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UNLEASH THE POWER
OF CONTENT TO
ENGAGE YOUR
PROSPECTS
May 5, 2010
Agenda
• Content Marketing
The Drive to Deliver Relevant Content
8 Steps to a Solid Content Strategy
Stephanie Tilton and Michele Linn
• How BreakingPoint Used Content to Increase New Customer Acquisition by 240%Pam O’Neal
• How Kadient Built a Content Library that Maps to the Sales CycleAmy Black
It’s the End of the (B2B) World As We Know
It
Photo credit: zachwass2000 on flickr
The Disconnect…and the Implication
Buyers only find relevant content
42% of the time.
Source: IDG Communications
The lack of relevant content as perceived by buyers
is
responsible for reducing the vendor's
chance of closing the sale by 45%.
Almost 95% of recent purchasers said the solution
provider they chose “provided them with ample
content to help navigate through each stage of the
buying process.”
The Opportunity…
Source: DemandGen and Genius.com - Inside the Mind of the B2B Buyer
66% of respondents indicated the “consistent
and relevant communication provided by both the
sales and marketing organizations” was a key
influence in choosing that company as their
solution provider.
…to Beat the Competition
“…vendors that get the right mix of
content at the right time for influencers
and decisions makers will significantly
increase their chances of making a
sale.” - Bob Johnson, Vice President, Engagement Optimization at
IDG Communications
What Does that Mean to You?
Photo credit: HansKristian on flickr
Deliver Valuable, Relevant Content
“Create the kind of online
content that your buyers
naturally gravitate to.” - David Meerman Scott
Author of The New Rules of Marketing
& PR
Content Marketing is the Secret
"Content marketing is a marketing
technique of creating and
distributing relevant and
valuable content to
attract, acquire, and engage a
clearly defined and understood
target audience - with the
objective of driving profitable
customer action.”- Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett, Authors of
Get Content. Get Customers.
It Starts with Strategy
Photo credit: KF 红相机 on flickr
It Starts with Strategy
Source: Joe Pulizzi
Creating a Content Strategy
Listen
Develop buyer personas
Map content to the buying cycle
Think like a publisher
Commit to remarkable content
Extract maximum value from every asset
Make your content easy to find, access, and
share
Measure
3
6
8
7
5
4
1
2
Google Alerts
3 6 87541 2
3 6 87541 2
Google Blog Search
3 6 87541 2
Understand Your Audience
Forrester: For B2B Tech Companies, Demographics Shape Adoption
Top 5 influences, application developer Top 5 influences, enterprise architect
Peers and colleagues (word of mouth) Peers and colleagues (word of mouth)
Vendor, industry trade, or professional Web
sites
Your direct vendor salesperson
Technology or business publications,
magazines
Consultants, value-added resellers, or
systems integrators
Consultants, value-added resellers,
systems integrators
Vendor, industry trade, or professional Web
sites
Your direct vendor sales person Technology or business publications,
magazines
Base: North American and European technology decision-makers at firms with 100 or more employees
3 6 87541 2
Understand Your Audience
CIO Archetypes and Focus
1. Function head – Achieving IT operational excellence
2. Transformational leader – Creating enterprise-wide change
3. Business strategist – Driving business strategy
CIO Magazine: State of the CIO 2009
3 6 87541 2
"a short biography of the typical customer, not
just a job description but a person description.”
Develop Buyer Personas
“The buyer persona profile gives you a
chance to truly empathize with target
buyers, to step out of your role as someone
who wants to promote a product and see,
through your buyers' eyes, the circumstances
that drive their decision process.”
3 6 87541 2
Bring Your Prospects to Life
CIO Joe, CIO
Transformational Leader
3 6 87541 2
Sample Persona
3 6 87541 2
Map to the Buying Process
3 6 87541 2
Understand Content Preferences
Best-in-class companies are:
• 5X more likely to maintain a library of collateral,
copy, and messages that map to prospects'
buying stages
• Better able to map content buying cycle stages
based on prospect behavior
Source: Aberdeen 3 6 87541 2
Understand Content Preferences
3 6 87541 2
Understand Content Preferences
Source: AberdeenSource: TechTarget 2009 Media Consumption Report:
Mindset of the IT Pro During the Recession 3 6 87541 2
Map to the Buying Cycle
3 6 87541 2
Map Content
3 6 87541 2
“We tend to think of intimacy as being
personal—something for the
salespeople. But we can do it by
reliably delivering valuable content.
Magazines have been doing it for years.
Consistency, relevance, and quality
create a very intimate relationship with
readers.”- Chris Koch, ITSMA
Think Like a Publisher
3 6 87541 2
Create an Editorial Calendar
3 6 87541 2
Keys for the Editorial Calendar
• Be consistent
DO: Deliver content on a regular basis
DON’T: Publish only when you have something
new
• Commit to your content
DO: Think about the content your audience
prefers
DON’T: Try a lot of things but don’t do anything
well
• Map out content
DO: Move people through the buying cycle
DON’T: String random pieces of content together
3 6 87541 2
Craft Valuable, Relevant Content
Variables Considerations
Target buyer Who is this for?
Stage in buying cycle Where are they in the cycle?
Topic What are the buyer’s concerns?
Key message How can we address these concerns?
Content source Who can provide information – employees,
partners, customers, analysts?
Call to action What do we want the prospect to do next?
Remarkable traits What will make this worth sharing?
3 6 87541 2
Example: Competitive Comparisons
3 6 87541 2
Example: Shake Up Your Case Studies
3 6 87541 2
Extract Maximum Value from Every Asset
3 6 87541 2
Click to edit Master title style
Don’t . . .
