The importance of content marketing can’t be understated. The right content plays a big role in accelerating prospects through the marketing lifecycle, especially when it’s relevant and delivered at the right time.
However, Forrester’s Q4 2012 US and Europe B2B Marketing Tactics and Benchmarks Online Survey reveals that many B2B marketers still have a long way to go implementing an appropriate content strategy. The survey reveals that most B2B marketers limit content marketing, using it strictly for lead nurturing. This is severely limiting the scope of what good content marketing can provide. Delivering great content can enhance engagement and improve the customer experience across all levels.
The survey also reveals that most B2B marketers prefer to curate their content internally. In fact, in 44% of the instances, the marketing department itself created the content, without coordinating other departments within the enterprise. This may prove to be a costly mistake, as internal content tends to focus solely on promoting the product, rather than offering an objective comparison or educating the consumer with a wider perspective. Both of these have proven to be essential ingredients for content marketing success.
Another mistake many B2B marketers make is limiting content marketing to delivering product data sheets, white papers and other literature taken from the internal library of resources. Content marketing must go beyond this. A focused and integrated approach to content marketing should consider the appropriate stage a prospect is in within the marketing lifecycle. It should also delivers appropriate content that will help the prospect accelerate the journey towards conversion.
