Join the conversation on LinkedIn or @MarketingB2B on Twitter with #DearB2B. You can also email [email protected] to get help with your toughest B2B marketing challenges.
Q: #DearB2B, with so much content out there, how can I ensure mine cuts through?
A: Here’s the ugly truth: it’s very hard to break through the clutter unless your content is absolutely stellar with a well-thought out paid, owned and earned media campaign. Even with a heavy-budget campaign, it doesn’t guarantee a major break-through. There’s just too much content out there vying for people’s attention.
So, what should you do? The question is not about breaking through the clutter. The question is rather, how to reach your target audience on the right channels at the right time. It’s nice to break through the clutter, but it’s even more important to increase conversion. Here are several steps:
1. Know your objective and audience
I know this sounds like a cliché, but before creating content, you need to know your marketing objectives and audience well. You need to know what you want to accomplish, what makes your audience tick and where they go to seek information.
2. Start with a creative idea, keyword search and audience needs in mind
One way to select a topic or title is based on popular keywords that your target audience use when researching topics related to your products and brands. Determine your creative approach and the way you want to communicate your topic by using your understanding of your audience (who are they? What is their day like? How they use your product? What makes them tick?). Some people think of this as ‘telling a story.’ It’s a matter of making a creative decision about how you want to convey your messages or communications objectives.
There are multiple decisions you need to make to tell a compelling story or create an effective piece of content. You have the option of writing it in the first, second or third person. You need to determine if you want to do a blog post, a demo, animation or a whitepaper. You can decide how to flow the content. The image, copywriting, flow of your content, and format selection all matter.
3. Get you content out there
Creating compelling content is only half the battle. The other half (actually, more than half) is to get your awesome content out where your target audience can stumble upon it. If you have a huge following, it may be easy to get free media impressions as your fans and followers share and RT. However, if you don’t possess a large following, you may need to make sure that you have a solid paid and earned media promotion strategy. Unless there are continuous referrals and solid grassroot word-of-mouth marketing, paid media likely plays an important role in getting your content noticed by the right audience. Spend time creating and executing to an overall promotional plan and timeline is essential.
4. Optimise, optimise and optimise
Once the promotion plan is activated, you need to monitor it like a hawk. Understand where the conversions happen and adjust your budget accordingly. For search, you may need to buy different sets of long and short keywords. For paid on different social media and traditional channels, you may need to adjust spends based on conversions. You need to really work at it. There is no short cut.
I am not suggesting that you shouldn’t focus on breaking through the clutter. Breaking through the clutter is important when you are driving an awareness-centric campaign. However, I believe that it’s vital to reach your customers in a more targeted and strategic way. Aim at creating solid content that your target customers will appreciate. Then promote and syndicate the heck out of it. Optimise as best you can to improve your conversion and grow your business.
