Why Isn't Your Content Generating Leads?

Why Isn't Your Content Generating Leads?

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When you send out cold emails or launch paid Facebook ads, you see the effects of your work almost immediately. You set up a meeting, or you don't. The conversation is a hit or a miss. 

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You get feedback quickly, so you can swiftly draw conclusions and tweak your campaign.

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B2B content marketing is different because it doesn’t yield immediate results; it grows slowly and organically, and you'll only know whether it works after about 3–4 quarters.

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To avoid disappointment (and a blown budget), I'll outline the most common reasons content marketing isn't working, meaning it doesn’t generate leads or help sales teams close deals.

You're Writing for the Wrong Person

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You might be publishing top-notch expert articles that are smooth, enjoyable to read, and so well-optimized for SEO that Google itself would want to rank on them. But if you're writing about things that don't matter to your business persona, all your effort goes down the drain. 

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A business persona is typically a company's decision-maker, an average image of your ideal potential client. This persona defines basic information about the individual, such as age, education, interests, goals, and challenges—both personal and business.

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Your content will only work if it aligns with these goals and challenges. What you write about and who you write for are critical to successful content marketing.

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So, if you want your content to be successful, write about topics that genuinely interest your persona, inspire them, and help them become better employers, employees, and people.

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And if you don’t know how to draw B2B content ideas that match your ideal customer profile, read our article here.

You Don’t Treat Content as a Sales Tool

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What type of client will you talk to in the next three months? What kinds of companies, and what decision-makers? Who will you be handing your business cards to or sending emails?

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Suppose they are CEOs of Scandinavian industrial companies looking for a front-end development team. Imagine they visit your website or LinkedIn and see:

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• The last three case studies are about back-end projects.
• None of the last ten blog posts relate to their industry, front-end needs, or IT outsourcing.
• The only downloadable e-book is about trending frameworks from 2021.

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It's hard to expect such content to work. Content that does not align with the company's business direction will not generate leads or help close sales because it will not organically attract your target CXOs.

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While the solution is the same as above (publish content tailored to the persona), the source of the issue here is different: you don’t treat content marketing as a business tool; hence, you create content detached from strategic directions.

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You Don't Consider the Different Buying Stages 

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Your potential clients are at different stages of the buying process and have various levels of understanding about what they need. Some choose between vendors, others just realize they have a problem, and others are in between and looking for various solutions but aren’t ready to make final decisions yet.

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You will only tap into the full potential of content marketing if you include personas at each stage of the sales funnel. Some simply aren't ready for case studies, while for others, an article like "Is IT outsourcing worth it?" might be redundant because they've long known the answer.

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Thus, when planning content marketing, consider the needs of all your leads using the TOFU/MOFU/BOFU strategy.

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TOFU (Top of Funnel) is about awareness, attracting attention, and educating potential customers about a problem they might be experiencing.

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• "10 Easy Ways to Make Your Home More Eco-Friendly Today"
• "Why Going Green with Your Home Products Can Save the Planet"
• "The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Sustainable Living"

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MOFU (Middle of Funnel) focuses on evaluation, where potential buyers consider various solutions to their problems. 

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• "Comparing Eco-Friendly Product Materials: Which Are Most Sustainable?"
• "How to Choose the Right Green Products for Your Home"
• "The Benefits of Switching to Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products"

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BOFU (Bottom of Funnel) is the decision-making stage, where content aims to convert leads into customers by providing specific, compelling calls to action.

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• "Top 5 Reasons Our Eco-Friendly Products Are a Must-Have for Your Home"
• "How Our Sustainable Products Offer More Value Than Conventional Choices"
• "Ready to Make the Switch? Steps to Transition to a Green Home with Our Products"

You Don't Have a Process or a Person Responsible for Content Marketing

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For content to be effective, it must be published regularly, and it's hard to maintain regularity without a rigid process—just like it's hard to lose weight without a specific diet plan. 

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You might tell yourself, "We publish content!" or "I eat healthily!". You might push out a few blog posts a quarter or eat a few healthier meals monthly. But will it bring you closer to your goals as you wish? Will the buzz last longer than a few weeks or months?

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B2B content won't affect sales if you don’t publish it regularly. You won't do that if you don’t set up a process for creating and publishing content and designate a person to manage it.

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If content is to engage, build a steady audience, and ultimately affect sales, it can't appear sporadically. Content created haphazardly and without a plan will sooner or later fail because ASAPs, meetings, vacations, etc., will regularly push it aside.

