How Content Development Can Reduce Your Lead Gen Workload

Seems contradictory - doesn’t it? Content development is often seen as a drain of both time and resources. It’s true - the writing, editing, and organizing process can be time consuming...at first. But when you begin to plan for content, when it becomes part of your “big picture”, the up-front content work significantly lightens your initial lead generation workload.

Quality Content Can Help You Gain New Customers

Over 85% of B2B leads only reach out to you AFTER they have thoroughly researched your company’s social media presence and website. All of your online content, including product catalogs and sell sheets, as well as the Capabilities and Product pages on your site, should be clear, optimized, and user-focused. Planning this content so you have a consistent, information-rich message for your digital presence provides potential customers with everything they need to choose your company, and products.

Content Planning Can Drive Your Strategy

When you dedicate the time and effort necessary to develop content for your website, social media, advertising, or just in general - you begin to ask BIG questions:

"What do we do best?”
“What do we do better than anyone else?”
“Why do our customers choose us?”

In answering these questions, you begin to identify new opportunities, missed opportunities, or even gaps in your content strategy. In other words, when you build content, you tend to take stock of what you currently have, what your sales objectives are, and what makes your business unique. These three concepts can help drive your overall company marketing message strategy.

Where to Start

Plan for content which is multi-purpose, starting with an idea central to your company capabilities or branding, which can be used across several channels (blogs, e-blasts, social media posts). A good example of multi-purpose content is the development of a case study. A case study, a real life company success story, explains the time when your business provided a solution - and can be used as a featured downloadable piece in lead generation ads, website Resources, and is particularly useful in email campaigns to your customers and prospects. Problem-solving sells!

Other multi-purpose pieces include worksheets, checklists, and audits - useful tools which encourage engagement with your company. Another type of content which can establish your company, or specific team members, as subject matter experts is long-form content, like white papers and landing pages. This longer type of content provides an opportunity to deep dive into an industry-specific topic, and easily becomes the centerpiece of lead generation or advertising campaigns.

Investing in the development of information-rich content can enhance your lead generation efforts. Your company’s online/downloadable/printed content fuels nearly every part of your marketing and sales efforts by giving prospects and customers insight to your company capabilities and culture. Spend your time wisely planning content development for a targeted - and successful - lead generation campaign.

Let’s get started on your company’s content strategy - reach out to us now.