B2B Content Marketing: Talkin' into the Tin Can
Even though it was eons ago, I still fondly remember my Junior High science class.
Our teacher – I'll call him Mr. Smith – was one of those educational charlatans who could trick you into believing school classes were insanely interesting and that homework was a gift from the gods. He blew stuff up, set things on fire and performed all sorts of amazing experiments that fired up young minds already quite hormonally imbalanced.
He was cool!
And we did learn a lot of useful stuff too. I was reminiscing with an old high school buddy the other day and the memories came flooding back. For some unknown reason, the tin can telephone experiments came up in conversation.
It's a really neat little project, only requiring two empty tin cans, a bit of string about 20-30 feet long and a couple of paper clips. It was the precursor to the mobile phone and we played with it for hours at a time.
Excuse me…I meant "experimented."
I got to thinking about the way a tin can phone's operation paralleled or illustrated some basic B2B content marketing rules. Now, I didn't learn anything about content marketing from this contraption. But harkening back to those experiments did bring some important concepts into focus.
Here's the first…
The tin can phone is one-to-one communication…so is B2B content marketing
A lot of writers forget that.
There is often so much pressure to go "viral" with their content that they write for the masses and not the individual.
That's a mistake.
When you write B2B content, write to one person and keep it to one message. The POWER OF ONE is unbeatable when you need real results.
Do quality research — real, in-depth research — in order to understand your prospect intimately. Find out what your reader's CNI factors are (challenges, needs and interests).
What is it that keeps her up at night staring at the ceiling,praying that the answer will come wafting down through the rafters?
What is it that gives him that unbearable knot in the stomach before heading off to work, sometimes to the point of actual physical pain?
What problems challenge them and how does your product or service provide relief?
And what are their personal interests — interests put on hold until business challenges are vanquished?
The secret to effective B2B content is not in its ability to go viral. It's in the content's capacity to be useful, to be relevant and to persuade. Always remember this: you're not after worldwide acclaim for your writing skills. You're after sales.
And that comes one prospect at a time.
One person talks, the other listens on a tin can phone. Guess what…
The same goes for B2B content marketing.
But here is where many content marketers miss the mark. Sure, you're doing the talking when your prospect is reading your article. But don't forget to listen to them when they're done!
A lot of blogs are removing comments. In some cases, that might be OK. But I think you often lose valuable interactions with your readers. They may comment by sharing on other social networks. Be sure to track those metrics.
But nothing affords you quite the feel for your prospects as when they comment directly on the article itself. I've written articles for clients that have been read and commented on as much as two or three years later. I set alerts for them and still reply to readers' questions and comments.
It's important to listen to your reader so that you find out what resonates with her. If many people read and express interest, you need to analyze the content and discover why so you can duplicate the effort.
I've written a fairly recent article on LinkedIn that's had over 4,200 views and still rising. By scrutinizing it, I'm able to write increasingly more effective content for B2B industries.
By the way…that may speak to how often you should post. Quality trumps quantity every time.
A final thought on tin can content's message
There's a common notion that content marketing — even B2B content marketing — is not much more than giving away free information.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
If you are giving away free content and getting nothing in return, you are wasting digital paper. And time. When I write content marketing articles, particularly for my clients' businesses, there is a steep price for admission.
It's not a monetary fee.
It's deeper and more valuable than that. And it's one that when presented properly, your reader will be more than grateful to pay. It starts with your relevant content and finishes with your real call to action (not the hyperlink pasted on as an afterthought).
It produces an almost magical transformation.
I'll close with this example, using my wife's sewing business website. (Hers is a B2C business, I know. But it should be obvious why she's my client.)
I was talking to a young man about her website. He was astonished to see all the free information displayed on the site. He thought we were crazy.People would read and maybe even print out that stuff. Then they wouldn't need to use her sewing and alteration skills.
And yet…there he was in her sewing room, being fitted for a suit.
You see…the free information she provides is genuine content marketing or, to put it more succinctly, marketing content. Woven throughout the "free" articles — and on every page of her site — are subtle, yet powerfully persuasive words and phrases. They invoke the influential principle of reciprocity, among others.
Thank you, Dr. Robert Cialdini!
The words and phrases transform her into a likable expert, someone you can know, like and trust. And the reader is also transformed. The young man morphed from a faceless reader into a true believer, and ultimately, into a regular client.
And that was a price he was more than willing to pay.