Not a Content Strategy
As organizations jump on the B2B social bandwagon, initial focus tends to revolve around which vehicles to utilize (Do we need a Facebook page? Is our audience using Twitter?), how often to blog, tweet, etc., and how cultivate a following.
In all the pandemonium, the pivotal component these companies overlook is content. Don’t make this mistake. A well thought out content strategy and content development plan will set you apart from those who opt to scour the web looking to re-purpose business content. Why tweet on behalf of someone else when you can leverage social media to spread your own messages? If executed correctly, a good content strategy will result in a strong following for your company and your brand.
Where to Begin?
There are several components of a solid content strategy:
• Developing content for each buyer types
• Mapping content to the stages of the buying cycle
• Producing content in a variety of formats and media to suit different content preferences
Today’s post will focus on the first component, . Check back next week for posts on the other components.
Developing content for each buyer type:
Few companies have a claustrophobically-niched target audience, say: one-legged IT directors who run mainframes for online dating services and hate Star Trek. Even if you sell to one job function, like “IT Directors”, you can probably divide your IT directors into sub-groups. For example, let’s say you sell disaster recovery software to IT Directors. The IT director in a public institution, like a university, probably has very different concerns and pain points from the IT director that works for a high-powered Fortune 500 company. Yet both IT Directors may be in the market for disaster recovery software, and both may be your target, but you have to approach them with different messages.
Your audience may be broad, especially if you have a complex sales process spanning multiple departments and touching several decision makers.
For example, if your disaster recovery software is expensive, or has the potential to save a customer big bucks by minimizing down-time, than the CFO might need to hear your message as well. However, the message you send to the bean counter (product reduces the risk of lost people hours, less initial investment, lower total cost of ownership, SaaS equals savings) is considerably different from what the IT Director wants to hear (reduced IT hours to maintain, automatic updates, SaaS equals less headaches).
You should develop separate content, collateral pieces and even web site pages for each distinct audience. Now, where to begin?
Next time: Creating Marketing Personas
