Content. A Game of Cat and Mouse
Your customers don't want to talk to you. What are you going to do? Content Marketing has the answers but there are some things you need to know.
Content Marketing is now one of the key tools that a B2B marketer has available to reach out and engage with customers wherever they are on their buyer journey.
So it’s no surprise that research from the Content Marketing Institute found that 88% of B2B marketers say they are already using Content Marketing. That’s the good news. The bad news is that only a third think they're effective at it.
The honest assessment is that Content Marketing is still a (relatively) immature discipline. We are still learning and developing. The Content Marketing Institute research (you can find it here) describes a technique in its second phase. We've passed the initial understanding of the processes and benefits. We're now focusing on what we can actually achieve.
The answer to that question is far from simple and will be different for each individual organisation and set of customers. Yet, it is essential that we continue to improve the development of engaging content and the measurement of its performance.
We define Content Marketing - tongue in cheek – as a game of cat and mouse. (There are other definitions, which you can read on our blog.) As customers become as adept at ignoring your content as they have at simply not seeing advertising or email, you need to find better and more innovative ways to present content that they're willing to give their time to consume.
Content Marketing – like many other techniques – has developed, at least in part, as a means to break through the clutter and noise. Inevitably, it’s ended up creating its own clutter and noise. Only we have reached that point much faster than before.
With all this said, effective Content Marketing is still a highly important way to begin communication with customers on their particular buyer journey. It recognises that customers will spend more time at the earlier stages of the journey than any other.
After all, most of the time we don’t know we have a need because we don’t. The role of the B2B marketer is still to begin the process of strong brand associations that will help guide customers when they do have a need.
Therein lies one of the real strengths of Content Marketing.
If you are planning a Content Marketing programme or have just started using Content Marketing, we'd like to offer you a free content audit. Just get in touch.
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