Think fast: B2B customers engage with “priority content” first

💬 When everybody’s dead busy, you gotta think fast. In this new series, you’ll find quick answers to common content problems for brands that I work with.

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It was an hour into a copywriting workshop I led for a company in the storage space development industry. Their conference room paved in black and gold elements encouraged us to lay back and get personal.

My earlier predictions made after a 15 minute call with the client came true. They wanted to school Ela — their eager Marketing Specialist — in persuasive writing to lift their minimal engagement on LinkedIn and Facebook, but I diagnosed that she needs to define what makes content relevant in her field.

I placed my bet on covering content strategy.

Finding high-impact and low-effort content ideas

Instead of fixating on writing practice, we shifted into a brainstorming hunt for the next 3 micro-campaigns to test theirs options. The rules were:

• The content must feed into the sales process
• We can’t afford to test long-forms or to launch an advanced content funnel
• Their communication must be pro-client with no self-indulgence
• We’ll build up from the brand’s area of warehouse service defined as SPA – Servicing, Planning, Arrangement

Priority content answers a pain-point

My intuitive question was what their ideal client — a warehouse manager — wants to read about right now.

By asking what are their top problems they’re bothered with, the CEO defined that their area of immediate interest is:

• Recurring warehouse servicing which managers forget about even though the National Labour Inspectorate can shut down their base for five days after a rogue employee tip
• The hideous consequences of a disregard for workplace safety caused by “won’t happen” attitude
• Scaling down storage space to cut down spending in face of peaking rental prices caused by Amazon’s and Zalando’s domination

To confirm our findings, we browsed through the concept of a B2B magazine ran by their competitor with a significant following from the same city.

We then created 3 low-effort campaigns the brand can produce right away.

Examples of priority micro-content campaigns

1. Weekly news updates

Theory: Professionals lack time for self-education, but they find being up-to-date essential for their success

For Friday’s afternoon, Ela will republish a minimum of 3 news stories from most popular industry media outlets with a one sentence explanation of the key point.

Instead of original links, the brand will use bitly link analytics to measure which category clicks best.

In the business sphere, perceived usefulness of content is what stops the eye. That’s where their weekly news summary can come in, where prospects can save the time wasted every morning on finding relevant stories.

2. Newsletter reminders

Theory: Keeping our calendars up to date is a pain, so we’d appreciate a help from an assistant

Many of their prospects call in Mrs. Basia — their project manager — to tap into her experience in warehouse operations.

My advice was to automate the process by sharing best practices through an editorial newsletter.

The brand can run a unified Google Calendar with check-up dates for storage racks, forklifts, and logistics to be emailed to clients who will appreciate handling that responsibility for them.

Think about the philosophy of push notifications – the best ones remind us about what to do before we even think of it. I love such. Don’t you?

3. Warehouse space optimization guide

Theory: General managers keep on losing revenue on operation costs because they postpone the redesign process as it’s too challenging

There’s thousands to be saved on warehouse operations if we redesign the workflow to use less storage space and energy input.

Scaling down is a hot topic within the industry as rental prices peak each year.

Yet since construction works bring considerable money-loss caused by delays, clients repeatedly avoid optimizing altogether.

Since the brand has successfully completed downsizing projects for prospects such as Amazon, I encouraged publishing a step-by-step guide explaining the timeline and projected costs and savings.

They can add 2-4 case studies to build brand authority as a trustworthy handler.

When completed, this guide can be shared as a .pdf and branded posts by key employees on LinkedIn, through their newsletter bases, and within LinkedIn and Facebook industry groups.

Every lead will be directed onto a landing page offering a free consulting call.

Key points

• While content must be thoughtful to catch any engagement, consistency in publishing content comes second place
• Test content categories for popularity with your audience before launching a monthly campaign
• Ask yourself what’s the best you can produce with the least effort
• What any professional aims for is to save time and stay updated – sending them stats, facts, and news updates is the simplest way to keep them willingly in touch.

💬 Mike here. I’m a Copywriter and communication consultant who helps businesses talk with sense. Thanks for reading. Does this make sense? Think I’ve missed a point and want to discuss? Start with “Hey, you…” below.