Ask a B2B marketer what the goals of
content marketing should be, and awareness
will usually make the list. And while this is not wrong, it's not the best choice of words
either. Because there are different kinds of awareness.
There is brand awareness content and there is marketing awareness, with the latter having
two sub-types.
And their differences aren't academic. They matter very much in terms of marketing goals and
spend, or at least they should.
Marketing Awareness Is Your TOFU Appetizer
Marketing awareness is the top level of the
content marketing funnel (with consideration and
lead-gen under it) where you talk about problems and/or issues your customers face, or
questions they have.
Typically these are problems solved, issues addressed, or questions answered by something you sell,
though they don't always have to be. Sometimes they might be problems and issues where advice
in the
content is itself the solution. Or the content might be advice, market intelligence,
or
thought leadership of a more general nature, intended to prevent a problem from happening.
But however you look at it, what's important to remember is that pure marketing awareness
doesn't mention something you sell, or ask for contact info, because when it does, it also
becomes consideration or lead-gen, respectively.
Marketing Awareness Content Has Two Flavors
For the purposes of this article, let's assume a B2B product lifecycle of five years, and a
buyer's journey of one year. So customers spend one year out of every five actively interested
in (and seeking content for) whatever you sell, and those other four years not actively
interested.
And your awareness strategy cannot simply be, "Let's make content that kickstarts the buyer's
journey and promote it constantly so we're ready whenever the prospect is." There are two
reasons why.
One, 90% of these
journeys end with a vendor chosen that the buyer already knew before the
journey began. And two, as already mentioned, most of your prospects aren't looking to buy
right now.
This means you can't simply focus on creating awareness content for the buyer's journey, you
also need awareness content for the time before or between journeys. In fact, you probably
need quite a bit of it, since most marketing content has a one-to-two-year shelf life before
it starts falling out of date. And we'll get to how much of one flavor versus the other you
might need in a minute.
1. Buyer Awareness Content
This is marketing awareness content with two jobs: make your prospect aware of what problem
a product solves, and get that prospect moving down the funnel, either to consideration or
lead-gen, making this a type of
conversion content.
At this point you might ask, "But prospects read a lot of content before choosing a vendor,
right? Is it realistic to expect every buyer awareness piece to stimulate progress?"
Well, different stats use different methods to count content pieces. An often-cited number
of
pieces consumed on the buyer's journey is thirteen. However, only eight of those pieces
are vendor generated. And that's spread across all the vendors in the running, not just the
winner.
Assuming the final decision comes down to three vendors, that's only two or three pieces
per vendor, or approximately one piece per stage of the content marketing funnel. So your
buyer's journey content must be thorough and convincing, with each piece a coherent argument,
persuasive enough to get prospects to the next stage of the funnel.
In other words, it can't just be a bunch of pedantic SEO sludge that fails to demonstrate
that you really understand your prospects.
And despite what you may have heard about
B2B prospects now consuming more content than
they did before, this is happening because buyers are delaying talking to sales till
later
in the customer journey, which means the additional content being consumed is lower-funnel
content, not the TOFU stuff.
Buyer awareness content can either link to a nice consideration piece about what you sell,
or you can go for the lead right then and there. The correct choice will depend on the context.
But either way, if you have a prospect looking to score, make it easy for them.
Please note: If you're curious what separates a piece of pure buyer awareness content from
a piece that is both awareness and consideration, here comes the answer.
A pure buyer awareness piece is pure awareness until the end, when it offers a prompt to
"learn more about your solutions" or something similar and a link.
An awareness + consideration piece mentions those solutions in the article (usually towards
the end), either by product category or by specific model.
And if the solution (which you sell) is mentioned from the start (as a category or specific
model), it's not awareness at all, it's consideration (because the article is a sales pitch
from the beginning).
2. Industry Awareness Content
This is marketing awareness content meant for consumption between buyer journeys, not on
them, with the goal typically being to demonstrate expertise in your customer's industry
and/or your own, often through
education or thought leadership, though some brands try to
get prospects "in their orbit" by positioning themselves as industry news sources.
And this is possible, especially in industries doing something really bleeding edge, or that
otherwise lack trade media. But for most businesses, this is probably not a realistic goal,
especially considering the resources you need to play this game.
