Your Burning Content Strategy Questions Answered by Movéo and Earnest – Part Three: How Can B2B Companies Use Content Strategy To Showcase Their Subject Matter Experts?

Let’s continue our roundtable discussion on content strategy today with Movéo and Earnest’s answers to a common question about how B2B companies can leverage content marketing to showcase their subject matter experts. If you need to catch up on the series, you can find all the posts here.

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BD

Our clients typically have real subject matter experts, but they’re often not tapping them to the extent that they could be. I was thinking back on a particular client we were working with and one of the hot topics in the industry. They had, basically, one of the foremost experts in that area in the industry on this topic on-staff and we were able to get a lot of traction through an in-depth interview with this person. We were then able to re-package that content into many different forms and to use that to really establish them as a thought leader in that area. That’s another thing — being able to construct a content “supply chain” with your clients is really important.

PH

I think that supply chain piece is really important. Chris talked at the start about how the ways that people buy are changing quite immensely. So it’s about thoroughly understanding that buying cycle. And we often get in front of clients saying, “Well we’re just not getting visibility of RFPs these days, invitations to tender, we know they are happening but we’re not on there, even though we’re respected by the market. Why aren’t we on there?” What they’re finding, after they do some research, is that their competitors are out there with some great content helping individuals shape the way they’re thinking about those tenders, shaping those strategies. They are not even considering some companies simply because they are not out there discussing…helping formulate opinion early on.

Some people say, “We don’t need a content strategy, we’ve got some great campaigns. Our brands out there, we spend a lot on brand visibility as well.” But actually if you go right, right to the start of the buying cycle, people haven’t got the recognition of need yet. They’re in problem identification, and actually, they aren’t evaluating brands at that stage so if there are some choice brands out there with some fantastic content who are helping formulate that understanding — what an organization needs — then they are in a really good position right from the early days as being seen as a key influencer and thought leader in that space.