How to make B2B content marketing work for your business
B2B content marketing has proven to be one of the most effective ways for companies to engage with their customers, and it doesn’t seem like this trend is going anywhere anytime soon. This approach was initially embraced by B2B businesses as a way to promote their products/services in an engaging manner that could reach more potential consumers than traditional advertising. However, over time content marketing proved just how powerful its capabilities were when executed properly – even some traditionally consumer-oriented brands have found success implementing a successful strategy!
(Not yet sure What Makes a Good Content Strategy – read about that first.)
The effects of B2B Content Marketing can take a while to become evident, and building up a strategy could be difficult, especially if you haven’t done it before.
Marketing has never been more in demand. In order to keep up with the changing times, marketers must be able to create meaningful and useful content while distributing it efficiently. Making the most of this strategy requires them to dig deep into their marketing methods by looking for ways they can attract customers through understanding mechanisms that will make a difference – which is what we’re all about!
So, really, what is B2B content marketing in 2021?
Does your content strategy feel like it’s falling flat? There are few things that you can experiment with to give yourself a competitive advantage. These 5 B2B Content Marketing Hacks have been tried and true by the best in their field, so they’re worth considering if you want better results for less work!
Actionable Content Promotion Strategies
Content marketing is a strategy that promotes your company’s products and services by publishing valuable content on various channels, including social media. Social media provides the perfect platform for marketers to connect with their target audience in an authentic way while showcasing new or existing content such as articles, videos, infographics and blog posts. The more engaging this information is–the better!
Also read: Content Optimization to Improve Website Ranking
5 B2B Content Marketing Hacks That Work
1. Add outcomes to your editorial calendar:
Your editorial calendar is about more than just deadlines. It’s also an opportunity to keep your mission and desired outcomes in mind as you assign, create, and publish content for the organization. Outcomes are important too: what do readers get out of this piece? What does it make them feel or think that will help guide their decisions next time they need information on a certain topic? How might writers improve upon this content so we can best serve our community/industry/audience with better quality writing?
Documenting these goals helps everyone stay focused on creating the right type of material, at the appropriate times—and when there’s something missing from your team (or individual contributor), you’ll know where to look for potential contributions later down the line.
Examples of positive B2B content marketing outcomes can be:
- Subscription to your newsletter
- Opening up a live chat window
- Asking for a meeting
- Watching a demo
2. Add a “from-blog-to” line in your editorial calendar:
Adding a “from-blog-to what” section in your editorial calendar can help you decide how to extend the value of blog posts. This could include topics such as eBooks, white papers or podcasts that are related to blogs.
This is an obvious solution to B2B content repurposing challenges. For example, I used this strategy when writing my last book. When needed, blog posts were strategically created and tailored for a chapter’s needs in the process of creating that one comprehensive work!
Planning content marketing
A B2B content marketing journey requires different formats of content at different parts of the search process. So your blog could be repurposed to a “content stack” that includes, for example:
- Infographic
- Mailer
- Banner
- Video
3. Consider launching an internal speaker’s bureau:
If the company loses their best spokesperson, they are in a tough spot. An internal speaker’s bureau can help mitigate this problem by providing multiple people who have been trained on how to speak for your organization and deliver messages effectively
One of the responsibilities of content marketing is diversifying available spokespeople so that if one leaves or becomes unavailable due to other commitments, there will be someone else ready with similar skills able to step up at any time. To do this successfully, you need an internal speakers’ bureau where employees regularly train as potential new go-to candidates when needed — whether it’s speaking engagements outside of work hours or just preparing themselves internally within the office space for such occasions
The best way to expand your message is by planting seeds. What many people don’t realize, though, is that you can plant those same seeds in the places where they’re most likely to grow: internally! Find evangelists who are passionate about different areas of your business and have them spread their knowledge at industry events for even more opportunities.
4 Work your influencer list:
So, I’m sure you are aware that if your customers don’t hang out on your site then they probably do so social media. This is where influencers come into play! The first step for building a list of 10 potential influencers to work with should be researching which channels and platforms these influencers use the most. You can easily find this information by simply typing in their name or company name followed by “social media links” (e.g., iphonesocialmedialinks). Once you have some ideas as to who and what search terms might yield good results make it top priority on doing 4-1-1 strategy when engaging those people online – follow them, like/retweet their posts sporadically, comment on their posts, and ask questions.
The second step to building a list of potential influencers is going through your follower lists (both personal and company) for people who might be interested in the topic at hand – make sure you have permission before asking them though! Once you’ve compiled this list put it in Excel or Google Sheets and sort the list by how many followers each person has.
For example, when censhare launched operations in India, we helped them reach out to influential marketers and featured them in a research report.
5. Refresh your distribution “why?” list:
It’s time to get creative! With so many sources for content distribution, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Refresh your distribution list by making a list of all the ways people can access your content. Then put “WHY?” at the top and answer why you’re using each platform. Odds are you don’t have answers for every channel, but at least it will help identify what needs work or cutting out completely so that there is more focus on other channels where they might be able to reach an audience better than before.
Conclusion
When crafting a business strategy, it’s important to be flexible and fluid. I call these “hacks” because they’re meant to guide you in collecting data points that will help make better decisions for your company. They aren’t the only way of doing things but rather something created to allow you room to grow and learn quickly as well as drive progress forward without being too strict on what needs are most critical right away.
You also have to stay “on trend” – for example, in this interview with Rockstar CMO I discuss COVID-context and Recession Relevance.
The digital landscape is always changing and it’s important to stay up-to-date with these changes. By testing your marketing strategies, you’ll be able to navigate this competitive marketplace more easily while also figuring out what brings in the most revenue when all other aspects are equal.
Related content:
3 Trends that are changing content marketing for B2B brands – by Sooraj Diwakaran
