This document provides an overview of using content marketing to increase revenue. It discusses inbound versus outbound marketing and defines content. The bulk of the document focuses on developing a content strategy aligned with the buyer's journey, including creating timely, targeted, and high-quality content for the awareness, consideration, and decision stages. It provides examples of content types for each stage and gives a pop quiz to test understanding of matching content to the buyer's journey. Finally, it discusses specific content examples and best practices for the awareness stage. The overall goal is to equip attendees with tools to close more sales and increase revenue through an effective content strategy.

1. JUMP START REVENUE
with Content Marketing
Brought to you by

2. [ DIRECTOR OF MARKETING ][ Marketing Manager, Manufacturing ]
This SlideShare is put togehter by two of Adhere Creatives talented members.

3. OUTBOUND
Cold Calling
Cold Emails (spam)
Interruptive Ads
Marketer - Centric
INBOUND
SEO
Blogging
Attraction
Customer - Centric
And at Adhere we subscribe to the inbound marketing methodology. While I could probably spend a whole other webinar on
just discussing the tenets of inbound marketing, frankly, it’s been done. So I’ll just provide a brief introduction for anyone that is
unfamiliar. Inbound marketing is essentially the opposite of outbound marketing. Simply put, it’s taking advantage of the
internet to let potential buyers come to you with expressed interest as opposed to chasing them down. It’s customer-centric
versus marketer-centric. It’s replacing cold walls with warm calls. It’s permission based instead of interruption based. Now, like
I said before, I could go on and on about inbound marketing, but that’s another show.

4. If you are interested in learning more, I recommend checking out the huge amount of content we have available on our website

5. And if you read through everything we have, head on over to HubSpot.com (the pioneers of inbound marketing).

6. Why You Need Content
Defining Content
Content Strategy:
Timely - Aligning content with the Buyer’s Journey
Targeted - Matching up content for each Buyer Personas
Quality - DIY or Hire a Pro?
Getting Your Content Seen
What We Are Going To Cover:
Alrighty then, thanks for the introduction Matt. So, why are we here? Hopefully, you took a look at the title of our little
production here, and thought to yourself, yeah, let’s give that a try, I’ve got time to spare. And what are the first words of that
title? JUMP START REVENUE. So, everything we cover here today is focused on helping you increase revenue through proven
content marketing strategies. And before we get to far I want to give you a preview of the agenda.
I’m going to start with why you need content, define what content really means, get into the nitty gritty of a well rounded
content strategy, and finish with a brief look at how to get your content seen.

7. Now, beyond just the basic desire to increase revenue, I would bet that odds are most of you are here because you (or your
sales manager) have started to recognize the symptoms of something plaguing your sales cycle. You’re not sure what the
problem is just yet but the bottom line is, you’re looking for more revenue. And while these symptoms are many and varied,
there is one bottom line, you need more revenue

8. This is understandable, that’s what we’re all here for right? Revenue.

9. ACCOUNTING
This isn’t accounting.

10. WAREHOUSE WORKER
This isn’t the warehouse.

11. QUALITY CONTROL
This isn’t QC,

12. QUALITY ASSURANCE
QA

13. HUMAN RESOURCE
HR

14. I.T.
or IT.

15. This is sales. And what matters in sales? Revenue.
My goal is that by the end of this webinar, you will leave equipped with the tools needed to effectively close more sales and
build your revenue stream.

16. WHAT DOES YOUR COMPANY SELL?
But. Before we dive in let’s see if we have some brave volunteers that aren’t too cool to participate. What kinds of companies
do we have with us today? You should see a poll question pop up on your screen any second now, so go ahead and fill that
out and we’ll see what we’ve got.
Alright, thanks everyone that pitched in there. Now let’s get back to content.

