Content Marketing

To get someone to your website, you need good content. When the prospect gets to your website, it better do its job. 

The average business website is not designed to generate leads. This may sound surprising, given that for most businesses, the website is one of their main sources of incoming new business.

The average website is designed like a brochure. There are many common components, and prospects spend a lot of time going from page to page. From our research, about 50% of visitors to a corporate website will visit 3 pages max. Other visitors visit less than that… So, you only have a few pages to get your information across and convince them to contact you. 

Websites are usually designed by web design agencies. Agencies are steeped in the latest HTML5, CSS stylesheets, and other coding prerogatives. Agencies have an agenda in making sure all their work follows a visual standard that will get them more work and boost their portfolio. So, your website will look great—but it will be lacking in the area of lead generation. 

The dynamics of lead generation are usually an afterthought, something to please the marketing department, but not a driving core design function.

Effective websites for content marketing are designed around driving every interaction towards the demo, appointment, and/or contact button. Not to sound like a broken record, but the purpose of your website is not to look like the competition or to collect email addresses but to get a scheduled demo or appointment with a qualified prospect.

Website design is beyond the scope of this book. Let it suffice to say that the team behind website design or redesign should have some knowledge of lead generation, appointment making, the importance of demos, and other business-generating functions. Move beyond having something that fits conventional standards of how a website should look (brochure) to having an opportunity-generating machine (convey value and get that appointment).

We’ve advised many companies on how to achieve this with their website. These best practices reduce clutter and the website conventions that get in the way of nudging prospects into taking action.

Once you have a good content marketing program in place and are getting buyer traffic to your website, it’s important to have the mechanics to ensure your prospects book appointments.

If this is not set up properly, a variation of Broken Telephone happens. We see this all the time, even with experienced teams. You know what it looks like: 

• Someone uses the contact form or an email address to say they are interested.
• The message goes into your VP of Sales’ junk folder by mistake, or your VP misses the email, and it remains unanswered for several days.
• The VP follows up with another email or phone call. The prospect is not there for the phone call but answers via email. More going back and forth around the right schedule for both.
• Several days have passed. You have no more intelligence on what the prospect wants than when the process started.
• You go into meetings blind because there is no information about the call—just a name, a number, and an email address, with no gauge of intent or pain point.

Through extensive testing, we have found that a Schedule a Demo button connected to a good scheduling calendar gets considerably more successful interactions and closed deals than the “contact us” or “fill out a form” methods. There are several reasons for this:

• The prospect knows the appointment is about something specific (the Schedule a Demo button was on a particular solution page), tangible (they will see the technology in action), and measurable (you are telling them the appointment duration is 45 minutes).
• The prospect goes into a calendar system and enters a time and date when they want the appointment. This is a very high level of commitment.
• The prospect answers some qualifying questions while booking the appointment. You get a considerable amount of intelligence about what they want, what their biggest challenge is, and why they are coming to you.
• For the prospect, it means a task is done (establishing a date and time to move their project forward).

Notice all the points above start with “the prospect.” That’s because this methodology is putting the buyer in control of the process. 

The number of cancelled appointments my clients have experienced is very low. Buyers have a deadline to see a solution, reduce their shortlist, or spend their budget, or they have some other constraint motivating them to take action.

Geography

The Schedule a Demo button needs to be on each and every solution page. It should be inside any PDF brochure you create with a live link. It should be at the end of a PDF white paper you publish, and it should be an integral part of any media you create.

Scheduling System

Clients can quickly view your real-time availability and book their own appointments or reschedule with a simple click and eliminate 100% of the drudgery. You get a notification of the appointment and reminders. Everyone gets reminders and a notification if either party reschedules.

BEFORE Using a Schedule System

Send lots of emails back and forth. Spend time with a prospect who does not fit your business model or is bigger and more substantial than you assumed, catching you off-guard.

AFTER Using a Schedule System

Get a notification that someone has booked an appointment at a specific time and date. Read about who they are, what they’re looking for, and what their biggest challenge is. Enjoy meeting with a prospective new customer.

Since we are now allowing prospects to go away without giving us information about themselves, is there another way we can track them? There is, and it’s called retargeting.

Retargeting means when someone visits your website, a pixel is stored in their browser that allows you to track them after they have left your site. With the proper retargeting ad platform, you can remind them of their visit by showing them ads on the major sites they visit, including Bloomberg and CNN. That may sound expensive, but because retargeting as an ad strategy is not used as much as regular CPC ads, the market for bids is very reasonable.

4 Reasons Why Retargeting Is a Good Idea

1. Your audience is already interested. The retargeted ads that prospects see are relevant to what they have been researching, giving you the opportunity for both a higher click-through rate and a lower CPC from retargeting overall.

1. You know what they looked at. This gives you a clue as to what to retarget them with. A good retargeting campaign is nicely targeted to the actual area your prospect is exploring rather than a general brand approach, so it is more relevant and engaging.

