{"id":6166,"date":"2017-02-14T14:40:42","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T14:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marvel7077.wpengine.com\/?p=6166"},"modified":"2017-02-14T14:43:11","modified_gmt":"2017-02-14T14:43:11","slug":"product-content-two-sides-value-proposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marvelapp.com\/blog\/product-content-two-sides-value-proposition\/","title":{"rendered":"Product and Content Are Two Sides of the Same Value Proposition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Traditionally, user experience initiatives focus on the product, but that may not be the most impactful place to start. Most organizations are built upon the premise that the product offering forms the nucleus of their value proposition to customers. Marketing, or \u2018content,\u2019 is merely a promotional layer on top. For B2B organizations in particular, this model is backwards and has meaningful consequences.<\/p>\n

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\"Traditionally, UX initiatives focus on product, but that may not be the most impactful place to start.\"<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

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The value of a product is rarely the 1's and 0's that go into making it. Instead, value can be mapped to some best practice, methodology, or use case that delivers effectiveness, efficiency, new opportunities, or some combination thereof to the buyer. In this regard, the product enables the best practice or value proposition to be realized, but only after content communicates the practice worth realizing in the first place.<\/p>\n

Consider HubSpot as a shining example of a company that explicitly recognizes this. If you speak to a sales rep or virtually anyone at the organization, the pitch will never begin with the product. Instead, you\u2019ll bear witness to their renowned infographic<\/a> on the inbound methodology<\/em>, which doesn\u2019t mention HubSpot anywhere in it.<\/p>\n

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HubSpot first argues for a methodology, not a product, that is \u201cthe best way to turn strangers into customers and promoters of your business.\u201d Likewise, Atlassian believes<\/a> that \u201cthe best software teams ship early and often\u201d using an Agile methodology. Some companies are more subtle, like Blue Apron, which implicitly believes that farm-fresh ingredients and relatively easy recipes will bring families closer together.<\/p>\n

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\"No one buys the product if they don\u2019t first buy into what the practice will do for them.\"<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

It just so happens that each organization sells a product that enables buyers to take advantage of the evangelized practice. But the point is, as Samuel Hulick of UserOnboard elegantly illustrates<\/a>, no one buys the product if they don\u2019t first buy into what the practice will do for them.<\/p>\n

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Redefining the intersection of product and content<\/h2>\n

To this end, content shouldn\u2019t just be treated as a derivative of product\u2014 it should validate the value proposition the product enables in the first place. There\u2019s no leaner way for the company to discover that buyers want a superpower-infusing plant than to test and iterate on content that evangelizes the value of destroying obstacles with fireballs. And that\u2019s not just a difference in workflow semantics, it\u2019s a completely different operational paradigm. Using content, value propositions can be validated without a single line of code or a conveyor belt.<\/p>\n

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\"Using content, value propositions can be validated without a single line of code or a conveyor belt.\"<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

But few organizations and marketers can explain<\/a> or justify<\/a> their content marketing initiatives at all, yet alone frame them in these terms. For many, content is now simply the \u2018status quo\u2019 way to do promotion because advertising is expensive or no longer works.<\/p>\n

Most definitions<\/a> of content marketing are so broad that they exacerbate the issue. According to the Content Marketing Institute:<\/p>\n

Content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling\u2026Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent. The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent\u2019 is only half of the requirement. And while there are many worthwhile content marketing tactics, the raison d\u2019\u00eatre must be to test, validate, and evangelize some practice or methodology that educates the buyer but also aligns with the organization\u2019s product offering. In fact, it\u2019s not just an efficient way to validate value propositions, it\u2019s also the best way to generate an ROI on content marketing initiatives.<\/p>\n

Redefining the intersection of marketing and content<\/h2>\n

According to a large-scale analysis<\/a> of buying patterns, the single most important driver of a sale is the introduction of \u2018commercial insight,\u2019 which researchers argue is a nuanced subset of thought leadership:<\/p>\n

[Commercial insight is] designed to upend the status quo. As such, insight isn\u2019t about one thing, it\u2019s about two things. [Unlike thought leadership, it] doesn\u2019t just convey an idea of what the customer could be doing\u2026but also conveys a story around what the customer is currently doing, explicitly laying out why the current behavior is costing the customer time or money in ways they never realized.
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\nThat\u2019s the key. The contrast. It\u2019s the cost of current behavior juxtaposed to the potential of alternate action.
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\n-p67, The Challenger Customer<\/span><\/p>\n

Insight is a specific type of thought leadership that convinces the prospective buyer that there is a better practice than the one currently being undertaken. Inbound marketing is more effective than outbound marketing. Agile is better than waterfall. Throwing fireballs is better than ground pounds. The thought leader presumably has a product built on top of this methodology, which is what makes the insight \u2018commercially-actionable.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\"One strategy can drive both product and content because they are two sides of the same value proposition.\"<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

Interestingly, the same study found that neither the introduction of \u2018thought leadership\u2019 (the more general variety) nor \u2018interesting content\u2019 was found to have a statistically significant impact on the buyer\u2019s journey. Providing valuable information<\/em> with the hope that buyers reward<\/em> your organization is an incomplete definition that will lead content initiatives astray. Valuable information must be in the context of a better practice, which itself must align with a product that enables the practice to be realized.<\/p>\n

There is a ripe intersection for those willing to explore it. Done right, one strategy can effectively drive both product and content because they are two sides of the same value proposition.<\/p>\n

Recap and ramifications<\/h2>\n

Customers buy products because of what those products enable them to do, the value of which is communicated and partially delivered (in the form of education) through content. Organizations can therefore leverage content to discover and iterate on value propositions, rather than just as a way to promote already-defined value propositions. They should do so because it\u2019s significantly more efficient to iterate on content than it is to iterate on product (although product iterations are still necessary to validate enablement of the value proposition). To sweeten the deal, content marketing initiatives are most effective when focused on exactly that: content that evangelizes a best practice that is enabled by the organization\u2019s product offering.<\/p>\n

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\"Customers buy products because of what those products enable them to do\"<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

Use content to drive product development. <\/em>Startups in particular tend to wait until after multiple funding rounds before investing in content. This is because they perceive content as a promotional activity rather than as a validating activity. Investing and iterating on content should instead be one of the first activities any entrepreneur or organization undertakes.<\/p>\n

Use commercial insights to drive content marketing. <\/em>It\u2019s not just that product development should be driven by content, but content marketing initiatives should be reoriented around precisely this strategy. Content that conveys \u2018commercial insight\u2019 is the most impactful type of content.<\/p>\n

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\"Organizations should enable marketing teams to work directly with product teams\"<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

Empower the intersection. <\/em>Organizations should enable marketing teams to work directly with product teams to create content that discovers and\/or optimizes value-added practices, and ensure the product direction involves supporting those practices.<\/p>\n

This article is the first in a series of three articles on The Intersection of Product & Content. If you liked it and want to read the rest of the series, please visit http:\/\/www.nisfro.me\/the-intersection-of-product-and-content<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

This article was originally posted on Nis\u2019s Medium account<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Traditionally, user experience initiatives focus on the product, but that may not be the most impactful place to start. Most organizations are built upon the premise that the product offering forms the nucleus of their value proposition to customers. Marketing, or \u2018content,\u2019 is merely a promotional layer on top. For B2B organizations in particular, this model is backwards and has… Read More ￫<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":6173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-viewpoint"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n