Would you go to a restaurant that a friend told you was “somewhat” good? How about a movie that was “somewhat” entertaining? Looking for a new TV show to watch? I’ll tell you about a few I enjoyed... somewhat.
It’s not exactly high praise, is it? So when 51% of b-to-b marketers recently called their content marketing just “somewhat effective,” with only 14% saying their content marketing was “very effective” — the rest saying “somewhat” or worse — maybe it’s time to take a look at how to get your content marketing back on the right track.
The survey results:
Let’s imagine what kind of content marketing effort might fall under each grouping — this way, we’ll know what not to do, and how to get to “Very Effective.”
Not Effectively at All:
You run fast and loose with the concept of content marketing.
You make 3 or 4 Twitter posts to “check out your website” each month, whenever you remember to.
Your e-mail content plan is to talk exclusively about your products and services, once or twice a year, to a contact list you bought three years ago.
Somewhat Ineffectively:
You have a blog that functions like a PR outlet: occasional announcements of new product lines, sales, and the like.
You’ve never met a promotional phrase you didn’t like.
You’re on all four big social media platforms, but you ignore interactions (and potential customers).
Neutral:
You create some interesting content, but you apply the “80/20” rule the wrong way, talking about yourself 80% of the time.
All of your content is focused on the bottom of the funnel. It drives some sales for the few prospects who are ready for it, but you’re missing a lot of top-of-funnel lead opportunities.
Somewhat effectively:
You create content valuable to existing customers – industry news, innovation updates, solutions to problems — but you’re still not connecting with many top-of-funnel prospects.
Your email communication is uneven — customers look forward to most of them, but get turned off by just a few too many sales pitches.
Very effectively:
You’ve researched specific issues that face your ideal prospect, and you craft useful blogs, white papers, and other content around them.
You’re not afraid to create educational content that doesn’t mention your company at all, besides authorship.
You have content everywhere your prospects look, so you connect with them at all stages of the buying cycle.
As more b-to-b companies embrace content marketing, it’s important to make sure that it actually works — sub-par content may already be leading to a backlash. It’s not so big a jump from “somewhat effective” to truly doing it right — and both you and your customers will see the benefits.
Great Content Marketing starts with the fundamentals — download your free white paper to find out what they are.