Post a few quotes from industry leaders every other day; follow that up with glowing reviews about your services and products.
That method should get you some sales - eh?
After all, that is what "others" are doing!
Sorry to burst the bubble. That approach is not an effective B2B content marketing strategy. In fact, that's no strategy at all.
So, what is a B2B content marketing strategy?
More importantly, how can you build one?
This article shall answer those burning questions. We will discuss the several content marketing strategies you can implement to boost your B2B.
Before we delve into the details, however, here is a sneak peek of what to expect in this article:
* Does content marketing work for B2B?
* What is B2B content marketing?
* How to build a B2B content marketing strategy?
* Outstanding B2B marketing examples
* Top B2B content marketing strategies In 2024
* Expected trends of B2B content marketing in 2024
* B2B Content marketing tactics you can adopt
Does Content Marketing Work For B2B?
According to CMI (Content Marketing Institute) statistics, 71% of B2B marketers recognize the importance of content marketing in reaching their goals in 2024.
The same study further revealed that only 7% of B2B marketers have no content marketing strategies.
Deductively, content marketing works. Otherwise, marketers won't waste their organization resources on building strategies - let alone prioritize them.
Beyond "following the bandwagon," there are real-time, measurable results from content marketing that confirms that it indeed works.
KISSmetrics is a typical example!
KISSmetrics Increased Traffic With Content Marketing
KISSmetrics took a unique approach to its content marketing, using infographics - condensing pieces of information into shareable visual aids.
That ingenious idea fetched $1M worth of traffic for KISSmetrics.
The best part: KISSmetrics only spent $28k. If they had used paid advertising, they would have spent over $1M [QuickSprouts].
Wait, how come?
What exactly did KISSmetrics do?
Here is the gist:
In 2 years (2010-2012), KISSmetrics created 47 infographics and got 2.5M more visitors to their website.
Furthermore, the 47 infographics yielded additional 41K backlinks (from over 3K domains).
So, back to the question?
Yes, content marketing works for B2B - KISSmetrics is proof!
Funnily enough, infographics are not in the top 5 content influencing B2B purchasing decisions. Regardless, they pulled such incredible figures for KISSmetrics - and can get you similar results.
Check this chart below for the top 5 content that influences B2B purchasing decisions:
Source: Demand Gen Report
Now, we know that content marketing works for B2B. Let's define what it means to have a B2B content marketing strategy.
What Is B2B Content Marketing?
Content marketing is the production and distribution of content to get awareness and traffic and generate leads.
In the case of B2Bs, the aim of content marketing hasn't changed. The audience is the only thing that will change.
In short, B2B content marketing is producing and distributing content to get awareness, traffic, and leads for businesses or organizations.
In other words, B2B content marketing convinces other businesses to be your customer.
So, how is that different from B2C?
B2B Vs. B2C Content Marketing
B2Bs and B2Cs often overlap. There are cases when a company's products are designed for individuals. At the same time, the same company has services for organizations.
For example, Legiit is a marketplace where freelancers can set up shop to gain financial freedom. It is also a platform that helps other businesses with white-label services and fulfillment.
In short, B2B and B2C content marketing can be confusing. To get through the confusion, use the 3-step guide below:
1. Knowing your customers: if customers seek entertainment and deals, that's B2C. B2Bs, on the other hand, are focused on expertise, expected ROIs, and efficiency.
Key takeaway: B2C customers are broad, while B2Bs are super-streamlined.
2. What motivates customers to buy: B2Cs are driven primarily by content that stirs their emotions. B2Bs, on the other hand, want to be educated and then make decisions based on expected financial incentives.
Note: the motivation for buying also determines the content distribution channels. B2C content is best shared via social media. B2Bs, on the other hand, perform best via emails.
3. Why do customers purchase: B2C buyers seek immediate solutions. B2Bs, on the other hand, buy long-term solutions and are invested in building relationships.
Once you fully understand the differences in the 3 basics discussed above, B2B content marketing won't be as difficult as it seems.
Plus, designing a B2B content marketing strategy will be more straightforward.
Do You Need A B2B Content Marketing Strategy?
A general knowledge of how content marketing works for B2Bs isn't enough. You need to follow a blueprint that is focused on your business goals.
So, yes, you need a strategy.
A B2B content marketing strategy will ensure that your knowledge is best used in the RIGHT way and time to impress businesses.
Pro tip: with a strategy in place, it is even easy to test what is working - and then make changes if required.
Fortunately, there are existing B2B content marketing strategies you can adopt for your business. So, don't be phased out.
