Personalizing your content can help you attract more customers and stand out from the competition. And it may not take as much time or effort as you think …
Today’s marketers are producing more content than ever.
According to the 2015 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report, 70% of B2B marketers are creating more content than they did one year ago.
With this flood of new content, it’s getting harder to stand out from the crowd. But, unfortunately, most of this content is generic and doesn’t help customers make informed buying decisions.
B2B buyers want to read content that speaks directly to their needs, challenges and goals. Your content must be relevant if you want to engage buyers and stand apart from your competition.
I had the opportunity to speak with Jake Coventry, owner of Matizmo, on the topic of content personalization. According to Jake, B2B marketers have a lot to lose if they don’t personalize their content.
“If you use generic content – or if your content only speaks to a small subset of your audience, you’ll miss out,” said Jake. “You’ll lose leads, customers and sales.”
Are You Creating Too Much Content?
Content personalization allows you to speak to each of your audiences – without creating completely new content for each audience.
For example, you may spend a lot of time creating completely unique white papers for a range of audiences. With content personalization, you can start with one basic white paper and then change parts of it – such as the case studies and introduction – to speak to a specific audience.
Then, all of your leads can go to the same landing page. From there, they simply select their role or industry to automatically receive a custom white paper.
How Personalized Content Engages B2B Customers
B2B marketers can learn a thing or two from the consumer space.
Today, consumers can customize just about everything – from organic produce boxes to shoes. For example, when someone designs a pair of NIKEiD sneakers, they’ll be more likely to build an emotional connection with the brand. They’ll be proud of their design and want to show it off to their friends.
Jake believes that if you allow leads to have a say in their content, they’ll engage more with you.
“B2B buyers don’t like to complete opt-in forms. However, they’ll be more likely to complete a form if they know that they’ll receive customized content at the end,” said Jake.
If they don’t answer your questions correctly, the content won’t reflect their needs. The more information they provide, the more relevant their content will be. Plus, you’ll receive higher quality sales leads. It’s a win-win.
The Key to Attracting Customers With Personalized Content
There are endless ways you can customize your content. For example, you can personalize it based on a customer’s role, industry, company size or stage in the sales cycle.
But for your personalization efforts to work, you must find out what makes your customers tick.
“Companies get caught up in creating tons of buyer personas and forget what customers want from their content,” said Jake. “Think of the key people who use your service and what they want to know. Make sure your content is speaks to their needs and is useful.”
3 Ways to Apply This Information Now
- Read “5 Keys to Creating Content That Engages Different Verticals” to learn how to maintain a consistent voice when personalizing content for with different audiences.
- Read about the missing link to B2B content marketing success to learn how to fill the gaps in your content and better engage customers.
- Click to share this article on LinkedIn. Sharing quality content increases your visibility and credibility with your existing contacts, creating conversations and potentially new business.