Content marketing has been the go-to method for increasing engagement and brand awareness for over three hundred years. If done right, this marketing strategy can boost your organic searches, get you higher quality leads, and strengthen brand loyalty.
Content marketing can come in many forms, e.g., videos, blogs, podcasts, and even case studies. To use any of these content marketing methods effectively, a content marketing strategy needs to be in place.
For B2B providers who’ve recently only been introduced to the concept of content marketing, you may have a lot of questions about how the strategy will work. Below are 9 content marketing tips for B2B businesses.
9 Effective Content Marketing Strategies for B2B Businesses
1. Set SMART Goals
The first step to making an effective content strategy is to create a list of clear and achievable goals.
Goals help steer you in the right direction and keep you accountable for your company and its mission. Not having clear goals written down can send you wandering in different directions, wasting time and resources in the process.
For goals to be successful, they need to be SMART in nature: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. This ensures greater impact and higher-quality results for your company.
To identify your goals, ask yourself this: What do you want to achieve with content marketing for your B2B business?
Every company has its own set of reasons for using content marketing. You may want to increase your website visits or generate more leads through social media. Ultimately, your goals will dictate your marketing strategy, as well as what type of content you create and post online.
2. Formulate Unique Content Ideas
Now that you have your goals in place, you can start thinking up content ideas with your marketing team. During this step, try to look at common user problems from different angles.
Come up with unique and memorable ways you can create content that may help solve these problems. Have a sit down with your team and discuss what digital marketing ideas would best suit your business and your audience.
3. Create Customer Profiles
Customer profiles are common among marketing professionals. It’s what you use to represent the “ideal” customer during strategy meetings. It also helps marketers understand customers on a more personal level, allowing them to position their content to be more appealing to the target audience.
Be careful of stereotypes as they may not be the most accurate representation of your company’s ideal customer.
4. Audit Published Content
You can learn a lot of things from your published content that can ultimately help you improve your visibility online. This is why experts highly encourage auditing published content.
Content audits allow you to see what your website currently has and don’t have. For example, you may have an article up about the importance of brand awareness for your company but not how to increase brand awareness.
Gaps like this can pose a threat to your company’s credibility. Addressing it as soon as possible can help your company avoid negative repercussions later on.
5. Educate the Audience
Content that teaches customers about certain services and products tends to do better long-term. This is because they provide clients with valuable information that they might not find anywhere else on the internet. Creating content that is both useful and attractive can help your brand build more awareness, credibility, and loyalty.
6. Find an Appropriate Type of Content
Some content is better as a video than a blog or vice versa. If your content doesn’t fit the method that you choose to market your B2B business, the results can be unsatisfying. Not only will you fail to reach your target audience, but you’ll also risk diminishing your credibility and harming your brand identity in the process.
To avoid this, think about what type of content you want to publish. Is it videos? Long-form blogs? A podcast?
Find the method that’s most “you” out of all the options.
7. Get a Content Management System
Planning content is not as easy as it looks. You need to time everything right; otherwise, its effectivity rate will plummet and you’ll have spent money on marketing flop.
A good content management system (CMS) can help remove the struggles of scheduling by streamlining content management for marketers. Create, publish, and organize content with ease by using a nifty CMS tool at work.
8. Leverage Existing Teams for Content
If your company has been around for over a decade, you likely have an entire staff of qualified employees in your company. Instead of outsourcing responsibilities to freelancers, leverage your existing teams.
Train them to write content for your blogs, social media, and other social platforms. Offer them creative freedom and control over collaterals to ensure great results.
9. Consider Content Amplification
Promoting content on platforms like Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are just a few ways you can get people to notice your content. You may also try writing email newsletters or podcast episodes to boost conversions and sales. These are all important for your B2B business marketing strategy.
Final Thoughts
B2B content marketing can be challenging and restrictive at times. Yet, there are ways you can make the process of strategizing and planning much easier — and more effective. Above are just some of those ways that you can try on your company.