However, you must understand how to create a strategy from scratch. Th e knowledge will help you own any template later you choose to use.
FYI: you can integrate a few B2C content marketing hacks into your strategies. However, be more actionable than emotive.
How To Create A B2B Content Marketing Strategy Like A Pro - In 7 Steps
Identify Your Target Audience
If your business creates effective workplaces, your audience will be different from someone selling CRM software to CMOs or CEOs.
So, regardless of the result of the latter's strategy, it won't work for you.
In other words, you must identify your audience and, most importantly, their needs. That should be the foundation of your strategy.
Otherwise, prospects would hardly move to the bottom of your B2B marketing funnel. That's even if they get to the middle!
So, how do you identify your audience?
1. Build customer avatars - as much as possible for all the people that might need your services.
2. Group similar avatars together - the sorting could be based on characteristics, behaviors, or spending power.
3. Streamline the avatars even further - weed out the outliers that won't buy into your goals now or ever.
4. Now, work out if you'd focus on all the groups from step 2 or pick one at a time.
5. Based on your decision in step 4, create tailored content that meets the needs of the customer avatar.
Read more on how to build an audience!
Streamline Your Target Audience Even Further
Thanks to customer avatars, you have a good grasp of your target audience. Now, niche down the list even further.
One way to start the niching down process is micro-targeting. Identify your customers' preferences and search phrases.
Look for a combination of short and long-tail phrases (also known as keywords).
Fortunately, you don't have to scrape Google for keywords manually. You can use FREE tools such as
Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner.
If the free tools are not enough, try robust tools like Audiit.io, Semrush, and Ahref.
Pro tip: plug your website into Legiit's dashboard and enjoy the same features as the paid tools for FREE. However, the freemium is limited to a site.
Set SMART Goals
Once you have micro-targeted phrases to focus your B2B strategy content, it's time to actually set the goals you hope to achieve. Why goals?
Without goals, you won't have a yardstick to measure how well your content strategy works - especially at the beginning.
However, setting any goals for your B2B content marketing strategy isn't enough to achieve your aims. The goals must be SMART:
* Specific - what do you aim to achieve for your business with content marketing? Increase traffic, subscribers, or sales? Build authority?
* Measurable - how do you measure your aims? How much traffic qualifies as success? How many subscribers do you hope to onboard? How do you know you have achieved "authority" status?
* Achievable - how much traffic can you realistically get? Can your website achieve your aims without crashing? What can you get within your budget?
* Relevant - are your goals meaningful? How will more traffic help your business? Do you need more traffic or subscribers?
* Time-bound - when will the goal be achieved - weeks or months?
Note: your goals might be different from the examples cited above. Nonetheless, ask critical questions about your business and the aims of your content marketing strategy. You'll get answers!
Related article: achieving your goals in the new year!
Fine-tune Your Goals With Competitor Research
Even if your goals are SMART, don't relent. Make them even better by studying your competitors. What are they doing better? How have they been successful in a highly contested niche?
Competitor research will not only fine-tune your goals. It will reveal the market conditions.
Pro tip: another way to nail down your competitors is to check who and what your target audience is following online.
Furthermore, this research is your opportunity to fill the gaps of your competitors. That will be your unique selling point!
For example, our unique selling point at Legiit is the community of people helping each other achieve their business and life goals. This has set up leagues above other marketplaces. Now, we are a platform where businesses can get what they need all in one place.
Like Legiit, You can also set your business aside for success amidst competition. The 3 straightforward steps below can help.
* First, identify who is REALLY your competitor - consider the customer and budget.
* Next, ascertain your competitors' strengths. Then, check their weaknesses.
* Lastly, evaluate your business. What are your strengths? Can any be the solution to your competitors' weaknesses? If yes, build your selling point around that strength.
Get To Work - Create Content
Planning has its benefits - no doubt. However, you'd never get ACTUAL results if you don't take action. So, create a content calendar and start producing content for your audience.
However, be strategic about how you write your content. A large block of texts can be uninspiring when they are unbroken.
A large chunk of broken texts aside are boring - truth be told. Plus, they seem like too much at a glance - especially for busy businesses that are your customers.
Fun fact: Blinkist is popular with business-inclined people because it summarizes books into snackable points - prioritizing the key ideas.
So, be like Blinkist. Summarise your ideas and back them up with statistics. Remember, businesses are not driven by emotions but by expected results.
Furthermore, make your content multilayered. How?
Make your content rich with media - infographics, charts, images, and videos!
