Content Amplification: You're Looking at the Funnel the Wrong Way
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You’re an expert by now. You produce valuable content and use it to position your business as accessible and helpful. However, even with the latest technology, until you change your perspective on the buyer’s journey you will continue to fall into the same traps. In this deck Ross will outline why the way we think about the marketing funnel is one-sided, and present a model that Inbox Insight uses to run hundreds of content marketing campaigns a year to their global community of business people.
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Content Amplification: You're Looking at the Funnel the Wrong Way
- 1. CONTENT AMPLIFICATION YOU’RE LOOKING AT THE FUNNEL THE WRONG WAY…
- 2. I’M A FUNNEL ADDICT AND YOU ARE TOO…
- 3. Used to have a flat view – this was a useful analogy, but not a lot more.
- 4. The sophisticated view of the funnel (3D) – we try to layer on tracking and push people down
- 5. The buyer’s journey is rarely linear. It’s messy.
- 6. IT’S NOT ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY, IT’S ABOUT WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR…
- 7. Look at the funnel from above – with the audience at the centre.
- 8. Insight
- 10. INTENT DATA - GATHER INSIGHT INTO YOUR TARGET CUSTOMERS INTERESTS, PREFERENCES AND BEHAVIOURS There are 5 types of intent data 1.Searching 2.Browsing 3.Action 4.Firmographic 5.Predictive
- 11. ON AVERAGE, B2B RESEARCHERS DO 12 SEARCHES PRIOR TO ENGAGING ON A SPECIFIC BRAND'S SITE. GOOGLE
- 12. SEARCH INTENT - TYPES OF SEARCH QUERY Navigational Informational Transactional We want to track trends in the consumption of information on topics that you write about, and segment and target those users as they research. Prioritise retargeting these users as they are indicating that they want the “best HR software” or “Cheap Cloud Hosting” or “Buy Cisco Handset” Commercial
- 13. SEARCH INTENT YOUR SITE-SEARCH ONLY 7% OF COMPANIES REPORT THEY’RE EFFICIENTLY LEARNING FROM INTERNAL SITE SEARCH DATA ECONSULTANCY MOST SEARCHED TERMS NEXT PAGES THEY VISITED POPULAR SEARCHES WITH NO RESULTS
- 14. BROWSING INTENT - WHICH SPECIFIC CONTENT HAS THE USER VIEWED? First Party Pages that your users are viewing on your website, or reading in your marketing automation workflows. Third Party Users browsing relevant content on sites other than your own. SOME OF THE BEST INTENT DATA ON THE MARKET TODAY COMES FROM WELL-KNOWN B2B CONTENT COMMUNITIES WHERE BUYERS GO TO SELF-EDUCATE. MARKETO
- 15. ACTION INTENT - Record any user driven action across multi-channel touchpoints and use it to feed your intent model.
- 16. Aggregated intent from the individuals combined into an Account Based profile FIRMOGRAPHIC INTENT
- 17. FIRMOGRAPHIC INTENT - explore accounts based data around features of their organisation.
- 18. PREDICTIVE INTENT - look for patterns or similarities in the data. Target others who share similar content consumption and organisation size, job title, tech install etc.
- 20. Interest
- 21. USING INSIGHT TO DRIVE INTEREST – What do they want to hear? Copy Optimisation Content Planning Which subject lines drive the most opens? Is the content informative, entertaining or persuasive? Which topics are popular? Does the popular content match your content strategy / mission statement? Which keywords are in the titles? Which formats are popular?
- 22. Use intent data to craft your message around what your audience care about. 72% OF B2B CUSTOMERS EXPECT VENDORS TO OFFER PERSONALIZED ENGAGEMENT.
- 24. Slice it into new formats to engage across channels
- 25. How does your content reach every touchpoint?
- 26. For Example - Take a big piece of pillar content and repurpose it.
