Innovation & data-driven digital marketing.
They’re not just avoiding your calls: marketing to C-Suite executives means that your communication is up against a busy schedule, full inboxes, missed lunch hours and long work days. To connect and engage with this audience, you need to build a B2B content marketing strategy that delivers the right message at the right time and through the right medium.
We’ve shared our proven strategies below to ensure your messaging reaches the C-Suite audience.
Get Past the Gatekeeper
Depending on your specific industry and audience persona, there are likely a few barriers preventing you from connecting with your intended C-Suite executive. Identify those issues early on and develop meaningful ways that your marketing strategy can insert you into the conversation.
Content has the power to dissolve many of these barriers but is much more effective when developed under these five parameters:
- Concise content: Is the message clear and straightforward? Is it easy to consume and understand in a short amount of time?
- Client need: Does this content solve a client problem or address their business?
- Time: Is there a trigger event or reason that this content is relevant now? Should the content deploy at a later date when it is more relevant to the viewer?
- Location: Is this content published or shared in a place the intended audience trusts (i.e., LinkedIn, industry/trade publications)? Should this content be shared through other channels to get their attention?
- Team influencers: Have we created campaign content that targets team members who work collaboratively with our executives to build a team of decision influencers?
As you combine your content with a targeted selling strategy, you’ll be able to identify the topics and spaces that most resonate with your audience. For instance, if you’re going after high-value clients, you need high-value content to get in the door.
Rely on Meaningful Data
B2B content marketing is most effective when coupled with data that proves efficacy or a return on investment (ROI). The majority of the information you provide should be straightforward and concise, outlining both your offering and the benefits provided to the customer through the lens of data.
For example, instead of saying,
“Our product is proven to help our clients reach their internal operations goals.”
Try a more data-focused approach and explain that,
“Our product helped our clients improve their shipping and receiving processes by over 72 percent, with an increased overall revenue impact of $1.2 million per year.”
At its core, each of these sentences translates the same idea, but the second provides metrics to contextualize and validate the claim. The C-Suite is busy; they speak in facts, figures and most importantly—ROI. Data will help you speak their language.
Invest in Your Digital Presence
It’s no surprise that C-Suite executives are becoming more familiar and comfortable in a digital environment. Thanks to a joint study from Google and Forbes, we can unpack the online behaviors of executives and shift our marketing strategy accordingly. Simplified, the research found that:
- Executives are now turning to the internet as the expert;
- Searching is the new research;
- Executives are likely to click around and don’t just stay on one page;
- Online videos are the most engaged with form of content;
- Individual networks still have a higher value over digital ones.
So, what does this mean for your B2B content marketing strategy? It means that you need to begin your C-Suite engagement map by building your own digital PR. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Is my business searchable?
- Have we invested enough in our content strategy that our content appears as a search result on the first page?
- Is our content robust and meaningful, and does it have valuable click-throughs that drive to a conversion?
- Does our content address client questions?
You can address all of these core questions through a mix of search engine optimization, research, content development, backlinking and link building tactics. (Easier said than done!)
As a companion to this process, make sure your social media is up to date and your website is fully functioning. Remember, executives are likely to click around—make sure you’re ready for their browsing.
Use our Digital Reputation Management Guide for even more tips.
Make the Connection
Enterprise customers and C-Suite executives will likely require a new toolkit for content strategy and demand generation. This means that your regular drip campaigns may need to evolve, and blog posts, LinkedIn management, relationship building and research may come more into the spotlight.
If you need help with aspects of your B2B content marketing strategy, like optimizing LinkedIn presence or building digital PR—check out 10x digital’s Thought Leadership packages. A strong online reputation is the key to unlocking the C-Suite.