Note: adding media won't only break up blocks of text. They make your content engaging too.
Pro tip: you can always get content ideas with Surfer. Check the improved keyword research tab for clusters. You can even connect your domain for better results!
Build Links And Distribute Your Content
Content creation is only the first part of marketing. You must do outreach, collaborate, and distribute the content.
The whole process is what is entailed in content marketing.
Like in content creation, you must be strategic with the distribution. Don't collaborate with any business for the sake of it.
Collaborate and build relationships with businesses (if they are the authority in the niche, better) that have similar goals to yours. But to what ends?
You'll gain respect from your target audience when they see you in the industry leaders' corner. Consider your collaboration as ******* which would lessen prospects' resistance to trying your services.
The trust factor aside, collaborating with industry leaders is free advertisement for your brand.
What about links?
You build links when you put backdoors in your guest posts. But don't fret; it is safe. But don't be spammy - that's against Google rules.
Lastly, don't rely on your collaborators' influence. Preach your own gospel. Distribute your content on social media too!
Run ads - paid advertising offers quick results. In short, combine both paid and organic marketing to get results.
Evaluate Your Results
Like in any strategy or goal, you must also verify the success of your B2B plans. Revisit the SMART goals you set - especially the "M."
Have you met the goals? To what degree? Did you achieve them within the set schedules?
BTW, you don't have to wait until the tail-end to evaluate your B2B content marketing strategy. In fact, don't. Monitor the goals periodically to check your progress and see if you need to tweak anything.
Fortunately, Google Analytics can help with tracking!
Lastly, don't overthink it if some of your goals are unmet in the end. If you could achieve 70%, that'd be great.
If you met all your goals, they were set too low. Aim higher in the next campaign!
Now, you understand the basics of creating B2B content marketing. Let's show you some strategies (examples, templates, and trends) that worked for other businesses.
You can adopt some of the tactics into your strategy!
7 Outstanding Marketing Examples You Can Learn From
Content Marketing But Through Podcast
Only a few B2Bs can match Shopify's intensity for content marketing. The e-commerce company is all over the place - they produce community events, business courses, blogs, and even podcasts.
Titled Shopify Masters, Shopify's podcast is her standout content marketing channel. Here is why: Unlike other content produced by Shopify, the podcast is streamlined for businesses and decision-makers. Shopify Masters share insights from entrepreneurs on the practicality of starting online businesses on Shopify.
Because of the tons of value to be gained, businesses are glued to the podcast. Besides, it is FREE!
Check out how to promote podcasts here!
Referral Marketing
CMOs and CEOs are busy people who might never have the time for sit-down talks with you. Let alone hear your thoughts or how your services can help their business.
Thankfully, you only have to get one to break into the group!
For example, say you were able to convince just a decision-maker. That could leave a ripple effect on the decision maker's friends and colleagues - across other businesses.
That is the essence of referral marketing.
Plus, referral campaigns reward businesses. The rewards could be discounts. We do something similar on Legiit. Referrers get 15% of what was purchased through their referrals.
Also, the reward could be in points. This system is what Blackbaud uses. The referral could then use the points for discounts or gift cards.
Another way you could reward businesses is with cash. MainStreet uses a similar approach for referral marketing. The referrer will be paid $200 for every successful referral.
SEO - Paid Advertising & Content Marketing
Like B2C, B2B buyers also surf the internet when checking out what to buy. They check reviews and use cases using search engines.
So, SEO is a crucial tool for marketing.
FYI, some B2Bs even use paid advertising - and it works. At Legiit, we run paid ads in addition to our usual topic clusters on the Legiit blog.
Outside Legiit, other B2Bs use similar strategies. For example, if you search the term "business travel expenses," you'll find booking.com logged at the sponsor section to displace the no 1. ranked blog post from TravelPerk.
Pro tip: run paid ads campaigns for your competitor's name or primary keyword.
Social Media Marketing With TikTok
B2B marketing on TikTok looks off, right?
How can B2B and TikTok be in the same sentence?
TikTok seems too informal - funny dances and silly trends. Which B2Bs would love to be associated with such tags? Won't they lose customers?
Well, Adobe has a different idea. The renowned productivity tool company took TikTok seriously. They created TikTok-focused content - short, appealing, and simple!
Adobe uses TikTok to market its products - but subtly in a fun way. Some of their videos have the most views for a B2B that is not in the entertainment niche.
Fun fact: Adobe currently has over 262K followers and has grossed over 2M likes.
