Content2Conversion Conference 2015

Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to escape the dreary New York weather for Scottsdale to attend B2B Content2Conversion, #C2C15. It was a vibrant exchange of ideas for marketers and communicators – like me – charged with designing and executing content marketing and multi-channel demand generation plans. For those not able to attend, I thought I’d share a few of the themes and ideas that resonated with me, especially as I think about the year ahead.

• The buyer’s journey is linear – never. Many marketers put together flow charts, spreadsheets and plans that depict a straight progression through the marketing funnel – but what’s the reality? The world changes, new business priorities emerge, additional questions arise – so a critical question is whether our models allow for changes in buyer need, direction, and velocity. As Ardath Albee, CEO of Marketing Interactions, put it, “marketers need to enable buyers to back-up, skip, drop-out and re-enter the process.” But my favorite expression of how to “solve” for this issue came from Christine Elliott, Content Strategy Leader for Crowe Horwath, who said she made sure that her plan provided “escape hatches” so that her buyers could be proactive in selecting their content.

• Content can add urgency to the buyer’s journey. Doing nothing is often the easiest, least risky option when making a business decision. How can marketers motivate the buyer to take action? Tim Riesterer, the Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer for Corporate Visions, enthusiastically white-boarded his thoughts on how to create this sense of urgency. One part of his discussion centered on buyer needs: amplify those that are undervalued (it’s bigger and faster than you think…); reveal those that are unmet (here’s how to get around…); and expose those that are unknown (here’s something you need to get ready for…).

• The next frontier – content for sales. After the speakers took us through their demand gen strategies, buyer paths and results, many were asked, “what’s next?” Many answered on a common theme: content for sales. After successful demand generation, does sales have the content needed for the next part buying process? For some, this content would help sales build relationships with the 4-5 decision-makers who didn’t take the buyer’s journey. Karen Thomas-Smith, the Vice President of Provider Marketing & Reference Management for Optum, went beyond content for sales to retention. Her demand gen program was “dating”, success was “getting married,” and now how will she and her team encourage retention, i.e., avoid “divorce”.

• Metrics. Topic. Format. There was commonality on the need to establish and focus on goals, then think through how to measure, what are the topics that are most relevant, and what is the best channel to deliver the content. Think about two ends of the spectrum, awareness and revenue. When the goal is building awareness, perhaps the metric would be net new visitors to the blog. So what are the current, “newsy” topics my expert could add a new angle on? Are there other channels for current awareness, like a press release, which can drive views to the newsy blog post? For revenue, the metric could be new leads in pipeline acquired with content on an “unknown need” (see above), perhaps in the form of a quiz on readiness to tackle that unknown issue.

Even with all of these great ideas to bake into the rest of 2015, registration for next year’s event is underway, with the theme “content is the fuel that drives demand generation.” Since that is a year from now, I’ll add one more thing to think about, how communication professionals need to understand client goals to maximize program results. Check out:
Client Motivations, Expectations & Results

The Content2Conversion 2015 conference was sponsored by PR Newswire’s demand generation partner, Annuitas.