Successfully Sharing Your Content
A critical aspect of successful content marketing is the ability to share content effectively with target audiences. A recent Netline content consumption study concluded that “content discovery has become a scavenger hunt for most customers and prospects.”1 This opinion was confirmed by a Heinz Marketing study that reported only one in three B2B marketing leaders believed their current website encouraged people to actively engage with content. Another 42% chimed in that while their websites somewhat encouraged visitors to download content, they needed significant improvement. 2
The effectiveness of Web landing pages and blogs fared little better. Only 42% of the respondents reported good results when prospects landed on their destination pages. And few presented visitors with additional options to maintain sustained engagement.3
Marketing leaders said the creation of digital content destinations (landing pages, blog posts, webpages) was too painful to do effectively. Plus, half of the respondents complained it demanded too many resources or too much time.4
The Heinz study also asked marketing leaders about the channels used to share their content. Not surprisingly, the top five were:5
| Most Frequently Used Channels | Total |
| 79% | |
| Organic social media posts | 62% |
| Digital ads, retargeting | 56% |
| Organic SEO | 55% |
These findings were validated by an Ascend2 survey that found social media (59%) and email marketing (40%) were the best tactics for improving lead quality.6
TW’s Take:
High-quality content is worthless if not shared effectively with prospects. With most companies’ landing pages, blogs, and websites making content discovery a treasure hunt, it’s no wonder content marketing is unsuccessful in many industries.
Websites must be designed for easy content discovery. That means promoting relevant content downloads on associated product and services pages and creating content-rich, application-based digital resource centers. While email and social media are popular channels for sharing media, webinars are also strong avenues for content sharing and generating high-quality sales leads.
In our next post, we’ll review how personalization is the key to unlocking content engagement.
For copies of the studies referenced below, email rwhitmyre@tizinc.com.
References
1 2019 State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report for Marketers, Netline Corporation, June 2019.
2, 3, 4, 5 The New Marketing Standard: How Today’s Successful B2B Marketers Accelerate the Buyer’s Journey with Content, Heinz Marketing, November 2019.
6 Lead Generation Quality, Ascend2, August 2019.
