Question mark in Esbjerg (Photo credit: alexanderdrachmann)
The New Year is underway. The first quarter is nearing an end. Some of the best-laid plans have already vaporized due to unexpected events. While some plans are either tracking on-target – or – sao tome and principe cell phone database will be missed. Each year, B2B business must meet the challenge of our time – keeping up with rapid new developments in digital technologies and changing buying behaviors.
Along with this challenge each year, comes a new set of questions:
Should Content Marketing Be Our Number One Priority?
According to nearly 2500 marketers surveyed by Adobe and eConsultancy, 36% believe so followed closely by social media engagement. This report also identified content marketing as the most exciting area for B2B. So, is this a legitimate question? I think so.
Here’s why: in several conversations
helping marketing leaders over the past few months, I’ve noticed “lead generation” and “content marketing” used interchangeably. An indication many content marketing efforts are being solely judged by as well as seen to be the new high powered lead machine. For example, one CMO had to increase his lead target by 75% in order to justify spending on content marketing. Content marketing is being in it for the long haul. Put in a box governed by high lead expectations can be a difficult challenge to overcome.
With Content Marketing Underway, Now What?
This question is closely related to the above. With many believing content marketing being a number one priority, much energy and resources are devoted to implementing. Followed by daily monitoring and tracking. This is a new analytic-centric approach to B2B marketing and analogous to trading. Daily highs and lows based on numbers related to views and downloads. There is much more to the purpose of marketing. B2B marketing leaders need to be expanding their boundaries beyond content marketing alone.
How Do We Build Our Brand?
A shift will begin to happen this year. Based on recent substantial number of buyer interviews, more and more buyers are taking note of brands and their brand experiences. These experiences will prove to be powerful influencers on buying decisions. If content marketing efforts are not interwoven into the context of brand experience, they may not be much of an influence at all. Overzealous application of content marketing in the context of a lead machine can turn it into a spam machine. And we all know what this will do to brand experience.