B2B content marketing is designed to put your company in front of its best customers, position you as a market leader, and solve their problems. Your content should encourage your audience to do business with you, not your competitors. Give your customers a compelling reason to buy beyond features, benefits, and price. Those are not differentiators, but basic requirements to inform customers on what you are selling. A content marketing strategy allows businesses to use deliverables such as case studies, press releases, blogs, videos, social media, market research, and podcasts, to name a few – to attract, engage and convert visitors who come to your website. This strategy is the most cost-effective marketing tool as it supports the business’s long-term objectives, such as revenue growth, brand awareness, or lead generation.
So, what exactly is a content marketing strategy? Your strategy is your road map that defines how content assets are brainstormed, created, published and promoted to meet a particular objective. Doing this well can save you hundreds of hours of rework since you create from data-driven decisions rather than inspiration. An impactful B2B content marketing strategy includes a mix of various tactics and deliverables.
B2B Content Marketing Tactics
- Social media marketing: After you define your content marketing strategy, you should focus on your social media strategy.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Search engines reward businesses that publish high quality content, consistently.
- PR (Press Releases): Successful PR strategies should address readers’ concerns, not their business.
- PPC (Pay-Per-Click): To work effectively, you need to drive website visitors to relevant content on your website and encourage them to convert
- Inbound marketing: Quality content is key to driving inbound traffic and leads.
B2B content marketing strategy 101: Important questions to ask first.
- Who are you creating content for?
- What problem you are trying to solve?
- What makes your content different than your competitors?
- What keywords will end users search to find your business?
- What type of content would be best to convey your message?
- Do you have a CMS (content management system) to create and publish content?
- How will you reach your customers?
- What are your main KPIs (key performance indicators)?
- To start, do you have content you can repurpose?
How do you start a B2B content marketing strategy? Here are a few ideas:
- Set goals and benchmarks for success
- Create buyer personas
- Conduct a content audit to identify gaps in your current marketing
- Brainstorm content ideas
- Conduct keywords and identify opportunities for content creation
- Choose the correct type of content for your message
- Create a road map for how you’ll create and manage content
- Leverage your existing sales team and leadership as spokespeople and content creators
- Content promotion and amplification
- Paid advertising, PPC and SEO to create demand generation
- Ensure you have an email marketing program like MailChimp
- Track the performance of your content monthly or quarterly and report on this so you can identify trends
- Save yourself time and start quickly with repurposed content. Webinars make great resources for recycled blogs, social media posts and videos.
Customer Centric Storytelling
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Nerd Herd is a creative, results-oriented brand strategy company based in Maple Grove, MN. We offer a suite of services to take the work out of your creative needs leaving you with more time for the things that matter. We encourage you to think of us as part of your team. Most of our clients do!