B2B content marketing: elevate your strategy

In the integrated world of B2B marketing, content stands as the most powerful tool to attract and engage customers. It’s an inbound marketing channel that marketers use to build connections with their audience.

The goal?

To increase lead generation and transition customers successfully through the buyer journey. From insightful blog posts and in-depth white papers to compelling case studies, videos webinars and podcasts, the range of content that you can leverage is vast and varied.

Creating and distributing successful content for your story can be challenging, particularly when facing long sales cycles, decision paralysis, and more complex marketing strategies, that go far beyond simple article and post-writing. Yet the importance of ‘good’ content marketing has never been more important as key decision-makers are bombarded daily.

The prize that’s up for grabs, if you get it right.

• Establishing trust in your company
• Reaching your key audience
• Greater online visibility
• Bolsters your sales team with credible collateral
• Helps to build long-term customer relationships
• Showcases your differentiators

So, let’s dive into some fundamental ways to ensure your content marketing strategy helps to develop the pipeline of leads you have been dreaming about.

B2B marketing isn't one-size-fits-all, although sometimes scrolling through LinkedIn would make you think otherwise, with a constant barrage of B2B sales content. To truly capture the attention of your audience, you must delve deep into their world, recognise their unique needs, pain points, and identify language that resonates with their needs and interests. In no other space will you get the opportunity quite like B2B. You can really drill down and figure out what makes your target audience tick.

Here are some foundation blocks to ensure a solid strategy:

It’s all about knowing your audience in B2B

I know every single marketing person will say the phrase “know your audience” but ask yourself: do you really understand what they need?

Before you think about creating any personas ask yourself questions like this:

• What are their biggest pain points?
• What problem are you trying to solve with your product or service?
• What content do they see right now? And where are they seeing it?
• What region are you trying to target?
• What are their goals and purchase drivers?
• If they don’t choose you – why not? And who else can fix their problems?

The creation of buyer personas can be an invaluable tactic for keeping content relevant and targeted. Make time to create personas and become familiar with who they are, what they care about, how your messages can address their questions, and ultimately where they are in the buyer journey.

Being able to spot where the crossover is between what your company can do and why the audience needs your product or service will be your ultimate sweet spot. This can also help to craft ideal channels to reach your targets, to make sure you have the best chance of reaching them.

If you aren’t sure where to start here, this Hubspot article should be your first point of call.

What are your competitors up to?

Look at what your competitors and other key players in the industry are doing. What media formats and topics work best for them, and what doesn’t. Your strategy can then use these insights to craft compelling, distinct content relevant to your brand and most importantly provide value to your audience. Use this as a benchmark that your content needs to deliver more value than what is already out there.

Variety in content formats is critical for B2B marketing success. Each format serves a unique purpose, aligning with different stages of the buyer journey.

For example, in-depth whitepapers position your business as a thought leader.

Consider integrating various formats. Content like how-to guides, FAQs, and industry solutions, build long lasting trust and authority, making your brand a go-to resource. You also need to include webinars, user-generated content, downloadable templates, interactive content, and both long and short form videos. Webinars and podcasts are effective for engaging your audience, but make sure you aren’t following the crowd here and showcase something truly unique to your market. Otherwise, you will just be stuck in the noise.

The art lies in matching the format to the function, ensuring your message is not just heard but also understood and remembered.

<Here is a perfect example of where we created a game changing webinar for our client Expro>

Top tip: create a simple content audit for existing content so you can repurpose older content into different formats to help elevate your message and save on costs.

Before creating a content plan and then embarking on the execution of your content, define the KPIs that align with your content marketing goals. Create a clear benchmark to allow for accurate decision-making and strategic direction.

B2B content marketing is often a long game, with a winding path from content consumption to conversion. Accurate tracking and analytics become a vital part for measuring the impact of your efforts. This allows you to get to grips with where you’re winning and where you’re not, allowing for data-driven improvements that will sharpen your strategy over time.

Experimenting and testing are essential for a winning content strategy. Once you've set your benchmarks, it's all about staying flexible. Having a solid plan is great but being adaptable is even better. Trying new things can be simple. You might A/B test different headlines, tweak the body copy, or swap out graphic thumbnails. Experiment with different call-to-actions, posting times, and even content formats. Basically, anything can be tested and tweaked.

Track the results of your experiments closely. Use metrics like click-through rates, engagement levels, and conversion rates to see what resonates best with your audience. This data-driven approach helps you refine and continually improve your content strategy. But it is important to remember not every experiment will be a success. The goal is to learn from each test, optimising your approach until you find what works best. This iterative process will keep your content fresh, engaging, and ever-evolving to meet your audience’s needs and ultimately keep your sales pipeline full.

Before we wrap up, I want to leave you with something you can pin at the top of your content plan. Here is a checklist to help get your content creativity flow and ensure your content hits the mark:

• What is the aim and purpose of your content?
• Is it relevant to your target audience?
• Does it answer vital questions of your target audience?
• Does it meet the brand guidelines?
• Does it link back to your strategy goals?
• How can you optimism this content after it is published?
• Is this the right format and channel distribution to gain maximum coverage?
• Would you read your content and take away the key messages successfully?
• Recap: turning challenges into triumphs

B2B content marketing has so many opportunities waiting. From an in-depth understanding of your audiences to the strategic creation and distribution of content, every challenge is an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise, build trust, and develop a pipeline of qualified leads. By embracing these challenges with a foolproof strategy your path through the B2B content marketing landscape can lead to unparalleled success.

Remember navigating your content strategy takes more than great content. It requires you to use strategic insight, data-informed decision-making, and a clear focus on the needs of your audience.