Tell me if this sounds like your family. You get together for a family celebration or for the holidays. You’re sitting at the table eating your meal and not surprisingly, that one relative (you know who I’m talking about) keeps talking and talking…mostly about themselves and their own lives. Some of it is interesting, but it’s getting old very quickly. They are listening a bit too, but the topics aren’t really changing. You’d wish they’d either be quiet or talk about other things.
If you’re confused, here’s how this story can give you a few tips to improve your B2B Inbound Marketing Strategy.
The Marketing World: A Big Family at a Small Table
The marketing world, and more specifically the social media marketing world, tends to be a big family with many loud voices sitting around a small table with friends. You want to hear what your “family members” are doing, what they're accomplishing and maybe add some insight about how you can help each other.
As a B2B inbound marketer, you want to be seen as a family member that listens well and that shares insights about other topics, not just yourself. Sure, you’re looking to add value and create brand awareness with the words you share and the original content that you write is indeed valuable. However, if you only send out that content into the world, you’re going to be viewed as the member of the family who has something to say, but it’s really “just about them”. No one wants to be that person, but sadly, many brands are carrying out their social media marketing efforts in exactly this way.
What the Conversation should look like at the B2B Inbound Marketing Table
A conversation at a family table or amongst any group of people that share common interests should include information that’s thought-provoking, informative, and relevant. It may include some information from or about individuals in the group, but it’s more about sharing other information so that you don’t just look like a cheerleader for your own brand.
For B2B inbound marketers, our goal is to provide this stimulating information to our potential buyer at the various stages of their buyer’s journey. Depending upon where they are on their journey and whether or not they are frequent users of social media, they’re looking for the answers to questions about a particular problem or solution. A recent study by the team at Forrester shows that 70% of the buyer’s journey is over by the time they make contact with you or your sales team. We want our buyer to think of us and trust us so that they’ll follow through and buy when the time is right.
Gaining Street Cred Through Content Curation
The information you curate and share is important. You can’t gain “street cred” as a reliable source of information if you’re just talking about yourself and your brand. You need to step back and provide some space for other helpful views and opinions. You need to provide information to others so that they feel welcome at the “table” and so that a real conversation can be created. After all, others won’t listen to you if you don’t listen to them.
How to Curate Quality Content
Want to be the most popular family member at the inbound marketing table, but aren’t sure how to go about curating quality content to get there? We’d recommend taking a look at “The Quick and Dirty Guide to Content Curation” to get started.
We’d love to feature your content next time we come to the table. Do you have any tips for content curation? Leave us some love in the comments below.
by The Penguin Team on March 25, 2015
As a leading B2B digital marketing agency, We help B2B Technology Companies, enterprise software, and hardware companies increase brand awareness, reach more qualified leads and close more customers. Penguin Strategies is a Diamond Partner of HubSpot.
