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The key to strengthening your B2B marketing lies in being able to effectively answer and address the question of “What do we need next to better present our business, product or service to the market to generate more leads, advance more opportunities and support more sales wins?” Here, we explore how to confidently tackle this question and take your marketing to a higher level with a strong marketing framework.
Meet the Moments of Your Audience(s)
The individuals that comprise your target audience(s) are all at different points in their buyers journey. Some have never heard of your business, some are in the market for a solution akin to yours, and some are already long-time loyal customers. Meeting the moments of these individuals is to empower them with the right information and experiences… at the right time… to address their needs and advance decision-making. The desired direction is one that sees prospects become customers, and customers become loyal advocates.
The B2B Buyers Journey generally begins with Awareness, progresses through Evaluation, crescendos with a Purchase decision and continues with Post Purchase activity. Individuals at the awareness stage are likely to be seeking “appetizer” content and experiences that quickly speak to pain points or opportunities they’re faced with and potential paths for resolving them (one of which may be your business). In contrast, customers who have already purchased your product or services will look for and value content that helps them get the most out of their purchase and become more effective in their work.
The purpose of Awareness stage content and experiences is to introduce the audience to a problem or opportunity they may have, creating awareness and sparking interest. For the Consideration/Evaluation stage, provide detailed information about solutions or approaches to the identified problem, helping prospects intelligently evaluate options. At the Decision stage, offer specific details about the product or service, address concerns and highlight differences from alternatives. Post Purchase, equip customers with information and insights that sustain satisfaction and build loyalty. Here’s how to use this framework to determine where to focus next:
- Articulate each audience segment that’s important to your business.
- Inventory the content and experiences you currently offer to each segment at each stage.
- Review the types of content and experiences audiences look for at each stage.
- Highlight content/experience gaps for each segment at each stage.
- Prioritize gaps and develop a plan for addressing them.
Maximize Your Marketing Capabilities
Addressing gaps in your marketing content ultimately means that someone has to do the work of creating the content and experiences that close them. The good news is that you don’t have to start from square one with each content asset and you don’t have to do it all yourself.
One of our favorite approaches to content production is to create “Hub” content that can be efficiently leveraged to produce “Spoke” content. Hub content is typically bigger-picture content that provides an overview to leave readers with a solid general understanding of the topic’s parameters and key considerations. The individual elements of this Hub content can then serve as great starting points for Spoke content that provides paths for diving deeper into specific areas of interest or importance to audience members. For example, the content contained in an eBook you’ve constructed could be fantastic fuel for a blog series, webinar and/or social posts.
Addressing content and experience gaps also doesn’t have to mean adding extra work to your internal team or bringing on an additional content person. Tapping into external fractional marketing resources that are experienced with quickly developing fluency around your offerings and constructing content to support them is a highly beneficial and cost-effective approach that intelligently augments your internal team’s capabilities and bandwidth.
Form a Framework You Can Build On
At early stages of growth, leaders and teams generally have a decent understanding of basic B2B marketing ingredients they will need (e.g., website, social channels, overview material). So long as these initial items adequately reflect the company’s strategy and value proposition, that can be a perfectly fine place to start. However, the recipe for continued growth is more complex and requires establishing a B2B marketing framework that you can build on over time.
The blank canvas of beyond-the-basics marketing possibilities doesn’t need to be overwhelming. Use a proven framework like the B2B Buyers Journey to get a clear picture of where you’re covered in terms of content and experiences and where you have gaps that need to be closed. Address these gaps by using efficient content production approaches like Hub and Spoke content and consider amplifying your internal team’s outputs with the right external expertise to support their work and objectives.
If you are looking for support to build a strong marketing framework, request a free marketing consultation or contact us today! Take a dive into our B2B marketing success stories and learn more about our B2B marketing consultants to see what you can achieve with Launch Marketing.
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