You need fast knowledgeable writers, fast approvals, and a content expert supervising the
writers who understands marketing so the writers actually help you and don't hurt you with
what they write. And having all these things in a content operation is rare.
A more realistic goal is to convince people to subscribe to your blog or newsletter (which
is still not particularly easy because nobody wants spam) or follow you on social media (a somewhat easier goal). But even so, getting people to do either still isn't
easy. Because it's harder to elicit an action from a non-committal audience (reading for
enrichment/enjoyment) than an audience reading for purpose (i.e., on the buyer's journey).
So you really need your A-game here. You need great content that's both informative and
enjoyable. Content-farmed, SEO-formulated,
AI-generated (or human-generated) blandness simply won't do.
If such content is short enough, audiences will read through it, but they'll forget it
just as quickly, and won't subscribe or follow you. To win subscribers and followers for
your brand, you have to be special. You have to make them want more.
And if you're wondering how many pieces of industry awareness content you need relative
to buyer awareness, I can't answer that here. Everybody's needs are a little different.
But you definitely need more of the former than the latter.
If you lack guideposts for how much more, I'd say three industry awareness pieces for
every piece of buyer awareness is the bare minimum, though four (or more) would be better.
If it's under three, you risk your blog and
social content seeming salesy (usually a
turnoff
in B2B).
And since you need more industry awareness than buyer awareness, you can think of industry
awareness as the top half of the marketing awareness stage of the funnel, and buyer
awareness as the bottom half, if you wish, though the
content journey through awareness won't always
be a straight line down.
Someone might consume your industry awareness content for years, while also consuming an
occasional piece of buyer awareness content along the way without following it down because
they're not buying at that point.
But then the buyer's journey starts, and that person goes to your website, searches for a
certain term, and winds up on a product page (which usually qualifies as consideration
content), without a piece of buyer awareness content sending them there (at least not
directly). Did they consume a buyer awareness piece for that product a few months or a year
ago? Maybe, but this may be hard to determine.
What About Brand Awareness Content?
So far I've beent talking about marketing awareness, but brand awareness content is often a
different beast.
Brand awareness content may or may not serve an explicit marketing function. And if it doesn't,
typically this is CSR, HR, or company-focused content.
If it does, this may be content focused specifically on the brand, it's history, and what it
stands for (which qualifies as consideration content since it's focused on your advantages as a
vendor).
Or it may be media content, intended primarily for distribution, that discusses problems you
solve and a solution (one of your products or your brand alone), which would qualify it as both
awareness and consideration content at the same time.
And typically such content is called "advertising" in the vernacular.
And before you ask, brand awareness does not simply sit above marketing awareness in the
funnel, at least not in B2B.
There are two reasons why we know this.
One, brand awareness content in B2B is often made for people who already know you.
Anthem videos go out to your social media followers. CSR content is created to make you more
palatable as a vendor or employer.
In fact, when businesses set out to create brand awareness amongst those who don't already
know them, they rarely use orthodox content at all.
They advertise. They sponsor events. They cultivate
analyst relations. Things of this nature.
And two, if brand awareness really did simply sit above marketing awareness, the benefits of
strong brand awareness would largely be confined to the top of the funnel and matter less on
the way down.
But do you really think this is the case? Nah, me neither. It makes a big difference at every
stage, including the purchasing decision, as indicated by that "90% of vendors" stat I mentioned
earlier.
Why? Lots of reasons. But the short version is that
brand reduces perceived risk, and B2B
buyers
often have a hard time differentiating products and their vendors, and when that happens,
they go with who they already know.
Thus, a strong B2B brand is not simply a funnel filler, it's also a funnel enhancer and
conversion aid, enhancing effectiveness at every stage.
How exactly does brand and brand awareness interact with the marketing funnel? I don't know.
And I'm not sure anyone else does either.
But brand awareness is not just another stage of the funnel. It's something more.
You Need Both Brand and Marketing Awareness Content
Brand familiarity is the single biggest driver of a B2B purchase. But familiarity is more than awareness.
It involves knowing who you are and what you do.
The average person might be aware the Oracle brand exists, because they've seen the name
around, but if you ask them what Oracle does, their answer might be "tech stuff," and I would
call this brand awareness without brand familiarity.
