As you build out content following a real strategy, you’ll create a comprehensive library to combat buying barriers and other challenges.

Elsewhere, I’ve written about buying barriers and why overcoming them is important for your business.

In this post, I’ll share an example from the real world that shows some ways in which you can combat buying barriers.

After we’d helped to refresh Bridgit’s messaging, provided a comprehensive content plan that directly supported their sales and marketing objectives, and defined a collection of use cases to highlight the versatility of their solution, Cromulent was asked to produce some blog content.

Content with a Purpose

Every piece of content should serve some strategic purpose, beyond a ‘strategy’ of “we want content”. 

Many companies and leaders think about content as just a one-time thing that you do to check a box: “Alright, we need a blog post for the week. Let’s whip something up.”

This approach is a mistake. Every piece of content should serve some strategic purpose, beyond a ‘strategy’ of “we want content”. Every piece of content that doesn’t serve some higher purpose isn’t just a missed opportunity, it’s—even worse—noise that drowns out your good content.

From my previous conversations, I’d identified a number of buying barriers. For instance:

• Prospects worried that Bridgit’s solution had very limited applications—that it was only suitable for one or two use cases
• Some prospects also thought the solution was only for a particular job function (e.g., Project Manager) or customer types (e.g., Contractor)
• Champions worried that they’d have a hard time getting other folks in the field to adopt the solution, or that it might be difficult to get up-and-running
• Some existing customers weren’t getting the most out of the solution, because they didn’t know how to use some of its powerful features

Every piece of content that doesn’t serve some higher purpose isn’t just a missed opportunity, it’s—even worse—noise that drowns out your good content.

I wanted to make sure that the blog content we provided would do more than simply check a box. I wanted it to address the legitimate challenges that Bridgit’s salespeople were facing when engaging with prospects.

Example Posts

A prospect who knows that a single solution satisfies a dozen or so use cases is much more likely to appreciate the solution’s value.

Getting the most out of Bridgit had a simple goal: make sure readers understand that Bridgit’s solutions address a wide range of use cases across three important value propositions. A prospect who knows that a single solution satisfies a dozen or so use cases is much more likely to appreciate the solution’s value and much less likely to write it off as a single-purpose tool.

2018 customer survey insights – the evolution of construction management and technology went a step further, by showing that existing customers were already using Bridgit’s products to address the wide range of use cases described elsewhere. By doing so, we moved the use cases from the realm of theoretical ideas into the world of real-life evidence. That post also highlights how Bridgit’s user base spans many different job titles, and that their customer base extends across multiple organization types. Where’d the real-world stats come from? A customer survey that was initially conducted only for internal insights…but we recognized that we could put the stats to work to make otherwise general statements and assertions much more concrete.

In Maximizing in-field adoption, we shared a number of real-world customer success stories that, first and foremost, showed that it was possible to enjoy widespread adoption on a construction site; additionally, this post had a practical element, by explaining—using those real-world examples—exactly how customers had achieved that widespread adoption.

Finally, Getting – and staying – organized with Tags explains—again, using a real-world customer example—how to use one of Bridgit’s most powerful features: tags. The post quickly explains what the feature is, then shows how powerful it is through explanations of how customers use it to get more organized, to quickly find information that would otherwise be difficult to locate, and to gain vital insights into how work is progressing on the construction site.

Helping Prospects to Learn

If you click through to any of the posts, you’ll notice that they’re each chock-a-block full of links and references to other material, and that’s no accident.

Is everyone going to click on those links to learn more? No, of course not. But prospects with a genuine interest in learning about Bridgit’s solutions will.

If we’re lucky enough to get a genuine prospect to read a post, then we wanted to make sure they’d be able to educate themselves as much as possible. For instance:

• They can see proof of our claims and the sources of our customer quotes, which we often provided by linking to customer success stories
• They can easily find additional information about a use case or product capability
• They can see how something works or find a customer-facing resource; many of the links go to the—unfortunately—well-hidden customer support knowledge base

Is everyone going to click on those links to learn more? No, of course not. But prospects with a genuine interest in learning about Bridgit’s solutions will.

Producing Signals, not Noise

It’s easy to produce noise: you just sit down and write about something. Then you post it, check the box, and move on.

It takes quite a bit more to produce signal:

• To identify buying barriers: I spoke with several customer-facing employees, across sales, support, and product management; I read transcripts of customer interviews; and I read industry publications about technology adoption
• To find all the supporting evidence (e.g., customer success stories, knowledge base articles, videos, demos), I reviewed—quite literally—every video and piece of written content Bridgit had ever produced

Then I needed to create narratives that addressed the buying barriers as naturally as possible.

It’s easy to produce noise; it takes quite a bit more to produce signal.

But Does it Matter?

Look, just posting content isn’t going to make a difference on its own—people need to read it.

Just posting content isn’t going to make a difference on its own—people need to read it.

And, I hate to break it to you, but the number of people who subscribe to a corporate blog or who visit regularly enough to see all a company’s updates is miniscule.

So you need to promote posts through your digital channels (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter, as placed articles, etc.) and campaigns (ongoing nurturing, regular customer newsletters, etc.).

For content like this—that specifically addresses buying barriers—I recommend reviewing it with your salespeople and BDRs so that they know the material exists and how they should use it.

For instance, if a Bridgit account rep is speaking with a prospect who expresses skepticism that their subcontractors would adopt the solution, then that rep should immediately send across a link to Maximizing in-field adoption: “You know, you’re not the first person to express that concern. But what we’ve observed is that there are a few simple things customers can do to ensure success. I’ll send you a short article that shows how some of our customers have maximized adoption on their own sites.”

Or if a prospect suggests that the solution is overpriced or has limited applications, then the rep has two handy posts that illustrate the enormous value that existing customers are already enjoying.

Over time, as you build out content following a real strategy (as opposed to content for content’s sake), you’ll create a comprehensive library of resources that you can use to combat the buying barriers and other challenges that are negatively impacting your business.

Just posting content isn’t going to make a difference on its own—people need to read it. For content that specifically addresses buying barriers, I recommend reviewing it with your salespeople and BDRs so that they know the material exists and how they should use it.

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Header/Featured photo credit: Jonathan Ouimet on Unsplash