What Content is the Most Effective?

What content works best for attracting new B2B leads?

Research reports, according to a new survey by content creator Ascend2.

The firm asked more than 400 marketers to rate a variety of devices for their ability to generate leads.

Thirty percent of marketers chose research reports as the most effective device.

Twenty-eight percent chose Webinars and twenty-six percent chose white papers.

A research report can act like a prospect-magnet, provided it asks the right questions and answers them in an honest way, according to the firm's blog.

Reports that don't focus on customers' "common pain points" or that merely recycle your opinions won't woo prospects, the firm says.

Clarity Trumps Persuasiveness

Does your value proposition get lost in a ton of puffery?

If so, you're turning off prospects.

Your value proposition, not the way it's stated, is the key to winning customers.

If you're "talking up" your product at the expense of clearly expressing its value, go back to the drawing board and simplify your copy.

In 2011, Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Managing Director of Jacksonville Beach, FL-based MECLABS, tested two versions of a Web site.

Version A provided an exhaustive list of product benefits, describing each in glowing terms. It wrapped up with a call to action that asked prospects to link to another page with purchase directions.

Version B—half the length of Version A—listed only the product's most appealing benefits and leaped right into the purchase directions.

Version B, "by reducing the amount of information contained in the copy and clearly focusing on just the core aspects of value," according to McGlaughlin, enjoyed a response rate 200% greater than that of Version A.

"When it comes to crafting effective copy, clarity trumps persuasion," McGlaughlin says. "Get clear about your value proposition."