17. As I said before, we’re all here because we’ve recognized some symptoms. Symptoms of a sinking or stagnant revenue
stream. And as I mentioned there are many symptoms but I want to focus on a few important ones

18. ! No organic leads
! Not closing qualified leads
! Losing sales to the competition
! Not enough repeat business
SYMPTOMS
You don’t have many organic leads, or leads that are coming to you
Now this isn’t to say you don’t have any prospects or your sales team isn’t bringing in new business. I’m talking about people interested in your
product or service coming directly to you and starting the conversation. This could be via email, a phone call, or a form submission (request a quote form,
contact us form, etc.).
Not closing enough new leads and opportunities
Your finding qualified leads or prospects, you’ve even researched their company, their LinkedIn page, maybe you even took them to lunch. And you
definitely came prepared with spec sheets and some very convincing value statements (who could say no to a product that outperforms the competition and is
less expensive?)

19. Maybe you’ve been working a handful of whales for a while now but somehow, even though you have a great relationship (you know they’re favorite
team, you know their spouse’s name, you even know what grade their kids are in), you just can’t seem to close that sale
Here’s one, you’ve got a nice steady stream of new customers but they don’t seem to be coming back for repeat purchases
or worse yet, the repeat business you’ve had churning for years just aren’t showing up anymore
So what gives? What’s going on with all these leads and customers that just aren’t buying? Well it could be a lot of different things, I don’t have a crystal ball or
a direct connection to each and every one of you. But...

20. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, there is one definitive piece to the modern sales cycle that if you don’t possess, you
are objectively and unequivocally doomed to reach your full potential.

21. CONTENT
And that is CONTENT.
That’s right. Content.

22. CONTENT:
Noun - a piece of information that exists for the
purpose of being digested (not literally), engaged
with, and shared.
/k"n#tent/
According to HubSpot, in the realm of inbound marketing, content is defined as a piece of information that exists for the
purpose of being digested (not literally), engaged with, and shared.

23. And I know plenty of you are saying, “Austin, I’ve got content. Content isn’t the problem.”

24. To which I would response, “Tell me about this content”.

25. CONTENT
TARGETEDTIMELY
LOTS OF IT
QUALITY
Now, I’m not just talking about your run of the mill data sheets, your product catalog, or even your quick reference product
selection guide (even though you do need all of those things). I’m talking about timely, targeted, quality, sales enabling content.
And lot’s of it.

26. 74% of B2B buyers choose a company that is
first to help them with useful content
According to industry experts, “74% of B2B buyers choose a company that is first to help them with useful content”
What this means for you is that if you can find a way to educate a prospect about a potential pain point they're
experiencing when their research begins, your odds of closing the sale on the back end go up dramatically.

27. USEFUL:
Adjective - able to be used for a practical purpose
or in several ways
/#yo$osf"l/
The keyword there is useful. What does useful mean? The dictionary defines useful as, "able to be used for a practical purpose
or in several ways”. And that is just what today’s buyer needs, wide range of content that can be used for a practical purpose
at their job or in several ways. So let’s give them what they need.

28. SALES ENABLEMENT
Now, I just want to briefly circle back and touch on a little buzz word I tried to drop in there without you noticing. Did
anyone catch it? I’m sure there’s at least a handful of you who have already sat through a webinar just like this one on it.
That’s right, sales enablement. Now, like I said, I just want to touch on this briefly because you might think what I’m
doing here is just preaching Sales Enablement. And to a degree I am. But the term sales enablement is just so broad and
ambiguous these days that it’s started to lose it’s impact. • Hell, even one of the biggest proponents of Sales
Enablement, HubSpot, found while studying what sales enablement really is, among respondents there were 9 seperate tasks
that qualify as sales enablement, one of which was, you guessed it, Content Creation.

29. 75% of survey respondents reported that sales
enablement made a moderate or significant
contribution to their sales forces
You’ll also be happy to hear that according to the survey, "75% of survey respondents reported that sales enablement made a
moderate or significant contribution to their sales forces.” That is to say that content is working.

30. CONTENT
TIMELY TARGETED QUALITY LOTS OF IT
So, let’s review where we’re at. We’ve established that our primary goal today is learning how to close more sales and increase
revenue. The tool we are going to use in accomplishing this goal is content. Timely, targeted, quality, sales enabling content.
And lot’s of it. Let’s get started.

