Harnessing marketing automation for B2B content marketing☆
Introduction
Recent advances in communications and information technology (IT), and the rise of digital content and social media in particular, are transforming the ways in which individuals and businesses search for information and interact with one another (Dennis et al., 2009, Greenberg, 2010, Kietzmann et al., 2011). A fundamental shift in the B2B sector involves the growing influence of digital communication channels in customer purchasing decisions (Lingqvist et al., 2015, Wiersema, 2013). A Corporate Executive Board study of more than 1400 B2B buyers found that customers rely heavily on online information sources and complete nearly 60% of a typical purchasing process before contacting a seller (Adamson, Dixon, & Toman, 2012). This active role played by B2B buyers in searching for and evaluating information online has given rise to a new marketing paradigm referred to as ‘(digital) content marketing.’
In this study, the term ‘content’ refers to all forms of digital content. We employ the definition of content marketing presented by Holliman and Rowley (2014, p. 285), who tailored the concept to the B2B context as follows: “B2B digital content marketing involves creating, distributing and sharing relevant, compelling and timely content to engage customers at the appropriate point in their buying consideration processes, such that it encourages them to convert to a business building outcome.” This definition highlights the role of content marketing as an inbound marketing (i.e., pull marketing) tactic directed at generating valuable content based on the needs of potential buyers who have already searched for information on a product or service (Halligan & Shah, 2010).
The use of content marketing is becoming widespread in the B2B sector. According to a recent survey, as many as 86% of B2B marketers (n = 1820) in North America use content marketing tactics as a strategic marketing approach, and 47% have a dedicated content marketing group in their organization (Pulizzi & Handley, 2014). However, existing knowledge on B2B content marketing is largely based on research reports produced by commercial research institutions (e.g., Content Marketing Institute, eMarketer, Marketing Profs), and academic research on the subject remains in its infancy. One exception is a study conducted by Holliman and Rowley (2014), who interview 15 B2B content marketers from various industries and offer a number of insights into best practices and the challenges of content marketing in the B2B sector. The present study employs a more focused approach, as it concentrates on the organizational processes that support content marketing and their relation to B2B sales. Indeed, the relationship between digital marketing and B2B sales has attracted very limited attention in the existing literature (Pomirleanu et al., 2013, Rodriguez et al., 2014).
Understanding the role of content marketing in B2B sales is particularly crucial given persistent conflicts between marketing and sales departments with regards to lead generation and management. Sales representatives criticize the quality of marketing leads, and marketers criticize sales representatives' poor follow-up skills (e.g., Biemans et al., 2010, Homburg and Jensen, 2007, Homburg et al., 2008). Insufficient lead follow-up is indeed a serious issue in the B2B sector, and one study has shown that sales representatives ignore approximately 70% of all leads generated via marketing (Marcus, 2002). Clearly, if the majority of marketing leads are never contacted and instead disappear into the notorious ‘sales lead black hole’ (see, e.g., Hasselwander, 2006, 18 November, Sabnis et al., 2013), content marketing efforts toward producing sales will prove fruitless.
IT developments present opportunities for fostering cooperation and strengthening the interfaces between (content) marketing and B2B selling processes. Wiersema (2013) argues that by integrating marketing and sales systems, marketing teams could acquire deeper insight into the customer data in customer relationship management systems (CRM), and sales teams could in turn learn more about activities and leads generated through marketing efforts. The integration of marketing and sales systems is essential, as sales departments often employ their own sales management tools, from which marketing departments are deliberately excluded (Kotler, Rackham, & Krishnaswamy, 2006).