Asides from Adobe, other popular B2Bs are also jumping on the TikTok train. Examples include Zoom and Microsoft 365.
Also read: Expert Guide To Twitter Marketing Strategy!
Marketing With Social Proof
Social proof is a fundamental part of marketing - either for B2C or B2B. It is even a vital part of copywriting.
The AIDCA copywriting format dedicated "C" (conviction) to showing proof of what prospects can expect from clicking CTAs. And in B2B, where "expected results" are prioritized over emotive marketing, testimonials work.
At Legiit, we use our customers' success stories as social proof to sell our platforms to businesses and individuals. So much so we have a dedicated log for it on Instagram.
Unlike us, Vennage uses her testimonials differently. They spread the feedback across their website.
Another way to use testimonial marketing is via videos. Zoom did that using Zachary Quinto.
Employee Advocacy & Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is one of the trending hacks employed by B2Cs and B2Bs since the social media trend. Grasshopper used the approach - of getting the top 5000 most popular in the US to talk about them.
But you don't have to go the Grasshopper route. You can use the people around you: your employee. If your employee already has a STRONG following on social media, all the better.
IBM uses this method to market its services. Fortunately, it doubles as an opportunity to improve employee voice and participation in organization operations.
Also, the Everest Group, using Oktopost, adopted employee marketing - differently from IBM. They produced several data-rich resources and then shared them with employees.
Employees then shared the content with their network. The simple "share and tag" activity resulted in a 46% growth for the Everest Group company.
Simple Web Design
As much as elaborate designs can seem spectacular, they often make web pages load slowly. B2B buyers don't have the time for pages to load forever.
The sooner the page loads, the sooner decision-makers can surf through the offers and decide.
Simple web design is even more crucial for high-traffic websites. Else, businesses could lose sales. All the top brands around the world follow this hack.
Take Apple as an example. Their website is super-simple and straightforward. That's what businesses love - and this also applies to individual buyers.
8 Top B2B Content Marketing Strategies In 2024
Maximize The Use Of Email Newsletters
Email marketing has become a great tool for most B2B businesses. It doesn't only help you generate leads but it also helps you get more customers when done effectively.
To use an email marketing strategy, you would need to invest in the use of an email newsletter by constantly sending valuable content to your subscribers. And instead of asking them to sign up for your offer, you should focus on communicating what your business does and what your expertise is, provide them with content that will be useful in their own business, and so on.
This way, you are investing in your business branding and with time it becomes much easier for your audience to turn to leads or customers because they'd have already trusted your brand.
Publish Content on LinkedIn
Linkedin is a social media handle you must use as a B2B business. To effectively use LinkedIn, you will have to constantly dish out great content to your audience and prospective customers. Written words are good but you have to complement them with great images and videos when putting out your content.
The more you grow your audience on LinkedIn, the more leads you get. However, you should ensure that your audience (connects or followers) are those who would need your offer.
For each of the content published, you should lead your audience to your website or offer, and ensure that you are consistent because that's the key to doing well on any social media platform.
Also read: LinkedIn Content Marketing Guide For Businesses!
Check Out B2B Video Content
We cannot underestimate the value of video content in today's world. Blog posts, articles, and newsletters are great, but another good and proven way to go about your B2B content marketing is to include videos. According to Hubspot, video content marketing is now used by 86% of business owners.
Generally, videos catch more attention than written words, and this is the main reason you should focus on including them. If you've already been creating a blog post, then you could form your video content from the points you have in your post.
You necessarily do not have to start from scratch, but while you create written content from a topic, you can develop videos from it too.
Involving Micro-influencers In Your Marketing
Most B2C businesses use influencers to build up their customers and leads. But because the B2B market is smaller than B2C, it has become necessary to involve micro-influencers to reach prospective customers.
To simply do this, micro-influencers will help you market your business to their audience. You must however ensure that the influencers you use have audiences that are likely going to turn to your leads before signing up for their offer.
Apart from using micro-influencers, there might also be other people who will always be interested in sharing your valuable content with their audience. Observe people or audiences like this and remember to hint at them whenever you publish your content.
Maximize The Efficiency Of Keywords
Apart from keyword research for SEO purposes, you must maximize the use of appropriate keywords in every content that you produce. With the right keyword used, you can target several audiences and get more customers.
The major trick is that, with the proper use of keywords, you become more noticeable to several businesses and you produce content that many businesses want to see.
You can keep a close eye on your competitor's website to achieve this. This website should be ranking for several keywords. Then with the use of SEMrush, find out the keyword they've targeted and maximize the use of the same keyword to generate more leads and sales.
