We see people creating a lot of content, telling us how great their company is, that they are at this conference and that award ceremony. But, to be honest, does anybody care?
We are not aware that anybody has ever promoted their company for being shit, everybody says their company is the best, the market leader, etc, etc. Look at the Gartner magic square, in theory there is only one winner, but everybody on that square spins their position. The best Challenger, the leader .....
Of course, we are all very proud of our companies and passionate about the products and services we sell. But is anybody else? We all view the world through our own frame of reference, through our own experiences and our own beliefs.
The thing is that we are passionate about our own products but when it comes to everybody else, we don't care. We are just too busy.
The problem that buyers have with content is that it doesn't give then very much information.
The content will be like the "immaculate conception", it will be a sales pitch, which is kind of similar. It will be a long list of features. If I, as the buyer am going to put myself in a position where I might get fired (if this project goes wrong) I'm going to look for content that can help me.
Let's not forget, you are the experts and the buyer is not.
I've spent that last 25 years selling accounting systems, I know what you need to look for in buying one, I know what will go wrong in the implementation .... all these things I can help you with. The same you can do with the product and service you sell. That advice is what your buyers are looking for .... and in easy to consume, bite sized chunks.
Content needs to help the buyer and this may sound strange, but the less you sell and the more authentic you are, the better.
Nobody gets up in the morning and says "I need to talk to a sales person", what we do do is get up in the morning and look for people that can help us, guide us, inspire us, insight us, thanks.
Content remains one of the most effective ways of initiating the buyer’s journey. Indeed, almost half (48%) of the more than 200 B2B marketing leaders who took part in a survey by PathFactory and Heinz Marketing said that their company’s buying process was initiated by someone on their team coming across a prospective company’s content they found interesting. In terms of acting as a catalyst to the buyers’ journey, discovering interesting content was second only to someone vocalizing a pain point or challenge that needs to be addressed (61%). It’s often the function of content to address these pain points. However, close to half (48%) of the survey’s respondents said that one of the biggest issues they have with the content they receive is that it isn’t relevant to their pain points or challenges.
https://www.marketingcharts.com/cross-media-and-traditional/content-marketing-107699