If you work in B2B marketing, then you’re no stranger to content syndication programs. B2B marketers create a great deal of content today, and circulating the content with demand gen vendors and B2B media companies is the backbone of many B2B marketing programs.
In theory, this is a pretty solid demand gen strategy. The media companies and demand gen vendors can put the content in front of the audience members they think are most interested in the topic and apply filters such as company size or job title in order to gather qualified leads.
In practice, however, B2B marketers tell us that the content syndication programs they run with some demand gen vendors are giving them headaches.
The primary reason content syndication programs have B2B marketers reaching for the aspirin is feedback from their sales team. “Content syndication leads don’t convert,” they tell marketers. “They’re the last leads when we prioritize prospects for outreach.”
Passive vs. Proactive Approaches to Content Syndication
Too many marketers are becoming convinced their content is posted to a website or published in an email newsletter with hopes that a qualified lead bumps into it. This is akin to a “spray-and-pray” strategy that essentially relies on luck bringing together a qualified prospect and the content.
This is a legitimate concern. For all of the innovation in B2B marketing in the past decade — including the ability to fine-tune targeting — some content syndication programs aren’t proactive enough. Hoping that a prospective buyer bumps into the right piece of content at the right point in their buyer’s journey is a passive tactic.
TechnologyAdvice is a full-service B2B media company that takes a strategic approach to content syndication programs. It starts with ensuring that we provide prospects with content that is relevant to their situation.
Our content syndication programs are built on dynamic scripting, which asks prospects about their technology challenges, their upcoming projects, and more. The information we gather from those conversations helps us match prospects with the content assets most relevant to their needs.
At TechnologyAdvice we can also enhance our content syndication programs by adding intent data to identify active researchers; account-based marketing (ABM) to target prospects at specific companies; call notes to provide additional information about the conversation we had with a prospect; and install data to help target companies using your technology or your competitors’ solutions.
Better Targeting Means More Relevant Content
Another content syndication concern marketers share with us is the nagging feeling they’re simply getting a list of leads and the content they worked so hard to create is nearly irrelevant. They don’t know if the leads engaged with the content. They just know the leads meet the criteria to qualify for the program.
This is what happens when demand gen vendors put too much focus on the need to deliver leads and not enough on the prospects and their needs. When you take a strategic approach to content syndication like TechnologyAdvice, you’re identifying the prospects who are most receptive to your message because it’s relevant to the challenges they face or projects they’re working to complete. We also pass along the information gleaned from the conversation so our clients can use it as part of their follow up with the leads.
The harder your vendor works to identify interested prospects, the more relevant your content will be to their situation. The more relevant the content, the more likely they are to engage with it.
Let’s Talk About Quality
Once a reader finds a relevant piece of content, the process of delivering a quality lead to your sales team is only beginning. Demand gen vendors and B2B media companies should verify the contact information and QA the leads before they are delivered.
Once an agent at one of TechnologyAdvice’s US-based call centers identifies a lead by engaging with a potential buyer, they verify the prospect’s contact information. That lead then goes through an additional round of quality assurance before being delivered to our clients.
A Better Approach to Content Syndication
We think the TechnologyAdvice approach to content syndication will result in better prospects for your sales team. But we also know that how your team works those leads plays a significant role in whether they convert. That’s why we work with B2B marketers to help them understand how best to handle leads from third-party sources and offer best practices for follow up on our leads, like this email nurture cheat sheet.
True to our name, TechnologyAdvice focuses its content syndication programs on prospective buyers by helping them tackle their most pressing technology challenges. We feel pretty good about this strategy because last year it helped us connect more than 750,000 technology buyers with the world’s best technology companies.
To learn more about B2B lead generation solutions from TechnologyAdvice, get in touch.