Customer-Centric Content Key to Strategy

Content marketing converts six times higher than other methods, making it essential to any successful B2B marketing plan. Despite that, 70% of marketers lack a consistent or integrated content strategy. The fact is most marketers don’t have time to create content let alone a strategy for how to use it.

Smart marketers hack this problem by employing a customer-centric content creation strategy, allowing them to do more with less content. To do that, you need to know as much as you can about your prospects. To get you started, here are some facts about today’s B2B technology buyers:

B2B Tech Buyers – Who are they?

What kind of content are B2B tech buyers looking for?

How do B2B tech buyers find content and interact with it?

Because there is no shortage of content sources, B2B buyers have to be particularly discerning about where they get their content. When we talked to B2B tech buyers for our 2016 survey, we found:

  • 43% of B2B buyers say third-party (publisher, marketing partner) email is their favored method to learn about technologies for the first time.
  • 43% of buyers say they prefer to download vendor content from third-parties.
  • ~60% of B2B buyers say peer discussion and search engine browsing are their top methods for researching, once they’ve been alerted to a new solution.
  • 77% of buyers say they prefer to download follow up that offers supplemental content or the chance to provide feedback.

Buyers tend to avoid engaging with a vendor before they’ve finished their own research. When asked why they don’t go directly to a vendor site, 73% say sales follow up is “too pushy.” They like to learn how a vendor can help them, but don’t want to be sold to or pushed into buying a product.

By leveraging this information and adding the details of your prospects, you can employ a customer-centric content creation strategy, giving you time to be strategic about how you use your content. We hope this information helps you. If you have any thoughts on how to make content marketing easier, let us know and we’ll add them here.