Comments on: Why is the Connected Home Important? http://blogs.level-studios.com/blog/2009/12/why-is-the-connected-home-important/ LEVEL Studios company blog. Where interactive design, technology, and strategy unite. Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:16:51 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Peter Gum http://blogs.level-studios.com/blog/2009/12/why-is-the-connected-home-important/comment-page-1/#comment-232 Peter Gum Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:09:36 +0000 http://blogs.level-studios.com/?p=715#comment-232 Garret Colburn’s lucid post on the increasing expectation of cross-channel branded experience, notes that “manufacturers that are most successful will be the ones who can best understand consumer challenges and who create content experiences that the consumer will find useful and usable enough to purchase.” In the B2B space, content also plays a similar role, and its growing influence, some say, portends the end of the B2B sales process as we know it. In a CMO study done in 2008, 80% of those surveyed indicated that they sought and found the vendor, not the other way around. With the growth of search, websites, social media, content syndication, and other digital resources, buyers do not need to engage with a sales representative until late in the sales cycle. The standard purchasing chain of awareness, discovery, and validation is now self-service enabling prospects to learn about companies, clients, products, and technologies, long before engaging with a live person. Prospects have always seen ads, read press coverage, and responded to direct marketing. But with the steady growth of online media and the social ecosystem, decision-making information is readily available through video, social dialog, podcasts, webinars, demos, Flash presentations, white papers, etc. The result is prospects moving towards companies providing useful, relevant information, and considering them first when developing a short list (to the exclusion of all others). Content delivers answers to prospect investigations, but also provides enticement for lead generation, creates social buzz, extends the life of valuable concepts, prolongs site visits, offers a corporate point of view, and thought leadership. Sales people present content to match a prospect’s needs, role, and level of engagement. Content can be developed in a similar manner by considering how the content will play at any given stage in the buying process. But in practice, prospects will happen upon content randomly and self-select on that which they find relevant. So content development needs to address all points in the sales cycle including corporate branding, awareness, product features/benefits, lead acquisition, conversion, validation, and even direct sales (if appropriate). For more on aligning content with brand objectives, see http://www.doubleclick.com/insight/pdfs/The_Brand_Value_of_Rich_Media_and_Video_Ads.pdf Content alone will not preclude the need for personal selling. But with prospects engaging sales representatives increasingly later in the buying process, content will increase social dialog, generate web traffic, self-qualify prospect inquiries, and answer questions Sales may never have a chance to field. Garret Colburn’s lucid post on the increasing expectation of cross-channel branded experience, notes that “manufacturers that are most successful will be the ones who can best understand consumer challenges and who create content experiences that the consumer will find useful and usable enough to purchase.”

In the B2B space, content also plays a similar role, and its growing influence, some say, portends the end of the B2B sales process as we know it. In a CMO study done in 2008, 80% of those surveyed indicated that they sought and found the vendor, not the other way around. With the growth of search, websites, social media, content syndication, and other digital resources, buyers do not need to engage with a sales representative until late in the sales cycle. The standard purchasing chain of awareness, discovery, and validation is now self-service enabling prospects to learn about companies, clients, products, and technologies, long before engaging with a live person.

Prospects have always seen ads, read press coverage, and responded to direct marketing. But with the steady growth of online media and the social ecosystem, decision-making information is readily available through video, social dialog, podcasts, webinars, demos, Flash presentations, white papers, etc. The result is prospects moving towards companies providing useful, relevant information, and considering them first when developing a short list (to the exclusion of all others).
Content delivers answers to prospect investigations, but also provides enticement for lead generation, creates social buzz, extends the life of valuable concepts, prolongs site visits, offers a corporate point of view, and thought leadership.

Sales people present content to match a prospect’s needs, role, and level of engagement. Content can be developed in a similar manner by considering how the content will play at any given stage in the buying process. But in practice, prospects will happen upon content randomly and self-select on that which they find relevant. So content development needs to address all points in the sales cycle including corporate branding, awareness, product features/benefits, lead acquisition, conversion, validation, and even direct sales (if appropriate). For more on aligning content with brand objectives, see http://www.doubleclick.com/insight/pdfs/The_Brand_Value_of_Rich_Media_and_Video_Ads.pdf

Content alone will not preclude the need for personal selling. But with prospects engaging sales representatives increasingly later in the buying process, content will increase social dialog, generate web traffic, self-qualify prospect inquiries, and answer questions Sales may never have a chance to field.

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