Let’s talk about the year’s biggest B2B content marketing goal: lead gen. An IDG report shows lead generation is the most sought after content marketing result for 2015 – 59% of marketers are making this their top priority, widening the gap between leads and the second-leading goal, thought leadership.

A lot of times when we’re working with new B2B clients invested in lead gen, they want to go hard and heavy on product or service demos. Not a bad approach: Unique benefits and clear features could make someone interested in a product.

59% of marketers are making lead gen their top priority in content marketing

But I want to ask you to consider something else: As more B2B buyers are doing their research online, it’s increasingly less likely that they’re speaking with someone on your sales team BEFORE scheduling a demo or signing up for a trial.

Content overcomes the virtual gap

When you have offline, human-to-human interactions with prospects, you have the luxury of body language, humor and what ideally feels like a personal conversation.

web over people

It’s easy to believe that in the business world, decisions will be rational, but data overwhelmingly supports that any purchase decision has an emotional element: People want to feel like an organization understands their needs, and one of the most personal ways to achieve that online is with content highlighting the people behind a product or service.

TRUE FACT: The people who visit the community section of Brafton’s blog, showcasing our teammates, have a higher conversion rate than the average site visitor.

Community-focused content builds trust with leads

So make sure your lead gen-targeted content incorporates a closer look at your team. The team that will ultimately work with buyers to get the results that matter most to them – whether it’s developers who can express how they prioritize customer needs in a tool, or account managers who can talk about their typical day.

Teammates for Leag Generation

Use videos, interviews, and photos to pull back the curtain on what people who have already filled out that form get, and you’ll hopefully find people are more eager to convert. And if not, you may have more than a content problem friend…

What do you think – can your teammates help your marketing team win more leads? Hit me up on Twitter with some samples of the brand content that’s made you most interested in working with a business, and get more content insights on Brafton.com

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.