One of the most important aspects of your lead gen campaign is having high-quality content. Quality supersedes content type, length or mix regardless of your target audience or market. You could have dozens upon dozens of content pieces on a campaign, but if they are low quality, your intended audience will simply not engage with them. But what constitutes high quality content? And how can you ensure that your lead gen campaign is filled to the brim with such offerings? Continue reading to find out.
What are your potential customers looking for?
Your prospects don’t want a salesy experience when consuming your content. They are not looking for you to tell them your product is the “best on the market” and the only solution to their problem. Instead, they are looking to be educated on the topic at hand, so they have a deeper understanding of the issue they are trying to solve.
Educating your prospects will earn you brownie points when they are deciding on a solution. In fact, according to TechTarget’s 2022-2023 Media Consumption & Vendor Engagement Study, 92% of buyers report they are more likely to engage with a tech vendor who has helped educate them on a particular subject or technology concept.
Why a high-quality campaign includes a mix of content types
A particular content format does not take the cake as the highest quality asset on its own. This is largely because individuals have unique preferences about the content they want to interact with. And with buying teams consisting of an average of 8+ people across many departments and seniority levels, your campaign should address all preferences, so you can engage as many buyer team members as possible.
For example, some potential buyers might want to engage exclusively with third-party coverage from analyst firms that provide a vendor-neutral breakdown of a market or product. Others expect timely real-world case studies that showcase your product in action, and the specific benefits or ROI it delivered for other customers.
4 Key Factors of High-Quality Content
All high-quality content consists of four key factors, including:
- Positive user experience
- Timeliness
- Reliable data
- Depth/comprehensiveness of customer-centric pain point(s)
Let’s dig into why each consideration contributes to the quality of your content.
Creating a positive user experience
The key to UX success is to balance thematic alignment (i.e., Is your content relevant to the overarching topic or pain point?) and a seamless, professional presentation. What does this mean in practice?
With a webinar you produce, even if you have highly trusted third-party voices and data, it will not be consumed by your prospects if it’s not well-organized, suffers from audio or video issues, and does not have clear takeaways.
Regardless of content type, the most important consideration for delivering a positive UX is that there needs to be distinct takeaways that users can easily pull from your content.
Evaluating asset timeliness
To make sure your content still reflects the current market, balance new, timely reports on the state of the market, with more “evergreen” content that isn’t reliant on dates, specific regulation deadlines or finite data points.
Content that highlights recently released survey results, adoption trends, current market change factors, or upcoming events and deadlines can almost guarantee high engagement, as they provide desired updates that aren’t readily available elsewhere. However, these pieces often have a shortened shelf life compared to evergreen pieces as they require frequent audits.
That’s not to say they will hold no value as time goes on, but content that includes aging or outdated data, entry points, pain points, terms, etc. commonly leads to a decline in engagement over time and can consequently create a negative impression of your brand.
You must also consider what makes content “timely” in the dynamics of your market. The shelf life for one topic may be longer or shorter than another depending on if the market is mature, evolving or emerging. For example, an artificial intelligence trend report may need to be updated after just six months to keep up with changing regulations and the latest advancements.
Identifying reliable data
For data to be considered reliable, it needs to come from a reputable source, be timely and accurate, and relate to the topic at hand.
The #1 criterion for assessing content’s credibility is the inclusion of third-party research, as this helps you gain audience trust while growing brand awareness with unbiased information and technical advice. According to our 2022-2023 Media Consumption & Vendor Engagement Study, the top two types of content prospects leverage when evaluating tech solutions are third-party expert technical advice and expert vendor reviews and assessments.
Making third-party research a core element of your lead gen campaign is a great strategy for providing a credible, objective voice to your content’s message.
Addressing customer pain points
Conducting frequent research around any recent surveys, new and emerging technologies, advancements across existing tools, and other change agents is key to ensure you’re hitting resonant entry points and touching on the pain points your audience is facing.
When your content prioritizes these topical angles, the audience can gauge how your content aligns with their goals and challenges and what challenge it is aiming to remedy.
The bottom line
High-quality content is what matters most in any lead gen campaign. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, ensuring you include third-party analyst content and you educate your audience is the best recipe for success.
