As business-to-business markets become more saturated and competitive, content marketing can be a powerful tool to help you stand out, build your brand, attract traffic, generate leads, and ultimately increase revenue.
What is B2B Content Marketing?
B2B content marketing is the process of creating and distributing content specifically for B2B businesses. This content is designed to help these businesses build relationships, generate leads, and close sales. This means creating content such as blog posts, white papers, ebooks, research reports, webinars, videos, podcasts, infographics, and more that is designed to be useful for the target audience. The content should ultimately drive audience action.
The goal of the content is not necessarily to promote the brand, but rather to educate or entertain the audience. Content marketing for B2Bs includes making a plan for what content will be created, actually creating the content, and then figuring out how to get that content seen by the people who will be most interested in it.
Content marketing can be very beneficial to a business, helping to establish their expertise, positioning them as a thought leader, clarifying their brand personality, expanding their reach, increasing organic search traffic, advancing their audience through the customer journey, generating leads, engendering brand love, and ultimately, boosting sales meetings and increasing revenue.
B2B vs. B2C Content Marketing
There are some similarities between B2B and B2C content marketing, but a few key aspects make B2B content marketing unique.
First, B2B content marketing is more results-driven. Content for business-to-consumer companies is usually written to appeal to a wide range of people and is mainly used to generate interest. Content for businesses (B2B) is created to target a specific audience and to help achieve specific business goals, such as increasing leads or subscribers.
You will need to have in-depth knowledge about your industry when doing B2B content marketing since you will be dealing with other business professionals. It is important to show understanding in your messaging of what the customer is trying to achieve and how to resolve any pain points.
In many cases, there are multiple people involved in the decision-making process for B2B sales. Who is the ultimate financial decision maker? There is also an executive buyer who is responsible for the business decision.
Typically, the customer journey for a B2B buyer is much longer than for a B2C buyer. The content of your website should address the specific questions potential customers have as they progress through the different stages of the purchasing journey.
Above all else, B2B content has to be valuable. If you want people to read your blog, don’t publish meaningless content. If you want to be successful in a crowded industry, your content must be unique, valuable, and useful. Give people a reason to consume your content.
Why B2B Content Marketing is Important
B2B content marketing matters now more than ever. Several reasons for this.
First, its high ROI compared to other marketing channels makes it a good choice for businesses. This means that 3 out of 10 marketers believe that content marketing has a higher ROI than any other marketing channel.
About half of buyers look at three to five pieces of content before talking to a sales representative. HubSpot reports that marketers who blog receive 13 times more return on investment than those who don’t. Research from Wyzowl has revealed that the majority of video marketers believe that video has helped them to generate leads, with 78% reporting that it has also helped to increase their sales.
Additional benefits of B2B content marketing include establishing you as an authority in your industry. This is critical because sales in general often involve large dollar amounts and multiple decision-makers. If you want to be seen as trustworthy, it’s important to regularly publish high-quality, authoritative content. This will help build trust between you and your B2B customers. Making sure you have a range of content that covers the customer journey means you can answer your potential client’s questions as they progress through the funnel.
Content marketing is an effective way to build relationships with prospects, customers, and other businesses. By creating and sharing content that is relevant and valuable to your audience, you can attract and retain customers, drive leads, and build trust and credibility. You can use content to provide your audience with useful information that covers their entire customer journey. The more you interact with someone, the deeper the relationship becomes. This also applies to the relationship between a customer and a brand.
Finally, it serves as an effective customer retention tool. You provide your customers with value by giving them engaging content on a regular basis. You also remind them of your expertise. When you offer your customers loyalty programs, you’re giving them an incentive to keep coming back to your business.
Research into customer expectation and behavior, quality and delivery method, when it comes to content marketing
B2B customers have more access to information than ever before thanks to the internet. They research solutions and providers before engaging with a salesperson instead of talking to one right away. Since content marketing is becoming more prevalent and receiving lots of investment, it is likely that it will continue to grow.
There is a lot of interest in content marketing, which has led to more competition and higher customer expectations. Content marketing can be a lot to keep up with – how can you make sure your strategy will be effective?
Here are five B2B content marketing research insights that should guide your strategy to success:
#1: 84% of people expect brands to produce meaningful content, yet 60% of all content fails to deliver (Havas Media, 2017)
The study:
The Havas’ Meaningful Brands study analyzed how different brands contribute to people’s lives and produce a desired business outcome. The second study began in 2006 and ended in 2016. It involved around 300,000 people from more than 30 places. The report surveyed 1,500 brands from 15 industries to study the role of content for brands and people.
A large majority of people surveyed believe that brands should provide content that is entertaining, informative, and useful, rather than simply trying to sell them something. However, they regarded 60% of content as poor, irrelevant, or failing to deliver.
What this means for your business:
The following research is not limited to B2B content marketing, but it does provide a reminder of what your target audience likely expects from you. At the end of the day, B2B decision makers are people who have their own hopes and desires. When it comes to B2B customers, they will be searching for content that is beneficial to their business.
Some examples of meaningful content for B2B buyers include educational content that helps the buyer understand their problem and how your product or service can help them solve it. Additionally, B2B buyers often appreciate content that is specific to their industry and provides insights into trends that may impact their business. They will look for case studies of businesses that have used your product to show how it has helped instead of explaining product features. Industry leaders might be interviewed to keep up with the latest trends. Research might also be looked at to guide strategy.
