Kaitlin Stich
Webinars and videos are well established as essential lead generation tools for B2B marketers. These content formats have broken the monotony of static legacy content to provide richer, more engaging experiences for prospective business buyers, while also offering more data collection opportunities for marketers. The result is more actionable customer engagement data for accelerating the buying cycle.
Yet many B2B marketers have not taken full advantage of webinars and videos to effectively satisfy shifting buyer requirements. As a result, many marketers are finding it difficult to progress prospects beyond initial phases of the sales funnel.
While late-stage education typically happens on vendor web properties, education at earlier stages in the funnel are often subject to the anytime, anywhere consumption behavior to which buyers are now accustomed. Because of this changing behavior, buyers are not just looking for the right content; they want to receive it at the right time as well.
Marketers need to create content that fills all of these needs. And as B2B technology purchase decisions are becoming increasing complex, there are other purchase influencers (IT administrators, executives, etc.) to consider. These stakeholders seek out different types of content from a variety of sources according to their personal preferences. As a result, it is important at each stage of the buying cycle to consider the content needs of all parties that have a role in purchase decisions.
Furthermore, marketers must evaluate the types of content being used to nurture each of those influencers in the buying cycle. In the past, lead generation professionals have assumed that because videos are generally shorter, they communicate less value and are better suited for conveying top-of-funnel messaging. Similarly, webinars have been traditionally utilized to communicate messaging further into the sales conversation.
Both are strategy missteps that lead generation professionals commonly take. Instead, both types of assets should be positioned strategically within demand generation programs to support modern buyer behavior and additional types of content such as white papers, case studies, data sheets, marketing brochures, and more.
This is an excerpt from a Frost & Sullivan white paper. To learn more about using webinars and videos at each stage of the sales funnel, watch the full webinar.
(237)