31. TIME FOR CONTENT
First up is Timely Content. So what do I mean by timely content? For starters, let’s cover what I don’t mean. I’m not referring to
making sure content is available at the right time of day or right day of the week.
What I mean by timely, is that you need to have different types of content available to potential buyers in different stages
of the buying process, or as we marketers like to call it, the Buyer’s Journey.

32. BUYER’S JOURNEY
AWARENESS CONSIDERATION DECISION
S T A G E S T A G E S T A G E
The buyer’s journey is the process that any prospect or potential buyer goes through leading up to and through a purchasing
decision and it is usually presented in three main stages, Awareness-Consideration-Decision.
The goal of a buyer’s journey is to really dive in and understand how your potential buyers are coming to the conclusion to buy
from you. To do this, you need to understand what buyers are trying to accomplish at each step throughout the process

33. RESEARCH
-are they researching symptoms of an underlying problem (awareness)?

34. EVALUATION
are they evaluating different solutions to this newly discovered problem (consideration)?

35. UNDERSTANDING
or are they trying to further understand factors that go into making the purchase (decision?)

36. BUYER’S JOURNEY
AWARENESS CONSIDERATION DECISION
S T A G E S T A G E S T A G E
Once you can identify these different stages and how buyers are behaving at each step, you can more effectively craft content
that will lure them at the different stages and help build trust with you as the seller

37. BUYER’S JOURNEY
AWARENESS CONSIDERATION DECISION
S T A G E S T A G E S T A G E
So lets dive into each different stage of the buyer’s journey. At the beginning is the Awareness stage. The awareness stage is
when a company or someone inside a company starts to recognize an area that needs improvement or that there are
symptoms of a problem that exists and needs to be solved (example?). Now that there is recognition of symptoms, this is
where the research into what the problem could be starts. This awareness and research stage is a prime opportunity to get in
front of a potential buyer.

38. Research shows that 75% of business to
business buyers choose a company that is first
to help them with useful content
In fact, Research shows that 74% of business to business buyers choose a company that is first to help them with useful content.
What this means for you is that if you can find a way to educate your prospects about a potential pain point when their research
begins, your odds of closing the sale on the back end go up dramatically. That means your goal is to make sure you have content
that addresses the symptoms your customers are trying to solve and to help shine the light on the underlying problem causing
these symptoms. At this stage you want to provide purely educational content. There’s a good chance that at this stage, your
potential buyers probably don’t even know who you are, even more reason on why this step is so important to address.
During the awareness stage you’ll want to lure buyers in with headlines that address symptoms and pain points of the problem
your company solves. Remember, your goal is to attract buyers with expressed symptoms and aid them in establishing what the
potential unseen problem is.

39. You want to ensure content at this stage is readily available on your website and shared on your social media platforms. These
content pieces will also be primary candidates for paid promotion avenues like Google Display Ads and Paid Social Media
promotion.

40. AWARENESS CONSIDERATION DECISION
S T A G E S T A G E S T A G E
BUYER’S JOURNEY
• Next up is the the consideration stage. At this point in the process your buyers have established that there are
symptoms of a problem and have researched the symptoms to identify what the problem is. Now that they’ve identified said
problem, they can begin evaluating solutions. This is where you want to establish that your solution is the ideal path to fixing
their problem. This is also where buyers could start comparing your solution against your competitors.

41. CONSIDERATION
Content at this stage should focus on how and why your type of solution works. Potential buyers at this point will start to dive
deep into the details and specific solutions or offerings you provide. You want buyers that consume your content at this stage
leaving with confidence your solution will fix their problem. Content should still be educational (versus purely promotional or
cost focused).

42. DECISION MAKERS
this is also the points where potential buyers, if they haven’t already, will start bringing others into the process, likely upper
level management or ultimate decisions makers. that means less marketing sounding titles and more information/no-nonsense
based titles, like return on investment analysis, solution in action examples, and case studies.

