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What Marketers Get Wrong About Content’s Role in the New Buyer’s Journey

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Many people talk (and write) about how the B2B marketing process has changed. But they overlook how the entire buying process has changed.

Volumes of research and points of view articles explore how digital marketing needs to change to meet the needs of the modern B2B buyer. Heck, I’ve written plenty of them.

But it’s not a one-way street. The Internet and associated digital technology have also upended the way B2B customers research and purchase things.

You’ll find it easier to adapt your B2B marketing process if you first understand how B2B buyers’ journeys have changed (and why).

To get better at #B2B marketing, you need to understand how the buyer’s journey has changed, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

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Let go of the outmoded discovery-driven buyer’s journey

Have you ever wondered why the sales department holds such a powerful voice in your organization?

Before the web era, discovery drove the B2B buying cycle. When it came to new or innovative purchases (as opposed to simple commodity repurchases), buyers would discover options for new products and services through their existing relationships with current vendors and in print trade journals.

Buyers needed education about changing materials, technologies, and services to give their business an edge, as they still do today. But once they discovered that this new “thing” existed, they’d turn to their existing, trusted network of existing vendors and partners for information.

One B2B study from 1987 found a “strong association of newness and the amount of information desired, but a weak correlation of this information and the consideration of alternative sources” when purchasing new products and services.

Put simply: B2B buyers needed more information for new purchases, and they preferred to get that information from their existing vendor relationships.

Is it any wonder that in the 1984 book Industrial Marketing Strategy, the authors discuss the importance of the relationships between sales personnel and buyers? They wrote that “buyers have a heavy reliance on their sales representatives… [they are] the backbone of new product marketing effectiveness.”

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Today, we all understand that the process of gathering product information and the information sources themselves have fundamentally changed. What’s not as clear is whether the role of salespeople is decreasing or if buyers are longing to trust their sales representatives to steer them to information and options.

An article in Harvard Business Review indicates the latter may be true. The authors describe the modern salesperson as more than a facilitator of a sale, but also an “educator, negotiator, consultant, solution configurator, service provider, and relationship manager. They are integral to discovering the ‘something more’ that customers want.”

#B2B buyers once turned to trusted vendors for purchasing advice. Are those days really over, asks @Robert_Rose? Or are buyers longing for our help? Via @CMIContent Click To Tweet

Understand the new change-driven buyer’s journey

Regardless of the salesperson’s role, the buyer’s journey has evolved into a change-driven process. Decisions about new purchases at B2B companies have become what sociologists would call an “intentional change process.”

The intentional change process is a theory developed by Richard Boyatzis, a professor at Case Western Reserve University. It outlines five common-sense steps to follow to make a lasting change. The five steps include:

  1. Envision the ideal destination (by describing a desired outcome for our future)
  2. Explore the gaps to get there (by asking what is needed to manifest that future)
  3. Develop a learning agenda (by developing our expertise to build roadmaps)
  4. Execute and practice the new habits (by deploying a test of the new habit)
  5. Get support (by solidifying the relationships that will help us stick to the new habit)

The prototypical B2B buyer’s journey today lines up with the intentional change process almost exactly:

  • Envision a destination (awareness). In the B2B buyer’s journey, companies increasingly start with a desired future change.
  • Explore the gaps (discovery). Then, an assembled team explores and focuses on internal gaps to narrow down the type of solution that makes the most sense.
  • Develop a learning agenda (learn and try). The team collects information from vendors, consultants, analysts, and even competitors to become subject matter experts in this solution category. Next comes a trial of the product, a prototype of the new operation, or a proof of concept.
  • Practice new habits and get support. Once the decision is made, the buying group facilitates the internal process and support for successful change management and implementation of the new solution in the group.

1651495603 844 What Marketers Get Wrong About Contents Role in the New

So, what’s the problem? Marketers spend so much time trying to help buyers envision a destination and explore gaps that by the time the buyer is ready to set a learning agenda, they’re overwhelmed and ready to give up.

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In focusing so much on convincing B2B buyers they should change, marketers have forgotten that buyers are trying to learn how to change.

In focusing on convincing #B2B buyers they should change, we’ve forgotten to use #ContentMarketing to teach them how to change, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

Marketers are missing buyers’ intentions

Since the first three of the five journey steps involve consuming content, many B2B marketers assume they need to create more and more digital information for the buyers to find as they build that knowledge.

They optimize content for organic search results or buy their way to the top of those results. They develop deep learning or resource centers to attract buyers looking for information at step one.

But this approach produces an almost unclimbable mountain of research, information, and education. In fact, research firm Gartner recently pointed out that B2B brands need to rethink their content marketing, saying:

In a world where customers are struggling with too much information rather than not enough, the most successful marketers are focused on providing less information, specifically designed to make buying easier.

B2B marketers need context on where and how to deliver different kinds of information, not just more early-stage information.

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The classic marketing goal is to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. Most businesses have nailed any one of the three, but few manage all three simultaneously.

To get it right, you must understand where the buyer is on their intentional change journey. In other words, what is their actual intent?

The context of the buyer’s intent is the most important thing to understand because it is the only way you can provide the contextual (and differentiating) message that helps buyers make a decision.

An original research project

So, what is the answer?

I recently worked with ContentGINE to develop a framework to answer that question. We wanted to know how B2B marketers can map the buyer’s intentional change journey with data and content consumption tools to gain better insight into potential buying signals.

I’ve created a tiered approach to thought leadership programs that provides a framework for differentiating content, not just overloading buyers with more research and information.

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You can read the full paper here.

Buying is about trying to minimize change

Change always requires time and energy. One widespread fallacy about the B2B marketing process is that buyers are looking for the most significant – or most fundamental – change to the solution they want to replace. It’s not true.

Many B2B buyers have set a transformational vision. But the intentional change journey often involves exploring an incremental improvement.

Regardless, buyers want to assemble a roadmap that provides the least amount of disruption on the way to their intended future destination.

Serving contextually relevant content to a buyer based on their intention will almost always be the best next action you can take to help them change.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute



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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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