Corporate tales to boost sales Helping hand: marketing automation software company Eloqua created an ebook of manuals and tips for clients The customers camping outside an Apple store the night before a product launch are clearly interested in more than just the latest iPad: they are fans with a passion for everything the brand stands for. Consumers often make buying choices based on a brand's values and culture, whether riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle or flying Virgin Atlantic. Now companies that sell to other businesses rather than consumers are also exploiting their thinking and values to stand out from the crowd. In marketing jargon this process is called "thought leadership marketing" - where businesses market their ideas, expertise, values and philosophy instead of merely their products. In contrast to traditional consumer brand marketing, this tactic aims to wrap up a company's "big ideas" via a multitude of content using various channels both to engage and to educate its target audience. Creating content for customers is a key part of the strategy, with online information - from blog posts to downloadable reports - helping to build a long-term relationship between buyer and seller. The shipping company UPS, for example, created "the new logistics ," a website showing businesses how to use logistics to expand, covering considerations from customer service through to money-saving ideas. Ann Handley, chief content officer of MarketingProfs.com, an online resource for marketers, and author of Content Rules, recently published research showing that 91 per cent of business-to-business companies are incorporating content into their marketing. This content is not only published online but also includes conferences and seminars where industry experts are brought together to discuss new ideas. I think it's more than a trend. I believe this will be a critical aspect of doing business for B2B," says Jesse Noyes, managing editor at Eloqua. The marketing automation software company - clients include Siemens and Johnson & Johnson - hired Mr Noyes, a former business journalist, to create and deliver a series of marketing manuals and online content that is shared with clients. The Social Media ProBook, for example, is a 42-page ebook containing data, expertise, tips and opinion. When publications are such a hit, they are shared online by the marketing industry and grab attention in a noisy marketplace. Some of Eloqua's ebooks have been viewed 90,000 times. How to get your thoughts to stand out ● Make the most of your in-house experts. "Hire content producers and "brand journalists" who are essentially embedded in your company - pulling those stories out, and crafting them for a larger audience," says Ann Handley of MarketingProfs.com. ● Put your customers first. How can you help them shoulder their burdens, ease their pain? Your content should grow out of that - in other words, stop talking about yourself!" says Ms Handley. ● Produce content that addresses the right questions. "Content is often about sharing what you know, not what you sell," says Jesse Noyes, at Eloqua. Start a blog, a Facebook group, use question and answer forums. ● Use social media to engage with your audience. Do not just tweet out links to your content. Social media is about conversation, not a new bully pulpit. If you're going to be part of the conversation, you need to bring something of value," says Mr Noyes. Mr Noyes says content is helpful because business-to-business purchases often require a lot of research before a decision is made. The buyer wants more than product specs and pricing data. They want to know the people they're buying from know their space, understand their customers" needs and jobs," he says. Creating content "is the best way to position yourself as a smart group of people ready with an answer to clients" most burning questions." This is not new for consultants and professional services firms. For example, McKinsey Quarterly is the consultant's business journal, which looks at management trends and ideas using content provided by its consultants and clients. Boston Consulting Group, meanwhile, has the online portal BCG Perspectives and Booz & Co publishes Strategy + Business magazine, its own quarterly. Similarly, Open View Venture Partners, a venture capital firm in Boston, recently created a website called Open View Labs as a resource to help entrepreneurs . Peter O'Neill, vice-president and principal analyst of B2B technology marketing at Forrester Research, says content and idea creation is an especially relevant marketing tool for technology companies. This is because many services such as cloud computing and marketing automation software can be difficult to grasp for executives. It is a way to stand out from the competition, create interest and earn the trust of potential buyers early in their problem-solving process. This makes them more likely to seek that firm when they enter the actual buying cycle," he says. American Express's Open, the small-business division of the credit card company, publishes an online hub providing advice and networking opportunities. Not only does the site try to build long-term relationships with clients by producing content the small businesses are unlikely to find elsewhere, but that information is then shared among the community via social media. The forum has 193,000 Twitter followers. Using content to establish deeper relationships with customers is ultimately a way of reframing the sales process. Because business-to-business deals can take a long time to close, vendors need to start building the relationship by sharing expertise; selling the features and benefits can come later. In the B2B world, you are often talking about a long-term complex sale - 18 to 24 months is not uncommon. So at the awareness phase, it is less effective to talk about benefits and price because (quite often) you are talking through a buyer's pain points," says Ms Handley. Producing content is a way to demonstrate empathy with the challenges faced by clients. "Buyers want to be convinced that their suppliers understand their business and their issues," says Mr O'Neill. Even if the products are commodities, they care about other factors like reliability, quality and relationship. In her book, Ms Handley tells the story of Hubspot, a supplier of marketing software, which published a video online called Dude, cold calling is for losers in 2008. The video risked alienating those in their audience who use cold-calling; but in taking such a provocative stance the video amassed more than 66,000 views on YouTube and many comments on the company blog. "Thought leadership really just means acting as a resource to your prospects and customers," says Ms Handley. In other words, you solve problems for them, you share resources with them - all with an eye toward helping. And not purely "selling."" Another benefit is that, unlike business-to-consumer relationships, where customers can usually switch from one supplier to another, long, fixed contracts mean it is often difficult to break business-to-business relationships. When you decide as a company to embrace marketing automation, you need to think long-term. It's not a one-shot decision with minor impact," says Alexandre Papillaud, marketing operations manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at McAfee, the cyber security company and one of Eloqua's customers. You need to trust your vendor, not only the product, but also their thinking. How do they see marketing in future, how can they be innovative for me so I can beat the competition? Of course, he adds, a business cannot hide a poor product behind a good idea. Thinking is great but me and my team need something that works, is easy to use and efficient. Thinking is not what will make my business run," he says.