Do you spend so much time hunched over your own B2B content that you’ve lost perspective?

In an era when the term “echo chamber” is so common, are you stuck in one? It’s not good for your long-term marketing effort, of course, because you can lose sight of what your customers and prospects really want to read from you.

You end up with a “tainted” perspective: ‘taint what other people are seeing.

Better B2B content — The funnel approach

If you’re not already thinking about your B2B content as a funnel — and you should be — here’s a quick and dirty overview:

• Awareness — Your products and services solve problems that, believe it or not, many people don’t yet know they have. They may know that their servers don’t run as fast as they want or that their employee rewards program is no great shakes. But it may still be low on their List of Things to Deal With. Their awareness hasn’t yet been raised, so they’re a long way from buying.
• Consideration — One day, the situation bubbles up to a higher priority for them. They’re in the mood to research the problem and figure out their options. They’re scan the landscape of products and services to see what’s available and how it can fit their needs.
• Decision — Now they understand the problem and have an idea of what will address it. They’re getting input from their colleagues in Finance, Engineering, Operations and Customer Service. They’re ready to buy.

To get back to the tainted perspective, if all of your B2B content is focused on your features and benefits, ‘taint interesting to prospects in the Awareness and Consideration stages.

Similarly, you may have content that focuses heavily on user education, but ‘taint interesting to prospects in the Decision stage.

Wild idea: Ask your writer

Suppose you spend a couple of years ramping up B2B content, trying to fill your funnel. You encourage co-workers to post to your blog, wheedle white papers out of your product managers and get Sales to help with customer success stories. You breathe your own exhaust and eat your own dog food for months on end.

How can you make sure you’re not suffering from a tainted perspective?

You can ask your writers.

“Why would our writers be honest with us?” your boss asks. “They want our business, so they’ll tell us whatever they think we want to hear.

That’s true if you ask them a silly question like, “What do you think of our B2B content?” So don’t ask them that.

Just ask them a simple question:

“What are you seeing out there?”

Your writers spend a lot of time poring over content, reading blog posts and going through marketing materials. They have other customers who do things differently from the way you do them. Take advantage of that knowledge, which you can get almost for free.

Very plainly, if you’re not asking your writers what they’re seeing out in the world, you’re going to end up with a tainted perspective: ‘taint realistic.

photo credit: soomness