In the ongoing push to attract new prospects, generate leads and nurture leads into new business, firms can fail to exert the proper amount of focus, time and effort on existing clients. But like all relationships, clients deserve ongoing development and nurturing.

Yet, it’s a well-known fact that it’s much less expensive to keep an existing client than it is to gain a new one. And for many firms—especially services firms that sell to other businesses or organizations—existing clients represent a substantial portion of their overall revenue AND future pipeline.

So while attracting new clients is obviously an important goal of marketing and business development, nurturing and further developing existing clients should also be part of your ongoing efforts. Here are a few “client nurturing” ideas that could help your client development:

1. Get out and talk to your clients

Everyone understands how valuable and important it is to have face-time with your clients. But with the busy-ness of the work week and a packed schedule of new business meetings, it’s not always easy to make time to regularly go out and meet with existing clients. And while talking to clients might seem more like a sales or business development activity, if conducted properly, face-to-face client meetings can also strengthen relationships.

In addition to checking the pulse of the relationship and discussing existing projects or engagements, client meetings should also serve as an opportunity to gain valuable intel from your clients. Ask open-ended questions. What’s keeping them up at night? What challenges or opportunities are they facing?  Marketing and business development teams can gain rich insights when you listen more and talk less.

2. Consider clients when developing your editorial calendar

We’ve previous stressed the importance of creating content for every stage of the customer lifecycle. Remember, the end goal of your marketing is not to turn prospects into clients; the end goal is to turn prospects into evangelists. So as you plan your content, consider the topics that would specifically be of interest to existing clients. Make the mission of your blog to be a destination, not just for new prospects and leads, but existing clients as well.

3. Host “clients only” webinars and events

While webinars and other events are often used for new business development, they can also be used to nurture existing client relationships. Take a topic you’ve identified in your editorial calendar and consider developing a webinar or seminar on that topic and extending the invitation to existing clients only. Let your clients know that you’ve geared it specifically for them in an effort to keep them informed of the latest trends, best practices or industry issues. In-person “client appreciation” events are also a great for client development and provide a way to get in front of clients, while showing them some love along the way.

4. Create an on-boarding drip campaign for new clients

Take a page from the B2C world and consider creating a multi-touchpoint drip campaign for new clients as part of your on-boarding process. Similar to how you would plan out a lead nurturing campaign, consider the type of content and information that new clients would find useful and schedule a series of targeted emails. One of those emails could be a brief survey asking them to rate their level of satisfaction so far or to identify any issue that needs to be addressed. No news isn’t always good news, so the more you can engage new clients at the beginning of the relationship, the better opportunity you will have to keep them in the long run.

5. Talk about your clients on social media

This should go without saying, but your clients’ success should be your success. So take the opportunity to brag on your clients (not brag on what you’ve done for your clients) on your social media channels. Share their wins, their accolades and their content. Retweet. @mention. Like. Share. Link to. This will speak loudly to your clients (and potential clients) that you are invested in and energized by their success.

6. Create client-centric case studies

The emphasis is on “client-centric.” Many case studies are so company-focused, they do a great job of telling what work you did for the client, but not necessarily what your work did for the client. But with case studies, there is a great opportunity to emphasize shared success. While highlighting your work along the way, the end goal and the client’s success should always be the focal point. Think about creating a case study that your clients are not only willing to, but are actually eager to, share with their clients. That should a motivating factor.

7. Communicate regularly

To underscore the emphasis on communicating and talking to clients, I’ve circled back to this idea. Regular, consistent, intentional communication with your clients is absolutely critical. This includes face-to-face meetings (remember #1), check-in calls and web conferences, email communication, etc. Just like your personal relationships, regular and beyond-surface level communication is a vital ingredient to the ongoing health of the relationship. And here’s a sobering reminder: if you’re not taking the time to talk to your clients, chances are your competitors are. Don’t be out of their sight, or you may find you’re out of their mind.

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It’s easy to become so consumed with the latest prospect that you ignore or neglect the existing client right in front of you. It happens, but its not going to help you in your quest for long-term, profitable client relationships. While you focus on lead generation and lead nurturing, don’t forget to nurture clients along the way.

