Welcome to our blog post on B2B content marketing! If you're in the world of business to business marketing, you're likely familiar with the term content marketing. But what exactly does it mean when it comes to B2B marketing? I’ll preface that the majority of what I’ll discuss today relates more to the impacts of content marketing on your B2B SEO, however we also cover the ability to propagate this world class content via paid media and organic channels to maximise its reach and its impact.
Content marketing is the use of high-quality content to attract, engage, and inform potential customers or clients. Creating content that stands out and delivers value is crucial for building relationships and driving sales. This post will provide insights and tips to help you get started, and to take your strategy to the next level. So, grab a cup of coffee, and let's dive in!
1. The Benefits of Implementing B2B Content Marketing
B2B content marketing is gaining traction as one of the most effective ways to generate leads among potential customers and prospects. It is cost-effective and has the potential to increase brand awareness in a big way. From syndication to content partnerships, through to dominating longer tail search queries which definite the deep nuances of your industry, world class content can position your business and brand in-front of potential new customers much earlier in a research journey then many other forms of marketing.
This is why, in our opinion, every business needs to start investing in content marketing and combining it with B2B analytics if they want to grow their business through more effective marketing.
Content without the right analytics seriously dilutes the potential of what’s the content can be doing for your brand. With the right B2B analytics, you can measure the effectiveness of your content marketing whilst gaining huge insights into which companies are reading which bits of content - offering you a new approach to top of funnel marketing. You can make data-driven decisions about what works and what doesn't. You can create more targeted content that speaks to their needs and interests. You'll also have a better understanding of your target audience. This can help you build lasting relationships with your customers and grow your business, delivering the opportunity to position your brand as the specialist in your industry. If you're not already investing in B2B content marketing and analytics, now is the time to start.
I often think of a strong organic content model as being the opportunity to own the conversation with prospects who are just starting their research journey - and are at that stage where they do not necessarily have any understanding of the market participants and who the ‘big players’ are. At this stage in the journey, if your content is coming up to answer the key questions that these prospects are posing [to Google/their search engine of choice] then you get the first chance to make the all important first impression. Businesses can thus establish thought leadership in their industry using valuable and engaging content, and having being the ‘first port of call’ for the early-stage researcher, they have the chance to make a lasting impression, one which could and should last through to purchasing, even if that is a number of years down the road. This approach - high quality content addressing the full funnel, helps you to build early trust with the audience. But how can businesses know what content resonates best with their target market? That's where B2B analytics comes in.
You can gain insights into what types of content their audience is interested in. This is done by analyzing metrics such as, website traffic, social media engagement and email open rates (yes you should be aiming to capture subscribers and then create automated content journeys, and use website personalisation triggers, but this is a whole topic in-itself)
With this information, businesses can create more targeted and effective content strategies. It allows for driven engagement and conversions. Using B2B analytics in your content marketing efforts is key for keeping up with changing consumer demands. This helps you to stay ahead of the competition.
Businesses can use data-driven insights to create effective strategies that promote their goals. Companies can identify which efforts are generating the most ROI and build upon those tactics for better results. This is done by tracking the performance of content. B2B analytics provides a powerful tool for optimizing content marketing. Enhanced strategies and creating more successful campaigns are just a bonus.
2. Using B2B Analytics to Create Engaging Content
B2B web analytics platforms like Journey by FunnelFuel combine over 200 data points. There is the chance to get lost in the data and measure data points which ultimately may not matter, yet clearly there’s lots of data within these platforms that can help you write better B2B content. Therefore its important to Identify the metrics that matter the most to your business. Content goals, such as website traffic, lead generation, and revenue are important for many but aren’t necessarily the metrics that you’d be tasked with delivering. It is also important to note, that as attractive as the above 3 goals may sound, they don’t necessarily combine. For example; a content approach tasked with driving upper funnel traffic could be targeting much vaguer keywords and topics then one which is optimised purely for leads and revenue. The latter may require really bespoke content which is aiming right into your deepest use cases, but these may be terms which have a lot less interested parties and thus their ability to drive meaningful traffic is much lower then their broader keywords with possibly less keywords in them. ‘Business hosting’ may capture lots of users and searches, but ‘Hosting for web security clients’ may gather the sorts of truly interested website visitors which could align with your offering and drive post-visit deeper engagement - into leads and sales.
1. Start by setting specific goals and KPIs for your campaigns, and track them.
2. Use analytics tools to measure these important metrics.
3. Collect data on lead generation and track the quality of your leads.
4. Use revenue data to measure the ROI of your campaigns and identify areas for
improvement.
Google Analytics and SEMrush are two of the most used analytics tools for B2B marketers. And for good reason! These platforms offer a wealth of data and insights that can help you optimize your content marketing efforts. They help you get the most out of your campaigns. Google Analytics and SEMrush are instrumental in helping marketers track performance. They tell you what types of content attract the most attention and lead to conversions. It's essential for every B2B marketer to master the usage of these two platforms.