Look Out For Captivating New Topics
Research has shown that most content marketers get topic ideas for their content through SEO keyword research. This is so true because much of our blog content, articles, and podcasts are generated through deep keyword research.
But apart from researching keywords for content, there are also varieties of ways in which you can come up with captivating topics for your B2B content marketing. You can do this by observing a social media community to see what questions people are asking.
Most times, when people do not find the answer to their questions on Google, they simply make use of social media handles. So, you can target a Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn community that is within your niche to see what questions people want answers to. From there, you can generate new topics for your content marketing.
Also, you can maximize other people's blogs or your own by going through the questions people are asking in the comment section.
Focus on Using Complete Guides
Rather than focusing on only blog posts, another way to maximize the use of Google is to create complete guides. Generally, for most B2B content, guides do better than a conventional blog post.
The major difference between complete guides and ordinary blog posts is that guides tend to focus on every single part of a topic from the top to the bottom. It provides not just basic information but every information that is entailed in a topic including definitions, strategies, examples, illustrations, and many more. This is why complete guides tend to rank more on Google than blog posts when it is presented well.
While also creating guides, ensure you focus on the main keywords. In all, the point here is to create a comprehensive guide on a topic rather than focusing on just the basics and while also doing this, keep in mind the other SEO practices that will allow your content to rank well.
Publish Study-related Content
Apart from creating articles, podcasts, or blog posts, another strategy to keep your content flowing and valuable is to provide study or research-related content. This means you are not only writing but your write-up is giving tested and proven data and information.
Most times when the audience visits a website, they are not only searching for information but they want one that is backed up with research and correct data. When you have this, it is more likely that your content ranks better than before.
Moreover, you will also discover that other bloggers and publishers in your niche simply reference your content in their posts. They will refer to your content because you have correct data to back up their information and this simply brings in more visitors to your website.
However, as good as this may sound, you must carry out deep research before publishing study-related content.
Expected Trends Of B2B Content Marketing In 2024
Leverage Different Marketing Channels
Different businesses choose different channels to suit their preferences and offers. It's called multi-channel or omnichannel marketing. This makes it possible for businesses to reach their customers through different marketing channels, like social media and blogs.
Leveraging different marketing channels will help you get access to a wider range of options for reaching a newer audience. It's a new content marketing trend, but more and more businesses are feeling the impact of being accessible on every platform where their customers could be.
You could reach more people who would rather spend hours on social media than reading blogs. An older audience or prospect would prefer checking their emails daily than strolling the streets of social media.
CMI studies show that 87% of retailers agree that leveraging different marketing platforms is more beneficial for their business. It's a very effective way of being at the top of your customers' minds, which will pull in more results.
This is because your content marketing will be similar and spread across different channels.
Increased Collaborations With Industry (Niche) Experts
An industry expert is not saddled with the responsibility of content creation for the brand. However, you can book a meeting to discuss how you can get both businesses to collaborate, to incorporate not-so-common content as a B2B.
They are typically content with strong issues hitting the market that have not been properly addressed. This would help your brands produce more market-friendly content and, in turn, increase brand perception (and loyalty).
It can be as easy as a minute-long video clip addressing the issue at hand, a Question and Answer series, or a discussion. Businesses will even pay a premium for this.
Now, these don't have to be experts in the same field; the content should just address a pressing topic. They are usually called "subject matter experts" (SME). More of these kinds of B2B content marketing trends are expected in 2024.
Split Test Your Content Marketing Strategy
It's shocking to realize that some businesses do not document their content strategies. How will you know what worked and didn't when there's no structure in place? How would you track the marketing trends in a specific season?
A B2B needs a content marketing strategy in place to avoid the risk of being disoriented down the line. There should be a board meeting to decide the core parts of the strategy across all departments of the business.
A discussion concerning market strategies that have worked in the past should be revisited and revised to meet the current market demands. Now, split-testing your content marketing strategy is necessary to help fight the recession.
During the board meeting, critical and realistic questions should be asked and tackled. What happens when there's a pandemic? How will trends in the market directly affect marketing strategies?
More Hands On Deck
To add more valuable content to your marketing channels, you need more hands on deck. This is very important when you opt for multichannel marketing for your business.
It means there needs to be an increase in budget and staff to ensure more results from the content marketing department. Sadly, more than 60% of content marketers feel that their company's budget for content marketing will either stay the same or increase by 9% [CMI].
