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Do you lead or do you demand?
I read a great article from the Content Marketing Institute asking whether we should focus on lead generation or demand generation?
I'm going to show you how to answer that question
for yourself. In the article the
Content Marketing Institute - a very highly regarded organisation by the way argue
that your content strategy can't deal with both Lead Gen
and Demand Gen. Lead Gen is all about
names and Demand Gen is all about shaping behaviour.
Well I'd argue content strategy
must deal with both.
What about positioning? and differentiation? and value
selling? and closing? Doesn't
our content actually have to deal with all of that? And are we actually thinking about
this the right way? Isn't that all about us? Shouldn't we be thinking about
the buyer first? And what should our
social strategy be and our content strategy?
Our search strategy? Our lists strategy?
What's the purpose of each of our tactics?
Or are we actually thinking about this
altogether the wrong way? Aren't all of those questions about us?
Shouldn't it actually be about our buyer? In a moment or two
I'll show you how we use the funnal plan to determine and shape that
content strategy. But first I am going to do two things.
I'm going to show you how to build content
to help buyers move all the way through the funnel and I'm
going to invite you to receive more blogs like this.
let's get first to that content strategy. How do we build a content strategy that can move a buyer
all the way through their stages in their journey?
We need a framework for choosing
tactics. But it needs to reflect what's going on for the buyer
if it has any chance of working. Well first I need your name.
I can't talk to you if I don't know who you are. I know that's not as important if your business relies 100% on
inbound. But but it is critical if we have strategic targets
or defined markets where we must go outbound. Even if you only have a little bit of outbound you need their names first.
Then I need you to know that I exist.
But it's more about being on a list
You know - if you need a plumber call Frank, if you need
a funnel consultant, call MathMarketing. I need to be on that list.
Then I need you to be interested in a dialog
in person or electronically. For example,
to get you to watch this blog, its you showing interest.
I can't assume much more but at least you're interested
enough to watch this blog and then I need to trouble you.
perhaps this blog troubles you a little about your approach to
tactics or maybe that won't occur until you meet
one of our sales guys that you really buy in that your present approach needs to change.
I can't assume just yet that I've got you accross the
line. When I do I need to help you work out what it is
that you need. Not just from me but from anyone.
This is my chance to influence your thinking.
So for example, I'm going to argue that you need both sage
advice and a good planning tool and a good planning methodology
because I've got a global network of funnel coaches and the plan and the methodology.
But if I didn't have one of those I'd be trying to argue
that all you need is smart advice or a good tool or
something like that. So my opportunity to shape your thinking is at
the need definition stage. Not when I put my
proposal on the table, way before that. So I need my sales
guys to be doing the hard yards now. Then I need you to understand exactly what we can do
to align to that need. Again, its probably up to the sales
guys. But its
not as important for them to be arguing the merits of
our offer right now if they've done a good enough job
of shaping your concept of what you need. Because
if they've shaped their concept then you're going to find what we have to offer
attractive. If they've failed to shape it you won't find it attractive. So they really need to have done the hard yards of the need
shaping or need definition
stage. Then I need to help you dimiss
all the alternatives. So, I might offer you things like
comparison tools, content on comparision. Then,
I need you to agree to proceed. So really I just need
simple terms and a clear plan at this stage. So my content is going to be all about the clear
plan. Now once you've got that frame set up
choosing tactics to help buyers move
from each stage to the next stage
is what it's all about. The question should never be
what should we do about (insert
you favorite tactic here), but how can we get better
at helping buyers to move from this stage
to that stage. Well if you enjoyed this blog then
hopefully you'll enjoy others. If you haven't done so already
can I invite you to go to www.mathmarketing.com/blog
and subscribe to either the twice a week blog comes out nice and
fresh or the once a month Funnel Vision insights
that collects just the best of the blogs for the month. Or you can go to YouTube
at this address: youtube.com/user/MathMarketing and you can subscribe to our channel there.
Now if you already have but you have a colleague who hasn't then now might be a great time
to forward on an invitation to them to subscribe
using one of those approaches - using MathMarketing/blog
or the YouTube channel. Here's how we
set up that content strategy
using the funnel plan. So clearly we're going to be talking about
the tactics section of the funnel plan and we're going to be
setting up a framework for choosing our
tactics all the way through. Now by the time you see this we may be onto our new
graphic user interface which we're working on right now but
I'll have a go at this anyway based on the possibility that you're seeing the
soon to be updated table based interface.
So lets add a tactic
and for the moment I'm just going to put in the barest minimum of information
and the name of the tactic and the stage that we're trying to get buyers
to, in the use of this tactic.
Now I want to show you tags just briefly
but I want to show you why tags are important. Some of your tactics might
just inbound and some just outbound. So you probably want to show them
differently on the plan or some might be A priority and some B
and so you want to show them differently. Tags let you
select what method you want to use to differentiate the
tactics in the funnel plan when you print it out.
so lets now edit one of those tactics and change one of the tags
pretty simple. You can reorder reorder tactics pretty simply. Now of course you can do it in the table but
its a real pain. Use the reorder feature
click on the reorder and you can now drag and drop
any tactic within a stage or even between stages.
Then click save and the order of those tactics appear in the funnel plan
will now change.
Now visually we might want to connect those tactics into a bit of a flow
so we can add a connection. Here's how it works
we select the tactic that we're connecting from and then we
choose a tactic that we want to connect to
and that is going to need to be either in the same stage or the next stage along.
Then there is recycling. Recycling
tactics tend to operate across multiple stages of the
journey. Its kind of like snakes and ladders. This is how we return
the buyer back to the top of funnel. So we can add
around it over a recycling tactic
and we can choose where we want it to connect to back into
so what's the tactic that will benefit from this recycling on
nurturing work? I'll show you
how we choose the best tactics for each of
those individuals stages and for recycling
on another day. But for now, may your funnel be full,
and always flowing.