This time of year, we are drowning in holiday ads that are designed to inspire gift purchases. Clearly, marketers are taking advantage of this seasonal urgency. Stores are vying for consumers’ attention with a compelling message for THEIR product right when purchase decisions are being made.
While B2B sales may not have the same urgency of a holiday season, it is a good reminder that selling principles are basically the same. You want to be the one offering a great solution when the customer is facing a problem and needs help.
After all, discovering the perfect gift for a loved one on December 26th won’t have nearly the same impact.
We’ve often heard that content is king. Instead - consider that TIMING is king. And we aren’t just talking about content used during the B2B marketing phase. Once a lead is passed off to sales, when the content is presented can be a critical part of winning a new customer.
You could have the best content in the world, but if it is presented too early or too late in the buyer’s journey, it simply falls on deaf ears.
In a CMI (Content Marketing Institute)-Marketing Profs study, 64 percent of marketing professionals stated their biggest challenge was producing enough content, with 52 percent of the respondents concerned about producing truly engaging content. This suggests marketers were more concerned with quantity rather quality.
However, by taking the steps above and using technology to measure effectiveness, it may actually be possible to create less content that has more impact. In addition, technology can be used to accurately document what content was used and the timing. While each buyer will be different, patterns and similarities will emerge and machine learning will make the correlations and become more accurate the longer it collects data. It provides sales reps repeatable patterns that work and marketers true insight into their content ROI.
The strategy for creating compelling and effective content relies on a key proficiency - tracking exactly which content led to sales. Now, another component is at the forefront – WHEN the content is used. Fortunately, technology can connect the dots for us and make us better at mastering time. And that is a real gift.
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Brian Fravel is VP of Marketing at Veelo, an award winning cloud based marketing and sales enablement provider. Brian is a frequent contributor on topics related to learning, sales and marketing, and sales enablement solutions. Connect with him on Linkedin and Twitter.