Most Effective B2B Content Types for Lead Generation

Generating quality leads always comes down to producing the best content for lead generation and delivering it at the right time to the right audience. You need to know the pain points your target market faces and the opportunities they want to capitalize on.

Then, demonstrate your expertise in addressing those needs—without trying to sell your products and services right out of the gate.

Along with developing the right content, another key consideration is the type of content tech buyers prefer to consume.

It might be in written form, such as white papers, case studies, and product slicks. It could also be short social media or text messages. Or perhaps your audience prefers videos and presentations.

Best Content Types for Lead Gen: Experts Weigh In

To help you identify the most effective types of content for generating quality leads, we recently talked with two experts: Randy Frisch—the CMO at Uberflip, and Sam Clarke—the Director of Demand Generation at Wistia.

Uberflip offers a software platform that enables customers to engage with buyers by delivering relevant content.

The company sponsored a research study interviewing 250 buyers and marketers that uncovered interesting results about how differently the two groups view content types:

• For buyers, user reviews (64%), product tours (43%) and videos (33%) are the most useful content types.
• Conversely, marketers prioritize sales sheets (47%), whitepapers (42%) and eBooks (30%).

These stats suggest it’s time for marketing teams to consider an outside-in perspective.

In another report cited by Frisch, Forrester found 63% of buyers disregard content that isn’t relevant to their needs, their industry, and their role. 62% prefer dynamic video to text-based content, but when they do look at text-based content, 68% prefer shorter form over lengthy documents.

Personalized Relevance a Must

“Buyers want content created for them,” says Frisch. “No matter which type you use, the content needs to match the audience and the stage they are at in the buying journey. They want personalized relevance.”

Another consideration, Frisch points out, is that each prospective company has more than one buyer influencing the purchase decision. The CMO, CFO and CEO may be influenced by different content types.

“Someone at the beginning of the buying journey is usually focused on solving pain points and looking for longer-form content like white papers and case studies,” says Frisch. “A CFO, however, is probably focused on content types that provide ROI information.”

Video Gets the Most Attention

Wistia helps clients use video to grow their businesses and enhance their brand with marketing software that enables the production of video and podcasts. The marketing team at Wistia creates a variety of content ranging from articles to e-books, data-driven reports, webinars, podcasts, and videos.

“We spend the most amount of time on video,” says Clarke.

“Not just because we are a video marketing platform, but also because video is fantastic at impacting funnel performance. Not only can we gate videos to bring prospects into our funnel, we can also measure how much they engage with our videos. We also segment, nurture, and score leads based on video view activity, and video gives us the power to qualify leads which is harder to do with other types of content.”

Wistia clients benefit from buyer audiences engaging with product-specific videos, webinars, and videos created for social media.

“We’re also seeing an increase in branded video series,” adds Clarke. “Clients who choose an engaging topic for their series that relates to their core product tend to generate the biggest return on investment. This is due to the fact that there’s an easy path from a brand awareness video to a product upsell.”

Measuring Content Effectiveness and Driving Qualified Leads

For measuring the effectiveness of different content types, Frisch suggests first defining the specific goals of each campaign. For example, determine if you are looking to collect contact details or if you also want to qualify leads.

“Then measure engagement in the content and the conversion rate,” says Frisch. “Track engagement back to the source that led to that conversion—not just last on a last-touch basis but also other content types that led to the conversion.”

Going beyond the measurement aspect, Wistia customers take their video lead-gen strategy one step further.

“We recommend adding CTAs, annotation links, and forms that integrate with our clients’ marketing automation platforms,” says Clarke. “This enables them to build an audience and drive more qualified leads for their sales teams.”

Control Acquisition Costs by Providing Follow-Up Content

An Uberflip software client created a campaign that included emails and online ads. The creative messaging matched asset topics to terms that the target audience had searched for.

The content types include a video, an e-book, and a case study. As prospects viewed one asset, the process would trigger the delivery of another asset.

Related: How B2B Content Marketing Helps Close Sales

“This approach is key because each engagement to acquire leads costs money, whether it’s sending an email, content syndication, or running ads,” says Frisch.

“Once you attract a prospect by directing them to an asset that gets their attention, queue another asset to keep their interest so you don’t have to go back to the well to spend money to reacquire them. Make sure each new asset you provide speaks to their pain points at that point in time of the buying journey.”

Lead with Buyer Preferences

As your marketing team formulates its B2B content marketing strategy, evaluating the best content for lead generation is a critical component.

Focus first on the right content, but then consider what type of content your target audience wants to consume, which will change as they progress through their buying journeys.

As the input from industry experts indicates, buyers prefer user reviews, product tours, and videos—particularly when they are early in their journeys.

But it’s just as important to have sales sheets, whitepapers, and e-books in your toolbox so you can keep buyers engaged after they show initial interest.