43. BUYER’S JOURNEY
AWARENESS CONSIDERATION DECISION
S T A G E S T A G E S T A G E
The final step of the buyer’s journey is the decision stage. This is where your more traditional content pieces come in to play

44. AWARENESS CONSIDERATION DECISION
S T A G E S T A G E S T A G E
BUYER’S JOURNEY
. At this point, the buyer has decided on a solution and has likely narrowed their search down to a handful of suppliers.
Remember, the work you put into helping educate a buyer at the front end will pay dividends at this stage as you will have
already established yourself as trustworthy source of information in their eyes.
Content in the decision stage should focus on highlighting the specific attributes of your solution. This is also a good place to
start bringing pricing into the mix.
Alrighty. Now that I’ve made you all experts in matching up content with the buyer’s journey, let’s see if you can put it to
use.

45. POPQUIZ
That’s right, it’s pop quiz time. Fortunately you won’t actually be graded here. but Anyways, here we go. Let me set the stage
for you

46. An air conditioning manufacturer, Cool Buildings USA, is
targeting facility managers of commercial buildings.
Pricing Guide: EZ-Cool XL3000
Blog Post: 6 Warning Signs Your Building Needs a
New Air Conditioning Unit
ROI Calculator: Payback period for purchasing a
high efficiency A/C unit
Pricing Guide: EZ-Cool XL3000
(Decision)
Blog Post: 6 Warning Signs Your Building Needs a New Air Conditioning Unit
(Awareness)
ROI Calculator: Payback period for purchasing a high efficiency A/C unit
(Consideration)

47. A PVC pipe supply company, PVC For You, is targeting
landscaping and irrigation companies.
Customer Testimonial Video: ABC Landscapers on Their
Zero Callback Rate When Using PVC for You Materials
Case Study: PVC for You Used in Whitehouse Landscaping
and Irrigation Overhaul
How-To Video: A Best Practices Guide for Glueing and
Joining PVC Pipes
Customer Testimonial Video: ABC Landscapers on Their Zero Callback Rate When Using PVC for You Materials
(Decision)
Case Study: PVC for You Used in Whitehouse Landscaping and Irrigation Overhaul
(Consideration)
How-To Video: A Best Practices Refresher for Glueing and Joining PVC Pipes
(Awareness)
Alright, excellent job everyone. I’m sure everyone got an ‘A' there

48. EXAMPLES&BESTPRACTICES
Alright, excellent job everyone. You all got A’s in my book.
Moving right along. Now that we’ve covered strategies for content at each stage of the Buyer’s journey, let’s get into some
content examples and best practices.

49. AWARENESS STAGE
Starting with the awareness stage. To recap, content in the awareness stage should be educational and attempt to address
problems or issues that your prospects are experiencing. The awareness stage is a great place to establish your company as a
thought leader in the industry your targeting.

50. First up is a Webinar
I figured this would be an good place to start since it should be an easy sell for everyone listening in right now. That’s right,
what you’re participating in right now is a great example of an awareness stage piece of content. I’m giving away free
marketing information, in the form of a webinar, in the hopes that we can build trust and relationships that ideally will eventually
turn into new business.
Think of webinars as an online version of classroom style lectures for business. One of the key elements being the availability
of audience participation in the form of asking questions and providing examples. Keep it under an hour and be sure to pick a
topic your clients will get value from and that you have expertise in

51. video can really be used throughout the buyer’s journey and we highly recommend incorporating it throughout your marketing
strategy. more and more, the most successful medium to engage new prospects is through video.
A great awareness stage video example would be something along the lines of a how to or instructional video.

52. ENGINEERING ARCHITECTURE SUPPLY CHAIN
CONTINUING EDUCATION
continuing education classes can be very useful when selling to professionals with technical certifications. for instance, if
you’re selling a product that architects would use or specify, consider hosting an AIA (the American institute of architects) CE
course. One of the advantages of CE course is their versatility. They can be offered in person or over a lunch and learn, giving
you face to face access to many prospects. They can also be hosted on demand on your site or through a third party affiliation,
most of which will provide you with contact info for anyone that takes your course so you can reach out to them.

53. “WHITE PAPERS”
WHITEPAPERS
A persuasive, authoritative, in-depth report on a specic topic that presents a problem and provides a solution. What It is not is
a product pitch, keep it focused on a given problem and it’s solutions. For ideas, consider a blog topic that has garners high
traffic. Alternatively, check with your sales team for frequent challenges their clients are facing.

