How a Tech Giant Converted a Humble Content Hub to a Full-Blown Marketing Campaign

As far as inspiring tales of content marketing go, you know they are so rare that even if you send a search party to look for one, replete with sniffer dogs, drones, and Golden Retriever Beacons–if you are a Marvel fan–you would still come out empty-handed, pursing your lips, and shaking your head. 

But today, you need none of that. Today, you shall find what you seek.

This is that rare story of a company that–with, dare I say, a mix of a little bit of our innovation and their determination–put its faith and entrusted us to build a content hub that was more than just that: A hub for content. 

I know what it sounds like. Marketing fluff. But I promise it isn’t.

In fact, it’s a strategy that played a significant role in achieving 12 percent MQL to SQL conversion, increased CEO engagement (yes, CEOs!), and helped the client build a brand for itself in a space that’s entrenched by incumbents.

Let’s be honest, that’s great for a B2B tech marketing campaign.

If you think we are patting ourselves on our backs too soon and blowing our own trumpet (which we are), let’s put that into perspective. Today, there is an average of seven decision-makers involved in the B2B buying process. Seven! 

And, 50-90% of the journey is complete before a buyer interacts with a sales rep.

Imagine the number of hurdles marketing and sales need to cross in pursuit of a lead. 

Now, in that light, getting the attention of CEOs of large enterprises like Uber, Maruti Suzuki, Hero Motors, and Bosch–and a 12 percent conversion rate–is a lot to write home about. 

But how did it get there?

As a client-abiding, conscientious marketer, I can’t name the client…

Psst: One of the biggest technology companies whose brand is so popular that it’s a verb.

…But I can share its inspiring story that could be a guiding light to today’s B2B tech marketers who often find themselves shooting random content hubs in the dark. 

Hoping against hope that somewhere, some content piece, will, at some point in their lifetimes, hit some ‘targeted’ prospect. 

Companies and marketers with foresight, an eye on RoI and brand building, don’t depend on hope. Here’s how they make it happen.

A Content Hub That Wasn’t Just That

What’s your average Joe content hub?

One of those lonely balconies where content sits in an armchair sipping tea waiting for a wayward ‘target’ prospect to walk up to it and start a conversation. 

That sounds like a content strategy hanging on to, well, crossed-fingers. For any content marketing effort to bear fruit, getting a bunch of content up on a website is like doing the same thing as every other content marketer but hoping for the moon.

That’s exactly what our client didn’t want. I mean, of course, they wanted the moon and all that. But they knew they’d have to do something extraordinary to get there. 

Like a campaign that not just generated leads, but also established the client as a thought leader and a solution specialist best suited to fix the specific needs of specific personas within specific accounts. 

Here’s an overview:

The Objective: To increase account penetration and opportunities to generate leads from a set of pre-identified, high-value, high-potential focused accounts. 

• Get visibility and insights into the target accounts
• Increase target account reach
• Reach the target personas within these accounts
• Improve engagement 
• Get visibility among CEOs
• Generate MRLs and SRLs from these accounts

The Strategy: Leverage an ABM (Account-based marketing) strategy and create a personalized, dynamic content hub for these focused accounts. 

Sounds elementary? Here’s where it gets interesting. 

The Super Strategy: The content hub grows a few more thinking heads and transforms into a multi-faceted platform serving multiple stakeholders throughout the user journey. Magic! 

In essence, the content hub becomes the epicenter of all of the client’s marketing activities and plays a significant role–from generating interest in these focused accounts to tele-calling–all from one single website and its sub-domains. 

A true holistic, end-to-end content marketing and lead generation platform. A thread that binds an entire campaign together. 

It was designed to have three faces that achieve three different objectives. 

The Point of the Matter

Why does that make sense? Here are three reasons why.

Nothing ever gets done in three months: We’ve seen companies sign up for a three-month content marketing campaign, expecting hordes of leads. Nurturing leads is not a sprint but a marathon. 

For any content marketing campaign to succeed, it needs to be a continuous, constant, long-term process. 

Consider this: A study found that of all the leads in your sales funnel, only 3% are active buyers at any given time. Another 7% may be intending to buy in the short term. The other 90% are either not yet ready to buy, do not have a need or are not interested in buying from you.

That’s 90% of leads that need to be nurtured over a long period of time. That could take years. 

But with constant nurturing over a period of time, and by integrating the various activities of an account across multiple campaigns (both digital and offline)–from the time they download an asset to signing up for a free trial, or even attending an event–marketers can speed up conversion. 

Get All of ‘em On Board: You need to get every stakeholder involved from the word go. No marketing campaign is just a ‘marketing activity.’ 

True, marketing and sales teams don’t see eye to eye. While that’s a problem for another day, it’s imperative that a multi-faceted ABM content marketing campaign keeps sales in mind.

From identifying accounts to go after, to keeping a tab on what prospects are reading in the content hub–information that the dashboard pulls from the content hub–sales teams get an idea where an account and personas in the account are in the buying cycle. This way, there’s transparency and no blame-game or silly you-said-I-said arguments.

Adding channel partners into the mix, completes the circle, providing visibility into the entire cycle.

Loosen the Purse Strings for Innovation

Sometimes innovation is non-negotiable. That also means you have to be willing to pay a price for it. 

Not many agencies build innovative customized solutions for clients but not many clients tell us they aren’t here to run in a leads race. They are here for the long-haul. To increase mind-share, to build their brands, to be viewed as competition by competitors and to win customers over at their own pace.

Don’t know how to get started? 

Talk to us and we will get one up and running for you. Let us script your inspiring story.

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