“Our customers were looking for alternatives to white papers or research reports—creating interactive tools allows us to build a meaty piece of content that helps convert at the awareness and consideration stages of the buyers’ journey.”
Jessie Coan
Aberdeen Group
Vice President of Marketing – Content
What is your approach to content marketing?
My approach to content marketing is a three-legged stool—clear target audience, goal/what does success look like, and a good story. If all three of these are articulated, planned, and clear, then you’re good to go! The nice thing about stools is that those three legs need to be balanced, but the overall stool can change—color, style, design. These all relate back to the content asset you’re creating.
What content advice would you give to other marketers?
My biggest piece of advice for content marketers would be to never stop testing. How, where, and what people consume is ever-changing, and we, content marketers, need to stay in lock step with our demand gen partners (or if we’re the demand gen person, then we need to stay on top of it ourselves) so we know where our audience consuming.
Why did you incorporate interactive content into your program?
Interactive content was a must for us. We wanted to build content that was engaging not only on your computer or laptop but also on a phone or tablet as well. We were also looking for an assessment tool type of offering, and surveys weren’t cutting the mustard. We wanted something simple, easy, and satisfying to interact with.
What business need did interactive content and ion help solve for Aberdeen?
Our customers were looking for alternatives to white papers or research reports—creating interactive tools allows us to build a meaty piece of content that helps convert at the awareness and consideration stages of the buyers’ journey.
What do you think is the most exciting thing happening in content marketing right now?
I think one of the most exciting things in content marketing right now is the new ways we are consuming content. As a B2B marketer, social media has historically had a different place in my overall marketing strategy than it would for a B2C marketer. But between phones, tablets, live videos, Snapchat and Instagram stories—that’s just to name a few—you have a lot of social media apps that are competing for attention. B2B marketing needs to shift and figure out how we embrace these technologies and B2C tactics, to grab a minute or two of someone’s time.
What’s in store for the future of content marketing?
I think the future of content marketing does sit with social media, and it will force us to create better content that grabs people’s attention faster than ever before. We need to get wittier, and more creative, with our messages so we can keep our audience’s attention before the next cooking video or funny dog video crops up. This isn’t a bad thing, but it is a shift. We need to think like B2C marketers and capitalize on the instant gratification that happens when you get someone to click.