The truth is, an increase in the number of members of staff on your content marketing team will lead to a greater influx of ideas. This is because you get to hear the perspectives of a larger number of people.
You could even decide to hire contract content marketing staff for a particular season.
Track Content Marketing Results
If you want to get more results out of your content in 2024, this is an important content marketing trend for your business. When you map out a content marketing strategy, track the results it brings for your company.
If you plan out content per quarter of the year, you can track the results of the content marketing strategy to see if you have been making any waves. Though it will be obvious if content marketing is performing poorly, it's still in your best interest to track your content marketing results.
Collaboration And Specialization Across Teams
Content marketing is basically about subtly and intentionally advertising offers to your prospects and customers. So, there are two teams involved: content and sales teams.
An expected content marketing trend in 2024 will be for the content and sales teams to meet more often. This will help them discuss the goals of the business in terms of sales, reach, and client acquisition.
They will be able to brainstorm more sustainable ideas together, create a focus for a season, and complete milestones better.
Leverage Improved Technology
A business that is not automated will take longer to get the job done. It practically reduces the returns on investment for the business.
There's a lot bots can do during off-business periods. Automation and chatbots work perfectly without assistance. For example, you could create content for a month for all your platforms and then schedule it for a particular time and certain days of the week.
This gives your content marketing team enough time to track the performance of the content. Chatbots across platforms help to get half the work done.
They answer your customers' questions swiftly. They can be used for blogs, emails, and social media.
B2B businesses will use automated outbound calls more frequently to contact new customers in 2024. This is because these calls are automated, you may schedule them and shift your focus to other things while still receiving leads from prospective clients who have agreed to receive them.
The calls will be tailored depending on the information you've gathered about those potential clients before the call, and they will have the option to ask questions or make statements at any time. If they decide they do not want to continue with the call, they might be able to opt out at any point.
By automating these processes, you can make sure that everything your business producesβfrom social media to emails to phone callsβis accurate.
B2B Content Marketing Tactics You Can Try Today
Journeys Of Personalized Nurturing Based On Behavior
Setting up customized nurture journeys is one of the best strategies to improve the results of your content marketing efforts.
You may nurture leads depending on their actions on your website by using a straightforward automation platform like GoSquared.
You can also program automated emails and on-site chat prompts tailored to the files downloaded, the sites visited, the number of visits made by the user, and lots of other factors.
Quick Content Transfer Results In Sales
The prompt transfer of leads to sales is another crucial component of modern B2B content marketing. This may work with a tool like Drift.
You do not need to download an asset with company information and awaiting response, with Drift, leads can schedule a demo right away.
By rapidly scheduling a demo, you can set the appointment at the time the lead is most interested. Your leads may eventually forget why they filled out the form initially if you continue using the outdated method of forms and manual responses.
Effective Employee Advocacy
Although many businesses are attempting to advocate for their employees, not all of them are succeeding. Employee advocacy and audience growth are two activities in which numerous Gong employees are particularly active.
Asking your staff to comment on the CEO's post or share links to their profiles even when they aren't cultivating an engaged audience is the essence of fundamental employee advocacy. It entails posting to silence.
Alternatively, you can engage in advanced employee advocacy by teaching your staff how to establish, expand, and engage an audience so that their company-related posts perform well.
Problem-solving Content For Essential Buying-cycle Stages
The worst kind of content exists for selfish reasons. It lacks motivation and objectives. It is made solely to add stuff to the calendar.
It's difficult to grow an engaged B2B audience on Instagram, but many B2B businesses want to give it a shot because the site offers so many options for brands.
By producing content that addresses this issue, you can draw in your target market and meet the demands of your existing clients.
Analysis Of Google Search Results For Competition
You may have read "competitor" and "alternatives" blog entries, but have you ever created any of your own?
Hacking your competitors' brand names in blog articles can be really helpful. They help generate more leads and sign-ups than other blog posts when you can make them rank on search engines.
Content Upgrades To Gated Assets
Obtaining downloads for generic assets might be challenging. Offering downloadable offers as upgrades to your blog material works perfectly.
Even though you might not be able to make a guide for every single blog post, you should aim to have 3 to 10 different downloadables to make your blog content more relevant.
The downloadable generates significantly more leads since it is closely related to the article.
Gated Resources That Are Useful, Such As Calculators And Templates
Instead of merely offering the standard manuals, you can produce actual helpful downloadables.
Check out their gated asset bundle of blog post templates. It is linked to numerous blog entries about⦠writing blog posts. How ironic.
