0402 340 250 chris.fell@g2msolutions.com.au www.g2msolutions.com.au

B2B marketing is, in most cases, a complex sale. There are many buying

influences, your solution is rarely “out of the box”. Your prospect’s

requirements are often multidimensional. Its not surprising then, that

complex sophisticated pieces of marketing have been developed to build

awareness and educate your leads. Many selling organisations write white

papers, run seminars, webinars or events, develop case studies and

testimonials. The upsurge in social media has increased the pressure to

be constantly producing content on your blog, your LinkedIn groups and

increasingly (whether you like it or not!) to your prospects who regularly

use Twitter.

At the same time the target audience rarely stays still and your products

and services are constantly being revised and updated, new segments

are being targeted and promotional campaigns are being run.

But perhaps most importantly, well written, carefully thought out content,

can play a crucial role in qualifying your leads, advancing them from being

unaware and uninterested in your firm to being not only aware but willing

to engage with your salespeople. Having your sales people engage with

leads at the right time in their buying cycle has a powerful positive impact

on your closure rates. Imagine what a 20% increase in your closure rates

would do to your business.

All of this adds up to a heavy burden for marketing to manage. Particularly

the job of creating relevant up to date content to feed the ravenous

appetitie of your prospects for information.

Typically one of two things occur, the weekly blog starts becoming

fortnightly, monthly and then eventually quarterly, before slinking away

quietly into the night, never to be heard of again, or determined not to let

deadlines slip by, marketing let standards fall and start pumping out any

old rubbish just to tick the "done" box.

Burned by past experiences, some organisations with modest marketing

resources, shy away from marketing driven lead generation efforts

altogether, severly hampering their lead development effectiveness

TAMING THE MONSTER

So here are some ideas for dealing with the challenges you face.

Developing a

marketing content

plan and calendar

is crucial for

effective lead

generation and

increasing your

sales team’s

effectiveness.

By Chris Fell Managing Director, g2m Solutions

How to use marketing

content to drive lead

quality

One problem I hear my clients complain about is the need to constantly feed marketing's lead generation engine with content. Typically one of two things occur, the weekly blog starts becoming fortnightly, monthly and then eventually quarterly, before slinking away quietly into the night, never to be heard of again, or determined not to let deadlines slip by, marketing let standards fall and start pumping out any old rubbish just to tick the "done" box. Burned by past experiences, some organisations with modest marketing resources, shy away from marketing driven lead generation efforts altogether, severly hampering their business. So here are some ideas for dealing with the challenges you face. 1) Create strong consistent messaging that cuts through the digital clutter and appeals to your audience. What appeals to your audience is...well, them! Talk to them about their business, the problems their sector are facing. Carefully select those buyer problems you talk about. Align them with what you are best in your world at solving. This is crucial! In most B2B environments, the issues they face are complex, so there will be many sides to the same challenge, many perspectives from different functions within the organisation, develop messaging that is tailored for those different perspectives. 2) Build a recycling tactic into your marketing plan. You have to hit the right person at the right time with the right message, the only way to do that is to recycle your content. They will read it when it strikes a chord with them. (But please have a system thats smart enough to only send this to those who haven't already downloaded it!) 3) Reuse content. If you have written a terrific white paper, reuse it as a newsletter article, a LinkedIn post or tweet. Use sites such as Ping.fm to manage multiple distribution methods. Perhaps some new data has been published that allows you to refresh an old article. 4) Commit to an editorial calendar. Be sensible, but once commited, stick to it. If your writing powerful relevant content, your prospects will want to download it, they will expect it. If your publishing schedule slips your brand awareness and market position also slips. 5) Appoint an individual responsible for overseeing the schedule (this doesn't mean they have to write everything, just project manage the program).

Page 2 of 3

Create strong consistent messaging that cuts through the digital

clutter and appeals to your audience. What appeals to your

audience? Talk to them about their business, the problems their

sector are facing. Carefully select those buyer problems you talk

about. Align them with what you are best in your world at solving.

This is crucial! In most B2B environments, the issues they face

are complex, so there will be many sides to the same challenge,

many perspectives from different functions within the

organisation, develop messaging that is tailored for those

different perspectives.

Build a recycling tactic into your marketing plan. You have to hit

the right person at the right time with the right message, the only

way to do that is to recycle your content. They will read it when it

strikes a chord with them, when they are ready, not when you

choose to send it to them. But make sure you have a system that

is smart enough to only send content to those who haven't

already downloaded it!

If you have written a terrific white paper, reuse it as a newsletter

article, a LinkedIn post or tweet. Perhaps some new data has

been published that allows you to refresh an old article.

Use free software on sites such as Ping.fm to manage multiple

content distribution channels.

Commit to an editorial calendar. Be sensible, but once commited,

stick to it. If your writing powerful relevant content, your prospects

will want to download it, they will expect it. If your publishing

schedule slips your brand awareness and market position also

slips.

Appoint an individual responsible for overseeing the schedule.

This doesn't mean they have to write everything, just project

manage the program, look for consistency and leverage in the

content you have created.

Consider outsourcing

If reading the above list overwhelms you, due to lack of resources or gaps

in skill sets within the team, then you must consider outsourcing your

content production and management . There are firms readily available

and willing to work with you, g2m solutions included, who provide, smart,

experienced people to create, write and project manage your lead

generation content. Its a great option, allowing you to manage your

financial investment flexibly and turn the capacity of your marketing

resources up or down based on demand.

If you like the idea of outsourcing all or some of your content production

and management, please contact me (see front page footer for details), I

would be delighted to discuss this topic with you.

Consider outsourcing

your content

production and

management . There

are firms readily

available and willing

to work with you, g2m

solutions included,

who provide, smart,

experienced people

to create, write and

project manage your

lead generation

content.

Page 3 of 3