B2B content marketing is a big challenge for many small businesses with small marketing departments. However, the content marketing trends for 2019 show that even B2B companies need to address this issue.
1. Clearly define the goals you wish to achieve with content marketing
If your content marketing is not aligned with your goals, you either will not know if you are successful in your marketing activities or WHY they are not successful.
Ask yourself: “What exactly has to happen so that in retrospect, content marketing can be described as very successful?”
Some example goals:
– More sales of a particular product
– Increase the conversion by X% on your website
– Increase lead generation (e.g., at trade shows or website)
– Increasing brand awareness (target achievement difficult to measure, but possible through surveys, for example)
– Reduce marketing spend per lead
2. Identify the most important profiles
One of the main reasons why content marketing does not lead to the desired success is that the characteristics of the target groups are unknown.
Either the target group misunderstands the message or the content marketing addresses a completely wrong target group.
So before you can start creating appropriate content for your audience, you need to know as much as possible about them.
You will probably be struggling with the identification of your target audiences/customers in the beginning. In this case, it can be helpful to get external help through an agency. A good agency brings a rational view, free of operational blindness, with. This makes it easier to create a good collection of relevant profiles.
3. Develop a content marketing strategy
Creating a content marketing plan is essential to your success. It will help you to make goal-oriented decisions when, for example, is about the choice of content topics or marketing channels.
Always remember: Try to sell your content before you sell your products. Create a Customer Journey for every profile.
Will a website visitor immediately conclude a deal and contact the sales department, or does he want to inform himself without obligation? Probably the latter. So what can you offer Profile A (perhaps a sales manager) with information at the moment of the first website visit to keep him happy? Maybe an informative article that compares the advantages and disadvantages of different product groups?
Consider how valuable this information is for Profile A. Is the information only available to you? Why not show only a small section and then offer the visitor to receive the full article as a PDF by e-mail.
The number of individual stages of the customer journey may vary depending on the profile. But from that, you can derive an overall strategy of when, for whom and to what extent you need to provide your content.
4. Choose your content marketing tools
For most B2B companies, their corporate website is the focal point of the sales funnel. The most important criteria that your website needs to meet in order to be effective for B2B content marketing are:
– The information provided on it is believable and not exaggerated
– The first impression must inspire confidence
– Your company is professional
– Your company conveys economic stability
– Simple and fast usability (website is user-friendly)
– The start page reveals clearly what your company offers, without the need for scrolling
– Answers to the most common questions are easy to find
5. Develop content ideas
The biggest challenge is likely to regularly find enough good quality topics for your content marketing. A good idea is to look for topic niches that are not yet filled by your online competitors.
So take a close look at the websites of your competitors. Check potential topic niches through an online search. Are there any groups on Xing or Linkedin who are already working on these topics? If so, which questions are asked frequently? What information can you provide to answer these questions without giving away too much?
When you have found a good topic, focus on it. Create extensive information. Think about which sub-topics you can work on.
An easy way to get started quickly and to verify success is to publish the content on your corporate website and then use Google Analytics to look at page views, bounce rate, and length of stay.
You do not have to set up an entire blog right away. Start as soon as possible and stay focused and consistent. Check after about 6 weeks whether tendencies are recognizable to find out which topics work. Optimize the posts that are proven to work before you post any new topics.
