eMarketer has an interesting post up regarding content marketing in B2B. Lead generation costs keep rising and the competition keeps getting hotter, so according to eMarketer, content is now a key way to generate more leads to keep the sales funnel full.

Let’s look at content marketing as you would a bicycle wheel because I think it’s a good analogy for a viable content marketing strategy.

The hub of your multi-channel online marketing efforts is your blog/website (where the content lives), everything spokes out from there. Content such as Webinars, videos and podcasts may also be hosted/distributed elsewhere, but all of this content should be on your blog and cross promoted via other channels. A major consideration for any service you are thinking of using to produce that kind of content should be that it allows you to easily embed it on your site and also makes it simple for people to share.

Each spoke of the wheel is a marketing channel and the people you are trying to generate leads from are on the rim. Social channels such as email, Twitter and Facebook make up the spokes and connect the hub to the rim.

People may choose any one spoke or combination of spokes to reach you and you have no way of being sure which one each individual may choose. So, your content marketing must be multi-channel! Use every spoke or your wheel will be unbalanced and you won’t get the mileage you are after. Your efforts should always be focused on bringing people from the rim of the wheel to your hub by generating content which is relevant to your target audience and cross promoting that content via every spoke, radiating outward to the rim.

In this brave new world of pull marketing, promotional copy alone is not good content. Your content must offer people information which is helpful or entertaining and in some way adds value to their day and hopefully, makes them want to share it with others – more sharing keeps the wheel turning and generates more leads.

To keep things spinning and your sales funnel full, you also need a communications platform which gets your content to the right people at the right time and that’s where Sailthru comes in! Sailthru’s unique behavioral analytics technology means more relevant content, keeping  your subscribers more engaged with your brand.