3 Questions to Ask When Creating Killer Content

In part two of this three-part blog series derived from conversations at our annual Marketing Madness event held in March, we’ll discuss the three key questions your content should answer. (Read part one here.)

Creating effective content can be challenging, but when done right, it can increase brand awareness, build credibility and move prospects down the buyer funnel. So, how do you create a killer content library that achieves these goals? Attendees at our annual Marketing Madness event suggested making sure you have a range of content that addresses these three key questions:

1. What do you do?

Use content – including your website, white papers, bylines and more – to clearly express what you do and how you can help potential prospects.

Demand Gen Report found that 40% of buyers view three to five pieces of content before speaking with a salesperson, making it more important than ever to have content that clearly addresses their needs. When a prospect comes across your company, they should be able to immediately assess how you can help them solve their pain points. By tailoring content to your target audience, you can preemptively answer a potential prospect’s question before they even ask – effectively moving them down the funnel before they even speak to a salesperson.

2. Who have you helped?

Further your brand credibility by showcasing examples of your success. Have a page on your website dedicated to powerful case studies, and include relevant testimonials on product or service pages. Remember, the people finding this type of content are probably looking to solve a specific problem, so be sure to have content that addresses your target audience’s pain points.

Once you have a solid library of case studies and testimonials, don’t stop there. Share this content on your owned social media channels and encourage clients that have given great testimonials to share their comments on review sites like G2 Crowd or Clutch. Don’t be afraid to get creative by using images, gifs and videos to catch your audience’s attention. Create graphics about the successful work you’ve done and promote it across channels.

You never know when a recommendation will be the closing argument of a sale, so make sure your prospects have easy access to content that validates their decision when considering a purchase.

3. What do you think?

Use your expertise and unique perspective to establish your company as a thought leader in your industry. By providing expert commentary on a timely news story, or writing an industry-specific data-driven report, you can increase trust in your brand, making it the first place a potential lead will go for assistance. Create content that says something about your brand’s offering or positioning and offers new, intriguing knowledge to prospects. Even better, for long-form thought leadership like a white paper or data report, gate this content behind a form on your site as another effective tool for generating leads.

At the event, Tom Williams, VP of Marketing at CCC Information Services, shared his success with a gated resource. The data-driven report included new and intriguing content, and because it was original research, it had inherent news value. As reporters published stories that linked back to the gated piece of content, CCC promoted those news stories, rather than the content itself. By finding new ways to talk about data from the report and promoting it across earned and owned media, CCC was able to extend the lifespan of the report and effectively create a loop that generated leads by driving media to content, driving traffic to media and ultimately driving traffic back to content.

By ensuring you have content that addresses these three questions, you’ll be well on your way to creating a library full of killer content. For more advice on how to get the most out of your content, download our Seven Steps to Generating ROI with B2B Content report, which explores how to strategically develop and deploy content that helps contribute to your bottom line. And stay tuned for our final Marketing Madness blog post in which we’ll discuss attendees’ tips for maximizing ROI from content.