A CFO, a treasurer and a financial analyst all walk into a bar … All three are thirsty but want something different to drink. Their preferences are based on the time of day, their past history, urgency for a quench and how much time they have to get the job done. While this story has no wildly funny punchline, it is an apt analogy to the journey customers take in their search for solutions, resources and partners.

1. Does Your Content Strategy Reflect
the
Buyer's Journey?
By Kathy Baughman
President, ComBlu Inc.

2. A CFO, a treasurer and a financial analyst all walk
into a bar. All three are thirsty but want something
different to drink.

3. Their preferences are based on the time of day,
their past history, the degree of their thirst and
how much time they have to get a drink …

4. The beginning of a hilarious joke?
No, actually, for my purpose of making a few
points about content strategy in financial services
marketing, this passage provides an apt analogy to
the journey that customers take in their search for
solutions, resources and partners.

5. All three people in the passage are in search of the
same thing: a drink. And they came to the same
place to get it: the bar.
In this analogy, let's say the bar is Google and the
drink is the information they want.

6. Google is almost always the first stop for
decision-makers when they're searching for
information.
Just as the bar offers every type of liquor, Google
serves up a limitless supply of information.

7. Our three decision-makers are no different. Each
uses different search terms and wants different
levels of information.

8. The CFO is looking for high-level solutions.
The treasurer wants to find three to five solutions
and background on the organizations behind
them with a preference for existing banking
partners.

9. The analyst wants help comparing the solutions
and needs far more detail and granular data than
either of the other two.

10. Our decision-makers are all looking for the same
thing — information to help them select options,
establish a preference set and uncover the right
information that will ultimately support their
buying decision.

11. Each has different needs at each point of the
decision journey and different preferences for
content format and viewing channel.

12. The CFO tends to view videos or article briefs on
her phone while commuting and then sends
content to others to do a deeper dive.

13. The treasurer may prefer reading longer articles
or perusing a briefing document from the analyst.

14. The latter wants white papers, product guides and
tools that make it easy to compare solutions and
create a report for the treasurer, who in turn will
brief the CFO.

15. The level of detail and type of format changes at
each point of the journey, as each person's
content strategy needs to reflect those changing
needs and preferences.

16. In order to accommodate,
marketers need to:

17. ● Create an enterprise content strategy that establishes
how content will be personalized: segment, persona or
person.
● Build content operations that support the strategy and
consider all processes such as creation and sourcing,
distribution, content architecture, assembly and
tracking.

18. ● Augment traditional marketing skills with publishing,
data analysis, data visualization, search and
omni-channel specialists.
● Foster a culture of collaboration across functions, lines
of business and channels.

19. ● Own the marketing technology stack — the business's
own mix of marketing software products — and
partner with the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to
make intelligent platform decisions, which will need to
support both the current and future vision of content
personalization.

20. Many organizations that adopt a content strategy
which leads to personalized experience at each
point of the journey forget that their content also
needs to be present "off-property."

21. At several points of the journey, your brand
content has little authority or influence.

22. More important is the voice of the customer, the
counsel of third-party influencers and the
recommendations of valued partners and peers.

23. The recommendation of a new craft vodka by the
bartender is much stronger if the patron already
has heard about it from friends, read about it in a
magazine or seen a YouTube video featuring it in
a recipe.

24. This content sways more than an ad or web
content.
It is even more powerful if the content pushed to
you on social networks or through content
marketing reflects your preferences for fruity
drinks vs. a dry vodka martini.

25. Even as many CMOs are pushing toward
personalized content experiences, some do not
have a designated content owner or an enterprise
content roadmap or editorial calendar.

26. Many have invested in technology but have not
connected the dots across their enterprise to
make all of the places that produce content work
together in a systematic fashion.

27. Effective content strategy requires deep insights
and customer obsession.

28. After all, our three decision-makers don't always
go to the bar for that drink. Sometimes, they
celebrate at the homes of friends, meet up at
events and other venues, or simply enjoy a sip at
home.

29. Knowing their habits, patterns and preferences is
the foundation of delivering individualized
experiences that contextually matter.

30. It's an interesting challenge to figure out the needs
of each decision-maker at each point of the
journey and serve up content that matters to them
within the context of their individual needs.

31. The process can seem overwhelming, but if you
break it down into a crawl, walk, run strategy, it
won't drive you to drink.
Cheers!

32. ● ComBlu specializes in content strategy, community building and
thought leadership programs. For more information, contact:
Kathy at kbaughman@comblu.com or 312-423-4919
● For more information, contact: FPS President Vince DiPaolo at
847-858-9566 or vince@fpsc.com or FPS Operations Director
Ventsi Petrova at 847-501-4120 x2 or ventsi@fpsc.com