Using Content to Convert Customers with Principal Global Investors’ Farnaz Maters

In a world driven by content, the B2B space is no exception. That fact, according to  Farnaz Maters, the Executive Director and CMO for Principal Global Investors, means that grabbing someone's attention is more difficult now than ever before, and it’s a marketer's job to create things that rise to the top in the sea of content.

“Where we are in B2B, it’s basically a content war. It's about having differentiated content that our clients actually care about. People have gotten closer to the brands that they know and the asset managers that they've got long-standing relationships with. But at the same time, as people are hunkering down and being selective in who they're engaging with, it's made it more difficult to be able to expand our reach to people who don't necessarily know us.”

So the natural question becomes, how can B2B companies create content that not only grabs the attention of its clients, but goes one step further and gets them to engage as well? On this episode of Marketing Trends, Farnaz dives into how B2B marketers should be thinking about the content they create. She challenges them to ask themselves a simple question: What is the purpose of this piece? Plus, she discusses why the hardest aspect of working with data is sometimes just deploying it correctly.

Main Takeaways:

• Make Content That Drives Conversions: Your content always needs to have a purpose. When you are ideating new creative ideas, don’t just create content to have for your channels. Instead, strategize around the direct purpose of that content and what outcome you hope it leads to.
• Are You Using Your Data?: When you make the investment in being data-driven, make sure you are actually utilizing your data to its fullest potential. Make sure that data is being used to inform your marketing strategy and activation efforts, and that it’s being used within other departments, such as sales.
• What’s the Value in This?: Everybody wants access to your data. But it’s important to constantly be thinking about what the roadmap is, where you’re going to deliver business value, and making sure that the value you are bringing is iterative. When you take on big strategic projects you have two options: You can work toward the perfect state, or you can take on a mindset of iterating and delivering business value while strategically thinking about what your endpoint is.

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