We have reached the last layer. It is not the easiest one, and in many ways it is the heart of the whole framework. If you don’t say something interesting, useful and important to your buyers, they won’t read it, there are no signals to pick up, and they will never learn who you are or how you can help.
The noise is deafening. Everyone is fighting for the click, the share and the webinar sign-up. So how do you stand out?
Back to value
Companies don’t buy from you because you have a good product. They buy because your product helps them reach their own goals. Nobody buys a new ERP system because its processes are faster or it runs as a hybrid. They buy it because it lets them run their own processes and serve their own customers.
This matters most in content for phases 1 and 2 of the buying process. In phase 1 you raise awareness of the challenge, not of your solution.
Take corporate payment cards again. Don’t market the card’s longer payment terms or lounge access. Market what the card makes possible: a complete view of the company’s short-term liabilities. Without it, employees pay with their own cards and claim the costs back later. How can the owner know how much cash the company really has? When the owner asks the bank for a loan, that is exactly what the bank wants to know.
When you plan this kind of content, ask your customers: what would you actually want to read, watch or hear?
Content for each phase
- Phase 2, the gap. The buyer compares a possible new future (any new future, not yet yours) with today. Qualitative tools, and especially calculators, work well here.
- Phase 3, why you. Now you can talk about your product: how fast, flexible or durable it is, and why that matters to the buyer. This is also where you may show off. References are essential, along with anything that proves expertise: guides, how-tos, third-party articles.
- Phase 4, the decision. Little content is needed, but a few anxiety relievers help: guarantees, “getting started” guides, “what happens next”. Ask customer service. They hear the questions buyers have at this stage every day.
Format depends on your industry and audience. Some decision makers prefer short, sharp posts. Others want long-form material. Ask, test and measure rather than guess.
Put the content to work
Once your content library is organised by buying phase, you can build the marketing automation sequences from the previous layer. It also serves sales: reps need to know which content keeps them relevant to each prospect, so they can share the right piece at the right time.
And watch how buyers interact with it. Did they click? If not, what do we do next? If they did, how long did they stay, what did they do after, and what should we do now?
The framework in one paragraph
You have now read all seven layers. When you understand the value you create, how your customers buy, what information they need and where they spend their time; when you can tell which phase they are in from the content they consume; and when you nurture them with content that helps them move forward, your buyers will be expecting your salespeople to call.
Working through this is not a quick job. It has to happen inside the company, but in my experience an outside view speeds it up considerably. If you want to start, a commercial diagnostic is a good first step.