One IT tool that is attracting increasing attention in the B2B sector is marketing automation. Vendors of the software (e.g., Eloqua, Hubspot, Marketo, Pardot, Silverpop) claim that the tool allows companies to align marketing and sales system interfaces to improve and accelerate lead qualification processes via ‘lead scoring and nurturing,’ thus targeting potential buyers through the use of personalized content. Assuming that the vendors deliver on these promises, B2B companies may be able to use marketing automation tools to deliver more effective content marketing strategies and thereby improve lead follow-up practices. From interviews with 72 executives and 30 B2B researchers, Wiersema (2013) finds that one of the key developments in the B2B sector lies in the technological automation of manual tasks performed by marketers. To our knowledge, however, no academic study has yet investigated the benefits of combining content marketing and marketing automation technological tools.
Based on this context, this study achieves three objectives. First, it advances knowledge on the organizational processes of B2B content marketing in terms of creating and delivering timely and valuable content based on customer needs. Second, the study examines ways in which content marketing strategies may be combined with B2B selling processes via marketing automation and the benefits and challenges of such an approach. Third, the study contributes to ongoing discussions on marketing and sales alignment in the B2B sector by illustrating ways in which marketing and sales systems may be integrated through advancements in IT.
To achieve these study objectives, we perform an in-depth investigation of an industrial company that has benefitted considerably from content marketing and marketing automation integration. More specifically, we exploit the sales funnel conceptualization (see the definition presented in Section 2.2) outlined by D'Haen and Van den Poel (2013) as our guiding framework and explain how the case company capitalizes on content marketing and marketing automation techniques to support sales processes at each funnel phase.
The remainder of this article is organized as follows. We begin by elaborating on concepts of content marketing and marketing automation. We then elaborate on the sales funnel framework and describe the potential role that content marketing and IT tools may play in this framework. In the section on methodology, we justify our use of a single case study and describe the data collection and analysis methods employed. We then present the study findings. We conclude with a discussion of the study's theoretical contributions, managerial implications, and research quality, and present avenues for future research.
Section snippets
Content marketing and marketing automation
Although content marketing can employ content in traditional formats (e.g., customer magazines and brochures), the digital environment has popularized the term: ‘content marketing’ for many authors refers purely to content in digital formats (Handley and Chapman, 2011, Rose and Pulizzi, 2011: Wuebben, 2011). According to Chaffey and Smith (2013), the most commonly used formats of digital content include pictures, videos and animations, e-books or shorter customer guides, white papers, podcasts,
Research strategy
A single case study approach was selected as the research strategy of this study. Case study approaches are favored when studies examine real-life instances of contemporary phenomena and when boundaries between phenomena and contexts are not evident (Yin, 2014). Moreover, there is general agreement that a single case can serve as a suitable starting point for in-depth investigation and description (e.g., Easton, 2010, Eisenhardt, 1989, Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007, Johnston et al., 1999, Miles
Findings
Along with the case company's strategic change toward a market-driven approach to operations, the marketing department adopted a new marketing philosophy called “data-driven content marketing.” The fundamental premise of the new philosophy was to create and deliver compelling, relevant and valuable content based on individual customer needs; this philosophy was primarily aimed at generating high-quality sales leads. Personalizing content to individual customer needs proved to be a challenge
Discussion
The study findings offer three important theoretical contributions. First, this study advances knowledge with regard to organizational processes that foster the creation and delivery of valuable and timely content based on customer needs. The study findings support evidence proposing that content must target customers' needs and solve their problems rather than promoting company products (Davis, 2012, Handley and Chapman, 2011, Wuebben, 2011). The findings extend this line of reasoning by
Joel Järvinen is a PhD candidate in the marketing program of the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics. His research interests include marketing performance measurement, digital marketing, and the use of new technologies and analytics in marketing.
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Cited by (0)
Joel Järvinen is a PhD candidate in the marketing program of the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics. His research interests include marketing performance measurement, digital marketing, and the use of new technologies and analytics in marketing.
Heini Taiminen is a postdoctoral researcher in the marketing department of the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics. Her research interests include marketing communications, branding, digital marketing and social marketing.
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Submission declaration: This full-length manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and its publication has been approved by all of the authors.