The Best B2B Article of the Year Went Under the Radar
One of my favorite articles I’ve read this year was this one. It doesn’t focus on specific tactics that one can instantly employ. It doesn’t make wild predictions about the future of Social Media. It also doesn’t feature a list of ‘top 10’ marketing reads of the week, enticing you to click. Instead, it sheds light on one very simple subject and links it back to B2B marketing efforts - and that subject is ‘context’. If you want to read the article, just click the link above and enjoy. If you want a brief summary, then read on.
Before we get to that magic word, ‘Context’, let’s pull the data that supports the insight:
Eight years ago, SiriusDecisions (now owned by Forrester Research) found up to 67% of the buyer’s journey was digital. Research firm Gartner has found 27% of B2B buyers’ time is spent reviewing content they research independently online.
A 2020 McKinsey study found “B2B companies see digital interactions as two to three times more important to their customers than traditional sales interactions.” CMI’s own research has found the biggest investment by B2B marketers in 2021 is digital content creation (70%), followed closely by “website enhancements” (66%).
Let’s get back to that ‘Context’ thing. Many B2B marketing efforts conform to the context of the audience - in the past, that audience is deeply engrossed in legacy media types. That’s why the crux of the piece is centered around a click-bait-y title like ‘Beyond the PDF’. Why? Because the PDF is one of the most embraced information dissemination tools in the B2B world.
Is it because PDFs are better than Websites, Social Media, digital RFPs, etc.? No. Not really. In fact, they are fairly frustrating to work with often times and limit the ability to use anything beyond static visual content to bolster the brand’s message. So…why do we rely on them? The answer is ‘Context’.
Put simply: Content consumers are more likely to value a media format because it more readily fits a desired personal context than whether it is new, offers superior quality, or has more features.
Thus, just like in Blockbuster vs. Netflix, legacy media experiences are not made outdated when a new, better media type emerges. They are made outdated when the legacy experience is made contextually irrelevant to the consumer.
And most importantly:
…but to address the context of today’s buyers, B2B businesses must evolve to create more compelling digital content marketing experiences.
Businesses don’t experience the pressure of creating more compelling, contextual content marketing efforts until it’s too late. Until they’ve ‘been positioned by a competitor’. Until they ‘need to play catch-up’. Then, it’s ‘hurry up, we need an answer to what they’re doing, and make it quick!’
I highly encourage businesses and organizations not become complacent when it comes to their content efforts, especially when it comes to business development. Senior staff should lean on those on-the-rise as each party’s context differs, and the party on-the-rise has a unique insight into what ‘moves the needle’ with the newer and ever-evolving audience.
Instead of trying to write something better, I’ll defer to the author one more time:
B2B content marketing is undergoing the same transformation as The New York Times, Netflix, Blockbuster, and every other media company out there. We can no longer be saddled by or have an attachment to legacy processes, technologies, and digital experiences. As marketers, we must realize new disruptive competition is coming from every angle and be ready to answer the questions – and act on our answers.
Those are thoughts we should not ignore.
