Six common mistakes in content syndication campaigns and how to avoid them
Many marketers will tell you that content syndication is a quick and easy win in terms of lead generation. A reliable way to create some brand awareness, secure online presence and reach your target market. You get what you ask for, budget in and leads out. It’s a kind of safety net of marketing campaigns, how can you really get it wrong? Well, a few ways. All campaigns have their flaws, and it's our job as marketers to identify those flaws and learn from them so that our campaigns are constantly improving and supporting business needs. By failing to stick to best practices, you risk disrupting your buyer's journey and your chance to win over potential customers.
When it comes to content syndication, a few common mistakes can be seen over and over again. Some of them you may not even realise you're making, but they could be hindering your lead generation efforts and preventing you from getting the most out of your investments. Luckily for you, we can give you a few useful tips for how to avoid them, keeping your ROI and lead quality high.
Not Optimizing Content
The cornerstone of a successful content syndication campaign lies in the content itself. You can spend hours and hours refining your targeting, but if the syndicated content fails to engage or resonate with them then it's all pointless. If your content is outdated, of a poor quality, or not the right type of content, your target audience will not make it beyond the landing page.
So, what makes a good piece of content so that your reader will be engaged? Your targeted reader is hopefully a decision maker, or influential to one, so they want to see you identify the pain points they experience in their area and present them with a solution or advice. Regularly refreshing original content with new and industry-relevant insights will set you apart as an expert and show your new audiences that you’re on the ball. Similarly, assessing which content is resonating well with audiences and prioritising their promotion, while swapping out those that don’t perform as well, will help you to keep up engagement. If you can see a certain report is bringing in a significantly higher number of leads in comparison to the others in your content syndication programs, then giving that report a boost is a great way of pulling in your potential leads. That’s why keeping an eye on your performance metrics is of key importance, but more on that later.
Overlooking Market Differences
A one-size-fits-all approach to content syndication is never going to work. In an ever-evolving market, paying attention to cultural, linguistic and maturity nuances is essential. For instance, you wouldn’t target an audience of CISOs with an ‘Intro to Security’ white paper, or you wouldn’t distribute a French-language e-book to a Germany-focused demographic (at least I hope you wouldn’t).
Our audiences can recognise those who have taken the time to do their research and tailor their content and strategy accordingly, and those who have not. We all know how frustrating it can be to receive an email with our name misspelt, or an old company name, showing the person simply hasn’t bothered to check the small details. It’s much the same in content syndication programs – paying close attention to detail for a personalised approach will always pay off. For an effective strategy, get to know the landscape, find out market maturity fluctuations within the geographies you’re targeting, and make sure it’s the right approach for the right audience. Knowing your target markets will boost your chances of engaging well and facilitate a smooth user-journey through your funnel.
Neglecting Target Account Research
Using Account Based Marketing (ABM) in conjunction with content syndication can be greatly beneficial if you have specific accounts that you’d like your content to reach and engage with. However, doing this incorrectly or without the proper research can result in a waste of time and resources. By using a broad target account list which has been randomly compiled and not well refined, you run the risk of low-quality leads which are not going to progress and, in turn, lower your ROI.
To avoid this, it is important to have your target account lists carefully constructed with input from a varied pool of individuals who will be able to filter out any ‘bad’ accounts. There’s nothing worse than bringing in a number of new leads from an account only for sales to report back and tell you the account have just closed a five-year deal with a competitor. Input from relevant informed parties will bring in knowledge on past experiences with accounts, industry changes affecting them or buying stage information that may otherwise have been overlooked.
This is where intent data tools can come in handy too. Having insights into the accounts you want to target and their buying journey, like those provided by TechTarget’s Priority Engine, can let you know if they’re worth including, and what content may suit them best depending on which stage of the buying cycle they are in. In order to get the best value leads and optimal ROI, spend time on curating a strong target account list.
Failing to specify targeting
Taking the time to refine a high-quality target account list would be useless if the personas you target within those accounts aren’t involved with the buying team. A scattergun approach to targeting risks diluting the impacts of marketing efforts. Taking steps to identify your ideal customer profile and the right people you are looking for will ensure the leads you are paying for are relevant to you and of high value.
Defining precise personas through job title and level filtering is a great way to ensure you are accessing the decision-makers and influential individuals within your target accounts. This is actually one of the benefits of content syndication, that we are able to apply such criteria through certain media partners. By doing this, you know that the leads flowing through your funnel are of a high quality and will have a higher chance of converting with sales.
Lack of Alignment with Sales on Lead Progression
So, you’ve optimised your content, studied market differences, refined your target accounts and outlined which personas you want to go for – done deal, right?
Not quite.
All those efforts could prove futile if the passage from marketing to sales is disconnected. Failing to align your marketing preparation with strong sales follow-up mechanisms can make all your hard work pointless. That’s right, we can’t just pass on that contact information then put our feet up. Taking the time to train your sales team on content promoted and targeting applied is essential in facilitating a smooth user journey and increasing your chances of conversion. This can be mutually beneficial for both teams – marketing see a higher number of converted leads, sales have a more informed outreach and in turn a more efficient sales cycle. Bridging the gap between sales and marketing is often a tricky task, but strong communication and regular check-ins combined with in-depth preparation and training can make all the difference in seeing strong results.
Not Leveraging Campaign Insights for Improvement
Thinking the work is over once the campaign has ended is a big mistake to make as a marketer. Harnessing your insights and metrics from campaign performance is critical in improving for your next campaign. By analysing asset performance, conversion rates, persona data and ROI, you can identify the strengths and weaknesses from your campaign execution.
Failure to do this can run the risk of being blind to mistakes you are making, which could be easily fixed, but continue to negatively impact your performance in campaigns quarter-on-quarter. Comparatively analysing different campaigns next to one another can also provide valuable insights. Looking at differences from one quarter to the next, different product areas, or different demographics can highlight market activity and let you know how your campaigns are being received. Even comparing which of your content syndication platforms are supplying the highest quality leads and feeding back to media partners will prove useful for your vendor relationship in the long term. Having access to CRM data and a clear presentation of the stats can set you miles apart from those who are failing to reflect on and improve their performance.
Content syndication campaigns can be great for lead generation and brand awareness, but there are a number of reasons why they can fail to perform as expected. We’re all striving to continuously learn and improve, so don’t be too hard on yourself if they don’t go to plan.
The mistakes mentioned are all easily made, but more importantly easily solvable. With some attention to detail and an eye for optimisation, you can boost your content syndication results and wow your stakeholders. Remember, data and industry insights are your best friend! Being able to identify these pitfalls and how they might be improved could be what sets you apart from competitors in your industry. So, keep refining your approach, and you’ll see your efforts shine.