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To avoid this, first and foremost, define a person responsible for creating and implementing the content process, which includes:

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• Coming up with blog post topics well in advance (a month, a quarter, a year)
• Assigning a specialist to each topic
• Setting a publication calendar
• Choosing tools that will speed up and automate the process 
• Monitoring deadlines and drawing consequences of non-compliance.

You Don't Care About the Form 

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In one of Aesop's fables, the fox and the stork invited each other to dinner. Each served the meal in a form they were accustomed to but utterly inaccessible to the guest. 

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Thus, even the best content—if you package it in a form inaccessible to the recipient—won't reach them. And I mean two types of forms:

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Form as a type of medium. You can serve content in the form of text (blog post, e-book), audio (podcast), video (webinar, YouTube video), or graphics (infographic, slides). Which of these forms is most accessible to your persona? Would they prefer to read about their problem, listen, or watch?

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Form as the quality of given format. For example, if you publish blog posts, is the font readable, and is the contrast between the background and the font optimal? Are the paragraphs short enough, and is the text interspersed with helpful graphics? And if you're doing video or audio, are the sound and visuals clear and sharp?

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A common mistake in B2B content is a lack of diversity in forms. Diversification, or creating content from content, is a simple yet very effective strategy that, with little effort, increases the sales potential of content. 

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For example, you can transcribe a podcast and use the text to create a blog post, or take individual quotes from a blog post and make infographics out of them, which you publish on LinkedIn.

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Did you speak at a conference? Cut the most exciting parts into short videos and publish them as shorts on YouTube. 

You're Not Using Marketing and Sales Tricks [SEE HOW]

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Okay, not as brutal as the one above, although even this, used consciously and in moderation, can work. I'm talking about proven, well-known methods that are often overlooked, such as:

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• SEO. It's a no-brainer, especially for TOFU/MOFU and—conversely—for particular industry issues ("long-tail phrases"). Even if you don't directly attract your decision-makers (who may not necessarily be Googling those phrases), you can attract decision influencers, such as corporate specialists and managers.

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• CTA (Call to Action). B2B content should encourage the reader to take action. For example, you can weave a segment into the middle of each text with a newsletter signup (indirect conversion), and at the end, throw in a "contact us" button or a registration form (direct conversion).

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• Paid promotion. Its biggest advantage is that you can very precisely determine who will see your content, so if, for example, you're going to a conference or preparing a cold email campaign, you can show case studies to people with a specific profile from a specific location.

You Don't Publish Content in the Right Places

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If you only publish content on your corporate blog and LinkedIn profile, and both places are visited by 20 people a month (15 of whom are you and your employees), then, forgive the comparison, you're a bit like this guy:

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Your content might indeed be a great treasure, but you have to know how to share it, or it will burn in the fires of Mordor (okay, I got carried away a little). 

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And you have to share it where your clients spend time. Publishing content in places that clients do not visit is one of the main reasons why it doesn't work.

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So, how do you "skillfully publish content"? 

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Find out what places on the Internet and beyond your clients visit. Ask them what business platforms they spend time on: LinkedIn, thematic FB groups, Slack channels, industry portals, offline periodicals, or maybe newsletters.

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You can even prepare a simple Google survey. Even a few responses from clients, potential clients, or friends who fit into your target will give you ideas and inspiration.

You Don't Measure Your Content

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If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. 

Without data, you're just another person with an opinion. 

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And other wise quotes that pertain to the same mistake: you create and publish content but don't use any analytical tools to check if it works.

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What parameters are worth tracking? Certainly, the above-mentioned indirect and direct conversion KPIs. If you install CTA buttons in your content, how many people, percentage-wise and absolutely, use them?

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But not only that. Average time spent on a given page or user behavior on the page (i.e., which page elements attract particular attention from visitors) is also valuable data that you can use to understand better and exploit the potential of your content.

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For example, you might find that a particular blog post or e-book—although it does not generate direct conversions—strongly engages the reader and keeps them longer. Maybe you should promote that piece of content more widely. Or redistribute or cut into smaller pieces.

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And if the opposite is true and a specific blog post does not generate traffic, does not retain the reader, or does not generate conversions, then why? Maybe it doesn't cover an important topic, or is it poorly written?

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Well, I’ve said my piece. Now it’s your turn—tighten those screws because it's truly worth it. :)

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