People tend to download example lookbooks, templates, video tutorials, calculators, and other helpful content more often than PDF guides.
Why?
Since they don't require your target audience to read for a long period, these items save them time.
These things have value whether or not they end up being customers.
Snackable Product Education
Another expert advice is providing digestible content regarding complex topics, such as your business, product, thought leadership, etc.
The Instagram page for ClickUp offers suggestions for snackable products. They have a series of brief videos explaining a different feature each week in the middle of their grid.
This tactic can be used to explain your features to prospective and present consumers or to analyze complex industry-related material and thought leadership, such as using AI in marketing or scaling business cultures.
Digital PR For Promotion And Reach
Many small businesses lack dedicated press personnel in their workforce. Instead, B2B content marketing teams frequently need to handle some of their own digital PR.
C-suite bylines might be pitched to well-known blogs and online news sources. You can also contribute to the blogs of businesses in your sector, provided they aren't direct rivals.
Use these chances to link to gated resources or very effective blog entries that have been shown to generate leads.
Segmented Retargeting Ads
Being omnipresent means being present for your target audience everywhere.
There you are as they are going about their day reading street corn cooking books. In this instance, LinkedIn is only advertising business owners.
You may also make segments for Google display advertising using your content categories.
You might, for instance, have blog posts for beginners and experts. The display advertisement should provide a gratis download or offer that is most appropriate for their skill level.
Your retargeting audience could also be divided into groups according to user job or industry.
Set up your Google Ads and Analytics accounts to precisely target the appropriate segments with the appropriate offers.
Google Search Ads For High-converting Assets
Do you run search ads for your best digital products?
You should try out different promotion methods, especially If you have downloadable assets known to convert well and deliver high-quality leads.
Work with your growth marketing team to decide the best potential keywords for your highest-converting products.
Facebook Ad Promotion For High Lead-generation Blog Posts
You should promote the blog pieces that generate the most email subscribers, asset downloads, lead forms, chatbot discussions, or free trial subscriptions.
Try boosting those blog posts on Facebook or other advertising networks once you've determined which ones perform the best.
SEO-driven Library Or Glossary For Useful Topic Clusters
Google loves well-structured content.
A fantastic method to arrange content on similar term clusters is to use glossaries and libraries like this one from Hotjar.
By building glossaries and libraries, you increase your chances of ranking for popular key phrases that might otherwise be too difficult to rank for.
This tactic can be applied to a single keyphrase cluster on one topic or numerous keyphrase clusters on several subjects.
Virtual Events With Innovative Content That Address Popular Pain Points
Many people lament and talk down on virtual events, and the reason for that isn't far-fetched; you'll agree that a lot of them can be very boring. They can be very useful in generating leads when you get one thing right, the content!
If you want to draw a very high number of qualified leads to your event, Ensure the information is relatable, unique, and solves problems.
The world's top businesses contributed knowledge about growing CX and qualitative feedback to this Usersnap virtual summit, which provided it directly to attendees for a very low cost.
Large-scale qualitative feedback is notoriously difficult to collect and use. Usersnap provided a solution to this issue for potential customers and generated thousands of leads by collaborating with organizations that are doing it right.
B2B Content Marketing Partnerships
Collaborations in content marketing are another tactic that could be utilized.
You can collaborate with businesses and industry leaders to develop guides, webinars, ebooks, events, and more.
Don't limit your search to businesses you can collaborate with, do not forget about individual consultants. Privy achieved this With its Ecommerce Marketing Handbook. They've teamed up with Val Geisler, a specialist in e-commerce email marketing, as well as other consultants and professionals.
Working with influential people has benefits since they will promote your resource in their social media postings and marketing newsletters.
Journalist Picking Up On Proprietary Research
The Future Workforce Report, which Upwork has been releasing annually for the past four years, contains insightful data on the expansion of freelancing and the gig economy, as well as the hiring practices of US firms. The B2B content marketing team creates a press release, results deck, trends report, and infographic based on the survey results.
Every year, their figures receive a ton of reach, visibility, and backlinks thanks to the PR department's distribution of the report to bloggers and journalists.
You may believe that only a business with a significant budget could handle this, but that is untrue. Examples of organizations that are far smaller than Upwork include:
* Userpilot's State of SaaS Product Onboarding, which analyzed 1000 SaaS free plansor product trials.
* TravelPerk's How Innovative Companies Travel, which presents business travel statistics from the company's target audience.
