8 tips from Dell on creating compelling B2B content

With an information glut hitting consumers today, understanding consumption patterns is vital to creating consumable content.

Today content consumption patterns are no longer a singular activity. We are connected through multiple screens and seamlessly move from one piece of content to the other on various channels and platforms. What implications do these evolving content consumption patterns have on B2B marketers?

Priyanka Nath, digital and social media lead, South Asia at Dell tells Marketing the vital importance of monitoring content consumption patterns and in turn, using the data for lead generation.

[More from Nath and other content marketing experts at Content 360. Join us on 8-9 April for two days packed with presentations, case studies and sharing on the future and challenges in Content Marketing today]

Marketing: As a content creator at Dell how do you produce content to break the clutter and engage your audience? What tools does Dell use to monitor content consumption?

Nath: The first step in the process is to understand the reality faced by IT decision makers today: What pain points are they facing?  What business goals are they seeking to achieve with technology solutions? What are their purchase decision criteria? Who are the other organizational stakeholders that influence this decision?

We regularly monitor key tech analysts and subject matter experts across markets to identify the pressing challenges and opportunities faced by our customers. Content traction on social media channels can also be a leading indicator and help optimise our messaging for lead generation. For example, we’ve seen IT decision makers in a mature market such as Singapore highly engaged with content on managing security and privacy implications of deploying IoT (Internet of Things); BYOD (Bring your own device) versus other ASEAN markets.

The key change for our industry is that prospects are taking longer to directly contact vendors. The average IT decision maker now typically consumes four - five pieces of content before they are ready to speak to a sales representative. There’s a greater reliance on self-diagnosis, online research, analyst consultations, word-of-mouth and peer recommendations than ever before.

Given this situation, the most effective conversation starters are typically infographics or social media copy that spark a change or question the status quo. This content should educate and inform (e.g. a crisp summary of the business or IT challenge, handy check-lists) as well as motivate the prospect to research further (e.g. insightful stats from case studies or industry survey results).

As we move deeper in the decision making journey, there’s more heavy-lifting required. We co-produce whitepapers with technology analysts, publish customer case studies and testimonials, and create how-to/demonstration videos that help nurture the relationship.

There’s also a key role played by last-mile or ‘closing’ content in the B2B process. These function as aids for the sales teams and should not be under-estimated. Technical spec sheets, talking points, comparative studies, product reviews and ROI estimations serve as critical enablers because they help the IT decision maker to sell his/her decision internally and secure final approvals.

Marketing:  Give us some actionable content marketing tips for maximising content consumption.

Nath: I'd recommend the following:

1. Be altruistic. Share genuine insights, demystify the complex, and help your audience to connect the dots across seemingly disparate topics.
2. Don’t expect your audience to come to you. Be clear on how and where your audience gathers information and make sure you’re present on these channels.
3. Build in opportunities to extend the lifecycle of content. For example, the high number of registration dropouts from live webinars has now made on-demand webcasts a necessity.
4. Remember that great content can come from anywhere in your organisation: create a series of digestible nuggets from long-form copy (e.g. press releases) as well as live content (e.g. event keynotes by subject matter experts).
5. Ensure your content is suited to the device and screen it is viewed on.  This is painstakingly obvious, but still not de rigueur.
6. Remember that 58% of B2B buyers engage with peers during the decision making process, so ensure your content is easy to distribute and share.
7. Understand the role played by your content in the decision making process. Is it a conversation starter, sustainer or closer? What actions would you expect the prospect to take next? This is critical to selecting the right channels and the performance metrics.
8. Take an unbiased view on how differentiated your content truly is and provide access accordingly. There is a clear relationship between this perceived value and a prospect’s motivation to share contact details or start a conversation with you.

 Marketing: What channels are dominating content consumption patterns today and why?

Nath: Social media platforms are becoming the first ports of call for all kinds of online content.  They’re now part of our habitual online behaviour and offer consistent UX across devices. More importantly, they encourage discovery of network-endorsed mainstream and long-tail content on-platform and from the rest of the web.

For B2B content, I would highlight LinkedIn, Twitter & YouTube, along with Slideshare for specific use cases. In the Tech space specifically, online publishers such as TechTarget and content from analysts (IDC/Forrester/Gartner) enjoy high mindshare with CIOs.

 Marketing: How has content consumption and marketing changed over last 5 years?

Nath: There’s an explosion of content:  we’re continuously grappling with ‘infobesity’. We have unprecedented access to numerous voices (“everyone’s an author”) and channels (“everyone’s a sharer or potential publisher”). What hasn’t changed is the need for quality, making the art of curation even more critical than it was a few years ago.

Content is also more fluid today. It’s a real-time, dynamic and iterative conversation between brands and their audience. It isn’t sacrosanct or kept high up on a pedestal; it’s constantly picked apart and debated. Nobody has the final word.

Of course, we now consume content on-the-move and across multiple screens and devices. Therefore, there is a greater need for content to adapt to context, prospect mind-set and delivery environment. The growing use of mobile-friendly infographics to break down complex issues as well as the resilience of in-depth technical whitepapers is testament to that.

Marketing Magazine’s second annual Content 360 will be held on 8-9 April at the InterContinental Singapore. Hear from Sloan and other senior marketers at the event. More details here.

To book your seats for the conference contact Joven Barcenas at jovenb@marketing-interactive.com or +65 6423 0329, +65 9820 5195.