We are firmly in the era of “pull marketing”. A prospective customer decides when and how to initiate the buying process and conduct their research. The customer now holds the cards. We at Gingerbolt like to call it “honeypot marketing” because establishing engagement with prospects requires having something to say to them which they will find of value. At the same time you are building awareness and credibility which is essential in a B2B context, where transactions tend to be high value and high risk – so called “big ticket” items.
Website visitors expect to be informed
Website visitors expect to be informed, assisted and even educated. Long gone are the days when website content could simply be “This is the kind of thing we do – give us a call!”. They now expect to be given valuable information for free and be well informed about products and services before they give you a call. A mix of content such as guides, articles, blog posts and news items written with the customer at the centre of your thinking will make your website unique, engaging and helpful. It will also give you lots of great ammunition to attract prospects to your website via email marketing and social media. It can also be very useful in customer meetings.
Types of content
Before you start generating content it is a good idea to think about what story you want to tell and who is the target audience. Here are some of the main types of content:
- Blogs
- Videos
- White papers
- eBooks
- Guides
- Infographics
- Case studies
- Interviews
- Opinion pieces
Make your website a honeypot
Making your website a honeypot for your prospects is a source of sustainable competitive advantage. It won’t happen overnight but like an oil tanker the momentum is difficult to stop so it can be a gift that keeps on giving. In the short term, you can invest heavily in pay per click advertising to drive prospects into the marketing funnel.
Quality not quantity
Be mindful that a large volume of content may not be as successful as fewer, well-crafted content pieces which your prospects find very interesting. Content that performs well will continue to attract visitors over a long period of time.
The triple-H content theory
In 2014 YouTube came out with the “triple H content theory and this appears to have stuck in the digital marketing lexicon.
Hygiene content – this is the basic ‘pull’ content that you absolutely must have on your website – the bread and butter stuff designed to meet the needs of your target audience.
Hub content – ‘push’ content designed to attract prime prospects. This could be on wider, related themes such as current hot topics in the target industry.
Hero content – broader scope, “big” content designed to spread a wide net and increase awareness.
Clearly hygiene content should be considered the highest priority and be well represented before committing resources to hub content and then hero content.
Creating great content isnt easy – can we help?
If you would like to discuss how Gingerbolt could help you generate a conveyor belt of great content which will add value to your organisation then please give us a shout on info@gingerbolt.com or +44 (0)161 8182321.
