Rule #5, Sustained Traffic Supersedes Downloads.
After you generate Internet chatter about your point of view, your next set of marketing tactics must be much different than those many companies are used to. The way we sum it up is to stop the selling before it even begins and to start the online engagement.The typical way marketers handle people who want to read their material is to force them to register before they can download them. A number of studies show this to be an unproductive practice. This shouldn't be surprising. Companies selling complex offerings can't hope for a prospect to become hot for their services just from reading an article. These buyers have a lot at risk when making such purchases: market share, sometimes company survival and always, their credibility in the organization.
The job of a white paper or article is simply to grab an executive's attention on a topic that he is, or should be, concerned about. Marketers who attempt to move a prospect from a PDF download to a sales call are moving too fast. Downloads requiring registration must now go away.
But articles in PDF form need to go away too: A point of view needs to be just the first step in company's online engagement with a prospect. An article needs to be in HTMLâ€"a piece on a website (like this article) that has other pieces around it that can maintain the viewer's interest. It's those other elements around the white paper that will get the viewer further engaged:- Additional articles they can read on the topic
- Surveys they can take to compare how they fare on the issue against other organizations
- Discussion boards in which they can exchange ideas with peers
- Diagnostic tools that can help them better understand how to address their issue
Most articles on McKinsey's "What Matters" site elicit comments from viewers, and some pieces generate many comments. Readers are asked to get involved in other waysâ€"commenting on McKinsey research studies in progress (one banking executive recently offered a 1,100-word comment on a McKinsey study on reserve currency) and commenting on debates in a "Debate Zone" featuring two authorities with opposing views on a topic.
When prospects return frequently to your site and get involved in the discussion, they ultimately become better prospects; they better understand their own needs and know far more about your expertise by the time they are ready for help.
Rule #6: Perpetual online communities are displacing intermittent marketing campaigns.
If it is much better to have material posted on a site, with an audience that returns for periodic updates, than it is to produce one-off white papers, then it is even better if that site can morph into an online community.This won't work for every point of view on every topic. But for a topic which is big enough, has an enthusiastic enough following, and for which a company can reasonably lay claim to be a natural home, it can be a powerful way to retain and build an audience. Having a community on a topic can also enable a firm to involve its followers in further refining and developing the point of view.
Palladium Group, a management consulting firm specializing in strategy and performance management, has such a community. Palladium is something of a natural home for an interest group on the topic because, although they are not the only players in the market, the founders had pivotal roles in the development of the discipline - Robert Kaplan for instance devised the Balanced Scorecard. Today Palladium has 1200 members of its online community, in three levels of membership. Community facilities include discussion forums, video libraries, blogs, expert Q&A, membership directory with peer-linking features, and quick-polls created by members. Also objectives, measures and best practices by industry.Palladium uses the community to test and refine points of view, pre- and post-publication, and to keep connected with people between in-person events. Some of the keys to its success have included a preexisting body of intellectual capital (centered on, but bigger than, Balanced Scorecard,) continual addition of new material, and a full time staff of four to support it.
In a survey on consulting firms' use of social media which we have just completed and will publish shortly, we found that the social media activity with the highest return on investment so far is microsites and online communities featuring a firm's content. This ranked 4th of 30 different marketing activitiesâ€"behind seminars, conference presentations and search engine optimization. The next highest-ranked social media channel was Facebook, fully 10 places behind.
Microsites are more effective at generating awareness and leads than most other marketing channels because they enable a firm to build a dedicated group of followers who are deeply interested in an issue. As well, a microsite enables a firm to provide a great deal of informative content on an issue in one place, which makes it easier for viewers to find information than searching the Web.When points of view are used to anchor topic microsites, thought leadership marketing campaigns never need to end. They can evolve into online communities whose audience grows ever largerâ€"and more disposed than ever before to recognize the host as someone to turn to when they need help.