How Prospects Engage With Your Content
Wouldn’t it be great to know the time it takes for prospects to read and respond to your content? Some new research provides insight into this crucial issue.
This study on content consumption explored the content engagement process.1 The first step in the process, the time it took between content request and content open, accelerated across all job types. Then, the study calculated the time it took prospects to review the requested content at from 22 hours to 38 hours. However, the survey also revealed that prospects took longer to request additional pieces of content. From 2017 to 2018, this time increased from 30% to 50% across all prospect types (see figure 1).
Figure 1: Content engagement process. Comparisons from 2017 to 2018. (Source: 2019 State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report for Marketers, Netline Corporation, June 2019.)The study concluded, “The bigger picture from this data shows that professionals are more concisely selecting what they want, taking action quickly, but are not as keen on coming back for additional content as prior years. This decline in return rate for additional content also speaks to improved quality and concise messaging in content that pushes leads into a sales cycle or nurture track more efficiently. While users are still returning for content, it appears that they are finding more value from content at their initial point of interaction.”2
TW TAKEAWAY: Understanding the content consumption period is important since it indicates the relevancy of the content plus drives the timing of sales qualification calls and emails. The data from this study tells us that first contact with executive vice presidents and individual contributors should occur about 48 hours after the content is downloaded — and about 72 hours with business owners. Also, when users download content faster, there probably is a correlation with interest and readiness to buy.
In our next post, we will explore the types of content that work best with prospects.
For a copy of the study referenced below, email Rick Whitmyre.
References
1, 2 2019 State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report for Marketers, Netline Corporation, June 2019.