Content Marketing: Mission Critical (eBook)

A B2B CEO's Guide to Growth through Effective Content Marketing

Matt Bell (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
216 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-6678-8900-9 (ISBN)

Infos

The B2B world has changed drastically since 2020, making content marketing more mission-critical than ever before. Content Marketing: Mission Critical explains how to harness this powerful tool for growth, even when resources are limited. This book provides an easy-to-follow guide for business leaders on how to prepare their companies for successful, sustainable content marketing initiatives. It emphasizes the importance of authenticity based on a clear understanding of purpose, mission, and vision-enriched with specialized sector knowledge. Moreover, it provides information on employing content marketing to drive both top- and bottom-line growth. Content Marketing: Mission Critical is the perfect resource for any B2B leader wanting to make the most of their current situation and leverage the power of content marketing successfully. Acquire this essential tool today and take your business to the next level!

Textauszug

01:
Authenticity:
Build Trust

Don’t worry about what’s cool and what’s not cool. Authenticity is what’s cool.

Zac Posen, Fashion Designer

In our increasingly digital and virtual world, where deepfakes and deceptive marketing make it hard for us to separate what’s genuine from what’s not, we rely heavily on our instinctive sense for authenticity. As a species, we have evolved a keen sense for who is genuine and who is full of it. We use “gut feel” to identify trustworthy suppliers and pay close attention to the “BS detector” in our head.

When we seek to make a purchase, the Internet puts millions of options—and purported facts about them—at our fingertips, while simultaneously leaving us the onerous task of identifying which solutions will solve our challenge and deliver a desirable experience.

Many of us have developed a variety of shortcuts to determine which solution stands the best chance of leading to satisfaction. For instance, when I read a machinery provider’s website that claims to offer the “best customer support you’ve ever experienced,” my antenna starts buzzing. How do they define “best,” and how is the “best” measured? What do they know about the customer support I’ve received from others, good or bad?

A more authentic and believable statement from this company might be “we want our machinery to exceed your expectations, and we promise to answer your service calls within three rings every time and have a service technician at your premises within 48 hours if we can’t resolve the issue over the phone.” While I can judge for myself how that statement compares to other vendors’ promises, it sounds like a genuine attempt to assure my satisfaction.

Authenticity is a powerful tool. It leaves no doubt that the information a buyer reads, hears, or sees depicted in an image or video comes from your company and is an accurate representation of who you are, what you do, and why you do it. Applied consistently to your messaging and the content through which those messages are conveyed, it helps prospective customers to trust you.

When you communicate authentically, people can more easily relate to you and your business. Authentic communication makes it easier for prospects to understand how what you offer is of benefit to them. Authentic content gives substance to your business, building its identity into something influential and elevating it above the competition.

Perhaps most importantly, authentic businesses engender trust. This matters because, at the end of the day, B2B transactions are really B2H (business-to-human) transactions: Ultimately, one or more humans will make the decision about whether to buy from you or not.

The Trust Factor

Surveys such as the Edelman Trust Barometer4 show that the epidemic of misinformation has led to widespread mistrust of institutions and leaders—including businesses and business leaders. People are increasingly suspicious of leaders’ motives and the claims they make about their companies, products, and services.

Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have amplified these issues, in part by accelerating the spread of inaccurate information.

Edelman calls this an environment of “information bankruptcy,” in which companies are left with the daunting task of earning the trust of prospects who are conditioned to be skeptical. Their analysis emphasizes customers’ heightened expectation that business leaders focus on social engagement with the same rigor and energy as profits.

In this environment, authenticity is a powerful tool you can use to persuade your audience to trust you and your organization. Prospects will more willingly engage with a company they perceive to be reliable and trustworthy, making them more likely to become your loyal customers and advocates.

In 2017, the research firm Stackla found that 86% of people say authenticity is important when deciding what brands they like and support.5 This is especially true among Millennials, the generation increasingly in control of companies’ buying decisions, where over 90% say brand authenticity is critical.