Marketing automation is a powerful technology platform that provides marketers with a rich set of tools to manage the components of their online marketing programs. But without a successful implementation, companies are less likely to realize the full potential of the software.

In many ways, marketing automation software is a lot like CRM software in that it’s a fantastic technology tool with tremendous potential, but it’s only as good as the implementation, process and commitment behind it. And much like CRM, some companies are wowed by the capabilities of the tool, but fail to put the right plan and process in place to ensure success.

Recognizing the potential pitfalls that exist when adopting and implementing marketing automation, here are 6 tips to ensure your company starts off on the right track.

1. Define your requirements and goals upfront 

Before you implement marketing automation software, it’s critical to define what requirements you have for the software and identify what goals and objectives you’re looking to achieve. In many cases, marketing automation can replace existing tools (paid and free) that you are already using, such as email marketing, social media management, surveys, etc.

One of the benefits of marketing automation is that it serves as an all-in-one solution for online marketing; so being able to consolidate your tools will not only help your process, but can also cushion the expense of the software for budgeting.

2. Choose the right marketing automation solution

Once a company has identified its requirements and set a budget (at least a range), it’s important to choose the marketing automation software solution to implement. The marketing automation industry is becoming a more crowded space every day, with many viable solutions available. So, what should you look for and how do you evaluate potential vendors?

Here are 5 main criteria to consider:

Feature set
Most automation platforms have a similar set of tools, such as automated programs, website visitor tracking, lead scoring, etc. Look for a solution that meets your requirements, but be sure that you aren’t paying for a slew of features you don’t necessarily need.

Ease of use
Usability is a critical selection factor. You should look for a solution that has an intuitive interface and makes it easy to do the things that you want to do. Each solution has their own way of doing things, so find one that will require the least amount of learning and training.

Integrations
Most marketing automation platforms can integrate with a variety of 3rd party systems such as Salesforce, GoToWebinar, AdWords, etc. Consider what integrations are critical to your marketing and sales teams and select a solution that has the tightest integration with those systems.  If you use a more obscure CRM, look for a solution that provides either FTP synch or an open API for custom integration.

Support
Regardless of your requirements, choosing a platform with best-of-breed support is absolutely paramount. You want to make sure that you select a vendor that stands behind their product and treats all customers—from the smallest entry-level account to the very large enterprise—with the same level of customer service and support.

Pricing
The pricing models of marketing automation vendors vary considerably. Some offer pricing that seems considerably less than others, but when you add up mandatory upfront costs for training and implementation, and other features that are “add-ons,” the price goes up considerably. The point is, be sure you consider all costs involve, as well as terms of the contract (e.g. month-to-month, annual, multi-year, etc.). You don’t necessarily want to be locked in for a long-term commitment.

3. Consider what it’s going to take for implementation

Once you’ve made a selection, it’s important to consider what it’s going to take to implement marketing automation. This includes obviously your budget, but also making sure you have the right staff and internal resources in place and possibly hiring a consultant to help with planning, implementation and execution.

Another important cost to consider is how the culture will need to change or adapt in order to achieve improved marketing and sales alignment. Marketing automation blurs the lines between the territory of marketing and sales (or BD if that’s your lingo), so considering the implications of that upfront is essential.

4. Put a plan and process in place

As with everything else in marketing, having a strategy and plan in place is absolutely critical to the success of your implementation. As you’ve considered what’s involved with implementation, you’re going to want to develop a documented plan for rolling it out. Some things to consider in your planning include (but are not limited to):

• Identifying the admins, users and rules for governance
• Working with sales to define what constitutes a qualified lead
• Determining if/how the platform will integrate with other systems
• Migration of contacts, opt-outs and hard bounce list from current email platform
• Integrating contact forms/subscription forms/lead gen forms on your website
• Setting up subscription management
• Adding visitor tracking code to your website
• Designing email and landing page templates to match your brand

There’s a lot more that goes into planning, but your marketing automation vendor and/or implementation partner should provide you with a punch list or guide to assist in your planning.

