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B2B marketing consultant Michele Linn recently wrote a post on Savvy B2B Marketing with an interesting framework with seven steps and questions to answer to ensure that the promotional plan for your B2B content approach covers all key elements.
At Savvy B2B, we talk a lot about content creation, but content promotion is equally important.
When you want to promote your latest eBook, white paper or any other offer, there are two things to consider: where do you want to promote your offer and what message do you want to communicate?
By answering the seven questions below, you can focus your thoughts and streamline your B2B content marketing efforts.
What is your objective?
Be specific about the goal of your offer. For instance, do you want to generate leads, build a list, create buzz or establish yourself as a thought leader? Your decision in this area is one of the determining factors to decide if you should require registration for your white paper or eBook.
Who is your target audience?
I’m a big believer in targeting each promotion to a very specific audience; a one-size-fits-all approach usually results in nebulous offer that resonates with no one. To hone in on important prospect details, I suggest creating a buyer persona.
To have the best chance of success, you need to understand what makes sometime tick, where they look for information and who influences their decisions. Understanding your audience will help you answer most of the questions below.
Where do your prospects search for information?
There are so many places where prospects look for information: search engines, blogs, professional associations, newsletters, publications, Twitter, content syndication sites, forums, LinkedIn, and more This sounds obvious, but if you don’t know exactly who you are trying to reach and what their online habits are, you won’t reach them. You have limited time and budget to promote your offer, so you need to make sure you are promoting in places where your readers are looking.
What is your budget?
As a follow up to the previous question, you also need to consider your budget. Depending on your objective and the places where your prospects search for information, there are different promotional tactics you may want to consider.
What pains are they experiencing?
After you determine where you want to promote your offer, you need to consider the content of your promotion. Identify the prospect’s pain point by uncovering what questions your readers have or what information are they searching for. If they aren’t experiencing an issue, your message will probably not resonate with them.
What benefit does your offer provide?
For some reason, identifying the benefit can be tricky. There is an inclination to tout the benefit of your product and solution, but your promotions need to explain what someone will achieve by viewing your offer. Identify the two or three succinct benefits the reader will receive from your offer, and make sure you highlight these points in your promotions.
What keywords do your prospects use?
Considering the way that people search for information (search engines, news alerts, RSS feeds, etc), it is critical for you to incorporate the right keywords in your promotions. There are five things I think you should consider when choosing your keywords.
Although every situation is different, I have found that answering these questions provides a solid framework for developing your promotional plan.
About the author
Michele Linn is a B2B content strategist and as such passionate about content because she thinks it is the cornerstone to B2B marketing.
She is also a founding member and frequent blogger at Savvy B2B Marketing.
Her website is Linn Communications.
You can follow her on Twitter here.
Hi Michele,
Thanks for the great list of questions to capture our B2B content marketing efforts and to serve as a framework for promoting our content. I agree with your observation that if we understand our target audience, then the answers to most of the other questions will naturally follow. I especially like the question about considering our customers’ pain points, which really brings home to me that each search inquiry reveals a problem the searcher is trying to solve, and an opportunity to provide content to meet that need. Thanks for the useful list and reminder to be more audience-centric.
Peg
Hi,
I truly admire the effort you have made in providing step by step information regarding promotional strategy for your business.
I would like to add the product that you are willing to sell in the market should be of people interest as well other wise the strategies even made explicitly also fails..