12 Ways To Reach Customers With Great Content

Moving customers along the sales cycle takes a wealth of planning and great content. And content targeted at today's industrial, technical and other B2B markets needs to deliver much more than simple mechanical drawings, a few graphs and a table of product numbers.

Great content should address your customer's concerns, solve their problems, differentiate your products from your competition and highlight unique product benefits. No matter the medium, presentation is important and requires a quality design aesthetic, dynamic illustrations, photography and more.

Fortunately today's digital options, along with traditional media, offer plenty of avenues to deliver this great customer-focused content:

Print & Digital Literature – Brochures, catalogs, application sheets and case studies all make great leave-behinds for your sales team, snail-mail responses to inquiries and hand-outs at events and shows. PDF or electronic versions provide even more options. Email them in response to inquiries; include on websites; optimize for searchability.

Newsletters – Use electronic or printed versions (or both) to share the latest product news, case studies, industry tips, trends and more on a regular basis to build and maintain customer loyalty.

White Papers – Prospects seek out white papers more than other content sources in their initial search efforts. Capture leads early-on when you use your industry expertise and thought leadership to address the questions and concerns of your customers.

eBooks – Expand a white paper or address a topic in-depth. Publish in eBook form. Makes a great premium to help move prospects forward who are already in the buying cycle.

Technical Illustrations – Photorealistic techniques bring clarity and excitement to otherwise mundane offerings. And dynamic illustrations offer an inside view of product features and advantages, providing clear, easy-to-understand communication.

Video & Animation – Whether you show an interview with an industry expert, comments from a customer advocate or an animated version of your product in action to reveal unseen features, video (real and animated) is a powerful way to share content dynamically on your website and through your own YouTube channel. Show to sell.

Websites/Microsites – Keep all sites updated with the current, pertinent information customers are seeking. Make content easy to find with simple navigation and searchability. Focus on specific products or services within dedicated microsites for even more impact.

Blogs – Share information your audience is seeking. Write for them, not yourself.

Forums/Comments – Actively seek out and comment on other industry blogs and forums with helpful information that points back to your original content.

SlideShare – Get extra mileage out of PowerPoint presentations by posting them on SlideShare and promoting that link through your website, blog and other venues.

Webinars – Whether you want to train existing customers on product maintenance, host a virtual conference or introduce a new product, webinars are an economical and efficient way to share content that captures new leads and strengthens customer relationships.

Podcasts/Transcripts – Create new material or multiply the use of existing content by sharing the audio portion of webinars, videos, animations and PPT presentations in podcasts or transcribe them to share in PDF formats.

Are you using every avenue to your advantage? While every medium is unique, be sure your content is integrated throughout to propel your customers to the final pitch.

You Can No Longer Ignore Social Media

To capture or maintain a page one or two ranking in organic searches, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts insist that a company's social media presence has a significant influence.

So if you've been putting off dealing with the whole Social Media realm (thinking it's just not important for your technical, business audience), put it off no longer. If for no other reason (and there are several other reasons), you need to be active in social media to stay in the battle for Search ranking.

The Secrets Behind Search
Search is the new yellow pages, industrial directory and Library of Congress on steroids. And the first couple of pages of results in your keyword categories is the battleground.

The search engine giants (Google, Bing, Yahoo) closely guard their exact ranking methods and change them often to help prevent abuse of the system. But even though there are no guarantees, SEO experts generally agree that the following tactics are essential for boosting your ranking:

• Optimize your website meta data
• Keep your website content keyword rich and current
• Maximize inbound links to your website*

Did you notice that little asterisk (*) on the last bullet? Yeah...that's where Social Media comes in. The more content, information and buzz about your company, products and services out there in Internet-land, the better your chances are of securing those prime first page spots in the battle for organic search ranks.

One reason this is true lies in the fluid and prolific nature of social media. The ever-changing flow of content as it is shared in the social realm has the potential for driving up quality inbound link scores to your website. But another reason is that Google and Bing just changed the rules a bit. Recent agreements with Twitter and Facebook mean that these real-time social media venues will be included in organic searches, thereby impacting the overall ranking mix.

Here's a couple of links to recent announcements:

Bing is bringing Twitter and Facebook search to you
Google announces Twitter search

Now what?
If you haven't set aside marketing dollars for social media in 2010, do it now! If you need help figuring all this out, contact us. Social media does have a place, an important one, in B2B marketing plans. It isn't as hard as it looks, and the dividends could surprise you.