Content Marketing To The ‘Think’ State

Content Marketing To The ‘Think’ Statesteve robinson

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Show Notes

To see the greatest return on investment, it’s necessary to continually improve  our content marketing.  But in order to boost our efforts, we first must understand our marketing objectives and how these differ by journey state.  In this episode, we explore the best ways to deliver content, measure engagement, improve, and successfully optimize our content to the ‘Think’ state.  This audience includes people that are thinking about our product, but aren’t currently in the market to make a purchase.

The Objective with ‘Think’ Audience (01:45 – 7:50)

• ‘Think’ state is the audience that is qualified but hasn’t made a commitment, nor do they have a timeline to purchase
• Our objective with the ‘Think’ state is to be a resource and help guide them as they proceed through the buying journey
  • We can use meaningful and relevant content to aggregate and establish a means to inform the ‘Think’ audience
  • Even though the ‘Think’ audience isn’t ready to make a purchase, keeping them educated will influence their decision
  • ‘Think’ state is where a gracefully executed sell message begins
• RESOURCES:
  • Podcast Episode 27: A Deep Dive Into ‘See’ State
  • Podcast Episode 16:  See, Think, Do, Grow, Give
  • Steve’s blog – “See – Think – Do: A Framework For Understanding Your Prospect’s State of Being”

Measuring Effectiveness Based on the Objectives (07:50 – 11:00)

• Our content marketing goal is to increase engagement , improve close rates and decrease the length of the sales cycle
• If multi-touch attribution is established, we can look at the number of conversions that were influenced by ‘Think’ state content
• Other metrics to measure the effectiveness of content include:
  • Time on site or time on page
  • Dwell time
  • Scroll depth
  • Downloads
  • Length of video views (how long did they watch?)
  • Shares
  • Contacts (if gated)

Charity of the Week:  (11:20 – 12:00)   –  Loyola Sacred Heart Foundation

How To Target ‘Think’ State (12:20 – 36:55)

• The PESO model, established by Gini Dietrich, helps marketers identify new opportunities to integrate channels into a new or existing content marketing program. It updates the Paid, Earned, Owned model of marketing to include Shared.
• Paid –  buying an audience to increase awareness through native advertising via Facebook, LinkedIn, pay-per-click, Twitter, display ads and retargeting
  • We are looking for:
    • How to best reach our ‘Think’ audience on each of these channels
  • Tips to achieve:
    • Understand which pieces are contributing to revenue
    • Choose paid media channels and structure media buys in a way that allows us to continuously market to the same qualified audience
    • Retarget the audience that we acquired with our See state content to identify where they are in market
  • To iterate on paid media we must:
    • Pit different media channels and targeting methods against each other.
    • Put more effort in testing the creative that draws the audience to the content
    • RESOURCE:  Episode 30: Continuous Improvement in Paid Media
• Earned –  trading the value of our content in exchange for access to a third-party audience by utilizing influencer marketing and traditional PR.  In both cases, we are measuring the quantity and quality of audience we are able to acquire.
  • We are looking for:
    • Where can we get semi-commercial messages reinforced by third parties?
      • New product released
      • Awards or recognition from a third parties
        • Example:  IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) Top Safety Picks = Chevy
    • How can we build awareness for our other Think state content using third-parties?
    • Which media outlets and influencers drive the most qualified traffic?
  • Tips to achieve:
    • A/B test pitches — What types of content resonates with our audience?
    • Look at which media outlets and influencers drive the most subscribers, repeat visits and engaged visitors, hen focus on the influencers and media that have the greatest impact
• Shared – amplifying our content by getting non-influencers to share our content with their networks. This is attained through our own social media presence and providing sharing mechanisms on the content itself
  • We are looking for:
    • The sharing that is taking place via dark social
      • Dark social is the sharing of content that occurs outside of what can be measured with web analytics programs, like email and text messages
  • Tips to achieve:
    • Provide multiple, prominent opportunities for your audience to share it
    • Make sure your sharing tools include dark social sharing mechanisms through ShareThis, email or WhatsApp
    • Include branded information on the materials themselves
  • To iterate on shared media we must:
    • Test different social posting formats to find which types of headlines, lead-ins and images result in the most shares with different audience segments
    • Test placement and prominence of sharing buttons to maximize sharing from our site
• Owned Media – to achieve this a body of evergreen content needs to be developed that will be sought out by the target audience.  Obtain links to this content to drive inbound traffic and search engine ranking. Then, retain and stay in front of a subscribed audience with relevant content.
  • We are looking for:
    • Are we driving up lead score and engagement with our subscribers?
      • Metrics to watch include clicks, dwell time, downloads, form submissions and an increase in lead score
  • Tips to achieve:
    • Leverage marketing automation to nurture audiences who indicate they are in ‘Think’ state
  • To iterate on owned media we must:
    • A/B test email subject lines and body copy
    • A/B test HTML vs. plain text email
    • Watch unsubscribes and flag content/emails that result in spikes in unsubscribe rates
    • Never compare open rates across lists or sends

Summary (37:00 – 38:50)

• Using content to market to our ‘Think’ state audience takes different approaches and tactics depending on the buyer’s journey
• CPG (consumer packaged goods) ‘Think’ state is the period between when someone runs out of a product or service and when they purchase another
• B2B long-sales cycle process ‘Think’ state could be a year or more for a buyer and could involve multiple stakeholders

We hope you want to join us on our journey. Find us on IterativeMarketing.net, the hub for the methodology and community. Email us at [email protected], follow us on twitter at @iter8ive or join The Iterative Marketing Community LinkedIn group.

The Iterative Marketing Podcast is a production of Brilliant Metrics, a consultancy helping brands and agencies rid the world of marketing waste.

Producer: Heather Ohlman
Transcription: Emily Bechtel
Music: SeaStock Audio

Onward and upward!