Why you need to nail ‘messy middle’ lead generation content
The sales cycle has changed a lot. It’s not a case of linear awareness, consideration and purchase wrapped up in a neat bow anymore.
As businesses, and specifically marketing and sales teams, we’re now figuring out the best way to help our potential leads and customers through what’s been coined ‘the messy middle’. Some figures show that some B2B buyers are actually about 70% of the way through the buying journey before they get in touch with a salesperson. This figure is likely even higher now, thanks to developments in AI search and GEO.
This just tells us that lead generation content now has to take many forms. It also tells us that we can’t afford to ignore it or for it to be naff.
The messy middle
Gone are the days of seeing a print or TV ad and picking up the phone to a salesperson. Potential customers now have a myriad of touchpoints they can use to check that you’re the real deal, and they’ll often bounce around them several times before committing to a decision.
How does your sales team manage this haphazard customer journey? By working with marketing (in other words, lead generation), to make sure you’ve got every base covered.
Presence and relevance
By simply showing up and being present in the relevant places for your audience, you’re taking the right steps. But there’s no point being everywhere if your content doesn’t grow your leads’ confidence.
Every piece of content you create for the messy middle is to help consumers get out of it. Remember, you’re competing with other brands - the one that wins is going to be the one that can convince someone as quickly as possible and make it as simple as possible to get from the messy middle to purchase.
Let’s have a look at what some of this messy middle might look like, and why you can’t afford to miss these key touchpoints.
Social media touchpoints
In Marketing LTB’s 2025 statistics, they found that:
The average person spends over 2 hours a day on social media platforms.
The average number of social media accounts per person is 6.8.
A whopping 82% of consumers say that social media influences their buying habits and decisions.
47% of internet product research starts on social media.
Sales and marketing need to work together here to make sure every stage of awareness is covered. Sales teams can directly inform the content covered by sharing common questions or objections with marketing. By filtering the answers or solutions to those questions and objections in that early lead generation content, you minimise the number of times your leads have to bounce around all those touch points. You make that whole sales process easier and create more qualified leads as a result.
Website touchpoints
Even B2B consumers are starting to take the more ‘digital-first’ approach of their B2C counterparts. As many as 90% of B2B consumers now turn to digital channels as their first port of call when they’re looking for new suppliers. It’s believed that most of these buyers will consume between three and seven bits of content before taking any kind of action with you.
With that in mind, websites are still powerful verification, trust-building, lead generation tools. Regularly updating your website with well-researched thought leadership pieces and FAQs (using the same questions and objections from sales teams) not only lets consumers know they’re in safe hands, but it’s also still a very powerful SEO best practice to help you get found in the first place.
Reviews and testimonials
This is a biggy. In that ‘messy middle’ period, consumers are increasingly turning to reviews to check legitimacy. According to YouGov, 7 in 10 UK adults will look to either your website or a third-party review site while considering a purchase.
YouGov’s data does reveal that reviews posted on your own website are only consulted about 26% of the time, compared to third-party sites like Trustpilot. So, while it’s still absolutely worth having reviews available directly on your website, sales and marketing should work together to get the word out there via these other trusted platforms.
Around 51% 18-24 year olds also turn to online forums (circa Reddit) or social media to look for reviews, compared to 10% of those 55 and over - a reminder to all of us in the game to keep audience and their habits top of mind when creating any lead gen content.
Need help unifying your messaging and nailing the messy middle? At So Contented, we specialise in unique brand messaging and sales copy implementation. Don’t lose leads to the messy-middle-void. Let’s talk.