The reason for the latter's absence is simple. The average person has never consumed a blog,
case study, or any other piece of Oracle's marketing content in their lives, which illustrates
why B2B brands need both brand awareness and marketing awareness content to build that
all-important brand familiarity in your prospects. But there's a problem.
As we've already established, B2B brand awareness content may not serve an explicit marketing
goal. And if you're a B2B content marketer, you might not have the resources or remit to do
brand-level content, which is why I
advocate B2B brands forming brand-level content teams.
But if that's not realistic, there are ways for content marketers to ramp up brand and marketing
awareness at the same time.
How to Ramp-Up B2B Awareness Fast With Marketing Content
Marketing content is only a middling way to build brand awareness. It usually asks too much of
the audience compared to sexier and easier-to-digest formats like media coverage, word of mouth,
and advertising.
But if creating awareness is the lot you've drawn as a content marketer, I can think of three
good ways to ramp it up.
1. Recruit Industry Experts
Recruit thought leaders, influencers, and other subject matter experts (
SMEs) to guest write blogs, do podcasts, and create
other content for you under their names, and have them promote it to their audience, while
you use some budget promoting it to yours (having their name on the content is rarely enough
to make a big dent organically).
However, such efforts work better if your brand and website already have strong domain
authority in whatever these experts will be writing and talking about, because if you don't,
the awareness benefits to your brand might not be what you hoped for.
2. Do a Mothership Content Campaign
Publish a consultancy-authored piece of long-form mothership content, namely a whitepaper
(original research) or e-book (expert advice), and create an online campaign for it.
Such content is hero content. It makes your brand look good. It attracts attention.
And decision-makers eat it up.
3. Create and Promote Branded Content Assets
B2B marketing tends to focus heavily on website content. But website content, especially
the kind meant to be found via search, often isn't very branded.
People show up, read your text-only article, and leave, scarcely noticing who you are
because the only branded element on the screen is your logo, tucked away up in one of the
corners.
This is why B2B brands should be creating more branded content assets that integrate your
brand colors, logo, and stylistic elements thoroughly (instead of just in the website
navigation).
I'm referring to things like social media visuals, PDFs, carousels, and slick branded videos
(not just low-quality talking-head stuff showing your founder in their living room).
The mothership campaigns I just mentioned produce lots of these assets, but you can also do
smaller scale things like glossy PDF versions of your blog's greatest hits. Bite-sized social
media visuals conveying a single fact or figure. Video testimonials. These sorts of things.
Learn more about what I'm talking about
here.
Don't Just Create More Content, Remember To Think
If you're doing a fast
blog ramp-up, the volume of content that suddenly gets created can
overwhelm your personnel responsible for quality control (and for making sure the messaging
says what you want it to say and otherwise aligns with what prospects will read later in the
consideration stage). Especially if you're a
startup or
smallish company.
So, it might be a good idea to pay an outside content expert to spend a few hours reading the
content, assessing it, and asking questions for the authors to answer, or making suggestions for
each article in terms of what could be improved or expanded on (some SME bloggers write on
autopilot when left to their own devices).
You can really raise the quality of the final product this way with only a little extra spending.
And if you're doing a whitepaper, it also pays to have a little follow-up content (maybe two or
three blogs or other articles) written on the same general industry/topic available at launch,
so that people see your commitment to that area and are persuaded to follow or subscribe.
Think about how many whitepapers you've read where you didn't read anything else from the
source ever again, or never otherwise engaged with them. It's that follow-up content that can
make the real difference between a prospective customer entering your funnel or passing it by.
One Other Thing
While you can never have too much awareness, I also think not every brand needs to expend
resources creating industry awareness (or even brand awareness) through content.
If you're in a close-knit industry with a few vendors and a small and limited number of buyers
(i.e., you're in ABM territory), industry awareness content might not be the best use of your
resources.
I'm not saying don't do it. In fact, if you're an industry leader, you probably should, because
you need to be controlling the industry discourse.
But if you're not a top-tier brand, focusing more on buyer awareness will probably get you more
bang for your buck, because everyone knows your name already, and you'll have a hard time
getting your industry awareness content read anyway, since people will prefer to read it from
the leaders.
So, that's it for awareness. For more info on the lower stages of the content marketing funnel
(
consideration and
lead-gen), follow the links.