5. Start simple and build out 

As tempting as it is to start using all of the exciting new tools and features you’ll have at your fingertips, one of the best pieces of advice I can give is to start by deploying what you’re currently doing first and then consider adding other features once you’ve built some confidence with the platform. Start simple with your current uses and build out as you go along, learning from the analytics, adjusting and tweaking your efforts based on your experience.

For example, if you’ve not previously leveraged lead nurturing or automated programs, don’t start out with a complex, multi-branch program. We like to say, “crawl, walk, run.” The point is, don’t feel obligated to exhaust every possible use of your marketing automation platform just because it’s there and you’re paying for it.

6. Consider bringing in an automation agency partner

Lastly, it might be worth considering bringing in outside help to assist with your implementation. Many firms wouldn’t consider implementing a CRM system without hiring a consultant to help, and while marketing automation is perhaps a less complicated process, it does require knowledge, skills and experience that many firms simply don’t have in-house.

A qualified agency partner can not only provide the expertise and guidance needed for planning and implementation, but can also help you with ongoing strategy, content and campaign development along the way. Regardless of the automation solution you choose, most have similar agency partner programs and can recommend a partner for you to work with.

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Marketing automation can provide your marketing team with a powerful platform to manage your online marketing program, but having the right approach is absolutely necessary for ensuring success. While not exhaustive, these 6 tips can provide you with some guidance on how you should approach implementing marketing automation software.

As content marketing continues to grow in popularity, companies everywhere are creating content to fuel their marketing efforts. But while content marketing is an integral component of an effective online marketing program, common pitfalls exist.

Many companies are jumping onboard the content marketing express, but not everyone is mindful of common mistakes that are easy to make and challenging to overcome. Here are 10 pitfalls to consider:

Pitfall #1: Jumping in without a strategy

Research from Content Marketing Institute has found that having a documented content marketing strategy is one of the key distinguishing characteristics of an effective content marketing program. But many companies make the mistake of skipping past the strategy and starting with the tactical. The fact is, buildings need blueprints, meals need recipes and your content marketing efforts should be tied to a strategy—first.

Avoid this mistake by:
• Defining content marketing’s role in your overall marketing strategy
• Identifying internal staff and/or outside resources to run the program
• Determining specific goals for the program
• Defining what metrics will be used to measure success

Pitfall #2: Not focusing on your audience

The old rules of marketing put an emphasis on your company, your products, your services and your message. Content marketing is about publishing content that focuses on the prospect and customer and what they are actually interested in, as opposed to talking about your company and what you sell. So to be successful in content marketing, you must understand your target audience’s wants, needs and interests and view content creation through their lens, not yours.

Avoid this mistake by:
• Developing buyer personas or customer profiles
• Identifying problems or knowledge gaps your prospects might have
• Gathering ideas from frequent questions your sales and BD team are asked
• Aiming to be helpful to your audience above all else

Pitfall #3: Selling, not sharing

Many companies make the mistake of putting out content that is nothing more than thinly veiled sales propaganda. There is a time and a place for selling, but if you’re promoting a webinar or eBook as educational, make sure that’s all that it is. Remember, content marketing is not about pitching your products and services.

Avoid this mistake by:
• Removing typical “salesy” content from your content marketing
• Answering your audience’s questions and problems through content
• Making sure you create enough top and middle of the funnel content
• Ditching the token “30-second elevator speech” in educational content

Pitfall #4: Failing to address the entire customer lifecycle

Many companies make the mistake of thinking of content only in relation to the sales funnel. But content should be created to continuously engage your audience throughout the entire customer lifecycle, past the point of sale—from awareness to advocacy. Because ultimately, the end goal of content marketing and the reason for addressing each stage of the customer lifecycle is really quite simple: to continuously deliver valuable content that solidifies profitable, long-term customer relationships and brand advocates.

