Today’s economic climate is definitely impacting how IT marketers are measuring their online marketing programs.  There is so much pressure to deliver qualified leads in a timely fashion that will ultimately convert into opportunities.  I know that in my conversations with my information security clients, this is definitely top of mind for them.  However, it seems to me that because of this pressure by senior management, marketers are losing sight of the basic fundamentals of a successful online program.

As I’m sure you’ve all heard before the old saying that ‘content is king’ and the foundation to a successful program.  Now, that is truer than ever.  I was recently talking to one of my security SIM vendors  about the challenges they were facing - trying to establish themselves in their technology market, make a name for themselves and differentiate themselves from their competition - in addition to generating qualified leads that they could pass along to their sales team all while proving ROI in a timely manner.

Not an easy task… However, what I’m discovering is my clients want to reach these end stage decision makers - who doesn’t - but are utilizing content assets that are in the early phases of the buying cycle and attracting users that are in the research mode.  This really gets back to mapping content to the stages of the buying cycle.  If you utilize content that is educating people about a technology, you are bound to attract users that are trying to educate themselves and aren’t close to creating a short list much less make a purchase.  It’s very important to stay in front of people that are creating their short list of vendors with the appropriate content but if you want to reach the end stage buyers, you must give them the content that will appeal to them.

Our Google research provided tremendous insight into how users are searching when they are in the end stage of the buying cycle utilizing comparative phrases to learn more about the vendors’ solutions that are on their short list.  Creating content that compares your solution to your competition is easy to do and simple ways to reach the prospects that are either researching your solution or your competitions’ solutions!  So, if your marketing objectives include researching these end stage prospects - and I’m sure that includes all IT marketers - be sure to create content that speaks to this audience.