So, we've established the importance of content marketing. Now let's talk about how we can make sure that the effort we put into creating compelling content is reaching our target audience.
3. Crafting Compelling Blog Posts
B2B content marketing can be challenging. There's an even bigger challenge when it comes to creating content that connects with your target audience. That's why it's crucial to understand your audience before you start writing your blog posts. Straight off the bat, it’s worth noting that the range of applicable topics and the volume of associated queries is often much much lower for B2B clients then our B2C cousins. I’d therefore encourage you to break topics into smaller parts then you may ordinarily do, letting you cover the detail whilst leaving other sub-niche parts of the topic to be covered in requisite detail another day.
You can identify the pain points, challenges, and interests of your target audience. This is done by conducting thorough research. This will help you create content that resonates with them and provides them with value. Utilizing B2B analytics can provide you with insights into what type of content is most effective and engaging to your audience, as well as which of your content writers is doing the best job of engaging. By combining data-driven insights, you can develop a winning content strategy.
Blog posts should use storytelling techniques to keep the audience engaged and interested. Descriptive language and real-world examples of how your product or service can help are key components for success. Anecdotes can be used to make a more personal connection with the reader. This allows them to relate on a deeper level to the content presented. Creating content is not just about showing your ideas or new concepts. The true goal of any content creation is to resonate with the reader.
4. Boosting Content Reach with Social Media Outreach
Great content is timely and expensive to produce and its important to consider the ability to drive ROI. ROI won’t come if your great content is read by nobody. I remember hearing on the industry circuit once that one major brand in the payments space was paying upwards of $500,000 per unique piece of content, which included fancy videos, interviews and other such expensive content forms. Their average number of views over a contents lifetime was <50. They’d need that content to work incredibly hard with each reader to get anywhere working with such low viewer numbers.
I have assumed for the most part in this blog post that the main focus is on creating content for search engine rankings (SEO), but we shouldn’t omit the ability to push our high quality content into social media - both your organisations own social as well as employees who may be willing to share it too.
Identify your target audience and tailor your social media strategy. Before you start any B2B content marketing, it is important that you know who your target audience is so you can create the right content for them. There is a high probability your marketing strategy will not achieve the results you want if you don't understand your audience after all.
Social media doesn’t have to be organic either. There are a multitude of ways to run some pretty discrete paid channels of media around good content including;
- Paid social promotions / boosts
- B2B influencer posts
- Other paid media like Native adverts
5. Engaging Your Audience with Videos and Graphics
Incorporating visuals in your content marketing strategy can increase audience engagement. It provides an effective medium for conveying complex information in a simplified way. Yet, to make the most of your content marketing strategy, you also need to leverage B2B analytics.
B2B analytics allows you to track the performance of your content marketing campaigns. It also makes data-driven decisions on how to optimize them for better results. With the right B2B analytics tools, you can gain insights into your audience's content preferences and behavior. This includes topics they find most engaging and which channels they prefer to receive content on. You can create a more effective content marketing strategy that resonates with your audience.
Creating videos and graphics that appeal to interests and preferences can help to establish a connection with them. Fostering brand loyalty and creating viral content is an added benefit. But how do you know which videos or graphics would resonate with your audience? That's where B2B analytics come in.
By analyzing data, you can gain insights into what types of content your audience prefers. This information can then influence your content creation strategy. This will then help you create more effective content. Don't underestimate the power of analytics! They can be the key to unlocking the full potential of your content marketing efforts.
B2B analytics tools offer the ability to track the success of your video and graphic content. This is done with view counts, engagement metrics, and conversions. It allows you to check what content works best with your target audience. You can then make necessary changes for future campaigns for more effective results. You are sure to maximize ROI and reach higher levels of success with a data-driven approach. Just make sure to use proper and reliable analytics.
6. Keeping Content Fresh and Relevant
If you're looking to install content marketing and B2B analytics then you should conduct regular content audits. This allows you to identify gaps in your current content strategy that need to be filled with new content. Paying attention to your audience's interests and pain points is essential. Once you understand them, you can then create content that resonates with the audience. This drives profitability for your business.
Be sure to use the appropriate metrics to measure the success of your content and make adjustments as necessary. When you take the time to invest in content marketing and B2B analytics, you'll be well on your way toward achieving your goals.
Identifying gaps in your current content strategy is critical if you want to stay ahead of the competition. Conducting regular content audits will allow you to identify areas that need improvement. This also paves the way for new opportunities that can be capitalized upon.
Thereafter, using data from B2B analytics should be an essential part of your content marketing. It plays a crucial role in any promotion strategy. This will ensure that the content you create reaches and applies to your audience. You will get a better return on investment from all aspects of your content marketing efforts. This all relies on a thorough understanding of what kind of content works best for your target customers.