Avoid this mistake by:
• Not focusing your content efforts solely on the sales funnel
• Addressing your audience’s needs at each stage of the customer lifecycle­
• Creating content that is helpful to existing customers
• Becoming the go-to resource of both prospects and customers

Pitfall #5: Concentrating on quantity and not quality

One of the biggest content marketing challenges marketers face is creating enough content. But don’t sacrifice quality for the sake of quantity. There is no shortcut for creating quality content, so don’t throw together content with fluffy copy and sloppy graphics. Instead, put in the necessary time to create magnetic and compelling content. In the end, pushing out a lot of content that lacks quality will not produce the desired results and will only hurt your content marketing efforts in the long run.

Avoid this mistake by:
• Doing your homework—make your content informative and compelling
• Proofreading and spellchecking all content before it goes out
• Choosing or creating quality images and graphics
• Delivering tangible knowledge and benefit to readers

Pitfall #6: Lacking originality and differentiation

Content has been all the rage in the marketing world for the last few years. And the growth of content marketing has resulted in a flood of content that starts to look and sound the same. If your content doesn’t stand out from the competition, your company is not likely to stand out either. So aim to bring new ideas and new approaches, don’t just settle for “me too” content.

Avoid this mistake by:
• Looking to cover some new or slightly different territory
• Putting your own stamp on topics that have been covered by others
• Going above and beyond the rest of the pack with quality and substance
• Making your content visually stand out from the competition

Pitfall #7: Inconsistent/infrequent blogging

While many companies like the idea of having a blog and the potential website traffic a blog can bring, some haven’t committed the time and resources necessary to blogging consistently. When visitors see big gaps in your blog frequency or it’s been a while since your last post, it sends the wrong signal to your audience and will certainly not help you achieve your content marketing goals.

Avoid this mistake by:
• Making blogging a priority
• Committing to blogging at least once per week, every week—NO excuses
• Recruiting help—don’t put it on the shoulders of one or two people
• Keeping a running list of blog topics and ideas to keep you inspired

Pitfall #8: Viewing content marketing as SEO

Too many companies (and SEO agencies) view content marketing simply as a new way to increase search rankings. While Google’s latest algorithms do place an enormous emphasis on rewarding publishers of high quality and relevant content, that doesn’t mean that content marketing is purely an SEO exercise. Yes, it’s true that content marketing done right can and will increase search rankings and drive web traffic. But SEO is an ancillary benefit of content marketing—a subset of your program—it’s not the primary goal or purpose, nor should it be your sole motivation for creating content.

Avoid this mistake by:
• Creating content for people, not search engines
• Viewing SEO as a means, but not the end goal or purpose
• Following on-page SEO best practices but not making SEO the focal point
• Remembering content marketing is all about the prospect and customer

Pitfall #9: Becoming paralyzed by your editorial calendar (or lack thereof)

Planning is essential, but some companies are so concerned with creating finely detailed editorial calendars that valuable time and resources are spent planning the content and notcreating the content. In addition to the time loss, it also leaves little room for adjustments along the way. On the flip side, not having a roadmap for your content can be equally dangerous.

Avoid this mistake by:
• Creating a quarterly plan for topics and formats to use as a guide
• Keeping a running list of ideas and revisit regularly
• Being agile—allowing room in your calendar for adjustments and additions
• Developing your own calendar—with as much or as little detail as you need

Pitfall #10: Expecting immediate results

If you’re expecting to “start” content marketing and immediately get results, you’re likely to be disappointed.  Some companies fail to realize that content marketing is not a quick fix to boost sales in the short term, instead it’s a long-term strategy that takes a while to build. So if your company is going to take up content marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy, you have to be patient and willing to commit for the long haul.

Avoid this mistake by:
• Committing to patience and a long-term mentality
• Being diligent to push forward even if results don’t immediately pour in
• Continuing to focus on your audience and your strategic objectives
• Adopting a program mentality and ditching the campaign mentality

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Content marketing is not without its challenges and difficulties. These are several of the more common mistakes that marketers can make when it comes to content marketing. What are some others that you’ve experienced or noticed? Feel free to add to the conversation in the comments below.

Perhaps nothing in marketing has generated more buzz over the last few years than content marketing. It’s been all the rage and the great majority of companies and agencies have jumped on the bandwagon with gusto. But how do they define content marketing?

