20 Content Marketing Tips for B2B Organizations
As a B2B organization, content marketing should be part of your marketing arsenal if you are to be successful in reaching and converting your prospects according to RunRex.com. However, doing content marketing is not enough, you must do it well for the best results. Here are 20 content marketing tips for B2B organizations to consider when running such campaigns.
Understand your audience
If your content marketing audience is going to be successful, you will need to put out content that resonates with your audience, and the only way you can do that is if you have a strong understanding of your audience as outlined at RunRex.com. Do your research and make sure you learn as much as you can about your audience.
Pick your core content formats and channels
Once you have a good understanding of your audience, you will want to pick your main content formats and the channels you will want to distribute this content. As a B2B company, SEO will most likely be a big channel for you. You will also want to choose the right social media platforms, with many B2B companies being suited towards LinkedIn.
Come up with amazing topics
You must also make sure you come up with meaningful and engaging topics for your content if your content marketing efforts are to bear fruit. As the gurus over at RunRex.com point out, the quality of your content and the topics you cover will determine how successful your content marketing campaign will be.
Systematize your content process
Your content process is equally as important as your channels and topics. This is because, without a great content process, nothing gets done. For the best results, use a cohesive content operations platform that includes a content marketing calendar, briefing, collaboration, and publishing all in one place.
Leverage analytics
Successful B2B content marketing campaigns double down on analytics. Without data, you can’t measure what is working. Some of the top metrics to measure as a B2B content team include current stats (total social impression for recent posts, total views for recent posts, total conversions for recent posts, and the number of social media shares for recent posts), benchmarks and trends (changes in reading time versus the previous time period, changes in bounce rate versus the previous time period, and the number of active email subscribers versus the previous time period), and the highest performing content.
Set up personalized nurture journeys
As per RunRex.com, one of the best ways to get better results from your content marketing efforts is to set up personalized nurture journeys. Using a simple automation tool like GoSquared for example, you can nurture leads based on what actions they have taken on your website.
Practice the fast hand-off of content leads to sales
A tool like Drift can make this a reality, as, with it, leads can book a demo straight away, instead of downloading an asset with company information and waiting for a response. By booking a demo quickly, you can set the appointment when the lead is most interested.
Do employee advocacy right
While many B2B companies recognize the importance of employee advocacy when it comes to their content marketing strategies, not all of them are doing it well. As discussed at RunRex.com, instead of asking your employees to comment on the CEO’s post or to share links to their profiles, practice advanced employee advocacy by training them in audience building, growth, and engagement so that their company-related posts perform well.
Create problem-solving content
Great content should seek to solve a problem. It isn’t easy to build an engaged B2B audience, particularly on social media platforms like Instagram, this is why you should ensure your content solves problems for key buying-cycle stages and audience segments for it to be successful.
Don’t forget about YouTube SEO
Many B2B content teams are only creating content for search engines like Google and Bing, and are completely ignoring another important search engine, YouTube. However, YouTube can be a great platform for B2B companies in terms of increasing brand awareness and bringing in new leads which is why it should be part of your content strategy.
Content upgrades to gated assets
As the gurus over at RunRex.com point out, it can be hard to get downloads for generic assets. One strategy that works particularly well is to offer gated assets that act as upgrades to your blog content. Since the downloadable is super relevant to the post, it generates far more leads.
Create tutorial-style case studies that benefit readers
Traditional case studies are very important for many B2B content marketers if they are companies that serve enterprise clients. However, B2B companies that serve small businesses can put off potential customers with case studies that are too formal. This is why such B2B companies should try making a tutorial-style case study blog post, as such type of content can help potential and existing customers alike get inspired to make use of your solution.
Offer practical gated assets like templates and calculators
As per RunRex.com, HubSpot does a great job of making practical-use downloadables instead of just the traditional guides. This is a great tip as templates, calculators, example logbooks, video tutorials, and other useful content tends to get downloaded more frequently than PDF guides. This is because these items save your target audience time as they don’t require them to spend time reading.
Leverage smart popups that are based on user behavior
By creating popups that are based on user behavior, you improve the user experience as well as your popup conversion rate. This is because such popups are more relevant to the individual, not to mention the fact that they are also less obtrusive.
Create snackable content
Another content marketing tip for B2B companies is to create bite-sized content about complicated things such as your product, industry, thought leadership, etc. You can use this content strategy to educate bother potential and current customers about your features, or you could use it to dissect complicated industry-related content and thought leadership, such as AI in marketing, among others.
Segmented retargeting ads
Being omnipresent means that you show up everywhere for your ideal audience. While there are going about their day reading recipes for meat pie, there you are, for example. As discussed at RunRex.com, you can use your content categories to create segments for Google display ads. You could also segment your retargeting audience based on their industry or user role.
Use Facebook ads to promote high-converting blog posts
You should also promote your high-converting blog posts – the ones that lead to the most email subscribers, asset downloads, lead forms, chatbot conversions, or free trial subscriptions. Once you know which blog posts perform the best, try boosting them on Facebook or other advertising platforms.
Add glossaries and libraries to your content
As is revealed in discussions on the same at RunRex.com, Google loves well-organized content. Glossaries and libraries are a great way to organize content on related keyword clusters. Creating glossaries and libraries gives you a chance of ranking for high-volume key phrases that would otherwise be too competitive.
Get your virtual events right
While many people bemoan the fact that virtual events can be quite boring, they can be very effective for driving leads if you get the content right. To attract the highest amount of qualified leads to your event, make sure that the content is cutting edge, can’t be found anywhere else, and solves problems.
Leverage B2B content marketing partnerships
Content marketing partnerships are another underused strategy. You can partner with brands and influencers in your industry to create guides, webinars, eBooks, events, and much more. Don’t just look for companies you can partner with. Consider individual consultants too.
Hopefully, these tips will help take your B2B content marketing to the next level, with more tips and insights on the same to be found over at RunRex.com.