Today’s B2B buyers are really specific when it comes to content consumption. Demand Gen Report’s 2018 Content Preferences Survey found that buyers are becoming more discerning and selective in the content they decide to consume. In addition:
- Podcasts were cited by 64% of respondents as a valuable content format in early stages of the journey;
- 66% of buyers noted they preferred webinars in the decision-making process; and
- 78% noted they place a higher emphasis on trustworthiness in the content’s source.
April’s Campaign Optimization Series spotlighted a variety of modern tactics around popular content and overall B2B event formats, including auditory storytelling (aka, podcasts), webinars and live events. Read on to get a preview of these thought-provoking presentations and gain some inspiration on how to upgrade your content creation strategies for modern buyers.
Take Your Webinars Far Beyond A Single Event
In this presentation titled, The Modern Webinar: A Required Ingredient For The Modern Campaign, Neal Amsden, VP of Demand Generation at ON24, discusses how webinars can be used to fuel on-going demand generation campaigns.
“Don’t limit what you think you can do with webinars from the standpoint of your campaigns or your sales cycle,” Amsden said. “They can play a lot of different roles. It’s really limited by your imagination and what your particular use case is.”
Key takeaways include:
- 68% of people will spend more than 20 minutes watching and engaging with a webinar;
- Information on how a prospect interacts with a webinar can be collected and shared with the sales team to fuel engagement; and
- Webinars can be repurposed and added to custom content hubs as part of an account-based marketing strategy.
View the session on demand here to learn more.
Bolster Campaigns With Event Data
In the session titled, Transform Event Data Into Actionable Intelligence That Transforms Campaigns, Validar President & CEO Victor Kippes outlines how to optimize event data to understand and grow revenue impact.
“Your value as an event marketer needs to be understood from a pipeline perspective,” Kippes said. “Make sure your follow-up extends the conversation, instead of asking an attendee to reeducate them on how the content impacted them at the event.”
Key takeaways include:
- CMOs spend 24% of their marketing budget on live events;
- It is critical to ensure event evaluation questions align with the event intent; and
- Event leads should be categorized as sales ready or trinket seekers, so that the sales team knows who to target.
View the webcast on demand here to learn more.
Gain Your Buyer’s Attention With Podcasts
Podcasts are a popular content format these days. And in the session titled, Amp Up Your Content Strategy & Campaigns With “Auditory Storytelling,” Dana Harder, VP of Strategy for Content4Demand, and Steve Voith, Director of Marketing and Demand Generation for Content4Demand, discuss the value and best practices for creating podcasts your buyers will love.
“Twenty percent of buyers indicate they spend less than five minutes reviewing the majority of content,” said Harder. “An auditory asset like a podcast will provide details quickly so they don’t have to scan a large asset.”
Key takeaways include:
- 44% of the U.S. population has listened to a podcast, and 80% listen to all or most of each podcast episode;
- You can turn a blog post into a podcast to make them more engaging, or use podcasts to fuel a blog and vice versa; and
- A seven-step process for creating podcasts, including brainstorming a concept, recording equipment, editing and publishing.
Get inspired to create your own podcast series by viewing the webcast on demand here.
The Campaign Optimization Series features these and plenty more webcast presentations on fueling your 2018 campaigns for success. Check them all out on demand here.