In contrast, respondents indicated that less than half of brands create content that resonates as authentic. Not only can people tell the difference, but they also disconnect from brands that try to fake it.

Based on my work with successful B2B companies, I’ve convinced authenticity matters more today than ever. Buyers don’t just want to purchase from any old company—they want to purchase from an entity they trust. Producing authentic content that establishes an effective connection with customers underpins this book and is the primary reason that MessageUp exists.

Delivering Authenticity

Ask your team to explain what authentic content means and you’ll hear things like “I know it when I see it.” When you think about it, that’s a legitimate response. The measure of authenticity lies entirely in how content is perceived by the recipient, no matter how authentic the author might be. This is why authenticity is a fuzzy concept that means different things to different people. It’s practically impossible to measure, except in customer feedback.

In fact, some of the best sources of authenticity can be found in organic and customer-created content. Organic content is posted for free, rather than as part of a paid campaign, and its visibility depends on readers finding it helpful and worth sharing. Customer-created content typically provides unfiltered validation of a business or product. Contrast this content with the picture-perfect ads and unsubstantiated claims that companies are prone to publishing. Which are you more likely to trust?

The difference between computer-generated product photos and posts that show the solution in use in the real world, or between a blog post extolling the latest software release and customer feedback on G2 (a popular tech marketplace and review site) that describes what did and did not work well for an actual user make clear that authenticity requires a human connection.

Attributes that buyers associate with authentic content include realness, respectfulness, and reliability. Anything that looks fake, applies a heavy filter to make things seem better than reality, wastes your customer’s time, fails to address their needs, or turns out to be unreliable can damage your brand reputation.

Do you remember when General Electric, familiarly known as GE, was worth more than 400 billion dollars? Over two decades, starting in 1981, then CEO, “Neutron” Jack Welch pursued a program of aggressive streamlining and financial optimization. Both Welch and the company were lauded as pioneers of industrial progress and champions of shareholder capitalism.

Four decades later, GE is a shadow of its former self, worth only about 80 billion dollars. A series of scandals and investigations, culminating in a 2004 US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe, revealed that the company had routinely used improper accounting methods to beat stock analysts’ expectations, and that Welch had personally received millions of dollars in undisclosed benefits.

Even more damaging to GE has been the inability of its subsequent CEOs, including Welch’s hand-picked successor, Jeffrey Immelt, to rid the company of its reputation for obfuscation and deception. Misleading investors—including its own staff—and customers has left the business unable to form and sustain connections with its customers. As a consequence, it continues to struggle.

Contrast this with the crop of fast-growing B2B companies that have embraced prioritizing human connection and transparency. Think of marquee names like Slack, which amplifies the voices of its users on its @SlackLovesTweets Twitter account, MailChimp, which runs tongue-in-cheek ads consistent with its conversational personality, or CISCO, which today is twice the size of GE and has long prioritized social responsibility initiatives, which it regularly highlights in marketing campaigns.6 Each of these companies has a reputation for authenticity, earned by prioritizing connection and transparency.

This kind of authenticity—the kind earned through real connection and refreshing transparency— is the most crucial element of the MessageUp content marketing framework. Without it, none of the other great things you will learn or implement from this book will matter.

I realize the concept of authenticity can be challenging, especially when your business sells decidedly un-sexy widgets to heavy industry. Regardless of your product or sector, there are some important ways to produce content that your customers will find authentic:

1. Personalize the content. Personalization done right can go a long way toward trust-building authenticity. Authentic personalization stems from identifying your customer’s individual needs and tailoring their experience accordingly. Implement modern customer relationship management (CRM) software to bring appropriate personalization into their interactions with your marketing, sales, and customer support efforts.
2. Share real customer stories. User-generated content, such as online reviews, social media posts, and video testimonials, is powerful stuff. But don’t be tempted to fake it; buyers are highly adept at spotting manufactured content. Realness matters, so you must publish the good,...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 22.5.2023
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Marketing / Vertrieb
• ISBN-10: 1-6678-8900-1 / 1667889001
• ISBN-13: 978-1-6678-8900-9 / 9781667889009