- 30. Create behaviours and build habit with your content using b=mat Behaviour = Motivation + Ability + TriggerFOGG BEHAVIOUR MODEL, STANDFORD TECHNOLOGY LAB
- 32. Engagement
- 34. DECISION MAKING UNITS Decision Making Unit (DMU) Buyer Coordinator User Initiator Decision- maker Influencer 6 key roles in a typical decision making unit within an organisation
- 35. Get them talking about you… HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW & CEB ESTIMATE THAT; THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE INVOLVED IN B2B SOLUTIONS PURCHASES HAS CLIMBED FROM AN AVERAGE OF 5.4 TWO YEARS AGO TO 6.8 TODAY. 62% SAY THEY CAN NOW DEVELOP SELECTION CRITERIA OR FINALIZE A VENDOR LIST — BASED SOLELY ON DIGITAL CONTENT. (FORRESTER) https://go.forrester.com/blogs/the-ways-and-means-of-b2b-buyer-journey-maps-were-going-deep-at-forresters-b2b- forum/
- 36. Expected Buying Cycle: 1. Users with a problem define the need - 2. They escalate it to their manager the initiator 3. They then check with any influencers - 4. They put it in front of their boss and Finance gives a PO number
- 37. When you try and target only the “decision maker” who signs off, you are trying to skip the engagement of the organisation as a whole. Problem is, it doesn’t really work…
- 38. In real life, it’s not as clean as users define the need and decision makers confirm their assumptions. Different prospects across the decision making unit will come to your content in different ways, interacting with various assets…
- 39. This is a good thing! Keep the nurture flowing and keep moving them through helpful journeys and their understanding will improve. Let prospects binge your content as they want to, learning from you and evangelising across their decision making unit.
- 40. Each touchpoint gives you more data. Which enriches your insight, Which you can use to drive interest, To deliver more engagement, Which gives you more data… Looking top down at the funnel, Think less about how you want to sell to them and more about what they need to know. It’s not about what you want to say, It’s about what they want to hear!
- 41. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING… Learn more at: www.inboxinsight.com
Editor's Notes
- I have an addiction. I’ve been fighting it for years. Odds are, you might have it too. I LOVE a funnel. However we’ve been looking at it the wrong way.
- Used to have a flat view – this was a useful analogy, but not a lot more. AIDA was invented February 9, 1898 by Elias St. Elmo Lewis. It underpins a lot of our thinking. Originally we had a flat view of the buyer’s journey, as a funnel, which was a useful analogy of how prospective customers travelled through our marketing mix.
- Over time, this model has become very sophisticated. We look at new ways to track and push prospects through the funnel. We’ve come up with new ways to measure the gaps between each stage and try and optimise them to reduce the drop off between steps. We try to push people down. And, if done well, it works.
- This framework can be useful, however… we need to remember that it’s not reality. The buyer’s journey is rarely linear. It’s messy. They weave through different sections, wander off when they have no budget, ask their friends about your brand, any number of reasons that content marketing becomes unpredictable. Decision making process is now longer and more complex – means need to provide an environment where they can jump back and forwards without feeling trapped.
- You can mitigate it with technology and techniques, but we think it takes a mind-set shift to make the real difference… It’s about relevance. Understanding our community allows us to connect content in the right way, to drive value for the reader and delight our customers at the same time. Don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with our funnel per say, we want you to look at things from the audience’s perspective. In the on-demand digital culture it’s about the user being in control. You can’t control the prospect, you just need to facilitate their needs and drive long term value. “It’s not about what you want to say, it’s about what they want to hear…”
- Look at the funnel from above – with the audience at the centre We shouldn’t be looking at it side on and thinking how to drag people though, we should be looking at the funnel from above. Your audience is in the centre of the funnel, and we need to stop them spilling out by surrounding them with content and helping them reach their ultimate destination. We think of it as surrounding your prospect with the right information to help them achieve what they need on their terms. There are 3 stages. Insight into what they care about Interest them in your brand Engage them to take action But the key is that it’s not a linear journey. Your prospective customers can be interacting with your brand in all of these ways at different times and your job is to support the process. Taking prospects round this cycle and learning from each revolution so you can continue to add value the longer they stay with your brand.
- I firmly believe that content marketing starts with insight. Without knowing what your audience cares about you can’t create content that meets their needs. So let’s talk about insight.
- As a bit of background, Inbox Insight create and aggregate content for our business communities, and have generated over 15m interactions and 1m content downloads. This gives us an overview of how business people interact with content across all sorts of subject areas. The Insights for Professionals team learn from how our communities interact with content, and use these insights to improve the content we produce in future.
