About 15 years ago I visited Microsoft for a briefing on their “Information At Your Fingertips” strategy. Good idea, I thought, though a bit self-evident. Where else would you want your information?
Their strategy is now a reality (though stolen by Apple and the Web) with new applications like the “Stain Brain” app for the iPhone, developed by – who else? the makers of Tide. With this application you can compare you stain with other stains on line, find out how to remove it (hmm, Tide, Tide, and more Tide, I suspect) and upload your own stain-removal ideas.
At first, I wondered why someone couldn’t just read the back of the box, or Google “stain removal.” But then I realized that we are all becoming junkies on getting the information we want, when we want it, wherever we want it, and it has to be in a fun, graphical form. And we need to be able to talk about how we erased that stain and, heaven forbid, how we got it, too.
B2B buyers are getting hooked on this instant gratification and, increasingly, want it in their professional lives too. The quickest route to booking a sales call, a white paper download or just a click-through is to give them the information they need, when they need it, in the form they need it.
That means “content marketing,” “lead nurturing,” “funnel management,” “customized content” or whatever buzzword you use to describe tailoring content and delivery to where the prospect is in the sales cycle. In addition to all the other channels you must feed, you’d better have a mobile, social strategy for sales and support as well.
The next question: How to manage this on top of all the other content monsters you must feed every day? Would love to hear some answers.
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