Content marketing defined

The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as “a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.” So it’s critical to understand that content marketing is, at the end of the day, all about the customer and at the same time, all about driving profit through attracting and retaining customers using helpful content. And that’s where the marketing comes in.

Common misconceptions abound

Content marketing isn’t a tactic; it’s more than a strategy and it’s not an entirely new concept—but it does represent a fundamental shift in how companies market to their audience. Rather than the traditional company-centric approach, content marketing is all about the customer, placing their needs and interests ahead of promoting a product or service.

But along with any “new” buzzword, misconceptions persist and the term takes on different meanings depending on whom you talk to. For SEO firms, it’s all about increasing search rankings and driving web traffic. For public relations companies, it’s simply another form of “storytelling” and brand communications. For content strategists, it’s often viewed as creating content for content’s sake without having a real strategy in place. And for some, it’s just a fancy new word for marketing as usual.

Here are a few thoughts on some of the most common misconceptions:

Content marketing is not an aimless tactic

Endless (and pointless) debates surround the topic of content strategy versus content marketing, and most recently, context marketing versus content marketing. But any company practicing content marketing in the true sense of the term should have strategy and context at the center. Content marketing involves so much more than just crafting the right message and publishing it in the right format. It starts with strategy: defining personas, mapping content to the stages of the customer life cycle and then promoting through the proper channels at the right time using the right formats. Simply put, there is no content marketing without strategy and context — only content.

Content marketing is not the new SEO

Perhaps the most common misconception about content marketing is that it’s synonymous with SEO. Too many companies (and SEO agencies) view content marketing simply as a new way to increase search rankings. While Google’s latest algorithms do place an enormous emphasis on rewarding publishers of high quality and relevant content, that doesn’t mean that content marketing is purely an SEO exercise. Yes, it’s true that content marketing done right can and will increase search rankings and drive web traffic. But SEO is an ancillary benefit of content marketing—a subset of your program—it’s not the primary goal or purpose, nor should it be your sole motivation for creating content. SEO is simply a means, not an end.

Content marketing is not PR

Some practitioners argue that content marketing is the new PR, with brands becoming publishers in today’s digital landscape. But while there is overlap, content marketing and PR are not the same. Both disciplines are concerned with communications between organizations and their audiences, but while PR is often aimed at building awareness and goodwill, the ultimate goal of content marketing is customer acquisition and retention.

Content marketing is a marketing strategy aimed at reaching a target audience throughout the various stages of the customer lifecycle. For content marketing to move the needle, it needs to be closely aligned with a company’s sales and business development efforts and should play a significant role in both demand and lead generation.

Content marketing is not just a fancy new term for creating content

It’s true; companies have been creating content to market their businesses for centuries. But the difference is that most content has been entirely promotional and focused on the company’s own products, services, accolades, features and benefits—not the customer or the information in which they are most interested.

Consumers are not looking for a sales pitch and content marketing doesn’t give them one. Instead of selling, it shares insight, answers questions, solves challenges, educates and entertains. It provides information that prospects will not only find valuable, but also relevant to what they are searching for online. And this represents a fundamental shift in thinking for many marketers and companies accustomed to selling at every touch point.

Content marketing is not a “get rich quick” scheme

Anyone who jumps on the content marketing bandwagon and expects to see immediate, overnight results is likely to be disappointed. Yes, content marketing is a powerful component of demand and lead generation and does drive results. But content marketing is best viewed as a marathon, not a sprint. It’s not a quick fix to boost sales in the short term or something that you can just jump into and out of and expect to get any real return. It takes time, strategy, planning, hard work, patience and commitment.

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Content marketing can and should be an invaluable component of your company’s marketing program. But it’s important to understand what it is and what it isn’t, and then identify how it fits into your company’s overall marketing plan.

So you’re effectively driving traffic to your website using blogging, SEO and social media. And once you get the traffic, you’re converting visitors into leads through effective lead generation strategies that prompt visitors to take action. But now what?

Driving traffic and generating leads is only half the battle and some might argue it’s the easier half. Because remember, the end goal isn’t a database full of names and email addresses or even hundreds of whitepaper downloads; the end goal is new business and paying customers.

