0% found this document useful (0 votes)

80 views6 pages

Success: A Blueprint For Content Marketing

c_cord50

Uploaded by

Maralto Maraltoo

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

0% found this document useful (0 votes)

80 views6 pages

Success: A Blueprint For Content Marketing

c_cord50

Uploaded by

Maralto Maraltoo

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

You are on page 1/ 6

A Blueprint

for Content
Marketing
Success
Content can play an undeniably
valuable role in buyersupplier
relationshipsestablishing
early trust, driving action,
and guiding the purchase
but the precise benefits can be
unclear, and many organizations
are not making full use of their
capabilities.

White Paper
CEB Marketing Leadership Council

Content Marketing Investment High, but

Confidence Low
Content marketing has come to dominate organizations attention and budgets. Forty-five
percent of marketers budgets are devoted to some aspect of content marketing. In addition,
84% of marketers plan to shift more money into content marketing in the next five years.
Despite the growing investment and focus on content marketing, only 45% of marketers
are confident those investments are paying off. Most organizations continue to struggle
with building an effective content marketing strategy and have questions about planning,
execution, technology, and measurement.

We Are Confident Our Content

Marketing Investments Are
Paying Off

We Are Confident in the

Connection Between Content
and Business Metricsa

100%
33%
Agree

50%

30%

23%

8%
Strongly
Agree

Agree

Neither

Disagree

3%
Strongly
Disagree

67%
Disagree/
Neutral

37%

n = 93.

n = 49.

Source: CEB 2016 Content Strategy Diagnostic.

Note: Total does not equal 100% due to rounding.

Content metrics include clicks and shares; business

metrics include revenue, profit, and ROI.

A New Buying Environment

With more options to evaluate in the buying process, greater involvement of diverse
stakeholders, and increased access to information, selling to customers today is more
challenging than ever:

Overwhelmed BuyersThe amount of information, people, and options has reached

a tipping point, placing a significant burden on customers ability to make purchase
decisions. Too much information paralyzes decision making, too many stakeholders cause
the buying group to settle for a good enough solution, and too many options raise the
opportunity cost of solutions. The result is extended buying cycles and an overwhelming
purchase experience for customers, which dramatically increases the likelihood of
purchase regret.
Diverse GroupsSuppliers are selling to increasingly large and diverse buying teams.
Todays typical B2B buying group includes an average of 5.4 stakeholders. As deals become
more complex, new stakeholders from different parts of the customer organization are
weighing in on purchase decisions, bringing diverse perspectives and business needs to
stakeholder groups. The problem is consensusbuyers report that reaching team-wide
agreement on a decision is 81% harder than making up their own mind.
Empowered LearnersCustomers are more informed than ever as online information
and use of third-party consultants increase. This greater access to information
encourages customers to defer supplier outreach until they are 57% of the way
through their purchase process, on average. During this time, customers forge
opinions and believe they understand supplier solutions.

CONTENT MARKETING BLUEPRINT

2016 CEB. All rights reserved.MLC6177816SYN

Detail about CEB Inc. and its subsidiaries can be found at cebglobal.com/offices.

cebglobal.com

The Sweet Spot

An effective strategy must be built from organizational goals. But our research shows that
good content marketing frameworks span two worlds, accounting equally for organizational
goals and target customers buying reality.
Overall content efforts must carefully and consistently target a few specific, high-priority
organizational goals. At the same time, to ensure youre producing content that not only is
consumed but also drives needed customer buying behavior, you have to align your content
approach to emerging customer buying patterns.
The sweet spot of content marketing sits at the overlap of organizational goals and buying
patterns (the green shaded region in the diagram below). Anything outside that area is
likely to underperform. That doesnt mean all content marketing strategies will look the
same, as organizations will prioritize differently based on their particular market realities.
But at a high level, if you cant clearly link content back to both specific organizational goals
and new customer buying patterns, you should reconsider your strategy.

Qualities of Commercially Viable Content Marketing

Organizational
Goals

Buying
Patterns

Generate
quality leads.
Progress and
close deals.
Launch new
initiatives.

Commercially Viable
Content Marketing

Overwhelmed
Buyers
Diverse Groups
Empowered
Learners

Adapt to
changing
competitive
climate.

Source: CEB analysis.

