One of the biggest challenges I see time and again with UC providers is the inability to generate demand through typical marketing efforts.
Take an industry event, for example. You’ve spent tens of thousands on a booth that’s underdelivered on footfall.
There’s also the nagging feeling in the back of your head that you didn’t do everything you could to attract people. And there’s the underlying doubt that your messaging wasn’t as clear as it should have been for the passers by to understand what you do.
Sound familiar?
It’s the exact conversation I had with no less than 10 vendors at the last event I attended.
And, sure, foot traffic in the expo hall was down. But that doesn’t mean the buck stops with the event organizers. Here, we should be talking about activation and messaging.
Note: If you want to chat about this, I offer consultancy calls to go through exactly this.
Where every conversation went, however, was that the customers who were at the event didn’t have a pressing need.
So where do customers go when they have a pressing need?
Online.
I heard counterarguments that these types of shows are where customers go to meet partners to then maintain relationships online. That may be the case for the minority.
Salesforce never attended Enterprise Connect, for example, with the goal of attracting new customers. Nobody hadn’t heard of Salesforce at this event and nobody was going to buy a license just because they were there. It was about market presence and brand awareness.
So let’s be realistic. When was the last time you made a major purchase without starting your search online? With the exclusion of retail shopping, your answer is probably never.
In the B2B world, the sooner marketers realize this, the faster they can generate genuine demand.
“Customers will go wherever they get the best content and best value. In many cases, that will be online.”
- Tim Banting, Digital Workplace Leader.
Upon realizing this, we must start the discussion of urgency. Content marketing, unlike any other format of marketing, gives you the chance to not only capture attention but create urgency and push web visitors down your meticulously crafted funnel.
I’ll touch on how you create urgency with content marketing in a moment. But I think it’s important to first understand what happens when you delay content marketing efforts. You don’t just delay the ability to create urgency. You spend tons of budget on less-performing channels simply because you’ve always done it that way.
The Cost of Delaying Content Marketing Efforts
We’re talking about the consequence of inaction.
By not prioritizing content marketing, you’re:
- Missing lead generation opportunities
- Missing brand awareness opportunities
- Enabling competitors to gain a larger share of the market
- Losing valuable budget that you petitioned all year for on ineffective strategies
So let’s talk about budget and cost versus return on investment.
On a call with a vendor only yesterday, I was asked what they could expect following the plan I’d outlined.
My answer consisted of the outputs, assets, and the value over a length of time for evergreen content.
When asked to convert that to a monetary value, I answered honestly, stating that without their customer lifetime value, historical conversion rate, and other factors, it was near impossible to even guess.
However, when referencing the $1m annual recurring revenue generated for one customer and the $500,00 pipeline created for another, it became apparent that I could use figures like:
$50,000 spent on content marketing ⇶ $500,000 pipeline
Or
$100,000 ⇶ $1,000,000 ARR
There is some rounding applied, of course. But, when compared to other mediums (event marketing, paid adverts, etc.), it’s hard to make a case against content marketing.
Case Studies:
- How Mio Uses Content Marketing To Generate $1m ARR
- How Callroute Built A $500,000 Pipeline In 6 Months
Strategies to Create Urgency with Content Marketing
There is a secret to successful content marketing. It’s got to be high quality otherwise it’s not worth investing in.
Sounds obvious when it’s written in black and white, doesn’t it? Yet, so many UC vendors are doing this wrong.
When CMOs tell me they’ve hired a generalist because “it’s just SEO content”, it makes me sick.
That “SEO content” is (or at least should be) the cornerstone content that generates your leads and revenue for years to come. Anything less than that and you’ve failed as a marketing leader.
Here’s the blueprint for high-performing content marketing:
- Formulate a BOFU content marketing strategy targeting niche keyphrases that your product or service provides a remedy for.
- Craft high quality content with the goal of being the best available online resource.
- Promote that content on other platforms (even if it’s “just SEO content”).
Within this content blueprint, you’re going to do things like:
- Writing specifically to obtain featured snippets
- Including pertinent information above the fold
- Satisfying search intent
These are all table stakes for high-ranking content that provides readers and search engines what they need to get value from your content and reward you.
How to introduce urgency into your content marketing
Here’s the part where AI can’t help you. In fact, I asked Perplexity to suggest an outline for what needed to be included in this blog post and it suggested I include the following in this section:
- Urgent Language: Use phrases like “limited time” or “act now” in calls to action.
- Social Proof: Highlight success stories or how other UC providers are benefiting from timely content marketing.
- Scarcity Messaging: Emphasize the limited availability of resources or opportunities if not acted upon quickly.
