This is especially true in the B2B realm.
A balance needs to be struck between relaying the technical information needed to understand products and technologies, while making sure the complexities are put into context to make the information relevant to your customer. Real-world application stories and honest discussions of trends enable you to provide trusted answers to the industry’s major pain points.
Lofty claims of technological superiority just won’t work. To build credibility and trust, you need to back up your claims with hard evidence. Then you can tell them why your product is the greatest thing since sliced bread!
The written (and spoken!) word is critical to all aspects of marketing, and you need to reach your audience where they are and use their language. From technical writing to opinion pieces to social media snippets, content is crucial. Since different people gather and process information in a variety of ways, you need to provide your content in various forms.
But regardless of the format, you need to make sure you are speaking to the audience you are trying to reach in a way that helps tells them, not sells them, about what you do. And for digital content, don’t forget about the relevant language needed to provide ongoing SEO.
In addition to text-based pieces, multimedia content, like webinars, videos, speaking engagements, are key to communicating with your target audience in a virtual or in-person experience.
Although the Internet initially shook up the publishing world, we have seen the media mature over the last decade to become content hubs and fast-paced news outlets. Information is being pumped out and updated at a breakneck pace, in traditional media sources as well as directly to the end user through social media-type outlets.
This has led to consumable content that promotes technological innovation and market strength, while focusing on growth areas. Written specifically for the fast-paced, digital news environment, this type of content helps companies keep a steady stream of news and highlights in front of key audiences.
Consumable content focuses on current industry trends and highlights important industry happenings. It differs from thought leadership content in that these pieces are typically shorter, a bit more timely and encompass a wider distribution versus being placed in just one trade outlet at a time.
It’s also paved the way for more insightful, thought leadership content that helps increase market presence as well as establish credibility as an industry expert. Pieces include white papers, case histories, application highlights and infographics on industry trends, tips and tricks to solve problems, insights into technical developments or market applications and more. Targeted for both online and print media, it’s a driving force in generating engagement and trust with your audience.
Newer to the B2B world is effective social media and blogging, more opinionated forms of content, but no less effective or necessary in our fast-paced world. Live-tweeting a presentation at an event may be as useful to a key customer as the whitepaper on the topics posted on an industry publication website.
And no integrated marcom plan is complete without a way to effectively distribute your message, capture information, gather leads and pass on the information to the sales team. Marketing automation has quickly become an integral part of a well-planned campaign to reach new people and nurture existing relationships through the sales funnel.
By combining all of these different avenues of communication and disseminating them to your target markets, you will fast become a leader and trusted expert in your industry.