The B2B sales cycle can be a long journey

The reality is, most qualified leads aren’t ready to buy, but they will be at some time in the future. Statistics suggest that somewhere between 30% to 50% of the leads that enter a pipeline represent future opportunities. But, for whatever reason, these leads are not yet ready to buy.

And what about unqualified leads? Research from SiriusDecisions suggests that 80% of prospects deemed “bad leads” by sales teams go on to buy within 24 months.

The sales cycle for B2B buyers is typically extended, especially for major purchase decisions. And along that journey, today’s B2B buyers are doing extensive online research, long before they are ready to speak to a salesperson or make a purchase.

Stay engaged with prospects throughout the journey

With a longer sales cycle and heavy competition, B2B companies need to formalize a digital lead management process in order to take advantage of all the leads they are currently generating from their website. Getting that initial conversion is rarely enough to close the deal. What is needed is consistent, timely and relevant communication and engagement.

According to a Genius.com study, 66% of buyers indicate that “consistent and relevant communication provided by both sales and marketing organizations” is a key influence in choosing a solution provider.

And what about “hot” leads that request a quote or another sales-related inquiry? InsideSales.com found that 35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first.

Lead nurturing helps educate leads and push them closer to the sale

Lead nurturing is the process B2B marketers use to “nurture” relationships with leads who aren’t yet ready to buy, in order to win their business in the future when they are ready to make a purchasing decision.

The idea is to stay engaged with these leads through each stage of the buying cycle, moving them towards a purchase. By providing valuable information that leads need in order to make a purchasing decision, you’ll stay top of mind and be there when they’re finally ready to commit to buying.

One of the primary ways to nurture leads without being intrusive or overbearing is through setting up lead nurturing email campaigns. These “drip” campaigns are set up to be related to the initial topic of interest and send a series of automated emails at scheduled intervals to qualified, but not sales-ready leads. According to a recent SilverPop/DemandGen Report, lead nurturing emails get 4-10 times the response rate of standalone email blasts.

Lead and prospect intelligence helps you stay in the know

Basic website analytics provides a lot of valuable information, but not necessarily the kind of information that your sales team needs or can use on a daily basis. Website visitor tracking is a common feature found in marketing automation software and helps you go beyond page views to get real-time marketing and sales intelligence.

Marketing automation software allows you to track the following analytics about leads:

–       Who is visiting your website
–       When they are visiting
–       Pages they are viewing
–       Content they are downloading
–       Campaign response rates (i.e. email opens, clickthroughs, etc.)

Understanding the interests of your leads helps you to be more targeted and relevant and offer the right content in the right context.

Lead scoring helps you focus on the best opportunities

MarketingSherpa defines lead scoring as “the process of adding and subtracting points to a lead’s value over time based on various lead attributes or demographics, and behaviors.”

Typically, your ideal customers fit certain profile characteristics such as job title, industry, etc. and also follow similar steps on their buying journey. Lead scoring is the process of determining what those characteristics and steps are and assigning point values for each.

Utilizing marketing automation makes lead scoring not only easy to do, but also incredibly effective. Each lead gets profiled and their actions are tracked and a score value is assigned to each one in real-time. This allows your sales and business development team to determine sales-readiness and know which leads might be the best opportunities to focus on.

CRM integration helps you close the loop between marketing and sales

While marketing automation is a must-have tool for B2B marketers, a solid customer relationship management (CRM) system that integrates with your marketing automation platform is equally important.  There is often a break in communication between marketing and sales teams in many B2B organizations, but when marketing automation and CRM are integrated, the result is a closed-loop between marketing and sales.

This integration allows sales and business development teams to see all of the valuable lead intelligence gathered by the marketing automation platform, send marketing-approved emails and ultimately track every single action and touch point with both leads and customers—without ever having to leave the CRM interface.

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Qualified leads need to be engaged after their initial conversion and nurtured through each stage of the buying cycle. Gartner Research found that companies that automate lead management see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months. While this is no easy task, utilizing marketing automation and CRM software make lead management much more effective (and easier).

