In order to understand how content marketing strategy works in a B2B business, it’s important to know that a B2B content marketing and a B2C content marketing is not the same. Though this seems like an obvious thing to say, most people forget that while developing their content marketing strategies.
B2B and B2C audience have various needs. Even the reasons supporting their purchase are different. In that light, the means you will use to promote your content must also be very different.
But even after all these, B2B and B2C content marketing have one particular thing in common. That is, the fundamentals of the content remain the same for both the cases.
It is natural to get all worked out due to the confusion created by all these content marketing tactics, thus it’s important to know a few very important B2B content marketing techniques that really matter.
Before proceeding any further, know the fact that 88% of B2B marketers agree that creating content makes their audience more connected with the business and it’s services.
Sell Your Story First, Products Will Follow:
A narrative and the attractive story works great for a brand. The B2B business community does not spend money frivolously unless they truly feel that there is some ROI. Other business will spend money on your business only when they believe that they will get their returns.
Of course, the way your business will make money can obviously differ from other business houses. But no matter what, at the end of the day, you are doing either of the two things, saving the business houses money, or helping them make some.
In other words, you are creating a tangible value which you could use to create your own content. Creating content around tangible values is absolutely okay and many brands take that up.
User Experience Must Be Taken Into Consideration:
The user experience is the cornerstone of any effective content marketing strategy. This is because your marketing funnel meets your sales funnel at this place.
The content you will be creating is not important for the message you will be promoting. It is crucial for the entire conversion process.
This will become nearly impossible if your content strategy does not incorporate user experience.
You have to give a chance to your audience to connect with your brand. Additionally, you have to set your brand apart from the competition it faces.
In other words, user experience matters in content strategy making because it creates brand loyalty.
The idea of Cross-Pollination and the Impact of Collaboration:
While creating an effective content marketing strategy, people tend to forget one very important thing, that being the promotional strategy.
While there are multiple tools at your disposal, there is one resource which is greatly undervalued, and that is guest posting.
There are lots of considerations attached to it. In fact, many business houses are unsure whether or not to collaborate with other companies in relation to content strategy.
To those people who fear it, it is not a company secret you are sharing, it’s just a platform, so there is nothing to be worried about.
When you get collaborators to join your content marketing venture, you increase the chance of getting access to a wider pool of potential clients.
Guest posting is not just about getting your content out in front of a large number of people, but to establish your online authority in the industry that you operate in.
Cross promotion of content is basically content curation. It provides all the benefits and you do not have to hunt the content yourself!
Your customers get to see that you are aware of the high-quality work being done in your industry and thus they will take you seriously. A win-win for all!
Establish A Lot of Layers In The Content:
Typically, a good piece of content has both texts and visuals which makes it engaging for the audience.
In fact, there are three categories:
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- Texts
- Videos
- Photos
It is usually the text aspect that most business finds hard to deal with. More often, a business house has experience in either of the one category. But that is not enough.
In that light, images are good options. Images can be almost anything, starting from creating infographics to screenshots.
If you need proof there are multiple stats which can show how images engage the audience.
The next step involves videos.
Though getting into video marketing with no prior experience can be tough, but if you can do it then it will bring back huge returns.
Metrics: The key to Continued Success:
Throughout the process of developing your content strategy, you have to partake in a lot of experiments. There is no shame in saying that.
You will have to try a lot of different things before finding out something that will actually work with your clients.
But fortunately, we have metrics.
Once you start experimenting with a lot of content, you can begin to up your game.
You have to get an idea about the tactics that work. Why? Because you got to create some hardcore strategies around the tactics that have worked well with the business.
Though initially, these successes will seem small. But over time, they will become big and contribute greatly to your content building efforts.
Make Use of Paid Campaigns:
If the mention of paid ads are not made the entire structure of content strategy development will fail.
But contrary to popular belief, the reach of paid campaigns for a B2B business does not start and end with Linkedin. Though Linkedin is a great tool and one can experience a lot of success in that, but there are more options to explore.
One such thing is the Facebook ads which most B2B business houses ignore. This is because most people believe that Facebook is not targeted enough, However, the facts speak otherwise.
The calculation is simple. The more shares you get, the more attention you gather. Facebook ads work because the business gets a chance to engage with the bigger communities through this platform and engagement always works.
B2B content marketing puts forward a lot of unique challenges in case of both promotion and creation.
There is no way you can deny that the process is not challenging. However, there are a few things you can do to make the process easy.
Make sure you are using your content well and telling your audience a very compelling story. That way you will work great on both creation and promotion. So get started!