- intent data - Gather insight into your target customers interests, preferences and behaviours There are 5 types of intent data 1. Searching (keyword & queries) 2. Browsing (cookies & categories) 3. Action (clicks & downloads) 4. Firmographic (ABM) 5. Predictive (lookalike modelling)
- According to google B2B purchasers search up to 12 times before engaging when conducting research. This means we can use this as an opportunity to learn about what content they are interested in and target them based on what they are researching.
- We want to track trends in the consumption of information on topics that you write about, and segment and target those users as they research. These queries include words like “How to”, “Why”, “What is”. Prioritise retargeting these users as they are indicating that they want the “best HR software” or “Cheap Cloud Hosting” or “Buy Cisco Handset”
- Same types of search query on your own website is just as important – look for what, how, informational questions Most searched terms – trends of your audience Next pages they visited – looking at intent behaviour flow Popular searches that lead nowhere – great ideas for creating content
- Which Specific Content Has the User Viewed? First Party Pages that your users are viewing on your website, or reading in your marketing automation workflows. Combining this with metrics around length of engagement or content format gives your greater detail into their intent. Can be known users. Third Party Users browsing relevant content on sites other than your own. This could include B2B publishers, business or technology-focused online communities, or even social media groups. Targeting these signals lets you reach relevant contacts outside or your own audience. “Some of the best intent data on the market today comes from well-known B2B content communities where buyers go to self-educate.” – Marketo
- A level down from browsing you can look at interactions. This is about understanding and recording the steps a user takes around your world. This is called “Digital Body Language” by some. Record any user driven action across multi-channel touchpoints and use it to feed your intent model. Understanding which categories of pages and keyword topics they engage with will give you a profile of their intent.
- If you’re gathering this insight into the individuals engaging with your content, and you can match them to an account (for example when they give you their email address or company name on a form) then you can tie these data points together. Looking at the company level, aggregating these individual intent signals together, we can get a picture of what each of the accounts in your CRM / MarTech are most interested in. You can then react accordingly with your campaigns.
- Outside of the individuals within the company you may also want to explore accounts based data around features of their organisation. This might be changes budget indicated from mergers, acquisitions, or funding. Or it might be a recent uptick for hiring certain skills or using a specific technology type.
- Predictive! I find this really cool. Now you have persona intent data and you’ve identified their interests, it’s a good ideal to look for patterns or similarities in the data. For example a spike in engagement with content about DDoS attacks, who are in the retail industry, above 1000 employees, with ecommerce job titles. Or you might look at which specific pieces of content have been engaged with by a type of persona you use, and target the most popular piece to those of that particular persona that haven’t read it yet. Now you know this, you can look at how to jump on this trend and target others who share nearly all of these features and expand your reach into those highly likely to be interested.
- Intent data is about building understanding around your prospect and their needs. In customer loyalty and analytics people often talk about Single Customer View. Well we should be looking to understand that information and use it BEFORE they buy from us too. I call this Single Prospect View. You are building up a digital picture of your audience and the data is giving you clues. Use these clues to segment and target your prospects using this data, and to deliver content to them that is highly relevant. Intent might be around a specific topic, but what else can it show you? What is the interplay between topics? The data shows you the physical action but what you need to understand is what is behind that, which is why you need to understand user journeys that brought them to this need or topic. This performs effectively as you know they already want to hear about what you have to say. It lets you approach users from an individual journey perspective and help to personalise their experience. This drives INTEREST…
- Driving interest in what you have to say is vital for demand generation, and leverages content and channels to grab and keep attention.
- Now you have intent data you know “what they want to hear” Use that to optimise your content planning. This can be changes based on tactical results, or sweeping strategy changes.
- According to a study from Salesforce, 72% of B2B customers expect vendors to offer personalized engagement. It starts with crafting your message to make it usable across these channels. Create your content to appeal to users based on trends in the market. Establishing brand value and credibility of your message through “low investment high reward” content
- I went on holiday to Amsterdam last year, saw a great example of this Pic of Van Gogh Sunflowers People love this but they don’t all buy a print and hang it in their home
- Then went to the gift shop… Same pattern repurposed across teatowels, coasters, tshirts, phone case!
- How does your content reach every touchpoint? Take the core message and shatter it into parts Can you deliver this message in this way? If not, can you point back to the core asset using part of the message in this channel?
