Conquering ‘the content avalanche’

Our upcoming conference is here to help you conquer the content avalanche. Jessica McGreal takes a look at the topics we’ll be addressing on the day

here’s no denying it, ‘the content avalanche’ has hit. Our inboxes are overflowing, our Twitter streams updating, events calendars are full and our web browsing is at fever pitch. However, discovering useful and interesting content has become harder than ever.

Eighteen months ago marketers were praising the evolution of content marketing. But as an ever-increasing number jump on the content bandwagon it has become extremely difficult to get your brand’s voice heard. As a result, in order to produce creative content that stands out from the crowd B2B marketers need to rip up the rulebook. Forget phrases such as ‘content is king’ and ‘direct mail is dead’ and instead focus on creating inbound marketing campaigns that are effective and ultimately drive sales.

History
So, let’s begin by briefly looking over the history of content. Although content has always played a significant role in B2B, the term ‘content marketing’ was coined less than two years ago. And it’s been a whirlwind 18 months where it has become the ultimate B2B buzzword and industry hot topic. B2B Marketing’s Content Marketing Benchmarking Report 2013 revealed over half (56 per cent) of B2B marketers have witnessed an increase in sales due to content. As a result, on average B2B marketers spend 28 per cent of their overall budget on inbound campaigns. 

Dave Stevens, marketing director UK&I at EY will be discussing the history of content at our upcoming annual conference. He explains: “There is such a buzz around content marketing now because of technology. For much of the last 20 years marketers have been distracted by the challenge of how to apply the latest new technology to our channel mix. Now
we’ve had that discussion, the next logical step is to apply new technology to our content mix.”

Buyer behaviour has also driven the increase in content production. Buyers are doing their own research and engaging with sales at a much later stage. So for brands to stay front-of-mind they need to create the content buyers are engaging with before they speak to sales.

The content robot
With the development of fast-paced content production we have witnessed the creation of a new type of B2B marketer: the robot. These machines are churning out content like there’s no tomorrow. Entirely focused on producing campaigns en masse, this new breed of marketer is uninterested in producing creative, dynamic and useful communications and instead is interested only in quantity.

The idea of a content robot may seem bizarre, but it’s no joke. Marketing messages can overwhelm content, making anything from a video or blog seem almost robotic. Being human is not only about creativity
but also about being interactive and responsive across all platforms. After all, everyone knows an automated tweet when they see one.

Creative content is king
Drew Nicholson, CEO of DNX, explains why many B2B marketers become content robots: “My view is that while some outputs obviously do need to be rational and ‘no nonsense’ to communicate facts, for the most part it still comes back to the old problem that we see businesses decision makers being rational, automation souls with no humanity – and we all know that is wrong. The overarching issue is to recognise we have to weave far more creativity and originality into everything we produce.”

As a result, despite being the star of the moment, many content campaigns are lost in the avalanche. But, why is uncreativity in B2B content so rife?

Nicholson’s keynote speech will argue content is not king, instead creative content is king: “Creativity is not just pictures. Looking different is half the battle, but copy needs to be enticing not dull old tosh, the channel needs to be innovative, and before all of that the approach to the content needs to be fresh.”

Each company needs to stand out from the crowd and distance themselves from key competitors. To do this brands need to be confident and consistence, but above all tell a story.

Producing meaningful content
But, it’s not only creativity that B2B marketers are struggling with. Dave Chaffey, CEO of Smart Insights who will also be speaking at our the conference, explains: “Within B2B, staple content marketing approaches like blog posts, infographics, whitepapers and videos are effective, but often they don’t enable a brand to differentiate itself, or allow enough further engagement with a prospect. I’ll be talking about how to develop immersive experiences which humanises interaction.”

As a result, campaigns need to integrate a range of channels while being consistent across all touchpoints. It’s also worth remembering to assess the market before you embark on a new content project. There may already be an avalanche of content available on the subject you are planning
to address.

Meanwhile, Philip Martin, head of marketing at Amadeus, will be revealing how his brand created awareness and gained credibility in a new sector via content marketing: “Content has to be specific for the audience you are trying to attract and also what you are trying to do. If you get the right content in there, you manage it successfully, you communicate it successfully then you take a lot of sales chat out of the beginning of a relationship.”

In order to cut out ‘sales chat’ content needs to be shareable. Remember, you don’t need to use the main social channels to share. Utilise blogs and industry forums, and don’t be restricted to post on Facebook or LinkedIn. If your content is good enough, users in those networks will be drawn in.

However, don’t overload your audience with content. In the end the potential prospect will go one step further than simply pressing delete. They may end up unsubscribing from all your communications and therefore be deterred from buying from you for life.

The future
Looking ahead, the future of content looks bright as long as marketers can prove its worth.

Due to the vast array of content channels marketers need to utilise everything from analytics, comments and face-to-face feedback to prove their content is working.

However, Chaffey doesn’t think proving ROI for content marketing is as difficult as is sometimes made out. He says: “The key is to have the right goals, funnels and custom reports set up within analytics plus the right tagging of channels in campaigns. Then it’s knowing the right measures to use such as goal value per visit and page value. While these may not give pure revenue figures, they’re excellent at showing the relative value of different types of content and are under-used.”

Still stuck? The upcoming B2B Marketing Conference, ‘The Content Avalanche’, offers a tour-de-force in content marketing excellence. Marketing leaders will share insights, outline best practices and offer actionable advice. Plus, the event offers a rare opportunity to network and share ideas with over 200 B2B marketers.

Book your ticket today by visiting  b2bmarketing/conference or calling: 0207 269 6590

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