005 - The Dark Funnel. Where media can’t be measured, attributed, or justified by your CRO
1* The biggest influence in B2B buying decisions and no one in marketing cares.
The Dark Funnel. Where media can’t be measured, attributed, or justified by your CRO. But arguably the most influential part of the buyer's decision.
B2B buying has changed forever.
Customers are smart, they know what they want, where to find it and where to research and learn about it.
For the best part, buyers do not see an ad, download a piece of content, and book a demo immediately after.
They will be in the market for a product, they will have brands in mind, they will ask their peers, friends for recommendations, they will reach out to a vertical-specific community/ group, they will “Google” their pain point, with a solution or brand(s) in mind, and they will make an informed view about that product or service.
This process might be slightly different, but the core behaviour won’t differ too much from reality. But this could be over 1 day, 3 months or 2 years.
The key questions are…
How does your brand keep top of mind?
What content supports the research phase of the buyer's journey?
How does your strategy for 2022 consider the dark funnel?
Check out the comments in this LinkedIn post from DG to get a broader perspective from a variety of different marketers. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/davegerhardt_marketing-activity-6869266684927066114-8Mvg/
2* Waging war on commodity content. A.K.A let’s stop creating generic run-of-the-mill content
This is a powerful post that attracted over 100 comments from B2B marketers sharing their admiration for this post.
We’ve all done it.
We have created a piece of content that wasn’t particularly inspirational, it wasn’t original, we’ve cut a few corners to get it signed off, and with a big sigh of relief, we post it, and forget it.
This is a fascinating take on how brands should tackle their content strategy.
The core message is to identify your villain. This means, what’s the one consistent pain point for your ICP, and identify this problem. Then underpin your content strategy to this problem. All your content should be attached to this one problem and your company should be famous for this one thing.
Read this brilliant post here.
3* MQLs are not dead, but they must be redefined
LinkedIn has been good to me this week.
This is another brilliant take on MQLs.
The rise of Chris Walker and the demand gen waterfall has thrown shame and embarrassment to those “old school” marketers still daring to create campaigns that focus on generating “Leads”.
So, whilst I agree with the sentiment, that B2B marketing has changed, and we need to evolve our marketing with how B2B buyers are making their buying decisions.
This doesn’t mean MQLs, and lead generation is dead.
I agree with Edward’s post, that with the right parameters, the right measurement, and the right approach, MQLs still have a role within 2022 and beyond. Check out this thoughtful post, which has some fantastic comments.
4* Why It’s a bad thing to say all your growth is ‘free’ and ‘organic’ and based on ‘content marketing’
Nathan Latka uses his 1000+ SaaS founder interviews to discuss ARR. He takes this data and makes it usable for the rest of us to benchmark and predict who may get acquired, raise, or IPO next
In this video you will learn:
8 x steps on how to grow your SaaS company valuation and ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue).
How and why you should spend to grow your ARR rate
Why It’s a bad thing to say all your growth is ‘free’ and ‘organic’ and based on ‘content marketing’
The cost of making sure you always have ‘leverage’ before you do a funding round
How a ‘Churn Funnel’ can save you customers, and increase your ARR
+ See what world-class ‘Net Revenue Retention’ looks like with examples & case studies from over 1000+ interviews
5* Today’s trends are already yesterday’s has-beens
This report by Wavemaker will break down the key trends across content, people, innovation and media...
Check out the report now.
https://wavemaker.ds8.io/02NueAYBpM
Bonus
Each week I will share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find just interesting.
Copywriting is one of the most undervalued skills in marketing. It’s often outsourced and afterthought, but the words we use should be front and centre of our content strategy.
Copy.ai is a cool technology that uses AI to create copy at speed. It's not perfect, but it can play a supporting role with those producing a lot of content with limited resources.
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