C H A P T E R 1
Beyond Pass/Fail Content
Beyond Pass/Fail Content
The Era of Content Marketing
You don’t need us to tell you—the era of content marketing is in full swing! Across virtually every industry, brands are creating content of all types—from blog posts and infographics to webinars, videos, and beyond, all with the intention of attracting, acquiring and engaging an audience. It’s an approach that’s only growing.
The Content Marketing Institute’s 2016 B2B/B2C Content Marketing Trends Report showed that 88% of B2B marketers and 76% of B2C marketers use content marketing. Almost half have a dedicated content marketing group, and 76% are creating more content than they did a year ago.
Across both B2B and B2C marketers, a quarter of the total marketing budget is spent on content marketing, with more than half saying they’ll increase spending over the next 12 months.
76% of Content Marketers are creating more content than they did a year ago.
~ Content Marketing Institute’s 2016 B2B/B2C Content Marketing Trends Report
60% of Content Marketers say their content doesn’t create enough opportunity for engagement.
~ Content Marketing Institute’s 2016 B2B/B2C Content Marketing Trends Report.
How Well is All This Content Working?
As it turns out, marketers are doing pretty poorly, both at measuring their impact and having an impact at all. A mere 30% of B2B and 38% of B2C marketers say their content marketing is effective, while a whopping 60% say their content doesn’t create enough opportunity for engagement.
And even when there is engagement, 57% of B2B marketers and 50% of B2C marketers say they’re challenged trying to measure just how effective that engagement is.
Why is that? It’s not for lack of reporting tools or data. In fact, as Gary Van Prooyen explains...
“We have reporting coming out of our ears – but to be able to connect all those things into one cohesive view that connects it to business metrics is hard. It really is.”
The Truth...
The truth is, we already have all the data we need to measure content consumption and influence.
We’re just not using it the right way. We’re missing the insights into the interaction and the experience our buyers are having with our content, and that’s where static content is failing marketers and making measurement tougher.
The Trouble With Static Content
“Static” content are things like eBooks, blog posts, videos and white papers—content that can’t be interacted with beyond a view or a download.
For example, what kind of data can we glean about a buyer when they view static content? We can tell that they viewed an infographic or registered to download a white paper, read a blog post or attended a webinar.
But that’s it. We have no idea whether or not they found the data in the infographic interesting, which parts of the white paper they found most compelling (if they even read it) or even if they found the blog post helpful at all! We’re left making guesses based on visitor numbers and traffic, time on site and bounce rate—all generic numbers not tied to an individual visitor in a meaningful way.
What you’re left with is a pass/fail indicator. Either someone saw your content, or they didn’t. Either they downloaded your resource, or they didn’t.
And for savvy marketers who want to know more about their customers than just a single data point, pass/fail is not good enough.
Interactive Content Can Solve for This!
What if, instead of pass/fail content, you had the ability to understand what parts of the content a specific buyer engaged with, or even encourage content consumers to share information about their pain points?
Better still, what if your buyers could build their ideal solution and you could hand it straight to your sales team?
This is the premise of interactive content: Content that’s not simply pass/fail, but instead offers nuanced and specific insights into the buyer who is engaging with it.
And it’s no pipe dream: Businesses are already using interactive content across the entire buyer’s journey to improve engagement at every stage, inform their sales and marketing teams and ultimately grow their bottom lines.The Result is...
Better educated prospects
A sales team that can meet the buyer at their point of interest
A substantially better ability to align your marketing and sales teams
Reasons for Interactive Content Use in Content Marketing
In a report from Content Marketing Institute, 53% of marketers reported already using interactive content and 75% anticipated increasing usage in the coming year. Interactive content helps educate buyers, increase engagement, generate leads and nurture them.
Educating the Audience
75%
59%
Engagement
58%
Lead Gen/Top of Funnel
57%
Create Brand Awareness
49%
Conversion
41%
Social Media / Community Engagement
33%
Lead Nuturing / Mid Funnel
31%
Customer Retention / Loyalty
31%
Storytelling
28%
Sales / Sales Enablement
Other Reasons
4%
2016 B2B Content Marketing Trends—North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs
Effectiveness of Interactive Versus Static Content
70%
vs.
36%
of marketers say...
Interactive content is effective at engaging their audience.
93%
vs.
70%
of marketers say...
Interactive content is effective at educating the buyer.
88%
vs.
55%
of marketers say...
Interactive content is effective at differentiating from competitors.
38%
vs.
17%
of marketers say...
Interactive content is somewhat or very effective at being shared.
Understanding the Buyer’s Journey
When we talk about the “Buyer’s Journey”, what we’re really referring to is the path the customer takes from being a visitor to becoming a qualified lead, and from a lead to becoming a buyer. As much as we’d like for there to be one well-defined journey for every customer, the reality is that every different customer may take a different route.
70% of the buyer’s journey is complete before a buyer reaches out to sales.
~ Content Marketing Institute’s 2016 B2B/B2C Content Marketing Trends Report
Self-Discovery
And increasingly these unique journeys are almost entirely buyer-driven. Sirius Decisions estimates up to 70% of the buyer’s journey is complete before a buyer reaches out to sales. More than ever before, buyers are conducting self discovery, educating themselves on their own terms in their own timelines. It’s imperative for marketers to support the modern buyer’s desire to self-propel by offering relevant, useful content experiences that help drive the buyer forward.
There are three distinct stages to the buyer’s journey:
An early stage, where they become aware of your brand and solution as well as their need.
A middle stage, where they are considering their options and discovering more about their pain points and requirements.
A late stage, where the buyer is getting ready to make a purchase decision.
Content Must Support the Buyer at Every Stage
Think of your content like a bridge: If there’s nothing to help carry the customer over from one stage to another, they’ll drop off and you’ll lose the sale.
“Content—defined as all information components produced by marketing to communicate ideas and transfer knowledge to buyer and seller audiences—plays a critical role in driving demand.
But when the type of content created does not align with the buyers’ and sellers’ needs, it fails to support the types of conversations that are required to move the buying process forward,” according to Marisa Kopec, Vice President and Group Director at SiriusDecisions.
Knowing this, it’s time to pull back the curtain and take a look at some practical, actionable ways you can make interactive content a part of every stage of your buyer’s journey.
