7 Steps to a Content Audit You Can Complete in an Afternoon
Some parts of a marketing manager’s job are exciting — planning social content, writing video scripts, interviewing customers to learn more about their needs and pain points. . . . Content audits are usually not on the Fun List.
When I worked as a marketing manager for a sales training company, our team (like every marketing team) had a running agenda …Read More
25 Content Types to Engage Reason and Emotion
David Hume, an 18th-century Scottish philosopher, said that human reason doesn’t actually direct motivations and behavior — rather, feelings do. Hume discovered this by observing his own mind in action, but since then, science has proven that he was right.
For example, Joshua Greene, neuroscientist at Harvard, has extensively studied the interconnectedness of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, known as the …Read More
Your Personas Don’t All Have the Same Buyer’s Journey. Here’s How to Map Your Content to Each One.
Many B2B marketers make the mistake of focusing too much on one stage of the buyer’s journey. Some produce most of their content for the top of the funnel — prospects who have just begun exploring their problem. Others have almost nothing to offer these awareness-stage prospects and go heavy on case studies and sales sheets.
Another common mistake is overlooking the …Read More
Why Your Content Strategy Will Fail Without Validated Personas (+ a 5-Step Process to Create Them)
Startups and product designers know how important it is to validate a product idea before building it out. You must find out if your assumptions are accurate. Basing a product strategy on guesswork is a recipe for a failed launch. It’s just as important to validate your personas for the same reason — if you’re simply guessing, you’ll end up …Read More
How to Craft a Messaging Platform that Moves Prospects to Action
Human beings are wired to avoid loss. We fear change because it involves risk—a potential for loss. For this reason, many B2B buying decisions get put off (or worse, permanently tabled). A buying decision involves change. There’s inherent risk. If a purchase doesn’t work out well, the decision-maker could lose a promotion—or lose a job.
So how can you motivate prospects …Read More
Differentiate from Competitors by Standing for (and Against) Something
Does having a UVP that communicates how your product or service is better than others translate into more sales?
As it turns out, a company’s UVP typically isn’t enough to motivate prospects to choose it over a competitor. In a survey sponsored by Think with Google, only 14% of buyers perceived enough meaningful difference between the value of competing B2B brands …Read More
Work Smarter, Not Harder: Let Content Do the Work of Selling
Salespeople are tenacious. They send email after email, make call after call, meet with prospect after prospect, then get up morning after morning and repeat. Salespeople work hard. But hard work doesn’t make sales — at least not efficiently.
Most B2B companies now understand the role that content plays in marketing, to generate leads. But many companies are still relying on “hard work” methods …Read More
Powerful Case Studies: Buying Decisions Are Made at the Intersection of Insight and Customer Stories
Everyone is drawn to a good story. Why? We love to imagine ourselves as the protagonist, overcoming the odds and winning. Stories are inspiring. Stories help us understand how the world works.
Ultimately, stories give us clues about how to solve our own problems in the real world. And stories are attractive because they’re concrete. They’re visual, easily pictured in the …Read More
To Capture the Attention of Decision-makers, Your Content Has to Go Deep
Content quality has improved significantly since Google changed their algorithm to reward quality. But while much of the B2B content out there now features good writing and nice design, it tends to be shallow. This content is ideal for those who are just beginning to explore a topic, but doesn’t provide real value to those who are experienced.
That’s a big …Read More
Creative Communication is a Revenue Turbocharger
Scientists have debunked the myth that we only use 10% of our brains. But the myth is persistent because it’s so believable. One of the worst offenders that makes this false statistic so convincing is marketing copy. Cliches invade websites and sales collateral like a particularly nasty insect species. Buzzwords and abstract phrases that mean nothing are everywhere, and they’re …Read More