- Time-Based Urgency: Use countdown timers or limited-time offers for specific content pieces or services.
While I agree social proof is always warranted in content, using urgent language, scarcity messaging, and time-based urgency are all advertising techniques that don’t belong in high-quality content.
Instead, your focus must be on…
Empathizing with customer pain points
“Here’s how Dave felt when he was in the same position as you.”
If you can relate (and prove you relate) to the problems you’re writing/creating videos about, then you’re halfway there.
One major issue with subpar content marketing is the incorrect type of urgency.
Instead of building up by proving you understand the issue and gaining authority throughout a blog post, they just rush into introducing their product.
Sure, you might have features A, B, and C. But why are you telling me this?
You don’t have to spend paragraphs taking the customer on a journey (though you might). But you do have to build some credibility and start to form a relationship.
Example: “You know when you’ve recorded a video to upload to YouTube and you wish you had the time and skills to edit it like MrBeast? Hey, look. I suck at that too. And, to be honest, I don’t have the time to dedicate to learning how to edit videos.”
Even the smallest chat that shows the reader is not alone and that you’re in the same situation helps keep the reader on the page. Buyers don’t want to buy from companies or salespeople. They want their problem solved by someone who also once had that problem.
Introducing the “could-be” state
“Here’s what your job/department/life will look like when you take the next steps.”
Throwing features at a reader is a turn off. Explaining how that feature could save them hours per week, thousands per month, etc. paints a pleasant view of the future.
If you can make your reader think about positive change, they’ll be more likely to:
- Keep reading
- Become more invested in solving the problem
- Click through to learn more about your offering
Example: “What if I told you that you could spend more time executing your IT strategy and less time responding to password resets?”
Creating relatable, tangible scenarios
“Here’s the clear monetary and productivity gains you stand to make by not standing still.”
This is the component that buyers (or those with significant buying influence) get turned on by.
When you can solve a problem, make a life easier, and communicate how that relates to making the business more money or save the business money (in terms of productivity, literal money, or any other means), it makes it extremely hard for readers to click away without taking action.
Example: “When SLR implemented auto-provisioning, they reduced their telephony costs by 20% and saw a 80% increase in productivity.”
Articulating the fear of missing out (FOMO)
“Here’s what happens if you don’t take action soon.”
This is when urgency gets introduced.
You’ve got two choices when wrapping up content:
- End the blog post with a conclusion
- Focus on what happens if you don’t pursue the next steps right away
This doesn’t have to wait until the end of the content, either. There’s no harm in introducing fear throughout your blog post—or starting your video with a worst case scenario.
The more you can build your content to a crescendo of doom and action taking, the better.
(Okay, that’s a little bleak. But you get the message, right?)
Example: “If your business is leaking marketing dollars at outdated events, you’re making the conscious decision to do the wrong thing. For the sake of your business (and maybe even your job), check out how Mio became a $1m ARR business through content marketing.”
Case Study: Success with Urgent Content Marketing
Callroute built a $500,000 pipeline in just six months by following the content blueprint and building urgency into the majority of their blog posts.
Note: I used the word “majority” because some content doesn’t have the same lead generation goals. Nurture content and brand awareness campaigns exist in their own right without the need to invoke urgency.
These blog posts focused around the benefits of the auto-provisioning tool and the problems they solved for Microsoft Teams admins.
By relating to their real world problems—having lived them myself in a past life—it was possible to build a relationship during the blog post then push to the “to-be state” and introduce what happens if they don’t take action.
After experimenting and learning what worked and didn’t work with Mio, I focused Callroute’s content efforts on low volume, high intent keyphrases and problems to solve.
These came with the dual benefit of:
- Having less competition on search engines
- Having a high chance of readers taking action
The end result? The right people booked demos. There was no TOFU marketing and no wasted content efforts.
Everything we did as a content unit was aimed at the goal of generating qualified leads from specific people:
- Had a unique problem our product could solve
- Understood there was a better way to achieve what they’re doing today
- Had a fear of not taking action
- Saw a clear path to a remedy
Without introducing urgency in content marketing, this $500,000 figure wouldn’t exist.
Highly specific content + Urgency in content marketing = Pipeline
The Pressure of Getting Content Marketing Right
So here’s the part where I’m supposed to encourage you to take action.
But, ultimately, if I haven’t already done that then I’ve failed in creating urgency and conveying the power of content marketing.
It’s up to you.
If you’re happy with mediocre marketing efforts, carry on with what you’re already doing and hope for the best.
If you realize there’s a better way, let’s plan your content marketing strategy.
