gilbanebuyjourn11272012fin

Content Marketing and the Buyer’s Journey

Make Your Content Work for a Living

Gilbane ConferenceNovember 2012

2012 Agile Business Logic All Rights Reserved 2

The Buyer’s Dilemma• Too much content, not enough relevant content• Stakeholders in buying process increased from 4 to 6 or

more in past 3 years• Buying cycle increased from 4.5 to 5.4 months in past 3

years– 60.8% said internal buying process complexity hampered efforts– 55.6 % blamed poor marketing and sales efforts by vendors

IDC 2012 Buyer Experience Study


The Marketer’s Dilemma• 86% of buyers say relevant content drove buying decisions • 51% of marketers plan to increase content marketing spend• Only 41% of marketers believe their content is effective• Vendors lose 40% of potential sales because of mismatched

contentMarketingProfs/Junta42; IDG Connect

Content marketing strategies are producing too much content that is not relevant to buyers, reducing vendors chance of making shortlist by 1/3.

IDG Connect’s IT Buyer Survey


What is Relevant Content?

• Right content, right person, right time– Role specific– Anticipates and answers buyer’s questions– Engaging, compelling, and concise– Objective and actionable– Available when, where, how the buyer wants it


What is the Buyer’s Journey?

• Conceptual framework that describes the cognitive processes that a buyer goes through in making a buying decision.

• Strategy for sales and marketing to engage with customers, both digitally and live, by exchanging valuable information.

The Buyer’s Journey is a strategy for ensuring relevant content


Buyer’s Journey Tenets

• The buying process starts before contact with a vendor• Buyers move through a unique cognitive process with

multiple states/stages• Multiple decision makers are involved and have their

own agendas• Content needs are different for each stage, role, and

situation


Seek solutions

Justify solution

Make buying decision

Discovery Research Decision

Latent needDiscovery of need

Vet possible solutions

StakeholdersCEOCMOCFOCIOCSO

Buyer’s Journey: Linear View


Seek solutions

Justify solution

Make buying decision

Discovery Research Decision

Latent needDiscovery of need

Vet possible solutions

Buyer 1

Buyer 2

Buyer 3

Buyer’s Journey in Reality


Personas

• Profile of example buyers• More than just a role description• Goals, concerns, preferences, and decision-

making processes• Map to content, format, and stages


A Simple Sample FrameworkPersonas/Roles

Stages Goals Topic Format

• CEO• CIO/CTO• CFO• Sales

Executive• Marketing

Executive• User• Staff• Other

• Latent Need

• Discovery of Need

• Seek solutions

• Vet solutions

• Justify solution

• Make buying decision

• Discovery of problem

• Discovery of solutions

• Ability to justify purchase

• Ability to persuade other decision-makers

• Confidence to make a decision

• Market validation• Problems and

symptoms• Competitive

landscape• Case studies• Product applications• Product

features/functions• Creating a business

case• ROI calculation

• White papers

• Webinars• Analyst

reports• Customer

reviews• Data

sheets• Software

tools• Conference


Getting Started• Study and understand your buyers’ journeys• Conduct a content audit– Start with what you have, use “OPC”

• Develop personas, map questions and content• Let the buyers do the leg work– Organize and label content, don’t forget search

• Don’t strive for perfection! Take your best shot, learn, and refine


Agile Business Logic

Marc Strohlein, Principal, Agile Business Logic and Author of The Energized Enterprise– [email protected]– Twitter: mstrohlein