54. CONSIDERATION STAGE
The Consideration stage. If you recall, content at this stage should focus on how and why your type of solution works. This is
where you can get really detailed, in depth material out there.

55. Case studies are one of my favorites. I believe very strongly in the power of referral business and a case study can be
considered a variation of a referral. It’s not a direct referral in that someone with a personal relationship is making an
introduction or recommendation but it acts in a similar fashion. If a prospect sees that a company they know and trust was
willing to use your services it automatically instills a sense of trust for your brand.

56. A well-designed brochure is a great way to highlight how your product is used in real life applications, markets, or industries.
Be sure to incorporate high quality real life images. These are great for online content as well as collateral for your sales team
to hand out.
Example: LED Lighting Manuafacturer

57. Besides providing a no nonsense way to quantify the effect your product can have, People just love being able to input
numbers into a calculator and get an answer back. try to keep relatively simple to your target audience, if you over complicate
it you may discourage users from trying it.
Example: payback period for LED Lighting

58. as I mentioned, video can be put to use in every stage of the buyer’s journey. however, if you had to choose just one to make, I
would go with a company overview video. these are an incredibly powerful way to distill your brand and service into a compact
elevator pitch and are perfect for the homepage of your website. Be sure to keep them under 2 minutes!
{PLAY VIDEO}

59. DECISION STAGE

60. PRODUCT COMPARISON
Is there a lot of competition or lack of obvious product differentiation in your sector? If so, give prospects a way to see why
they should choose you over the competition.

61. CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS
I’ve already mentioned how much I believe in the power of referrals and here is another example. customer testimonials. they
can come in a variety of fashions. a good place to start is a simple quote prominently placed on your site. bonus points for
utilizing a big player in your industry.
However, if you want to max out the value of a Client testimonial, they work best in the form of a video. After all, nothing
compares to seeing and hearing about a product directly from the horses mouth versus just reading about it.
{PLAY VIDEO}

62. PRICING GUIDE
PRICING GUIDE
Easy to digest pricing guides showing what your product will cost and how various options or upgrades will affect the final
invoice pays big dividends toward closing a sale. If a prospect isn’t confident in how much they are about to spend, they’re
less likely to make the purchase.

63. CUSTOMER NUTURING
I have one more bonus setup for you, Customer Nurturing or as some of us in the inbound marketing world like to call it,
“Delightion"
A relationship doesn’t end with just a sale. if you want to keep customers coming back for more, you need to remind
them why they choose you in the first place and why they should keep choosing you over the competition. An easy, well know
example of this, is Nordstrom. they are known for their legendary no nonsense return policy. I’m sure some of you have heard
the legend of a guy walking into a Nordstrom and requesting a refund for a set of tires even though Nordstrom has obviously
never sold tires. Now this isn’t to say that everyone should just start accepting any and all return attempts, it’s just an example
of what customer service after a sale can do to improve your brand.

64. automation (newsletter - offers, product updates, maintenance reminder, cyclical purchase reminder

65. Now these were all just a few specific examples out of the endless possibilities of content out there to choose from. If you’d
like some additional information or content examples, check out our Buyer’s Journey Content Guide or Content Check Lists in
the Handouts section. Both are available on our resources page at AdhereCreative.com and will be included in a follow up
email we’ll be sending out after the webinar. So be sure to keep an eye out for that.

66. TARGETED CONTENT

67. In a typical firm with 100-500 employees, an average of
7 people are involved in most buying decisions.
That means there’s not just one person with one specific job title making the buying decision. There are many different people
with various job roles and responsibilities and highly variable motivations for making or blocking a purchase.
Alternatively, even if there is only one person making the buying decision, that person will likely vary from sale to sale. For
instance, if you’re selling Marketing services, like we are, the decision maker at one client might be the CEO and the director of
sales at another.
We call these prospects with differing motives, Buyer Personas.

