Tech B2B marketers must treat content like infrastructure

Ten years ago, I wrote Isoline’s first blog. It was called ‘circle of lamplight’ and referenced one of my favourite fables about a wise man called Nasreddin Hodja from – I think – olden day Persia or Baghdad.

One night, one of Nasreddin Hodja’s friends found him intently examining the ground beneath a streetlamp.

“Well met, Naseer! What do you seek under this lamp this dark night?”, exclaimed the friend, pulling Hodja’s arm.

“I seek a ring I lost,” responded Hodja.

The kind-hearted friend joined in the search, but neither had any success. And over time, a few more friends joined in the search. To no avail.

Finally, one friend straightened his aching back and said, “Where did the ring go missing, my friend?”

“There, in that dark path over the field”, came the answer.

Understandably, this led to no small outcry among the gathered helpers.

“Why on earth are we searching here then?” came the cry.

“Why,” said the good Hodja, “Because it’s easier to see here!”

The point was – doing the easy stuff because the hard stuff is too hard is just marketing busyness. I was referring to finding your audiences and targeting them rather than spraying and praying.

Ten years on, marketing rigour is more important than ever.

Most tech B2B brands invest in product, platforms, technology, people. No product team would launch something once and then walk away.

They’d improve it, refine it, adapt it to market shifts. 

But content marketing does not show the same rigour. It’s tactical, and a lot of it looks like this:

• A whitepaper gets one push… then gathers virtual dust.
• A blog post is written, published… and forgotten.  
• Campaigns are based on new products or features… rather than customer needs.
• The marketing team responds… rather than leads the agenda.

We call these random acts of marketing.

Content marketing tech B2B companies is a tough, tough gig.

It needs people that can combine deep technical knowledge with sharp storytelling – on negligible budgets. You cannot achieve long-term results through random acts of marketing.

So here is the manifesto.

Treat content as seriously as your platform: handle content like infrastructure

Content systems are as important to success as the network, the platform, or any other piece of infrastructure. So treat content as seriously as you would any other piece of infrastructure.

That means: 

• Planning with an understanding of audience needs, benchmarking, and market context.
• Creating with best practice methodologies, differentiation, innovation.
• Ongoing iteration based on performance and feedback. 
• Thoughtful discovery and distribution across customer touchpoints.
• Clear ownership and long-term maintenance.
• Regular lifecycle management.

Content matters.

Why?

Your content is often the only thing your customers see before they decide whether you’re on that shortlist.

The old way of going to a trade show and expecting prospects to walk into your stand as part of their procurement process, is over.

In today’s world, by the time prospects make contact with you, their shortlist of three is already in place.

Getting on that shortlist is not about million-pound media budgets. It is about providing useful, relevant content that speaks about pain points and not about you. It requires deep expertise, bold ideas, and ideas that work hard.

It needs mindsets to change across the company, and it’s going to entail a lot of hard work with shifting outlooks, persuasion and changing the engagement model from: marketing is a cost centre and back office function to: marketing drives top and bottom line results.

It’s like the circle of lamplight again: do the easy stuff, or do the hard stuff – the results will reflect the choice you make.

I’d love to talk with you if any of this resonates. No obligation. I just want to help more marketers get a seat at the table. Get in touch on anu@isolinecomms.com