By Ahmed al-Akber/Manama


Content marketing has been around as long as anyone can remember. So what’s all the hype about, and what does it mean for business?
According to a survey conducted by the Content Marketing Institute/Marketing Profs, the biggest challenges B2B marketers face with regard to content marketing is producing engaging content.
In the US, nine in 10 businesses use content marketing. As of this writing there are nearly 175mn blogs. There is far more content out there for any of us to read.
We all have a threshold of how much content we can consume at any given time. Consumers these days need to be selective with their attention spans. Meanwhile there is a lot of content being created, and therefore if everyone is doing it, it becomes hard to differentiate.
According to Google’s Zero Moment of Truth Research, the number of pieces of research customers engaged with before making a purchase decision has risen from five in 2010 to 10 in 2011. There is definitely a good business case to creating content. But not any form of content – it needs to be thought-provoking if you really want prospects to take the kind of action you are looking for.
Research carried out by the Corporate Executive Board looked into what contributes most to customer loyalty in B2B selling.
They found that the sales experience, that is, the way you sell your product to your prospects, was far more important than other aspect of customer loyalty. And what part of the stood out most that describes what a world-class sales experience looks like? Here they are:
♦ Rep offers unique and valuable perspectives on the market
♦ Rep helps me navigate alternatives
♦ Rep provides ongoing advice or consultation
♦ Rep helps me avoid potential land mines
♦ Rep educates me on new issues and outcomes
This research blew my mind when I first came across it. Here are buyers (CEOs, purchasing managers, department heads, etc.) saying that they are not as interested in what you sell as how you sell it. In other words, they are interested in being educated by their suppliers about things related to their business that a supplier may be expert in.
They want to learn something new that changes their conventional way of thinking about their business. And with this new way of thinking, it should make or save them time or money.
So clearly it’s a case of not just producing more of the same content, but producing content that is engaging and changes the way your prospects think about their business. According to Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson, authors of The Challenger Sale, this comes from using insight that your business may have that highlights issues that the prospect didn’t know they had. Their basic model of engaging a prospect goes like this:
1) Here is some information about challenges peers in your industry (and possibly your business) are facing
2) Here is our solution to those challenges (how we can help)
But where do we get the information about their industry and their challenges? Where do you start to make such thought-provoking insight? The starting point should be a review of what you already have.
Joe Pulizzi, in his book Epic Content Marketing, describes what he calls the visual content audit. It starts by gathering all your printed and electronic marketing content and spreading them out on a table. Then asking yourself what point of view the content you currently use has. If its mostly about your products and services, then its too “me-focused” and will not be engaging to prospects.
If it wouldn’t be shared by your prospects, or searched for online, then it definitely is not going to be of any use to them. If it is about your customers and their problems, then it has taken the right point of view and you have a great starting point.
If you already have a lot of good content, taking stock of it will help make using it more manageable. I use a simple spreadsheet to keep track of all the articles I’ve written. This includes when it was posted on my blog and social media, and if I have sent it to other publications that have posted it. I see creating content as an asset for the business, so keeping track of it is a good way of managing those assets.
If you are restarting your content strategy from scratch, the best starting point is to assess what kind of value you provide to your clients through your products or services. Asking what you are good at will help generate a direction for where your content should focus. Then, ask yourself how you can challenge prospects’ assumptions or conventional ways of thinking about their business.
For example, if you sell vehicle-tracking services to companies that have large fleets of vehicles, you could create some content about how these companies are losing a lot of productivity due to incorrect driving routes.
Buyers may not be aware of this, but you are educating them through your content. And once they realise they have that problem, you’ll be in a good place to position your solution to them.
Here are some great examples of companies that have strong content marketing strategies:

River Pools and Spas
Prior to 2009, Marcus Sheridan’s swimming pool business was in shambles. With a tanking US economy, the need for luxury items like swimming pools were simply unnecessary. The company was also heavily in debt. In March 2009, Sheridan asked customers to post their questions on online, and he would answer every one of them: which pool types to buy, what materials are best, and so on. In sticking with his smart marketing strategy, Sheridan turned to being even more useful to customers by blogging about pools.
His website now also has free educational DVDs, free downloadable pool guides, videos, and other content all designed to educate and build trust with customers.
The results speak for themselves: Sheridan generated more customer leads in 2011 than in the previous two years combined. By then the company was free of debt, and even better, was on its way to becoming one of the most sought after pool companies in the US.

Open View Venture Partners
Open View Venture Partners is a venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs expand their companies. Their website is packed with useful content for entrepreneurs, and includes content that speaks to the kinds of issues that entrepreneurs face every day: things to do with marketing and growing their business, improving their products, finance, and leadership. Their content takes many forms such as eBooks, articles, videos, special reports, podcasts, and infographics.
Open View’s results are amazing. They have had 18,000 newsletter sign-ups in three years, and they are now found much easier by entrepreneurs with innovative ideas that are looking for help.

Alan Weiss
I had the pleasure of working with Alan Weiss for about a year. He coached me and helped me develop my intellectual property and thought leadership. Alan is a great example of what a one-man company can do as far as content is concerned. He has published over 50 books in 12 languages. He has hundreds of articles, videos, podcasts, and other useful content that helps independent professionals like myself to thrive.
Because of his creating strong, provocative content, Alan’s business has thrived. Success Magazine cited him in an editorial devoted to his work as “a worldwide expert in executive education”. He makes over $3mn a year. Not bad for someone that works from his home!

♦ Ahmed al-Akber is the managing director of ACK Solutions, a firm that helps companies to improve their marketing and sales results by offering more effective ways attracting customers and significantly better products and services. Ahmed has worked internationally in marketing, sales, and strategic planning at companies such as the Coca-Cola Company, Philip Morris International and Dell. Questions or comments can be sent to Ahmed on [email protected]