According to Demand Generation Benchmark Survey 2018, 70% of marketers say their demand gen budgets will increase and 34% say their spending will grow by more than 20%.
That surely points towards the importance of demand generation. And, we believe you can drive unlimited demand generation with content marketing if you do it the right way. But, how? Before we set out to discuss anything that you should be doing to drive unlimited demand generation with content marketing, we need to understand one fundamental concept about demand generation and content marketing.
Demand generation is a full funnel approach of many tactics and methods. Contrastingly, content marketing is a demand generation tool. Demand generation marketers use content marketing tactics to attract leads, nurture prospects, close deals and upsell existing customers. If you are driving (or want to drive) demand generation with content marketing, here are the top few tips for you
1. Story-Based Content: Create Content that Drives your Audience to Come Back for More
Warning: This is not easy. This is not once written, its done for life strategy. If driving traffic to your website is a challenge for you, you are not alone. According to a Hubspot research, 61% of marketers say generating traffic and leads is their top challenge.
Must Read: What Is Demand Generation Marketing and Why Is It Important?
If you are looking to drive unlimited demand generation with content marketing, you have to start thinking about content in a different manner. If I were to give you an example, I would say – plan it like TV shows (for example, GOT) do – leaving people wanting to know what happened next and creating the required suspense.
For starters, you have to think about the bigger picture and plan a story that has a strong hook. Then, you have to break into several small pieces of consumable content – which can be blog posts, downloadable, podcasts, videos etc.
Usually, you would have a content calendar which points out what to write on, what format each of those content will be in etc. For creating and maintaining the “want to read the next post”, you need to work on the complete story beforehand. Meaning, you need to know how the story goes, how many parts will it be, what type of format, how will you promote each of them, how will you close each of the content to generate curiosity and give a hint of the upcoming part etc. If you manage to pull off binge-worthy content, you will surely drive unlimited demand generation with content marketing. This naturally gets us to the next point
Must Read: 7 B2B Content Marketing Tips You Should Start Using Today
2. Personalize all of this Content
If you want to drive unlimited demand generation with content marketing, it is important that you know your audience in and out. How else can personalize content in a manner that resonates with your audience? And, for personalization, it is important to segment your audience based on various factors (for example, end use or pain point addressed). You can understand your audience from the data collected through the buyers’ cycle. Remember, the more personal the content, the more demand it would generate. Let’s take a simple example.
Let’s say, your target audiences are small businesses and startups. So, you want to write a blog post on 3 basic rules for content marketing. Instead of this, you can write basic rules every small business should follow for effective content marketing. In this article, go deep into the problems usually faced by your audience in the process of content marketing and answer them.
Personalizing does not stop at blog posts. It also means – personalized and segmented email campaigns, social media campaigns etc. If you want to nurture leads, drive sales opportunities and ultimately increase revenue, you’re going to need highly engaging content.
Must Read: 7 Steps to Developing a Content Marketing Strategy
The ability to segment email lists and individualize email campaign messaging is the most effective personalization tactics for 51% and 50% of marketing influencers respectively. (Ascend2, 2016) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)
3. How Else do you Want to Promote this Content?
You have personalized content and worked on creating binge-worthy content. Now, what? Demand generation is all about putting forth your business in front of as many eyeballs as possible. That basically means – you cannot only publish content on your website and expect to drive demand generation with content marketing.
You need to have a strategy to push your content in front of as many people as possible. These can include sharing content on social media (Facebook groups, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest etc), utilizing SEO strategy, email newsletters, guest posting etc.
If you are confused, we highly recommend going with content syndication in the beginning. It’s hands down, the best way to put your content in front of your potential buyers. Content is here to stay. Customers self-educate themselves before they decide to buy anything and for them to decide, it is important that your demand generation and content marketing efforts are directed in the right path.
After all, 47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep. (Demand Gen Report, 2016) The better you get at using content for revenue generation efforts, the more successful your organization will be at hitting the goals. What has been your experience in driving demand generation with content marketing? Share your thoughts below.
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