Case Studies
Case studies work in a multitude of ways and they the strongest and most versatile piece of content in your arsenal. That said, if you are investing in content marketing, case studies must be a priority.
Content is the fuel that powers your marketing plan and takes you toward your goals.
The B2B buyer’s journey has transformed, especially for technical and engineering companies. In today’s world, consumers are constantly searching for information, testimonials, and examples of products and services that make their projects better, faster, and cheaper. Nearly all engineers prefer to do online research and evaluate vendors before talking to sales. The majority of engineers are more likely to do business with a company that regularly produces new and current content over one that does not. Content is THE deciding factor.
CREATE A BUYER'S JOURNEY WITH CONTENT
The buyer’s journey starts with a need, typically resulting in the individual searching online. They type in keywords and phrases to a search engine that correspond with their need until they find an answer. This individual is looking for smart, intriguing, and relevant content that will provide them with a solution.
In order to attract your target audience, you need to produce the content they are searching for. This can be done by regularly posting blogs that address current issues in their field, or conducting and publishing research, white papers or case studies. By anticipating your audience’s needs, you can produce material that will attract them to your website, engage and nurture them, and finally transform them into opportunities.
Take the steps detailed below to build a content marketing plan that attracts visitors to your site and moves them through their buyer's journey.
Define your buyer personas
Buyer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers based on real data pertaining to customer demographics and online behavior as well as your educated speculation about their personal histories, motivations, and concerns. With personas, you can put faces to your customer segments and have the ability to better customize your marketing efforts – from messaging to activity selection – and make a greater impact with your prospects.
Write Content for Each Stage of Your Sales Flywheel
The goal of inbound marketing is about creating and promoting content that appeals to your audience in a way that attracts, converts, closes, and delights. In order to achieve this you must provide content for every stage of the inbound marketing process.
Measure your results and adjust your strategy
When developing a content marketing plan, determining how you’ll measure the success of your activities is as important as identifying activities themselves. Here are the key metrics to include on your marketing scorecard to help determine if you are focusing on the right activities and to ensure you are getting return on your marketing investment.
White Papers
Many companies commonly use white papers in content marketing to attract and inform customers. A white paper is text-based narrative that presents technical information in about 1000 words or more. For use both online and in print, they generally contain images, diagrams, and even embedded videos and links.
Blogs
Blogs are an essential part of any inbound marketing strategy, they are the third most likely online service to influence a purchase. HubSpot's research showed both that B2B companies that blog generate 67 percent more leads than companies who don’t, and that companies who prioritize blogging are 13x more likely.
Infographics
There are many types of content, but as the world becomes more digitized, we as marketers must fight harder for attention from our key audiences. When asked what kind of content they prefer on web pages, 41 percent of engineers said they wanted images and graphics included on web pages.
Videos
According to our research, 96% of engineers watch videos each week for work (up from 93% the previous year). 48% watch less than one hour a week, while another 48% watch for one hour or more per week. Video is an integral channel for reaching and educating your audience- are you taking advantage of it?
Webinars
Webinars are another useful tool to have in your inbound marketing tool belt. Webinars tend to be seen as difficult, time-consuming, and requiring specific expertise to pull off, but they also can result in huge marketing and sales successes by generating new, engaged leads and opportunities.
Create High-Performing Technical Content
Peter Matthews, Senior Technical Marketing Manager at Knowles Precision Devices, is a skilled architect of content for design engineers. Through his degree in physics and industry experience in sales and marketing mixed with on-the-job trial and error, Peter has honed a high-performing, predictable content marketing strategy.
In this Content Marketing, Engineered podcast episode, Peter explains his company's approach to planning and developing technical content.