The B2B sales process has undergone a substantial transformation over the last several years. With the proliferation of the web and its impact on increasingly self-sufficient B2B buyers, firms are relying more on marketing to deliver sales-ready leads than ever before.

In the past, the “vendor” controlled the process. They had the information and buyers were dependent upon sales (or business development) people, advertisements, product sheets and brochures to get that information. But times have changed, and today’s B2B buyers spend a lot of time online researching solutions, arming themselves with intelligence to help them make better purchasing decisions.

As mentioned in my previous post, today’s B2B buyers go through nearly 60% of the purchasing process before ever talking to sales. So what is your marketing doing to engage these buyers before they engage you? Here’s a list of 3 ways to engage buyers and better position your firm for the win.

1. Attract B2B buyers early on with the right kind of content

Content should play a critical role in engaging B2B buyers before they’re ready to speak with sales. But not just any content will work! What’s needed is customer-centric content—blog posts, whitepapers, eBooks, webinars, emails, social media posts and web pages—that focus on a prospect’s needs at each stage of the buying cycle.

Sales material is not top-of-funnel content
B2B buyers in the early stage of the sales cycle (top-of-funnel) are not looking for features and benefits, company information or why they should work with you and not your competitors. They’re trying to ascertain their needs, figure out what options exist and be as educated as possible before even thinking about who to buy from.

Focus on the needs and interests of prospects
Your content should speak to what B2B buyers are interested in and searching for online, instead of focusing on your products or services. Be sure to leverage buyer personas and create engaging content that identifies and addresses the problems, challenges, questions and information gaps your audience might have and provide them with valuable information about those topics.

2. Build lead generation into the DNA of your website

The brochure-style websites of the past are no longer effective at engaging today’s B2B buyer. What’s needed is a powerful, marketing-focused website that has lead generation and conversion strategy at its core. A large part of engaging B2B buyers early on in the sales cycle is lead generation: turning an unknown visitor into an identified lead. It’s essentially getting them to “raise their hand” and express some level of interest in your company.

Convert unknown visitors into identified leads
Once a prospect has identified a need, they begin to research for potential solutions or partners. They’re looking for information to help them make a better decision once they’re ready to purchase. And if you’ve attracted a prospect to your website through creating early-stage, top-of-funnel content, you need strategies in place to convert an unknown visitor into an identified lead.

The process of lead generation
So how do you make lead generation happen? First, you should create premium content such as eBooks, whitepapers, reports and webinars specifically to address a buyer’s needs in the interest and consideration stage of the buying cycle (middle-of-the-funnel). Next you’ll want to create compelling calls-to-action and place them in strategic locations throughout your website. These calls-to-action should drive visitors to offer-specific landing pages where they are given the opportunity to provide some basic contact information in exchange for the content offered.

3. Educate leads and push them closer to the sale with lead nurturing

Once you’ve identified a lead, now what? Just because they’ve registered for your webinar or downloaded a whitepaper doesn’t mean they’re ready to sign on the dotted line. In fact, studies suggest that between 30% to 50% of the leads that enter a pipeline represent future opportunities, but they’re not yet ready to buy. But according to a Genius.com study, 66% of buyers indicated that “consistent and relevant communication provided by both sales and marketing organizations” is a key influence in choosing a solution provider.

Nurture relationships with leads who aren’t ready to buy
Lead nurturing is the process used to “nurture” relationships with leads who aren’t yet ready to buy, in order to win their business in the future when they are. One of the primary tactics is creating “drip” email campaigns related to the initial offer or topic of interest.  Leads receive a series of relevant, automated emails at scheduled intervals that will keep them engaged over an extended period of time, with the goal of moving them towards a purchase.

Be there when they’re ready to buy
Once a prospect has considered their options, they begin to narrow down the choices and ultimately determine who to buy from. By providing helpful information to potential buyers throughout the sales cycle that can better inform their decision, you’ll stay top of mind and be there when they’re finally ready to make a purchase.

B2B buyers have certainly changed the way sales and marketing is approached. Yes, it’s still about relationships, but leading firms are not waiting to be engaged by potential clients. Instead, they’re leveraging the power of content and technology to initiate and nurture relationships by engaging buyers early on in the sales process.

