As you begin to build your marketing plans for 2010, focus on the content of your efforts before dividing up your budget against the tactical efforts.
If you have been reading my blog, you may be picking up that I am a strong proponent of good content. I believe strategically developed content drives everything. Many of my thoughts have recently been confirmed by the results of a recent survey among tech buyers by Eccolo Media. For the second year in a row, these tech buyers—your customers—stated in no uncertain terms that they regularly consume a broad range of content when making purchasing decisions. What’s more, a significant proportion of them find this content “very” or “highly” influential when making purchasing decisions.
The survey of more than 500 technology-purchasing decision makers and influencers also found that sales materials of any kind—white papers, case studies/sale sheets, podcasts, videos, product brochures and data sheets—are most frequently consumed at the beginning of the sales cycle—before a company ever invites vendors to participate in an RFP. Collateral subsequently is used less frequently as sales relationships evolve, the survey said.
Among this year’s key findings:
-77% of respondents said they’d read at least one white paper in the last six months, with 84% of them rating white papers as moderately to extremely influential when making technology-purchasing decisions.
-49% of respondents said they had watched a vendor’s video while considering a technology purchase, up from 1 in 5 in 2008.
-89% of respondents said they share white papers with others, while 85% share case studies, 81% share brochures or data sheets, 80% share podcasts, and 79% share video.
-Tech buyers prefer to consume collateral from their desktop – in fact, only 1 in 4 surveyed even print out an online document.
-Although data sheets and brochures were considered the least influential written collateral, they were also the most consumed type, indicating they are still valuable “table stakes” in helping solidify a brand’s product messages with potential buyers.
-Good writing matters: 86% of respondents felt that high-quality writing was at least moderately influential; 51% ranked good writing as either very or extremely influential. By contrast, poor quality writing was the most frequent reason respondents gave for decreasing the influence of a white paper.
A downloadable version of the full survey report is available at:
http://www.eccolomedia.com/download.php
