Content marketing assumes your brand's marketing funnel is in fact a funnel. Though
there is
disagreement about what role
content should play in that funnel.
Most orthodox
views say that content marketing's job is to get prospects in the funnel, while getting
them down the funnel is someone else's job, or a matter of external factors. Others
believe content should also encourage or nudge prospects down the funnel. And
still others believe content should try to drag people down the funnel aggressively.
Whatever your feelings on that, let's step back for a moment and question the
underlying assumption. What if your
content marketing funnel isn't actually a funnel
at all?
You might look at this question incredulously and say, "Of course it is. What
else would it be?"
Well, a funnel is funnel-shaped. Wider at the top and narrowing on the way down. But is
this what you really have? Or is it maybe something else?
The Marketing Straw: A Topless Bottom
You have this when you have a marketing funnel with no top, and you spend all your time
trying to miraculously catch prospects with that really skinny part at the bottom.
When you're marketing through a straw, everything is "sell, sell, sell." Every social
media post from your brand has a model number in it. Every content piece asks for an email
address.
You're always pressing, like an overeager young man who thinks the secret to
seduction is effort.
Well, a straw sucks, literally. Even with unlimited prospective customers out there,
you'll only catch
a few, through great effort. And most B2B businesses are in industries
that are nowhere near unlimited, with only a
small percentage of prospects looking to
buy at any one time. And if you think you're ever going to catch a whale with a straw,
forget it.
If you're wondering if this might be you, here's a simple test. If the answer to every
question in your marketing department is "leads," you might very well be.
The Marketing Hula Hoop: A Bottomless Top
This is pretty much the opposite of a marketing straw, a funnel that is all top and no
bottom, where prospects do nothing but circle. There are two different categories.
The Media Hoop: Keep Those Hips Swaying
All your efforts here are devoted to keeping your hoop circling, which does bring more
prospects into your orbit through those sexy rhythmic motions you make, but those
prospects remain largely in the friend zone, rarely converting.
If your brand is marketing like this, you've probably got a
well-populated blog,
good website traffic, respectable
social media numbers, and slick-looking
marketing assets all around.
But you're spending a fortune to keep things that way. And spending more only seems to
bring in more followers, pageviews, and marketing awards, instead of more paying
customers.
Some would say having a hula hoop is not such a bad position to be in, since mindshare
seems to be proving
more important to B2B marketing than previously thought. And I
agree, a hula hoop is probably better than marketing through a straw, because your
problems are easier to fix, and it's better to be known than unknown.
But if your brand has a lot of mindshare, and it's not manifesting as market dominance,
something is very wrong.
Because it means you're doing your competitors' job for them. You're educating the
market, while someone else monetizes it, like a parasite. How does this happen? It
could be a lot of reasons. But if you're a content marketer in this situation, you need
to take a good look at your content mix, and what it's doing.
You might be producing a lot of
content that amuses or educates your target audience,
but isn't really relevant to your business. Or you might be producing content that's
relevant, but only in terms of what problems your audience faces, with no information
included about what you actually sell, or why people should buy it.
And if your brand is engaged in this type of marketing, there's a good chance that you
view your audience more as fans instead of prospective customers, with the answer to
every marketing question something non-salesy like "followers" or "relevance" or
"engagement."
The SEO Hoop: You're Not Human, Are You?
Bots are the name of the game with this one. All your content is SEO content. It ranks
high on whatever SEO tool you're using. And the bots do show. Your SERP rankings are
great. But when prospects show, not much happens.
Maybe a tiny fraction of the 5% who are looking to buy now get through your content and
become leads, but the other 95% run the other way as soon as they figure out that
sentient humans aren't the target audience of your content.
Congratulations, SEO warrior. You've made no lasting impression on your out-of-market
prospects. Or worse, you've taught them to ignore you (a lesson those in-market prospects
who become leads will also learn before long as they figure out keywords are all you
have to say).
Your Prospects Need a Balanced Content Diet
When it comes to content marketing, a functioning funnel needs a mix of content at each
stage, and it should indeed look like a funnel (i.e., more
awareness content than
consideration
and more consideration than
lead gen).
If you've got the same number ticked at each level, you've got a marketing straw,
which means you end up looking needy, which erodes your brand strength. And if you've
got more boxes ticked at the bottom than the top, you've still got a marketing straw,
because that narrow part at the top that's only as wide as a straw is still where
everyone enters.
However, it's worth noting that if you find your content mix bottom-heavy because
you're always being asked by salespeople to write lead-gen content for trade shows and
whatnot, this is not a sign that you should stop doing it, it's a sign that you need
more content and more writers (not just more
AI).
If you've got just awareness and maybe some lead-gen but very little consideration
content, you're either shy about selling or you think you're too pure to sell.
Unfortunately, many of content marketing's dominant thought leaders (the
world-famous ones) encourage this mindset.
If your brand is in this situation, you'll get some leads, but they'll often be
poor quality, because they've contacted you without learning much about what you sell
first, which means your salespeople may end up spending an inordinate amount of time
trying to educate them, only to lose many to competitors anyway because they offer a
better match to their needs.
Read more about what a balanced diet means in terms of the content marketing funnel
here.
