New research from the Content Marketing Institute shows that the top two priorities for B2B content creators are creating more engaging content (cited by 72% of respondents) and having a better understanding of content that is effective (65%).
CMOs are increasing their investment in developing compelling, personalized content that resonates with their consumers and drives engagement with their brand. According to e-Marketer, more than three-quarters of B2B marketers in North America plan to create more content in 2016 than they did last year
Here’s five things CMOs need to keep in mind about content marketing in 2016:
- Ensure content is relevant to the customer experience
Content is the context through which your customers experience your brand, whether that content is a video, a blog post or an email. It is the first touchpoint and opportunity for engagement. But to create effective content, marketers need to understand exactly what this audience expects and wants on every step of the journey.
To do this effectively, you’ll need a deep, iterative understanding of your audiences based on real-time data, which can be achieved through MaaS analytics tools. These tools can be valuable in helping you answer questions like: Who are my customers? What are they looking for? Where are they spending time on my website? What are they sharing? Considering the relevance of your content marketing to the customer experience is a key way to ensuring that the ultimate product stands out.
- Focus on personalization
According to the Content Marketing Institute, one in five internal content creators said that they wanted to become better at personalizing content, which was slightly higher than the 19% who wanted to “become stronger writers.” Consumers are inundated with so many messages today; making sure each message is targeted to the right person is absolutely key.
To effectively personalize the experience, start with the data to create a customer mind map. This mind map will identify what matters most to them (probably not your brand—yet) and the issues and content they find compelling. From that, you can determine the value your brand can offer in this space.
In effect, this mind map will enable you to develop a content journey that mirrors and adapts to the customer acquisition journey. Personalization of content—even in a B2B setting—is crucial for changing behavior. If you can meet a customer where they are in their journey with your brand, you are more likely to convert their engagement to behavior change, the goal of marketing.
- Assemble the right toolkit with new visuals
In this case, the platforms are driving content to move toward more visual offerings. Consider the runaway success of Instagram and other photo-sharing sites, which is conditioning the public to respond to and expect visuals. Every piece of content, even if it is a 2,000-word white paper describing a new product, needs compelling visuals to bring it to life, from photos to infographics to videos.
The key is to assemble a suite of tools that work toward the right goal at each stage in the content marketing process. A new viewer may be attracted by a compelling photo, while an engaged consumer may take the time to watch a video providing more details. Understanding what the consumer wants, and when they want it, is key to delivering the right toolkit.
- Target content to your employees
As a marketer, you may know that your focus is external stakeholders who can drive sales for your brands. But content marketing is a powerful tool for activating internal audiences as well. Your employees are your best advocates, so invest in knowing them like you know your customers. By providing content they enjoy and want to share, your employees become ambassadors, generating organic excitement around your brand and content.
At HCL, we call our employees our idea-preneurs, as we know they are key to the value system of our company. We also know that the authenticity of our brand is reflected through our employees. As a result, it is vital that we ensure that our employees are receiving the right information about our company, from our new initiatives to our past successes and challenges, so that they can continue to champion our messages and our goals in their networks.
- Test, measure, repeat; do it again
This is where the hard work for marketing takes over from the creative content ideas. Just do it, again and again. Today, data and A/B testing provide an understanding of what content is working and what isn’t, allowing you to improve your customer experience. Measure data that is relevant to your business and benchmark content performance against KPIs to identify the “best” content for your marketing goals. Analyze overarching trends in your content performance and draw out key findings to inform your strategy. Through consistent, rigorous testing, you can ensure your brand’s content is tailored to consumers’ ever-changing needs and preferences.
This is necessary because today’s empowered consumer is expecting a digital experience across different touch points, and so it is vital to make sure that this experience is a consistent one, from the webpage visit to the conversation with a call specialist to the results from a Google search. The key to content marketing is iterative improvement and patience, as it is necessary to fine-tune the strategies and drive optimal engagement.
Matt Preschern is CMO of HCL Technologies.
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