Marketing has changed drastically in the last 20 years, but one aspect of it that has increasingly become more important is content marketing. Many might argue that marketing isn’t marketing without content. It’s one of the best ways to keep current and potential customers engaged.
But, some B2Bs think content marketing is a waste of time when it isn’t. If anything, content marketing allows B2Bs to grow faster in a shorter amount of time.
Benefits of Content Marketing for B2Bs
Why are businesses hesitant to focus on content marketing? Some of the results tend to be less quantifiable and it can take time to see the positive impact on business.
In a world that craves immediacy, content marketing takes patience to reach business growth. But there’s a good reason why 70% of businesses use content marketing: the benefits are worth it.
- Increase Brand Awareness and Leads: 76% of marketers say that content marketing produces leads and 63% say that it helps nurture them too. When you make an effort to reach new audiences with their perspectives and insights, companies take notice of your expertise and eventually become a lead.
- Improve SEO: Businesses that create relevant, high-quality content using target keywords improve their overall SEO and how high their content appears within search results. In fact, experts agree it’s the most effective way to reach the highest rank in SERPs.
- Generate Sales: Customers need to be informed about a product or service before becoming a customer. A business that uses content marketing to educate target audiences is more likely to win new customers, so it’s no wonder that 58% of marketers agree that content helped them generate sales over the last 12 months.
All of this sounds great, but it’s easier said than done. To make content work, there needs to be a strategy behind it.
How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy
The best way for a business to get started on generating content is by creating a content marketing strategy. It can take some effort, but the process also gives businesses a better understanding of their customers.
1. Identify the Target Audience
Businesses need to define their target audience and who they are trying to reach with their content. What are their needs, interests, and goals? This will determine what type of content to create and where to share it.
2. Set Goals
Now look at your own business goals. How can marketing support those goals with content? Allow this question, plus the needs of customers, to direct the content marketing strategy. By creating it from this perspective, it will be more impactful and align with business goals. Plus, leadership will be in full support as you move forward. It’s a win-win.
3. Determine the Types of Content Needed
Depending on the industry, businesses may need specific types of content to appeal to their audience. In 2023, the top B2B content assets included:
- Case studies/customer testimonials
- Videos
- Thought leadership ebooks/whitepapers
B2B tends to make content like the ones already listed, but blogs, podcasts, webinars/virtual events, and infographics are also worth considering.
4. Create Content
The most important aspect of creating content is to make the content valuable enough to draw an audience. Businesses should make content informative, compelling, and insightful while showcasing their knowledge and expertise.
5. Choose Marketing Channels
You cannot depend solely on your website to share content. Social media, blogs, email marketing, podcasts, trade shows, paid and/or print advertising, and other avenues should be considered if they aren’t already being utilized by your business. But, it’s important to make this decision based on the target audience. Start with what you already have that makes sense and work from there based on resources, support, and results.
6. Create a Content Calendar and Post Content
Keep track of content by using a content marketing calendar. This should be within an Excel document or a project management software that makes it easy to make adjustments and view the weeks or months ahead.
Once created, determine a consistent posting schedule for all your marketing channels (not just social media) and make tweaks as needed. Priorities will change and content will need to be moved or postponed, so a content calendar that can be easily edited works best.
It’s also a good idea to share a version of the content calendar (that can’t be edited) with at least the c-suite, sales, and customer/client relations, so they can share content as well. They may give you some fantastic content ideas too.
7. Review Results
Determine what metrics your business wants to focus on and what results need to be achieved. It could be follower growth on social media, average time readers stay on a blog, conversions on the website, and/or clicks on an email campaign. Over time, these content marketing metrics will provide a benchmark for what your customers gravitate to and what they ignore.
8. Adjust for Growth
If a business is lucky, they’re growing so well that the marketing budget grows with it. When this is the case, paid ad options on Google and social media are worth pursuing. It will only bolster current content marketing efforts and reach audiences that might not have been reachable otherwise.
Over time, your content marketing strategy needs to be revisited. An annual basis is a good rule of thumb, but once the initial groundwork is laid out, it’s much more manageable to make changes.
Content Marketing Tips for Success
Now once your business makes content, it doesn’t mean it’s successful. For your content marketing efforts to pay off, it’s important to consider these tips.
Create Valuable Content
Businesses need to think about the problems customers are facing and create content that solves them. Not sure where to start? Talk to current customers since the objective is to create the type of content they want to see. If that isn’t an option, your sales and customer relations teams are great resources along with industry news and industry thought leaders.
Ideally, your content should showcase how your business solves industry-wide problems while providing your expertise and insights. This can take a while, and if it does, that’s ok. 83% of marketers agree that high-quality content created less often is more worthwhile.
Promote Content
There are a multitude of tools businesses can use to promote their content including social media, email marketing, company websites, digital ads, and more. At a minimum, use social media since 95% of B2Bs use it as part of their content marketing strategy. For B2B, 84% of marketers find the best value in LinkedIn but start with a social media platform that makes sense for the business and work from there.
Closely Monitor Results
Businesses that review content marketing efforts on a regular cadence and look for patterns will find success in getting the right content to the right audience. If possible, invest in analytic tools that help the organization reach its goals. There are free tools within social channels and Google Analytics, but depending on your needs, you may need paid services to quantify the results you’re looking for.
It takes commitment to follow through on a content marketing strategy, but businesses reap the rewards when they stick with it. The hardest part tends to be creating and managing compelling and insightful content, which is probably a big reason why 50% of marketers outsource some of their content marketing.
If your business is looking for that support, contact AFJ Digital today.
AFJ Digital 