Jeffrey Hales
In 2012 Symantec and Intel funded a study on the impact of customer data breaches on brand trust and reputation. What prompted these two giants to embrace an IT sustainability agenda called, 'Think Eco-Logical'? Why do think tank companies like Adaptive Planning still - over three years later - conduct quarterly Business Volatility and Variables Audits targeting mid-market CFOs?
As we are poised for the holiday season of 2015, trudging forward into 2016, these will remain relevant questions, and are merely a few examples of leadership marketing initiatives at work as B2B companies seek to connect and engage with their audiences by implementing more customer-centric content delivered in new digital formats. Bringing more rigorous creativity and strategic thinking to content origination and delivery is still - and more than ever - an imperative in the marketing world.
In fact, content investments by these same types of technology companies has increased by almost 15% in the past four years - on a national average - and now account for well over one-third of marketing budgets. Interesting content has proven to be one of the top three reasons people follow brands on social media.
Marketers increasingly recognize that they must become innovative thought leaders, knowledge brokers, and insightful publishers to build rapport with target audiences, and create strategic conversations with decision makers and top-tier execs alike. More simply put, his means paying more attention to content marketing performance, impact, and ROI (return on investment), particularly as it relates to lead acquisition, customer predisposition, trust building, and shortening of selling cycles. Bringing more strategic thinking to content specification, origination, packaging, and delivery is now the norm for marketing professionals as they seek to drive content consumption and sharing. Sales organizations recognize the need to prime their pipelines by up-selling as well as cross-selling customers with credible, captivating content.
Companies around the world increasingly have realized the need to use content to drive brand relevance and authority. Again, content investments by B2B technology companies now account for as much as 35 percent of marketing budgets. What's more is this percentage will continue to grow, thanks to multiplying formats, delivery channels, digital platforms, audiences, device types, and global consumption rates. Content marketing within the B2B sector is also being driven by an upsurge in executive participation in the strategic procurement process. The ready availability of meaningful decision support, affinity groups, as well as professional peer networks via the worldwide web will continue its ascension to mirror the ever-growing need to captivate and engage audiences remains an integral part of marketing strategy.
As one could imagine, there is most certainly an increasing opportunity for direct market engagement - for reaching, aggregating, and segmenting customer audiences while bypassing traditional media and analyst avenues. In doing so, marketing and sales professionals are developing and outsourcing some of the same skill sets and resources of those more traditional media and analyst groups. They are forming their own shared interest communities and channels of insight, access, and influence.
Likewise, today’s 'digital content factories' are running at full-speed merely to keep pace with rapid changes in market conditions, customer sentiments, competitive threats, and technology advancements. Marketers must stay ahead of that curve, remaining adept at listening and responding to the 'voice of the client,' which requires an all-new form of intelligent engagement and continuous interaction around customer issues, problems, pain points, risks, vulnerabilities, deficiencies, and challenges. With more and more digital content publishing, syndication, conversation, and distribution channels proliferating - such as websites, customer communities, social media platforms, online business networks, internet forums, discussion groups, blogs, podcasts, on-demand webcasts, video portals, mobile devices, email, SMS text messaging, web conferencing systems, and live virtual event environments, content has to be configured and produced in an all-encompassing multiplicity of formats and delivery modes to optimize consumption, recall, sharing influence as well as action.
To be successful in the world community's love of social engagement, marketers must initiate clear content development strategies and effective auditing protocols. Rather than delivering self-serving messages, they must speak to relevant themes and topic areas, author higher-quality content that is more visual and engaging, as well as build efficient content networks that maximize audience reach and activation. In order to do this, they must implement performance measurement and tracking systems to assess the impact and return on their content marketing programs.
In essence and closing, Symantec and Intel funded these studies because content marketing has proven itself as a relevant component in the marketing world. Content, as simple as it may sound carries a workload that is anything but simple, and is definitely not just a term to be mindlessly thrown around in sales meetings and board rooms anymore.
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As always, I hope you can use this to strengthen your position in today's digital market, and remember, you may certainly ALWAYS contact me via email: jhales4957@gmail.com ...
Oh, and while you're at it, feel free to peruse my website: jeffreyhales.com ...
Looking forward!
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