Marketing in the digital age is customer-centric. Useful content does not focus on the features of your product, but on how your product can make life easier for customers. Your content strategy should be designed to help people identify and articulate their problems, find solutions, and compare different service providers.
#2: 81% of non-C-suite employees influence purchase decisions (Google/Millward Brown Digital, 2014)
The study:
In 2014, Google and Millward Brown Digital conducted research on B2B marketing. After studying thirteen months’ worth of clickstream data from Millward Brown Digital’s desktop panel, as well as surveying 3000 B2B researchers on their research and purchase habits, they drew some conclusions.
The study showed that almost a quarter of employees who are not executives have the final authority on purchase decisions and 81% of employees who are not executives have a say in purchase decisions.
What this means for your business:
When selling to businesses, the decision maker and end user might not be the same person. If you only target top-level executives with your content strategy, you’re not reaching a large number of potential customers. As senior executives have become more reliant on their teams to do research and suggest ideas, some decision-making power has trickled down.
This means creating content that is specifically designed to appeal to different groups of people, based on their interests and needs. By doing this, you can show how your product can benefit each group, and make it more likely that they will become customers. When selling productivity software, the CEO and accounting department usually have the final say. However, everyone in the company will use the product, from sales to HR. content should explain how productivity software can aid various teams within an organization, as well as how your product is the best solution for your target market’s needs.
#3: 50% of B2B queries today are made on smartphones (The Boston Consulting Group/Google, 2017)
The study:
The Boston Consulting Group partnered with Google in 2017 to research the importance of mobile in B2B markets. After looking at Google B2B search queries, conducting surveys with B2B buyers, and talking to experienced marketing professionals, they came to some conclusions about how effective marketing is. The study looked at 3,000 business-to-business buyers from different sectors, including cloud services, enterprise software, and others.
The research showed that 50% of B2B queries were made on smartphones, and this figure is expected to grow to 70% by 2020. This means that more and more people are using their smartphones to look up information on businesses. This is because people were increasingly using their phones for work and internet searches heavily influenced their purchase decisions.
What this means for your business:
Different potential customers may interact with your brand through different touch points, and many of them will be using their smartphones. How customers perceive you can be influenced greatly by their mobile experience. If you haven’t been thinking about mobile phone usage in relation to your business, it’s time to start considering it as part of the customer journey.
Mobile friendly content requires a different approach than desktop. There’s more to mobile optimization than responsive design. Customers expect fast and seamless experience across different channels. They need a website that loads quickly and integrates with smartphone functions. Try to reduce the amount of text on your website and replace it with other types of content such as images, videos, or webcasts. Make sure to include a mobile number and social media accounts. Your emails need to be optimized for mobile devices so that prospects can check them out at any time.
Despite the increasing popularity of mobile devices, B2B companies have not been giving them the same level of attention and investment. companies are reluctant to adopt a mobile approach because their mobile traffic is low. They aren’t sure if the target audience doesn’t use mobile devices, or if the mobile experience itself isn’t very good. The only way to know for sure is to test it and keep track of the results. Your team can only build capabilities and assign budget based on actual experience from different channels. This means that if you want to try a new channel or significantly increase investment in an existing one, you need to have a plan for how to deliver those results.
#4: On average, B2B Content marketers use five to six different types of content (Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs, 2018)
The study:
In a survey of more than 2,000 B2B marketers from around the globe, the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs found that titles, industries, and business sizes all play a role in content marketing. The study looked at how participants perceived content marketing success, strategy, goals, metrics, budget and more.
The average marketer in North America and Australia uses six different types of social media, while marketers in the United Kingdom use five on average. The most common types of content are social media posts, case studies, videos, white papers, infographics, and photos.
What this means for your business:
It is important to blog for your business, but you should also consider adding images, audio, and other types of content to your site. This means that they are a great way to communicate complex information to a wide audience. Infographics are easy to view, remember, and share, making them a great way to communicate complex information to a wide audience. Videos can communicate your message in a succinct way. Educational ebooks and white papers can help establish your company as an authoritative voice within its industry. Try out different types of content to see which one works best for your industry and audience.
#5: B2B buyers are most willing to exchange information for webinars, white papers, and reports (Demand Gen, 2017)
The study:
In 2017, Demand Gen found that 189 B2B buyers said they used content while making a purchase. A majority of the participants were employed by large companies and held high-level positions. The majority of B2B buyers would be willing to give up some information in order to gain access to webinars, white papers, third-party/analyst reports, E-books, and case studies.
What this means for your business:
If you provide potential customers with valuable information, they will be more likely to give you some of their time and contact information in return. Web-based seminars or white papers can help educate your audience and provide them with a greater understanding of their problems as well as potential solutions. You can use email marketing tools to nurture prospects by capturing their email address and some information about their business. You should produce content that is not just the traditional short blog posts.
Content Marketing is a Strategic Approach to Business-Building
You will only be successful with B2B content marketing if you have more than just content. You will need a strong strategy that agrees with your goals to direct your methods, the kinds of content you produce, how you give out that content, and how you assess your progress.
Content is very effective in targeting and engaging audience members that are at any stage of the customer journey. To many marketers, content is simply something that can be read, viewed, or listened to. But it’s so much more than that. Your content should be precision engineered for maximum impact with your audience at precise points in their journey. Use content to drive audience members to action. Build great content that will thrill your audience. Construct your content to produce real marketing ROI.
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