B2B Myth of the Week: Gated Content Will Bring In Loads of Leads
by Emily Swet
Myth: Gated Content Will Bring In Loads of Leads
Truth: Without a Strategy, Gated Content Can Kill Relationships
Gated content falls smack dab in the center of the B2B marketing wheelhouse. You can showcase your products and services. You can position yourself as a thought-leader in your industry. You can capture loads of sales leads in the process. And you can do it all on the cheap. Sounds like a win, right? So why not just jump in and dangle some gated content to your audience in exchange for their contact information?
Here’s why: according to a study done by Forester, 68% percent of buyers prefer to research information on their own. More significantly, 81% of Gen X-ers and Millennials opt out of downloading content simply because they don’t want to fill out a form. (If you think these groups aren’t making buying decisions, think again). This doesn’t mean employing gated content is pointless – there’s still tremendous value to be gained. It does mean, however, that you need to have a set strategy before you begin.
4 Tips for Gating Content
- Keep Your First Pieces Open. Too many forms at the start of a sales journey will do more harm than good. Establish trust, authority, and goodwill with quality content your audience can access immediately. This confirms that your brand offers information of value, and will be worth submitting contact info for down the road.
- Gate the Right Stuff. Resist the urge to gate every piece of content your marketing team produces. Lower value pieces (think tips, guidelines, and infographics) may not have a serious payoff and can leave your audience feeling misled. Whitepapers and case studies, however, can offer in-depth insight, and be worth exchanging an email for.
- Know Your Audience and Where They Are In The Sales Process. Are they seriously evaluating your product? Or are they still in education mode? Understanding your customers’ motivators will ensure the content you serve is relevant, and help you determine what to gate and what to offer instant access to.
- Don’t Ask For Everything. The more info you ask for, the higher the drop-off rate. Begin by asking for an email address, then nurture your customer further into your sales funnel by delivering relevant content from there.
For B2B brands (particularly those with lean marketing and sales departments), it’s tempting to gate everything you have. Granting free access and gating strategically, however, delivers leads that are far more qualified – saving time and money in the long run. And that’s where the value of gated content lies for you.
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B2B Myth of the Week: B2B Holiday Marketing Packs Zero Punch
by Emily Swet
The Myth: B2B Holiday Marketing Packs Zero Punch
The Truth: The Holidays Are the Perfect Time for One Last Knock Out
It seems like the moment the Jack-O-Lantern is blown out, the world becomes one big B2C holiday marketing free-for-all. But believe it or not, there is a good opportunity to get your B2B brand in front of your customers a few more times before Q4 ends. Consider this:
- Buyers often have use-it-or-loose it budgets at the end of the year. Give them a chance to spend it up.
- The holidays throw a wrench into everyone’s schedules. You may have an opportunity to get directly in front of a decision-maker that wouldn’t ordinarily happen.
- The general spirit of merriment during the holidays make customers more likely to engage, and more receptive to acts of goodwill.
Considering we’re just a few days shy of Thanksgiving, there isn’t a whole lot of time to create a campaign from scratch. Instead, let’s focus on what’s possible. Here are a few scalable to-dos between now and Dec. 31.
Re-gift Your Content
Create a relevant article, end-of-year checklist, or white paper for your consumers. If you don’t have time to create fresh content, take a look at your top performers from the year, then reuse and repurpose them. Turn the info from a blog post into an infographic. Take a high-performing newsletter and turn it into a blog post. You get the idea.
Show Gratitude
Build a stronger relationship and a positive image with the simple act of saying thanks. Extend a thank you to your customers, to your staff, and anyone else that might contribute to the success of your brand. Saying thank you to your staff via social media gives your brand life behind your logo. And sending a tailored holiday-themed “thank you” to your customers will keep you top of mind in the year to come.
Offer A Discount
A well-timed offer or incentive can help you stand out from the competition at year end. Furthermore, customers are groomed for year-end deals. Leverage that behavior: use seasonal language (think: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, A Holiday Gift From Us, etc). Discounts can be positioned as urgent, one-time deals or as a personal gift from your company to your client.
Don’t leave the season to the B2C marketers alone. Done right, your B2B holiday marketing plan can have you off to the start of a great New Year.
Continue ReadingWhy Manufacturing Companies Need More Touchpoints in Their Marketing
by Emily Swet
So, the bad news: the new reality for manufacturers is that to be successful, B2B marketing campaigns are going to take a bit more effort. According to Forbes, nurture cycles are getting significantly longer – so B2B manufacturing companies need more touchpoints in their sales funnel before hitting a conversion. Unfortunately, this means you might have to make your marketing mix work a bit harder to be more effective.
The good news: simply put, what challenges you changes you – and usually for the better. There’s real opportunity to arm your manufacturing company with a campaign that both acknowledges and works with these trends.
How? Start Here.
- Look Back: Analyze the data from your past campaigns to get a correct view of what worked, what didn’t, how long the cycle was, and how many touches were needed to convert.
- Look Forward: Use your historical conversion data to get a better understanding of the challenges that lie ahead and how you can circumvent them.
- Then Look Side to Side: Who is creating your content? Is it their forte, or is an employee doing double duty wearing another hat that doesn’t quite fit? Make it worth your time, effort, and spend by getting a pro on your side.
- Make a Plan: Map out an intuitive content calendar that addresses these longer cycles and how you’ll nurture your prospects within them. If your audience engages with a video, what will be the next thing they see? If you capture their email, what is the most compelling piece to arrive next in their inbox? You can make your content do double duty this way.
- Develop and Deliver: Create content that is valuable – helpful or interesting to your audience – and capitalize on social media, visual content, and thought leadership pieces.
These longer nurture cycles seem daunting, and there’s a lot of noise in the content space right now. But that’s exactly why manufacturing companies need more touch points – and valuable ones at that – along the way. Need a hand getting started? Drop us a line.
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