As a B2B marketer or business owner, you need to create content that provides value to your customers if you want to stand apart from your competitors, drive sales and retain business. While 72% of marketers agree that content marketing boosts audience engagement, 65% find content difficult to produce. Even if you have excellent ideas and the time to act on them (a rare best case scenario), you still need a B2B content marketing strategy to make your efforts worthwhile and ensure your actions have an impact.
Why you need a B2B content marketing strategy
A strategy gives your content purpose and enables you to connect with your audience in a way that supports your goals. It helps you communicate clearly about who you are, what you do and who you serve. This is critical for consumers to be able to determine whether your B2B company’s products or services are fit for them.
Whether you choose to tackle your strategic marketing plan in-house or hire an external partner, here are five ways a B2B content marketing strategy can help your company:
- increase brand awareness
- improve search rankings
- drive leads and revenue
- serve your audience
- enable greater efficiency
Let’s dig into five key benefits that a strategic marketing plan offers:
1. Increases brand awareness
Business coach Kelly Roach says that if you want to win the game, you first need to be on the field. Your customers can’t engage with you if you’re not visible in the marketplace.
Developing a B2B content marketing strategy ensures your brand will show up where and when your audience is watching — which will look different for every organization. Regardless of your industry or size, it’s important to consistently build brand awareness around your business. Doing so will help you establish your reputation, successfully introduce new products or services into the market, and create loyal customers.
A great way to increase your B2B company’s reach is by guest posting high quality content on websites that your target audience frequents. LinkedIn is also a valuable tool for generating brand awareness and positioning your business as an industry leader. The key with both of these tactics is to create a lasting impression through memorable storytelling that emotionally connects with your readers and makes them want to share your content.
2. Improves search rankings
This goes hand in hand with brand awareness and visibility. It’s crucial to incorporate keyword research into your B2B content marketing strategy and pinpoint the keywords your audience is using to find you online. For example, when someone searches for “best software for virtual teams,” you know they’re looking for content that solves a problem they’re facing related to this topic.
Understanding what motivates your prospects and customers can guide you to produce powerful content. Unless you have an astronomically large advertising budget (and even if you do), creating a B2B content marketing strategy that includes thoughtful keyword research is an effective way to rank organically in search for terms that you want your company to be known for, without breaking the bank.
3. Drives leads and revenue
Again, this builds on the previous point. A solid B2B content marketing strategy helps you rank in online searches for the terms you want to be known for, so you can generate the number of leads to your website that your business requires to grow.
Content marketing conversion rates are six times higher than conversion rates produced by traditional marketing campaigns. When you package a compelling, consistent brand voice with interesting, valuable information and use the right channels to reach your audience, this will help build trust with your target market and ultimately drive sales for your company.
4. Serves your audience
Of course, a B2B content marketing strategy isn’t all about you or what your business will gain — it’s actually the opposite. Showing your audience that you understand their needs and can solve their problems is essential to success. How? Grab customers’ attention and keep them engaged in what you’re offering through various content marketing tactics, with the aim to exceed their expectations.
Try creating industry-specific landing pages, case studies, and ebooks, or gathering feedback via surveys and chat bots. This will allow your audience to discover more about your brand, while you learn more about their challenges and goals.
5. Enables greater efficiency
Finally, a content strategy informs your content calendar, enabling you to plan for the content you need and allocate resources accordingly.
Get creative with your team! Brainstorming helps you think outside the box and generate fresh, intentional content ideas to stay educational, relevant and entertaining. Being strategic about the types of content you’re going to produce, and the timeline, will help you stay organized and efficient. It will also prevent you from overcommitting to a schedule that isn’t realistic for your team. After all, you still have other priorities.
Don’t forget to monitor and analyze your audience’s engagement with your content. Then, apply what you’ve learned to fine tune your calendar.
Are you looking for guidance on content?
How your B2B company shows up to your market is incredibly important. This is why the most successful B2B marketers spend 40% of their budget on content marketing. Top performing companies use content strategies for a reason — to make their efforts worthwhile and build relationships with customers at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
Use strategic content to generate leads and sales for your business. Connect with one of our vetted marketing professionals and transform your marketing strategy today.
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Don’t let another goal pass without making Cansulta an integral part of your strategy.
