B2B Content Marketing Strategy Tips
Content marketing is the loquacious bridge that connects your business to existing and potential customers. It highlights your knowledge, matches problems to reliable solutions, and shows value in spaces often filled with the opposite.
Well, at least that’s what quality content does. However, quality content and therefore a quality content strategy takes planning, and B2B marketers that take the time to build strong content marketing strategies are the ones who will win the hearts, minds, and patronage of their targeted audience.
This probably isn’t surprising. Obviously, doing something well is more likely to result in rewards. But when it comes to content marketing, what really matters? How can you build a successful B2B content marketing strategy? Here are a few tips.
1. Write It Down
Companies spend a significant amount of time preparing, sharing, and tweaking budgets, employee policies, etc., but what about your content strategy? Is it a tangible document or is it stored in bits, living a scattered life in notepads, word docs, emails, and brain cells. Treat your content strategy as you would any other important document. Write it down, formalize it, and share it.
2. Make Content Marketing a Company Affair
While it’s not necessary for you to involve every staff member in each marketing decision — that would be insane — there are some circumstances where you may want to reach out across the departmental aisle. By seeking feedback from various departments, particularly those who engage with customers, you can further identify customer needs and potential gaps in your efforts and overall marketing message.
3. Forget About Quantity
Your goal should always be consistency, whether daily, weekly, or monthly, but never at the expense of quality. In the long run, four well-crafted posts will out outperform eight shoddy ones, especially in today’s ultra-saturated online environment. Why read 10 OK articles when you can read one or two great ones, right?
4. Prove Your Worth
One of the driving reasons behind the content’s rise to fame is the continual quest for reliable knowledge. More often than not, we engage in content because it resonates with a concern, problem, or question we have. As the producer of content, you need to prove that your brand, and the people that keep it running, is qualified and more than capable of addressing the needs of your audience. In other words, prove you’re worth their time.
5. Use & Learn From Google Analytics
Sign up for Google Analytics (GA), learn how to use it, and then use it. It’s as simple as that. This tool will:
- Help you collect information about your audience, like age, location, etc.
- Identify why a user may have visited your site, spurring content topics and ideas
- Help you determine the effectiveness of existing content and campaigns
6. Find the Right Tools
Although GA deserves its own spot on this list, it’s not the only resource available to marketers. There are a plethora of tools that were truly valuable when it comes to content marketing, and many of them are free. Not sure where to start? Check out BuzzSumo, HootSuite, and SEOMoz for a solid base, then expand from there.
7. Factor in the Funnel
Ah, the funnel. Learn it and recognize that different users will visit your site at different points in their purchasing journey. Some are looking for basic information, essentially feeling out the market, while others are moments away from committing. If you strategically design and disseminate content based on various levels of interest, you widen your net and increase your catch.
8. Use Various Content Formats
When it comes to content engagement, we’re not all created equal. I, for example, rarely click on video content, preferring to get my information silently and at my own pace. Others, however, would much prefer the audio/visual appeal of video content.
Similarly, especially in the B2B space, some potential customers are much more likely to respond to a white paper or webinar than they are a blog post or infographic. Don’t sell yourself short by focusing on a single type of content. Test different types and curtail your efforts to the wants and needs of your target audience.
9. Leverage the Right Social Media Platforms
Much like there is no one-size-fits-all content format, you’ll likely find that there is more than one social media platform on which your intended audience spends their time, that includes industry-specific platforms. Don’t sell your brand short by limited exposure to one space like Facebook or Twitter.
10. But Make it a Point to have a Strong LinkedIn Presence
Of course, if you’re going to have a social media presence, then LinkedIn is the primary platform on which you want to be present and accounted for. It’s designed with professionals in mind, and for B2Bs, it can act as the ongoing path to a targeted audience, lucrative networking groups, etc. If you have to start with a single platform, make it LinkedIn.
11. Always Consider SEO
If you’re creating a B2B content marketing strategy, then your SEO efforts should be made in tandem. There are certainly places where the partnership between the two may diverge, but overall, a strong SEO strategy can build a strong content strategy, and vice versa.
12. But Don’t Forget About Paid SEM
Content marketing can be the seed that sprouts organic traffic, but paid traffic is equally as valuable, and a good content strategy will help you maximize your efforts and increase ROI. After all, why pay for placement if the final destination spurs little more than a growing bounce rate?. Don’t waste your money on paid search if you’re not going to back it up with quality content.
13. Find Talented Writers
Want quality content? Hire quality writers. All the research, analysis, and planning in the world won’t get you far if the execution is weak and the content is flat. A good writer, or more, is invaluable to your efforts.
14. Review, Analyze, and Revise
A content strategy is not a “set it and forget it” effort. To make the most of your hard work, and attract the maximum amount of customers, you’ll need to:
- Monitor your efforts
- Analyze success, failure, or plateaus
- Tweak your strategy as necessary
This, like any other channel, should be an active, ongoing activity.
15. Promote
Even if you’re going to put a lot of time and energy into your B2B content strategy — as you should — it’s going to fall flat if you’re not promoting your brand and your content. Every content strategy should include a distribution plan. In many cases, distribution is specific to the marketing channels you leverage, but don’t forget about your employees and clients. Sometimes the best way to spread the word is through the people who have a vested interest in your business. If they have pride in their work and your content, they’ll share it.
Your B2B content marketing strategy should be reflective of the values, knowledge, and goals that make your brand unique and worth a second look. If you want your clients to believe in and take interest in your product or service, then you must take the time to develop a strategy that shows them exactly why they should.