• Customize content based
on the channel (e.g.
mobile)
• Ask “How can give my
readers a new way of
understanding a key
issue?“
• Include a plan to reuse
content from the start
• Customize your content
for a certain audience,
vertical or place in the
buying cycle
Do . . .
• Simply put the same
content in different
channels
• Ask “What more can I
create?”
• Consider content reuse
as an afterthought
• Recycle the same content
again and again
Repurposing Content
3 6 87541 2
Make Content Easy to Find, Access, and
Share
3 6 87541 2
Make Content Easy to Find
3 6 87541 2
Make Content Easy to Find
3 6 87541 2
Increasing Visibility of White Papers
Strategy 1: Create more
content available to be indexed
by search engines
Tactic: Creation of individual
white paper landing pages to
unlock long-tail keyword
phrases
Added hyperlinks that
connected users (and search
engines) to each applicable
White Paper Executive
Summary Page
Source: KoMarketing Associates3 6 87541 2
Increasing Visibility of White Papers
(cont.)
Strategy 2: Enhance landing
pages so there is both PPC
and SEO value
Simplified the conversion
process by adding a request
form to each landing page.
RESULTS
Organic search engine
traffic increased by 225%
from Q1 to Q4 of that year
3 6 87541 2
Increasing Visibility of Case Studies
Approximately 100 case
studies broken down into
individual landing pages
To aid lead generation efforts,
we added an additional call-to-
action and cross-links at the
bottom of the page
33% growth in unique keywords
sending traffic during the second
month of the program
3 6 87541 2
Make Content Easy to Access
3 6 87541 2
Source: Ecollo Media 2009 B2B Technology Collateral Survey Report 3 6 87541 2
Make Content Easy to Share
Make Content Easy to Share
3 6 87541 2
Measure the Impact
Photo credit: Tyrone Shum on flickr 3 6 87541 2
How BreakingPoint Leveraged Technical
Content to Increase New Customer
Acquisition by 240%
Case Study
Pam O’Neal
Vice President of Marketing
BreakingPoint Systems, Inc.
“Do not interrupt what people
are interested in; be what
people are interested in.”
Jeff Lanctot
Avenue A | razorfish
Becoming Interesting
Ask Customer
s
Understand Buyers
Monitor and
Engage Influencers
Analyze Trends
Test Content &
Copy
Measure Results
Developing Buyer Personae
Monitoring, Engaging, Prioritizing
• Mine for topics and opportunities (key influencers)
• Capture the conversation
• Analyze SEO keyword volume
• Monitor analytics to ID popular topics
• Identify and create content for buyer needs, issues
• Prioritize content by effort
• Identify opportunities
Blog
Web Page
Video
Webinar
White Paper
Methodology/Download
Speak to Your Buyers
• Create blog, forum, community
• Deliver role-based content
• Optimize for search
• Build community of interest
• Pull with “conversation”
• Pull with SEO, viral content
• Push with SEM, email
• Monitor popular content
• Maintain with fresh valuable information
Content
AggregationContent
Distribution
“Forget about your home page. Google is the new
home page.”
Seek to be Found - SEO
Spread the Word
Use Case Targeted
Sales PresentationsMembership in
BreakingPont Group
and Other Key
Groups
Monthly Webcast
Promotions
Key Messages and Thought
Leadership Content
• LinkedIn Q&A on SRX
Opportunity Captured
Search Term
• Download Firewall Testing Methodology
Email Offer
Webcast Invite . . . .
Integrate with Drip Marketing
M-08 J-08 J-08 A-08 S-08 O-08 N-08 D-08 J-09 F-09 M-09 A-09 M-09 J-09 J-09 A-09 S-09
New and Return Web Visitors and Leads
LAUNCH PHASE LEADERSHIP
PHASE
Return Visitor
Growth
Sustained Growth
in Inbound LeadsContent
Testing
*
Measure and Optimize Results
Building a Content Library that Maps to the
Sales Cycle
Case Study
Amy Black
Senior Marketing Communications
Manager
Kadient
Cha-cha-cha-changes
57
Mapping Content to the Sales Cycle
58
• What’s your key objective for the piece?
• How else can you use it?
Kadient’s Content Library – A Sampling
59
Content Library: Top of Funnel /Lead
Gen
• “How to” – Impart practical knowledge
• Provocative – Challenge and introduce a new way to
think
• Fresh format – eBook, conversation
style, images, video
60
Content Library: Nurturing
Entertain with relevant, attention-grabbing humor
(also great for viral program)
61
• Harness customer voices
• Highlight third party validation
Content Library: Nurturing
Content Library: Lead to Opportunity
63
Content Library: Sales – Opportunity to
Close
• Making the iron clad case
• Showing how Kadient is different and better
• Getting over the hurdles
64
A Few Parting Thoughts
• Remember who you are “talking” to
• Keep your key objective front and center
• Break through the clutter – stand out!
Entertainment
Provocative POVs
Video – short, sweet and interesting
• Create content you can repurpose
• Listen to your sales team
• Pay attention to what is & isn’t working
65
Staying Connected
Michele Linn, B2B Content Strategist, Linn Communications
Connect: www.linkedin.com/in/michelelinn
Follow: @MicheleLinn
Contact: michele@linncommunications.com
Stephanie Tilton, Content Marketing Consultant, Ten Ton
Marketing
Connect: www.linkedin.com/in/tentonmarketing
Follow: @StephanieTilton
Contact: stilton@tentonmarketing.com
Pam O’Neal, Vice President of Marketing, BreakingPoint
Connect: www.linkedin.com/in/breakingpoint
Follow: @poneal
Contact: poneal@breakingpoint.com
Amy Black, Senior Marketing Communications Manager, Kadient
Connect: http://www.linkedin.com/in/amyjblack
Follow: @amyblack
Contact: ablack@kadient.com
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