- Take one piece of content. Your big pillar for the quarter of the year
- My approach is as follows – here’s one of our large annual survey reports. First things first, look at which other long form editorial content types you can create from it.
- Then look at how you can create content that points back to this across all relevant social and native contexts. Some of this content wouldn’t just be broadcasting and linking back to the article, but rather made for that platform specifically.
- Then slice that key message down even further and add in the advertising formats that will amplify you content message These formats will grab attention with key info and generate the interest topic as a whole and demand for the deeper content pieces.
- Fogg Behaviour Model from Persuasive Technology Lab of Stanford University https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/12/04/stanfords-school-of-persuasion-bj-fogg-on-how-to-win-users-and-influence-behavior/#51ec3715390d Looking into how apps and hubs can create habits, and become a source of information that users come back to. Research was originally about the Facebook newsfeed, but I think it applies to all the multichannel contexts that we use to deliver content. B=MAT Motivation to take the action (need) Ability to take the action (ease) Trigger in the path of those users (ad creative) = Behaviour We can use intent targeting to find those with motivation. We can make the information easy to consume in formats they want, giving them the ability to access our content. We can make the ad creative and messaging compelling and attention grabbing as a trigger. This amplification of your content is what drives interest.
- Your aim should be to deliver high quality content across all relevant, available channels to create an immersive environment. Think about how customers will interact with the message in different contexts Are any of these sequential journeys? Can you introduce the content in one format and then offer deeper content later? Each time you can get a customer to recall your brand, and associate it with a message, it helps buyer recognition. Cross channel touchpoints help achieve this and create a deeper level of recognition throughout the journey
- You’re pushing your message to the right people, in the right way now. Time to make it resonate. If your prospects are immersed in the message that interests them then they will likely engage with your brand. Engagement comes in many forms of interaction, but at some point you’re likely to identify a “lead” with email address and contact info.
- Beware of HiPPOs - Highest Paid Persons Opinion If you’ve managed to capture the contact information of a single senior contact that’s not necessarily enough. Shooting for just the highest decision maker – often the HiPPO - doesn’t = decision making While 64% of the C-suite have final sign off, so do almost a quarter (24%) of the non-C-suite. What's more, according to Think with google it's the latter that has the most influence; 81% of non-C-suiters have a say in purchase decisions.
- Philip Kotler a marketing professor and author on various books defined 6 key roles in a typical decision making unit within an organisation. Engagement is about gaining and keeping attention. Stimulating conversation across the organisation about their needs to generate genuine demand.
- The number of people involved in B2B solutions purchases is 6.8, and 62% make decisions based entirely on digital content. This means that roughly 4 out of 7 of the decision makers you are targeting are making their mind up about you based entirely on your content. Getting prospects to engage is about motivating them around a problem that they have.
- Grid: personas involved in decision across the top. Primary needs down the side. Traditional view had a preference of collecting information to make a buying decision. Users with a problem define the need They escalate it to their manager the initiator They then check with any influencers They put it in front of their boss And Finance give you a PO
- When you try and target people in the stages of decision making, or only the “decision maker” who signs off, you are trying to skip the true engagement of the organisation. (This where some B2B marketers are trying to hunt only the HiPPO) This flow of decision making is clean and logical, but it doesn’t reflect reality again…
- But in real life it’s not as clean as users define the need and decision makers confirm their assumptions. The reality is that different prospects across the decision making unit will come to your content in different ways, interact with various assets, and the ultimate goal is to encourage this!
- You want to create an environment where your content is available and helpful for all personas and meets each of their information needs. If you’ve managed this, don’t stop! They’re not done at MQL, or even SQL. Keep the nurture flowing and keep moving them through helpful journeys If you have really engaged prospects that aren’t moving stages don’t worry, They could be evangelising you internally, or you could be their secret weapon, Don’t be disheartened, let them binge your content and it will come as soon as they’re able to buy
- …each of these touchpoints and engagements gives you more data Which enriches your insight Which you can use to drive interest To deliver more engagement Which gives you data… The idea of looking at the top down perspective of the funnel is to think less about how we want to sell to the client and more about how they are seeking information. Not just what we want to tell them, but about what they want to hear!
- Thank you! Book your slot at content corner.