Content Marketing Today

Learn 10 Vital Content Marketing Lessons from the Big Guys!

Joe Pulizzi reports from the B2B NetMarketing breakfast in the Big Apple.

Marketing pros in small companies can and must learn important lessons from the emerging strategies of the smartest large company marketers.  Increasingly, those strategies revolve around content marketing that enables genuine conversations with their customers.

Thanks to Joe Pulizzi, we didn’t have to attend the BtoB NetMarketing breakfast to feast on the content marketing lessons even small companies can learn from IBM, CIT, Siemens, and Information Builders.

Joe highlighted the good stuff while eliminating the carbs from the buffet table.

The first lesson comes from his first post, “Is the Main Job of Marketing Today Publishing?”, he pointed to the irreversible marketing trend that makes content creation a top priority:

Leading marketing organizations such as IBM and Siemens are focusing the majority of their time, attention and resources on the creation and distribution of their own content to customers and prospects.

Joe noted that these major marketers are not giving up traditional off-line and online marketing efforts.  However, in each case, much of their marketing is meant to send prospective customers to content they have created.

The driving force behind this fundamental change is a complete shift in buying behavior in which 90% of purchasers do thorough research prior to making a traditional contact with a vendor.

This means, if you haven’t created valuable content, you haven’t got a chance.  As Joe notes, “The whole idea of this, even 10 years ago, would seem like the hard way to increase sales.  Today, it’s the only way.“

Click here to read Joe’s entire post.

Here are 9 more lessons from his second post.

Joe detailed specific takeaways from each company.  Here are my 9 favorites:

Bill Stabile, Siemens Corp.

• 20 to 30% of its marketing budget goes online, compared to almost nothing a few years ago.
• They know that 90% of their buyers are going online to find suppliers–and they take this very seriously.
• Although their communications strategy is one way now, their objective is to begin to create a two-way conversational connection with their customers.

Chris Boylan, Information Builders

• Their primary goal for visitors to their website is to drive them to their most compelling content.
• Through the combination of PPC, organic search, and content syndication, they can point to $35 million in new business over the past year.

John Carnero, CIT

• In partnership with Condé Nast, they have created a “Behind the Business” video series promoted through some of Condé’s high-end magazines.  The serious spotlights leading CEOs and how they define success.
• They’ve also created a series of five minute podcasts on intellectual capital that is designed to position key employees as thought leaders.  They partner with various media sites to drive traffic to that content.

Eric Andrews, IBM

• In a departure from traditional IBM marketing practice, their current strategy starts with listening. They truly believe that their customers are in control and that customers guide the marketing conversation.
• Joe notes that, “they can no longer interrupt their customers–they must provide relevant content for when their customers are ready, and in formats they prefer.”

These are just snippets, so be sure to check out Joe’s entire article which includes links to videos of each marketer’s presentation. That way, you can be in virtual attendance at this Big Apple breakfast. 

The bottom-line from these 10 takeaways: Just because you’re small doesn’t mean you can’t THINK BIG!