Many B2B firms find themselves surrounded by the massive changes that have taken place—and are still taking place—in the world of business. And these changes have given birth to a new marketing ecosystem that requires new strategies, tactics and a customer-centric approach.

For decades, B2B marketing has been vastly different than B2C marketing and with good reason. B2B tends to be less transactional and more about building long-term relationships—especially for firms with big-ticket products and services and long sales cycles. But while relationships are still front and center, the truth is, leading firms are initiating and nurturing relationships differently than they have in the past.

Is your B2B firm still relying on the same strategies and tactics that you’ve been using for decades? If so, due to some key changes, your marketing strategy might be in need of a transformation.  So here are some compelling reasons for change.

It’s a brave new (digital) world

There’s no doubt the world around us is becoming increasingly more digital every day. Think about it, when you want to research a company, find out about a product, look for an answer to a question or find out almost anything, what do you do? You go to Google, Yahoo, Bing or some other search engine. We’ve become a very web-centric culture, in both our personal and business lives.

Your website is your front door

When you want to learn about a potential client, vendor or even a competitor, the first thing you do is visit their website. And every day there are potential clients visiting your website doing research and vetting your firm. So your website can no longer be just an online brochure. It needs to be the hub of your marketing efforts and a tool for sales and business development.

Your audience is social

Social media’s use in B2B marketing has been met with much skepticism. But social media is no longer just for celebrities and consumer product companies. Today, it has become a dominant component of our daily lives and that dominance has found its way into the business world as well. A study from Hubspot found that 53% of B2B companies surveyed had acquired a customer from LinkedIn and 43% had acquired a customer through Facebook.  Social media provides B2B firms with opportunities to connect and engage with prospects and customers, distribute content and drive web traffic.

B2B buyers have changed

Today’s B2B buyers have become incredibly savvy and self-sufficient, researching online—often extensively—before making a purchasing decision. According to a DemandGen Report, 78% of B2B buyers start their research with a web search. A smaller but still significant number (50%) said they turn to social media and peer reviews. Your prospects are researching solutions, looking at their options and educating themselves as much as they can to inform their decisions.

And here’s the big change: much of this research is taking place before they ever pick up the phone or submit a contact request on your website. Studies from the Corporate Executive Board Company have found that today’s B2B buyers go through nearly 60% of the purchasing process before ever talking to sales. So what is your marketing strategy doing to engage these buyers before they engage you?

B2C is impacting B2B

All the brand interactions and experiences your prospects and customers have as consumers are starting to impact their expectations for B2B marketing as well. They expect personalization and customization. They expect to receive emails and marketing messages that are relevant to their needs and interests. They expect easy-to-use, helpful and mobile-friendly websites. The bar has been raised and your audience is now expecting marketing from you that is helpful and adds value to their lives.

It’s now a pull strategy

In light of all these changes, innovative marketers are responding and adapting.  So what we’ve been seeing for the last few years is pretty substantial—a fundamental shift in how companies approach sales and marketing. It’s moving away from primarily a push strategy and more toward a pull strategy. Instead of the typical “Hey, look at me” marketing approach, pushing company-focused messages and content to prospects, you actually communicate in such a way that they’re attracted to you.

Prospects now seek you out. They give you their time and listen, because what you’re saying has value to them. And this is really the heart and soul of what content marketing is all about—publishing content that focuses on the prospect and customer and what they are actually interested in, as opposed to talking about your company and what you sell.

Changing tactics and shifts in budgets

And with this shift, marketers across all industries are shifting their budgets away from traditional methods (such as purchased lists, cold calling and promotional advertising) that have been the bread and butter of their marketing plans, and they’re moving towards more innovative and customer-centric methods (such as content marketing). The goal is to create marketing that your prospects and customers find relevant, useful and helpful—leading to increased sales and customer retention.

So how is your B2B firm’s marketing efforts adapting to the realities of the new marketing ecosystem? If you’re not on top of these changes and not adapting your marketing efforts to meet the demands of the new marketing ecosystem, then you’re missing out on an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage. And your firm is slowly being written off and passed over for more relevant firms.