Incentivized Backlink Outreach That Works
It's simple to dismiss backlinking outreach as pointless, intrusive, and unproductive. But the truth is that a page's or post's ability to rank is greatly influenced by the number of backlinks it has.
However, building backlinks takes a lot of effort. You have to Research your potential customers before sending them an email. Siege Media advises sending emails to 100β150 recipients for each post or page.
Here are some clever strategies for encouraging your prospects to link to your web pages and blog posts that have been optimized for SEO:
* If they include your backlink, give it to the charity of your choice.
* If they place your links, offer them a free lifetime deal on your product.
* From a guest post you make on another website, link back to them (so that the backlink exchange is indirect).
Update Existing Content
Updating already popular content is the quickest approach to increasing organic traffic to your website and blog. It costs you nothing to update articles, takes only a couple of hours, and produces excellent results quickly.
Here is an illustration of the spike in traffic an article saw just two weeks after it was updated:
Both writing new articles and maintaining current material are crucial for SEO.
Why is it important to update content?
* As a professional in your field, keep your content up to date to give your readers the best possible experience and earn their trust.
* By updating information, you can convince Google that it is still relevant today so that it can be moved up the search results page.
Here are some pointers for upgrading current content:
* Update 50% of your article or 30% with fresh material. Suppose you update half of a 2,000-word article with new information, images, etc., or add 600 words.
* When you republish the information, be cautious to avoid changing the URL.
Use The Best-performing Content In Different Formats
Repurposing current content is another approach to maximize it.
Content repurposing means reusing previously published materials by converting them into new formats. For instance:
* Convert a popular blog piece into a webinar and use some of the content to create short social media films.
* Create an ebook from blog articles on a related subject or turn a section of an ebook into a blog post.
* An infographic, instructional video, or Twitter thread can be created from a blog post.
Content repurposing enables you to produce more social media material without continually thinking of new concepts. Thereby, increasing the likelihood that people will find you online.
Conclusion
Whether you only need to rank your business on search results or get sales, a B2B content marketing strategy can be the difference.
And while building the strategy, focus on value over immediate results. That is how to make your efforts successful and sustainable.
If you are lost at any point, know that it's okay. Read this post all over again and implement the tips.
FAQS About B2B Content Marketing Strategy
1. What type of content is the most effective for B2B marketing?
There is no one best content for B2B marketing. Instead, pick a strategy that fits your budget - while considering your audience and what works in your industry.
Nevertheless, ensure you include one of two content types below - studies have revealed them to influence purchasing decisions.
* Case studies
* White papers
* Blog posts
* Third-party and/or analyst reports
* E-books
2. How to build content ideas?
Sourcing for new content for your B2B marketing can be a headache - especially if your strategy dictates that you produce a lot.
But don't fret; you can get ideas from:
* Google search results - check the people also ask section
* Comments on your blog posts
* Niche forums
* Topic clusters from Surfer or AnswerThePublic
* Competitors' blogs and resources
* Events - online and offline
* Interviews with industry leaders
* Freelancers - choose someone who understands your industry and how to write for B2B buyers.
3. What is B2B content?
There is no distinction as such as what B2B content is. The only uniqueness is who the content is for: businesses.
As a result, B2B content needs to be written specifically for businesses. It must be action-driven and packed with insights and real-life examples.
This post is a typical example!
4. What is B2B content marketing?
B2B content marketing means producing and distributing content (videos, audio, and texts) to businesses to create awareness and generate leads.
5. How can you create a B2B content marketing strategy from scratch?
Creating your B2B content marketing strategy from scratch can help you build something unique with a trademark feature and get quick results.
The following steps can help:
* First, identify your target audience
* Next, set SMART goals
* Produce the content
* Build links (internal and external) and distribute your content
* Monitor and evaluate
* Document the processes, refine, and repeat
6. Should you copy other B2B content marketing strategies or create yours?
There is nothing wrong with copying what's already working for other businesses in your niche. However, we'll advise you not to copy.
Why copy when you can do better?
Instead of copying, use the templates as the foundation for your unique strategies. Combine the two to get fast and sustainable results.
7. What qualifies a B2B content marketing campaign as a success?
Getting leads and increasing traffic is just the superficial success of any content marketing campaign. "True" success is measured by deeper, intrinsic values.
So, ask yourself these questions:
* Has the campaign made you an authority in your niche?
* Are the resources shared truly valuable and evergreen?
* Were you able to build trust and relationships?
If you can answer yes to at least 2 of the listed questions, your B2B content marketing strategy is 100% successful.
But don't stop there; launch another and keep getting more stuff done!
Download