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This piece was written by Ardath Albee, I selected it because I thought her insights were very helpful for anyone who is using content marketing to reach their customers. Her suggestions are good for original and curated content.

 

To paraphrase:

 

Everything has changed, B2B executives need to change their mindset to fit the realities of the "always connected consumer" They are bombarded with too much information. It's important to shift your thinking and change the way you relate to them. The old way won't work.

 

Excerpt:

 

"Selling content marketing to B2B executives is hard. At least harder than it should be. But what strikes me as odd is their willingness to requestion their decision after they've finally been convinced".

 

Here are some highlights:

 

**Content marketing is not a campaign  With no stop date, it violates the nature of traditionalist marketers to be able to box in a final result and say "it worked"

 

or "it could have been better." At least not quickly

 

**content marketing isn't three touches and a sales pitch, your department may not be shuffling as many leads to sales.

 

**If the change we make isn't driven by what our buyers want, it's driven by what we want. What we want isn't going to convince buyers to buy. Especially over the longer-term, complex buying process.

 

**Here is two things to do to combat Shiny Object Syndrome:

 

First - determine ways to measure your incremental wins with content marketing that tie to business KPIs. That's one thing that marketing automation technology and analytics can help you with.

 

It's also something that salespeople can help you with. When's the last time you spoke with them about the leads you sent over?

 

Here are more insights from Matt Johnson who  has more to say about KPI's

 

"Only by compartmentalizing our distinct lives as brand stewards, lead generators and media mavens, can we help educate others (CEOs, peers, our teams, ourselves), who may think of “marketing” as a monolithic and mysterious blob......

 

Second - put some fun into your content marketing!

 

**Take a look at your personas and figure out a new way to approach them. Put a new spin on a topic you've grown bored with

 

**Use a new format. Do it to engage yourself as much as you do it to engage your buyers.

 

Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Marketing, Social Media and Beyond"

 

See full article here: [http://tinyurl.com/73xam22]

Via janlgordon