Ardath Albee

I love this time of year. The New Year is stretching out infront of us, an open book ready for a story. That story will be fleshed out by the content you create and share over the next 52 weeks. Seems like a long time, but it will go by in the blink of an eye - just like this year. One of the reasons that questions are so important is because they drive the curiosity to find answers. In a best case scenario, the answers to your prospects' questions will be found in your content. So how do you find the questions? Some resources include: Trend and prediction reports for the industries you serve. The analysts are out in force right now and many reports based on surveys of the types of target markets you serve are being published with an eye to what's coming. Customer interviews. Not necessarily formal surveys, but one-to-one conversations that help you hear the phrasing,... (more)

B2B Websites NOT Great At Demand Gen

A new study on an often overlooked subject is fresh off the presses: Demandbase and Focus.com 2011 National Website Demand Generation Study. The B2B company website is growing in importance as buyers spend more time researching and selecting the information they use during a complex buying process. Demandbase CEO, Chirs Golec, sums up the situation nicely in the press release: “Social media may be heralded as the silver bullet to bring B2B marketing up to snuff but, despite its increasing influence, it’s important to keep in mind that no business sale is made without the buyer g... (more)

B2B Content Marketing as Trojan Horse

I sat in on the Content Marketing for Real Marketers webinar, with Joe Chernov and Rebecca Lieb, hosted by #CMI and Joe Pulizzi. Of course there were many great points made, but two of them stood out and prompted this blog post: Content draws 10X more media attention than product launches. Diminishing the brand representation in favor of the story enables it to spread. If you look at the first point, it offers proof that no one cares about products, but rather what they enable — which is what great content marketing is all about. The second points out that it's not about your comp... (more)

Why B2B Content Marketing Themes Fail

Themes for B2B marketing programs are not a new concept. They're used to "organize" marketing programs and create a rallying cry around a market trend that will (hopefully) drive business momentum. The problem with themes in marketing, as I see it, is that they're used as temporary marketing constructs — generally for the term of a campaign or perhaps a quarter. Themes generally do not originate based on a context that resonates with buyers. Themes should be used as umbrellas that tie together the brand story with unifying and dominant ideas or motifs. A theme should weave throug... (more)

Content Marketing Hubs Deliver ROI

Last week I was part of the panel for the Marketing Superhero webinar hosted by OnPath where we discussed how to create demand generation strategies for 2012. I chose to make my tip about Content Hubs. A Content Hub is a content marketing program that takes full advantage of a bigger content asset to combine lead generation with lead nurturing and gain optimal value from your investment in content development. A Content Hub serves to: Generate leads and/or engage prospects by providing a valuable, extended experience. Presents the topic in a variety of ways through a variety of ... (more)