68. BUYER PERSONAS
HubSpot defines Buyer Personas as fictional, generalized characters that encompass the various needs, goals, and observed
behavior patterns among your real and potential customers. They help you understand your customers better.

69. So, how does that affect content strategy? It means that you need to diversify your content to engage with various different
types of buyer personas. There are a lot of very different fish in the sea, so you need to ensure you have a tackle box full of
lures specialized for each fish you’re trying to real in.
example: PHP - architects, engineers, contractors, building owners, and facility managers
If you’d like to take a deeper dive into the strategies of creating buyer personas, we have a stellar e-book back over at our
resources page called, “A Guide to Developing Buyer Personas for B2B Marketing”.

70. This guide will take you all the way through strategies for defining buyer personas, executing buyer persona interviews (critical
to maximizing effectiveness), and developing your custom buyer persona profiles.

71. QUALITY CONTENT
That brings us to Quality Content. Let me start this one, with a hypothetical situation.
If you needed a detailed CAD drawing of the new prototype your company was producing, you wouldn’t call your accounting
department to create it would you? No, you’d call your design engineer. The same goes with designing the content you create.
While I’m sure that same design engineer might be able to put together a serviceable and legible whitepaper, they won’t be
able to do the same with a design heavy infographic, webinar, or application flyer. Even if you have the hottest and most
interesting story in the industry, combining with an unattractive or low quality design is going to translate into similar feelings
about your company as a whole. Low quality and unprofessional.

72. Research shows poor content cuts
the likelihood of a vendor making
the shortlist by 30%
According to studies from IDG Connect, "research shows poor content cuts the likelihood of a vendor making the shortlist by
30%.”
Now when I”m talking about quality, i’m not just talking about the design or the look and feel. I’m talking about the substance
as well. Is it well written? does it conform to your brand’s tone and prescribed voice? Does it follow best practices for
converting the most site visitors into leads. Is it being promoted in the right channels? and so on.
So how do you ensure your getting professional, quality content? There are multiple avenues, ranging from hiring an internal
team consisting of content strategists, writers, and graphic designers. you could contract out various pieces of the work to
freelancers. or you can work with an agency like yours to help with everything from strategy, to design, to execution.

73. LOTS OF CONTENT
Whatever you choose, just be sure you’re setting your content up for success, there’s nothing worse that putting int he time to
create great content that doesn’t look or sound good.
And lastly, we have the final tenant of quality content. LOTS OF IT!

74. vendors may be losing close to 50% of their
potential sales due to inadequate online information
The way people make buying decisions has changed. The modern buyer is spending more and more time online, Which means
if you want a better shot at reaching more and more prospects, you need a strong online pretense and just putting out a
website isn’t going to get there. The more content you create, the higher the likelihood one of those pieces could hook that
next whale.

75. So I’m sure some of you are wondering now that you have all this content, how do I get it out there in the world besides just making it
available on my website? Well, for starters, you do need to make sure you have it available on your site and that it’s easy to find. An
easy place to start is to ensure you have a resources page that contains all the content you've produced and that there's a link to it in
your main site navigation so users can find it no matter where they are on your site.
Beyond that, you have a multitude of options ranging from free avenues like email, sharing it on your social media profiles and posting
to relevant groups on LinkedIn. You can seek out popular industry publications that might be interested in featuring your content as an
editorial piece.
A cost effective paid option is through social media. You can boost posts or sponsor ads on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even
Instagram. Many B2B companies overlook the social media avenue but have no doubt, it is powerful tool to expand your brand and

76. get your content seen. another great option is advertising through search ads on google, or PPC (pay per click). Google advertising
isn’t just for promoting various pages for your site, it’s great for content promotion as well.
Alright, that just about wraps things up. Just remember:
Timely, Targeted, Quality Content and lots of it. There’s no time like the present to get started, so go forth, put content to work for your
business and jump start your revenue today.
If you have any questions, I’ll be sticking around for a while to answer anything you’ve got. Thanks everyone for taking time out of your
schedule to listen in. This webinar will be available on-demand on our site, so if you need to listen through again or want to share with
a friend or colleague, just head over the resources page at AdhereCreative.com.