Traditional marketing tools such as advertising and mass mailings are yesterday. People are tired of pushing and choose today themselves when and where to seek information to support their decision-making.

Internet, social media, and IT tools have introduced a new era of marketing. Skilled digital marketing offer companies a unique opportunity to get close to customers through provision of interesting and relevant content.

Content is crucial because the sales process is changing

Today’s marketing is based on good contents. When the case is interesting and relevant to the recipient, he shares it voluntarily to his own contacts. Social media means new distribution channels for information, and can help your business to enter new networks and to better understand the needs of your target audience.

Internet information is available to everyone. Therefore, the buyer is most likely better informed about your products and their options than your sales team. Previously, the sales has been able to emphasize its position through customer understanding and information sharing, but the digital marketing revolution has radically changed the work of the seller - the buyer is already aware of the price level, technical information and references.

Sales role is to determine the value of a product or solution to the buyer. At the same time, he can tailor the offerings to suit customer needs. This will create a superior and distinctive client value, which excels competition.

Use measurable results

If you use right tools for tracking you'll know exactly which marketing efforts will bring results and what the results are. In addition to the view mirror of the historical financial data, you can now in real time see the development of leads, and to predict the future. You can see better how the potential deals are coming up and what you have to do to get them closed. For company management, this means a dream come true, because business view and forecasting are easier than ever. So the modern marketer's most important task is leads management.

When my first web site project was launched 15 years ago, I was proud of the pioneering role in the company. The new, modern media had been taken into use. The pages were updated with product information every few months, and search engine optimisation (SEO) was not even a dream – Google was not yet born.

The journey from those static pages to today's online space has taught a lot. Each company having once invested in website should regularly ask themselves why the pages are there, and how they fulfill their role today.

Website, then and now

Those ancient websites were built on the understanding of their time – from inside out. They reminded brochures: "We are doing such good products, please contact us if interested." Of course, the aim was that the site helps the company to become better known. Web address was added to business cards and other printed products, and that’s it.

Now the websites are just a part of the ever-changing interactive machine, whose task is to bring new sales contacts and to help maintain the existing customer and partner relationships. Success requires a change of perspective: you need to know what your target group is interested in, and to provide just that.

Interesting content is like a magnet. It attracts visitors who are looking for solutions to their problems in the web space. They do not seek companies or product names, but new valuable information and tips. The more you offer interesting content, the stronger your magnet is.

Search engine finds content and networks

If the web site's traffic consists of only contacts already familiar with the company, and ads clicked, should alarm bells start ringing. New contacts do not come without work. Web content works for you 24/7, whether it is good or bad.

Instead of web pages we now build an online presence. Search Engine Optimisation is more than just using the right words, page titles and meta-texts. The probability to get up in the search results increases remarkably by right content and the number of contact points. A little thought exercise might illustrate this.

- I am alone in space, and I say once that I’m a marketing professional.
- I build a network, to which I continuously tell about what new I have learned about marketing.

Networking and relevant content creation, publishing and sharing in social media require investment, of course. There is no option, however: the b2b decision-makers have found a large part of information leading to their purchasing decisions long before they contact sales - if they contact at all. It is the content that counts. Read more!