms that try to do all these things. In order to increase ROI, brands need to figure out the right mix of creation, curation and syndication and build a team of people who really understand how to think and act like a publisher. Once that is in place and working like a machine, it\u2019s time to build the kind of platform that can scale and sustain growth into the future. 2014 will see brand content marketing teams that take on the look and feel of real newsrooms including the technical platforms to support that.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Donny<\/b>: \u201cReverse engineer content.\u00a0 Understand first what is working for sales and what is impacting how your sales team is selling and how your buyers are engaging them.\u00a0 ROI is about pipeline contribution and revenue generation.\u00a0 That means that a full line of sight into a revenue supply chain is a must.\u00a0 Meaning, marketing leaders need the ability to see every stage in the buyer process from inquiry to revenue and all steps in between.\u00a0 Having key KPI analytics like volume and velocity, leakage, sales behavior, activity tracking and the correlation of all of these to one another will be a must.\u00a0 Marketing needs to understand the full view of both, the marketing lead management cycle and the sales process cycle.\u00a0 Combined together, marketing will get insights that will allow them to predict asset or campaign performance based on historical performance behaviors.\u00a0 Predictive analytics is the next frontier.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Goldman:<\/b> \u201cThe first step to increasing ROI is measuring ROI. Too many organizations lump content marketing under branding and assume that direct results cannot be tracked. Whether it\u2019s proxy metrics such as clicks, time spent, and shares or bottom-line metrics such as leads, revenue, and lifetime value, what doesn\u2019t get measured doesn\u2019t get done.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Chernov:<\/b> \u201cI don’t think changes need to happen per se. I just think companies need to experiment a little more, track a little more, optimize a little more, and then re-experiment to complete the cycle. It’s an evolution. I think marketers are “getting there.” You have to remember that in many ways, the marketing industry has been “flattened” by social media, big data and automated tools. We are rebuilding ourselves in real time. Sometimes we should stop and admire the progress that’s been made versus always looking at what needs to be built.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is an evolution all right, and it is certain we are rebuilding ourselves in real time. If you\u2019re a glass half full type, this revolution represents an opportunity and might even contain the seeds of a new Age of Enlightenment that will change our relationship to collective power in ways that more fully honor our humanness. What kind of world might result when marketing is fully incentivized to \u201cprovide unique and valuable insights to their customers?\u201d \u201cMeets the needs of audiences?\u201d \u00a0\u201cinspires\u2026 customers to think differently about the challenges they face?\u201d<\/p>\n

What can you imagine for such a world, as it relates to marketing, culture, politics?<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/h2>\n

Check the\u00a0integrated demand generation process flow<\/a>\u00a0we\u2019ve designed for you and download the presentation to learn about our\u00a0LeadGen Journalism<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0as a new demand gen method.<\/p>\n

Also read:<\/h2>\n