Content is great for customer acquisition and retention. It can help you generate more prospects and nurture the leads in your sales pipeline. And more importantly the content we create should not be a feedback loop to stroke our egos as communicators, it must be planned and created with one objective in mind: to inform and educate the audience. It's not about us, it's about the problems, challenges, and needs of those we intent to help and deliver value to.

1. LET’S START
RESPECTING THE AUDIENCE

2. THE STARTING POINT
1. Understand your audience
2. Get to know the customer
3. Listen!
4. Develop a content plan

3. “Having an audience is a
privilege, not a right. It’s
exactly like wearing Spandex.”
-Peter Shankman

4. DEFINE WHO NEEDS YOU AND WHY
[A specific type of companies] generating [this
amount] in sales and who allocate approximately
[this budget] a year for [the business area you have
a valuable offering].
THEN DEFINE KEY PERSONAS

5. Buyer
Prestige
Career
Security
Social
needs
Personality
Beliefs
WHY PEOPLE BUY?

6. B2B Buyer Trait Rule of Engagement
Connected Publish Deep and Wide
Impatient Efficient Self-Service
Elusive Measure, Model & Move
Impulsive Lifecycle Marketing
Informed Consultative Selling
Only human Trust
B2B buyer traits & Rule of engagement (York 2012, 4)
B2B BEHAVIORAL TRAITS

7. HOW DO MY CUSTOMERS PREFER TO BUY?
1. Problem recognition
2. General need description
3. Product specification
4. Supplier search
5. Proposal solicitation
6. Supplier selection
7. Order-routine specification
8. Performance review
Business buying process (Kotler & Armstrong 2012, 200)

8. MORE ABOUT BEHAVIORS
• B2B buyers are on average 60% through the buying process
before engaging a salesperson.
• This means that the Internet gives the B2B buyer control over the
buying process by allowing the her to regulate the flow of
information.
• A business strongest strategy is to enable efficient self-service for
the prospect by giving access to its content.

9. ENABLE THE JOURNEY

10. REMEMBER TO MEASURE

11. REMEMBER TO MEASURE
BUT NOT EVERY RANDOM THING!

12. METRICS MATTERS SO
CHOOSE WISELY
AND KEEP THEM RELEVANT

13. Stage Objec*ve Methods Metrics Metric
Objec*ve Tools
Marke&ng Produce
leads
Brand
awareness
SEO,
SEM,
SMM,
Display,
Content,
Email
Tradi&onal
only
for
high
QA
prospects
Site
visits:
• How
many?
• From
where?
Journey
• the Sell Funnel, the When?
SMM
Analy&cs
System Work BeIer
target
marke&ng
Google
Analy&cs
Leads Get
poten&al
customer
to
register
and
try
product Offer
free
trial
Support
customer
during
trial
Beta
signups
Purchases
Targe&ng
sales
Learn
about
customer
needs
Iden&fy
segments
Improve
acquisi&on
Monitoring
func&ons
in
the
product
and
sales
systems
Prospects Help
prospects
via
phone
and
website
content
to
understand
the
value
of
the
product
Mo&vate
prospects
to
research
product
literature
Content
Marke&ng
Telemarke&ng
Amount
and
quality
of
sales
calls.
Web
analy&cs:
• Visited
sites
• Downloaded
materials
• Time
on
site
Improve
website
and
sales
opera&ons
Google
Analy&cs
CMS
Sales
support
systems
(CRM)
New
customer Close
the
deal Signed
contracts
SLAs
Billing
Op&ons
Support
Sales
Volume
ASP
Sales
Cycle
Length
CAC
Improve
sales
opera&ons
Reduce
complexity
of
sales
process
Sales
support
systems
(CRM)
Deployment Create
good
customer
rela&onship
by
helping
in
the
deployment
Offer
support
services
Offer
addi&onal
training
and
consulta&on
services
Number
of
support
requests
User
feedback
Volume
of
service
sales
Improve
deployment
process
Improve
customer
support
Increase
service
sales
-­‐
AYer
sales Renew
exis&ng
contracts Keep
customer
rela&onship
ac&ve
by
having
regular
contact
with
customer
Churn
ARC
NSAT
Target
aYer
sales
Collect
informa&on
to
extend
CLV
Monitoring
func&ons
in
the
product
and
sales
systems
Community Create
awareness
and
cri&cal
mass
(WOM) Channels
for
users
and
devs
to
exchange
ideas
APIs
Following
the
community
Social
media
engagement
Get
customer
feedback
Create
new
products
&
features

14. Stage Objec*ve Methods Metrics Metric
Objec*ve Tools
Marke&ng Produce
leads
Brand
awareness
SEO,
SEM,
SMM,
Display,
Content,
Email
Tradi&onal
only
for
high
QA
prospects
Site
visits:
• How
many?
• From
where?
Journey
the • Sell Funnel, the When?
Post Purchase
Satisfaction Work BeIer
target
marke&ng
Google
Analy&cs
Leads Get
poten&al
customer
to
register
and
try
product Offer
free
trial
Support
customer
during
trial
Beta
signups
Purchases
Targe&ng
sales
Learn
about
customer
needs
Iden&fy
segments
Improve
acquisi&on
Monitoring
func&ons
in
the
product
and
sales
systems
Prospects Help
prospects
via
phone
and
website
content
to
understand
the
value
of
the
product
Mo&vate
prospects
to
research
product
literature
Content
Marke&ng
Telemarke&ng
Amount
and
quality
of
sales
calls.
Web
analy&cs:
• Visited
sites
• Downloaded
materials
• Time
on
site
Improve
website
and
sales
opera&ons
Google
Analy&cs
CMS
Sales
support
systems
(CRM)
New
customer Close
the
deal Signed
contracts
SLAs
Billing
Op&ons
Support
Sales
Volume
ASP
Sales
Cycle
Length
CAC
Improve
sales
opera&ons
Reduce
complexity
of
sales
process
Sales
support
systems
(CRM)
Deployment Create
good
customer
rela&onship
by
helping
in
the
deployment
Offer
support
services
Offer
addi&onal
training
and
consulta&on
services
Number
of
support
requests
User
feedback
Volume
of
service
sales
Improve
deployment
process
Improve
customer
support
Increase
service
sales
-­‐
AYer
sales Renew
exis&ng
contracts Keep
customer
rela&onship
ac&ve
by
having
regular
contact
with
customer
Churn
ARC
NSAT
Target
aYer
sales
Collect
informa&on
to
extend
CLV
Monitoring
func&ons
in
the
product
and
sales
systems
Community Create
awareness
and
cri&cal
mass
(WOM) Channels
for
users
and
devs
to
exchange
ideas
APIs
Following
the
community
Social
media
engagement
Get
customer
feedback
Create
new
products
&
features
SMM
Analy&cs
System
Top Funnel
Discovery
Mid-Funnel
Consideration
Bottom Funnel
Decision

15. Work the Funnel, Sell the Journey
S/O to Matt Heinz for the phrase.
We dig it!

16. ONE MORE THOUGHT
The basic needs of the buyer stay the
same, only the behavior for meeting
those needs change through
the journey.

17. About Angles Media
Angles Media is an early stage content marketing startup
headquartered in Seattle, WA. Our mission is to empower
businesses to be more effective at communicating their value to
their potential customers.
We created Odyssey in an effort to support B2B companies to
insightfully create the content that matters most. Odyssey is saving
our customers hundreds of thousands of dollars each quarter in
content production costs.
activateodyssey.com