1. You can use a sequenced retargeting campaign. Serve up different messages in the 3 months after the prospect has visited your solution page or other content. That way, you are conveying different messages—brand-specific, solution-specific, and information-specific—and discovering where the highest conversion rate is for that interest area.

1. You can avoid overdoing it. If someone visits your website during the day and then sees retargeting ads on their sports news channel in the evening, it can be annoying! 

That’s where using a retargeting option that only works during the prospect’s business hours makes sense.

So, the prospect comes to your website and books a demo or goes away with a retargeting pixel in their browser. That’s the faster way to building a presence and optimizing both your organic and paid marketing dollars.

 If you are not attracting buyers, you’re attracting researchers. The purpose of brand awareness is to put your company in the candidates’ circle when someone is looking for a solution. If they are not coming to you directly, you need to be one of the 3 or 4 companies they are considering. And if your brand is not well-known, you want to be seen as a viable option to more established players.

One way to get more brand awareness is to start showing up in the media on a regular basis.

The Press Release: A Whole New World

The concept of the press release has changed in the last 15 years. Previously, a press release was sent to a media outlet (like a newspaper). The editor decided to publish the entire article word for word, do a synopsis, or ignore it completely. The newspaper’s audience would see it the day it was published. Once it was published and distributed, it would never be seen again unless someone searched the archives at the local library.

Today, the press release is a different animal. It’s an article that will be online and “live” for decades to come—after all, it’s the Internet! Today’s press release is published and distributed by press release services to many media platforms like Reuters, news channels, TV station websites, news platforms like Yahoo Business and Morningstar, or news aggregators like the Huffington Post.

Most media channels have a “press release service” section. Since most press releases are published by press release services, the media channels earn income from publishing the press releases they receive through press release networks and other distribution services.

People may not see the press release the same day it is published, but they could see it if they do a relevant search for the topic it covers. That might be months later as the press release is “live” on the web and can be found by searching with specific keywords. The best press releases take advantage of these searches.

How to Leverage Press Releases

Successful large brands in your industry get lots of press. Their press releases are usually about new deals and other sorts of announcements. The strategy we use is beyond the chest-beating exercise of your competitors, however.

Our press release has a different approach. You don’t have to wait for a significant event to do a press release. Our press releases are used to take advantage of the search volume that targeted keywords attract. This strategic press release is not limited to a major event but rather to a piece of news that is relevant to the problem your technology solves. 

Your press releases will highlight your technology as an answer to a problem that links to your solution page.

Prospects looking for a solution see the press release because it is showing up in their searches on Google; they read the press release because it may help them solve the problem; and they click on the link to your solution because what you are saying is relevant.

Keyword Strategy for Press Releases

There are thousands of press releases published every day—more than anyone will ever consume. Like any webpage anywhere, the article has to be found or show up in a place where there is an interested audience.

In order to have your press release found and read, it’s not good enough to release boilerplate industry news. You must be strategic in what you are writing about. As a rule, a press release is about an event: a new product, a new launch, a new client, or an announcement. Instead, the strategic press release picks the terms that reflect the problem your prospects are looking to solve. 

The type of language that goes into the title of the strategic press release and the solution for the problem is addressed in the body. So, instead of featuring the new product or upgrade as the “hero” of the story, the problem is featured. The topic of the press release is still news, but its focus is on the problem that is being solved.

This means your press release is showing up when someone is searching for a solution. When someone clicks on an article on Reuters that discusses their problem and presents your technology as the way to solve it, they do so because it’s speaking to them in the context of status and authority.

Cost

Brand awareness is usually very expensive. You have to advertise heavily and make sure your name is everywhere. But with a consistent schedule of press releases distributed to visible business news channels, you can get a tremendous amount of traction.

Typically, a press release has a distribution cost based on the level of service you purchase. A basic distribution plan to business news sites will do fine. This is a very low-cost way to generate brand awareness and garner leads. 

By setting up a regular publishing schedule and issuing press releases to major media sites like Yahoo Finance, Reuters, and Nasdaq—with topics that are directly related to the problems your prospects are looking for—you can gain brand awareness and have your buyers seek you out for that solution for years to come.

More Press Means More Authority—More Authority Means More Status

The strategic press release is a creative way to attract attention to your technology on major news outlets. Remember what I said about status? Another way to generate more status (and thus, more authority) in the eyes of Google is to show up on major news media sites—and the more news sites you’re on, the better.

It’s hard to discount an article about a company that solves your problem if you are reading about it on Nasdaq.com, Reuters, or Yahoo Finance. Established news sites not only give your business status in the eyes of Google, they also give your press release status in the eyes of prospects.

The traditional approach to media press releases: Issue a boilerplate press release when you land a new client, create a new partnership, or have a major announcement. Include lots of industry jargon and acronyms.

The strategic press release approach: Regular, consistent press releases that highlight your technology as an answer to a searchable problem that links to your solution page. Plain language that addresses what prospects want.

