We all know the buying process has changed and research shows that marketing has to change with it. Analysts estimate that today’s buyers are 66-90% through their sales journey before they reach out to a salesperson, and they don’t typically do so until they are ready for price quotes.
With buyers spending 63% of the time they are online keeping up with industry and/or technology , channel sales organizations must be properly positioned to capture their attention. That’s why nearly 90% of marketing professionals agree that successfully integrating multiple channels under a single integrated marketing strategy is crucial to long-term success.
Content is Critical
Clearly, marketing plays a larger role in the sales process than ever before. Marketing automation has also become one of the fastest growing technology segments due to these shifts. Powering marketing automation and integrated marketing efforts requires one essential element: Great content – and lots of it.
Unfortunately, the content challenge remains a daunting one. Channel marketers are already overwhelmed and many channel partners are resource constrained. Generating enough high-quality content to meet demands, especially when you consider all of the various channels and tactics you have to support, is no small task. Managing a small marketing team here at Zift, I understand the content challenge first hand.
Solving the Content Challenge
Flexibility is the key to solving the content challenge. To make your content go further, stop creating one-off pieces. Instead, carefully plan your content development efforts and create flexible assets that can be “stretched” or used multiple ways to support multiple marketing tactics.
We put this best practice to work here at Zift and we are always on the lookout for new ways to capture the time and cost-saving benefits of repurposing content. After recently developing a webinar about Lead Distribution management, we transformed it into several assets, including an eBook, series of blog posts, several social media posts, multi-touch email campaigns, landing pages, a website resource and more. With the right planning and insight, your content can easily stretch to meet multiple needs and go further toward nurturing prospects to close.
Need more inspiration?
Check out Oracle|Eloqua’s Content Pillar Approach below, which details how you can produce at least 269 pieces of content from a single eBook!
