According to John Lavine, founder, professor, and director of the Media Management Center at Northwestern University, there are three essential truths when it comes to content strategy. These three truths represent “the permanent challenges to creating effective content.”

John’s Three Truths:
1) There is a rapidly rising tidal wave of information and it will continue to rise forever.
2) Everyone you want to reach has 1,440 minutes in their day; not one minute more, and most of that time is already used up with essentials such as eating, sleeping, working spending time with people you care about, etc. That means that there is ferocious competition for people’s precious, limited time.
3) The world is becoming ever more complicated, but people will give you their time and attention if you give them more of what they want.

One truth in John’s list stands out. In truth #2, John illustrates the fierce competition for people’s time. It is an undeniable but also a problem. It is, in fact, one of the major problems facing B2B Content Strategists. In providing his Third Truth, John also points the way toward a solution to this problem. He says, “…people will give you their time and attention if you give them more of what they want.” Aha! Yes, of course, they will. But here’s the rub for B2B marketers who don’t live in the Ivory Tower of academia: How to decide what your audience wants, and, once identified, delivering content that speaks to these wants in a timely, consistent, and cost-effective way.

This is the painful truth faced daily by our B2B clients wanting to win a share of their prospects’ precious, limited time. It is the point where academic theory ends and real-world solutions begin. It’s one thing to know the truth; it’s another to roll up your sleeves and face it head on.