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Set A Goal With Your Content

By Sander Biehn | Nov 8, 2017

The best content marketing campaigns are easy to measure. They create engagement with the sales teams who share that content.  They offer thought leadership to your sales teams and, in turn, create relationships and signed deals.

So why is it that so much content falls short of the goal? Is it simply impossible to write content for a specific audience consistently and create ‘content at scale’?  I don’t think so.

We’ve seen world-class content marketing that propels the brand and builds sales conversations. Here are 3 things those content programs have in common.


  1. The content is simple yet specific. These marketers are never asking the question, ‘Shouldn’t we write a few more general pieces?’ These marketers are finding traction with an audience and are then stepping on the gas. They strike a balance between business-focus and technical. By finding the right level for the reader, they relentlessly explain their value prop in terms the reader can understand. Forget about writing for vertical markets! Figure out the basic kernels of your offer and how those simple advantages are irresistible for all the markets you serve.  Hone in on what makes your business great and how you serve customers.


  1. The marketers never take their eyes eye off the ball. If you’ve ever been in an editorial meeting where someone has a “feeling that the written blogs are good, but wouldn’t it be nice to throw in some infographics and videos” you may not be working at a world-class B2B content marketing company. Nothing wrong with mixing it up, but when the media is more important than the message, messaging slips. The best content marketers expand broadly yet closely around the formula that works.


  1. These marketers never run out of content. One of the reasons so many content campaigns fail is they don’t possess longevity. I get it, it takes a lot of time and energy to consistently create content, but without it, you are leaving your social sharers (the Sales teams) high and dry with their followers and networks. Your lack of will can suddenly translate into their fickleness in social media. It also makes it ten times harder to get a budget to restart the program down the road. Once you jump into the content marketing ocean there really is no way out except by lying at the bottom. If this sounds daunting it really isn’t. A solid plan acts like a boat that effortlessly carries your brand to every distant shore.


Here is some simple advice. While I cannot tell you exactly what will resonate with your specific B2B buyers, the fact is you do. Look around and see what messages sell. Engage your sales partners and come up with a way to measure success. Don’t leave shore with a simple Editorial Calendar and quota of Content Pieces per month. Do the thinking work and build a lasting voice in your industry.


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