Press Release Services

There are a variety of press release services. Although some of them offer a free option that does get some traction, they do not compare to the reach a good paid service provides. You want your press releases on major brand name news sites.

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The Idea of Your Product: Make It Easy for Prospects to Understand the Problem You Solve

Since your technology brand is not well-known in new markets, you want to take a different approach to what the product marketing team in your home market does.

It’s understandable they want to promote the name of your products or your brand—who wouldn’t? 

But in order to get faster traction, it’s important to understand that prospects do not know your product name and brand (yet). That’s why you create content around the idea of your product rather than the actual product or solution name.

If they do not know your product or brand name, they are not going to search for it.

Prospects are looking for solutions and not a trade name—unless there is a name they know. So, the challenge is two-fold:

• show up beside the bigger competitors with recognizable brand names when someone is searching for a solution, or
• show up when someone is searching for a solution to their problem, in an area the competition has not mined yet.

Your product solves a specific problem that gives you license to create content around that problem topic. Some product marketers or other executives in your home country might push back at the idea of not promoting the product name, but they don’t have the headwinds you do. 

Promote the concept or idea and attract prospects who are interested in solving that problem. Once they are in your court, you can introduce them to the brand or specific product names.

Have Your Prospects Commit to a Meeting – And Qualify Themselves

B2B Content Marketing USA is based on the premise that a booked demo appointment, made by the prospect, is better than an email address any day—especially when the prospect fills out a questionnaire after specifying a date and time, qualifying themselves and focusing the conversation. 

When prospects book their own appointment and answer qualifying questions, their commitment to meet with you is very high. They have put the date on their calendar and have made a very specific time to meet with you— the “buyer’s journey” at its best. They also appreciate that their time will not be wasted because they are very clear what their needs are—and that’s before you even meet.

Email Takes Longer

If we were to follow the standard content marketing practices discussed earlier, and if we proceeded through the 10 steps listed there, eventually we would get to the point where someone would step up and schedule a demo to see our product. 

You would need a lot of time and effort to get enough people onto your mailing list, to figure out which content to send them, to follow up on what looks like a warm lead, and so on.

You Don’t Have Time

You don’t have the luxury of time, so it’s important to know what three elements you need to generate appointments ASAP. After all, you have technology solutions to sell and quarterly performance reports to fill out. This simple combination works because it avoids collecting a low-commitment email address and focuses on getting a high-commitment demo appointment.

1. The Blog Post. This is the article (or one of several articles) that attracts prospects in the first place. We’re not talking about a new client announcement or interesting “industry” news. The article is targeted specifically to a keyword phrase or a combination of words that matches what prospects are using when they are searching for solutions. The article provides valuable information as well as the idea of what a good solution can do. At the end of the post is a link to the solution page.

1. The Solution Page. The solution page has all the features and benefits of the product. It has a short intro and a longer “key benefits” list. The solution page is written in clear language and has attractive graphics and branding.

1. The Schedule a Demo Button. The appointment button takes a prospect to a calendar where they can schedule the time and date of their demo. The prospect fills out a form that contains qualifying questions—a key sign of commitment to the call.

As you can see with this strategy, there is no gated content, email capture, social media “engagement,” or other unnecessary activity. It’s not necessary to understand where prospects are in the buyer’s journey, or whether they are being entertained.

Good Content—Good Leads

With good writing and research, and with the weight of authority your website will have once you follow the advice in this book, your article or blog post will show up in very good company in Google search results, where prospects are doing their research

A colleague of mine works with a company that manufactures store fixtures for chains like Starbucks. One day, the owner received a call from a real estate property developer who wanted a complete shopping mall outfitted. 

Once the contract was signed, the owner asked the developer how he found his company. “I was watching the hockey game on TV,” the developer said, “and I saw your ad on one of the boards. I figured that if you are advertising on the NHL you must know what you are doing.”

Status comes in the context of where you show up, and being on the first few pages of Google next to larger competitors makes your company look very good indeed.

Once on the solution page, the prospect can click the demo button and book their own appointment.

“We can’t get people to put in their professional company email address, let alone provide any other information!” is the hue and cry of many marketing teams. That’s because every prospect knows if they give their real email address and other information in exchange for a white paper or other report, there is a good chance they will be called by a sales person or sent newsletters and other notifications they don’t want.

The difference here is one of intent: you are not asking for their name and email so that they can download a report or get added to a list. You’re having them book an appointment to talk about a solution to their burning problem or need, and you’re asking a few questions in order to make the appointment more productive. B2B prospects appreciate that.

This combination—blog article, solution page, and demo button—delivers qualified leads in buyer mode. It’s achieved by focusing on someone in the buyer’s mindset and letting them take the initiative to reach out.

Tired: Capturing emails and building a mailing list. Guessing where prospects are in the buyer’s journey. Sending them stuff to read. Trying to follow up.

Wired: Attracting prospects with well-placed articles. Educating them specifically about the problem the solution solves. Letting them book their own appointment, choose the time and place, and then answer qualifying questions that keep the conversation productive and focused.