So what does this high-performing content look like? Given changes in customer buying
behavior, content will have to serve four critical functions:

Prescribe | Connect | Motivate | Disrupt

CONTENT MARKETING BLUEPRINT

2016 CEB. All rights reserved.MLC6177816SYN

Detail about CEB Inc. and its subsidiaries can be found at cebglobal.com/offices.

cebglobal.com

Content Types
Prescribe
Prescriptive content addresses overwhelmed buyers who easily become bogged down in a
complex purchase, give up and settle for a smaller solution, or even abandon the purchase
altogether. To prescribe the best path through a purchase process, think more broadly about
what the purchase journey looks like beyond the challenges customers face when buying
from your organization.

Prescriptive Content
A credible and influential set
of do this/dont do that
recommendations provided
to customers throughout
the purchase process to
ease customers movement
toward purchase

Overwhelmed
Buyers

Prescriptive
Content

Prescriptive Content
Shows the most efficient path through a complex purchase
Identifies and addresses common buying obstacles
Guides customers to the most important buying criteria
Leads back to the suppliers unique differentiators

Connect
Connecting content helps solve the challenge of increased diversity of large buying groups,
which can lead to lowest common denominator decisions such as save money and change
little. Connecting content aims to achieve group agreement on a broader vision. To do that,
shift your focus from connecting stakeholders to you (the supplier) to connecting stakeholders
to each other.

Connecting Content
A type of supplier guidance
designed to increase
buying group agreement to
a broader course of action
favoring the supplier

Diverse
Groups

Connecting
Content

Connecting Content
Identifies top concerns and priorities of stakeholders in the buying group
Includes objection-handling points customized by stakeholder
Provides tools to facilitate stakeholder understanding
Suggests ways to increase agreement among diverse members of the
buying group

CONTENT MARKETING BLUEPRINT

Detail about CEB Inc. and its subsidiaries can be found at cebglobal.com/offices.

cebglobal.com

Motivate
The other problem in connecting diverse buying groups is motivating someone to mobilize
and play the role of connector. People fear losing credibility and even their job as they
advocate for a particular solution in a large group of buyers. So, beyond equipping MobilizerTM
stakeholders with tools to build consensus (using connecting content), you must first create
Mobilizer buyers. This task requires a unique type of content. Motivating content isnt solving
for a skill problem (like connecting content) but for a will problem.

Motivating Content
Positions the suppliers
value proposition in a way
that boosts a stakeholders
willingness to mobilize for
a suppliers solution by
connecting the solution
to the stakeholders selfperception

Diverse
Groups

Motivating
Content

Motivating Content
Triggers a positive emotion from a critical stakeholder
Conveys an understanding of self-image benefits the key stakeholder
gets from using the product or engaging with the brand
Provides personal motivation for a critical member of the buying
group to advocate for the suppliers solution

Disrupt
Disruptive content addresses customers who are empowered with information and can
independently set buying criteria, driving suppliers into a commodity trap. Your biggest
challenge isnt your direct competitors but rather your customers ability to learn on their
own. The only way to compete against this commoditization is through content that disrupts
that kind of learning. Demonstrate to customers that despite their independent research,
theyve missed something important to their business that will require them to reset their
priorities. These reset priorities should lead them to favor your unique strengths.

Disruptive Content
Built on a credible, relevant,
and surprising insight that
reframes how customers
think about their business
in a way that increases
their willingness to pay a
premium for a suppliers
unique strengths

Empowered
Learners

Disruptive
Content

Disruptive Content
Challenges a widely held belief about the best way for a customer
to approach an important business problem or outcome
Presents a credible solution to the problem
Leads to the suppliers unique strengths

CONTENT MARKETING BLUEPRINT

Detail about CEB Inc. and its subsidiaries can be found at cebglobal.com/offices.

cebglobal.com

Focus Efforts
Most organizations will likely have to create different content types to address their
organizational and market needs. CEB offers tools to help you identify what buying pattern
hurts you the most and determine organizational importance. Once you prioritize the right
content types, assess whether your content works.
Visit cebglobal.com/content-marketing to learn more.

About CEB
CEB is a best practice insight and technology company. In partnership with leading
organizations around the globe, we develop innovative solutions to drive corporate
performance. CEB equips leaders at more than 10,000 companies with the intelligence to
effectively manage talent, customers, and operations. CEB is a trusted partner to nearly
90% of the Fortune 500 and FTSE 100, and more than 70% of the Dow Jones Asian Titans.
More at cebglobal.com.