Developing an Effective B2B Content Marketing Strategy
According to a 2017 Content Marketing Institute (CMI) study of B2B content marketing benchmarks and trends, 89 percent of organizations implement some type of B2B content marketing strategy, demonstrating the dominant influence content has in the B2B space.
But even with the large majority of marketers using some form of content marketing, 35 percent of companies say their content marketing strategy is in an “adolescent” phase, dealing with some early success but not entirely able to shake off growing pains.
The B2B Content Marketing Challenge
In today’s digital landscape, audiences want content instantaneously delivered across preferred channels. But with everything from social media to video, B2B brands are struggling to keep up with the demand for diverse, impactful content.
Why?
- There’s an overwhelming amount of content available to users across a variety of platforms.
- Misaligned messaging prevents content from resonating with key audiences and influencers.
- Lack of a clearly defined strategy makes content distribution disorganized, resulting in lackluster ROI.
Unfortunately, falling behind in content creation and distribution can means serious negative implications for B2B brands – namely, the possibility of losing potential customer and audience interest.
3 Elements of an Effective B2B Content Marketing Strategy
Successful B2B content marketing means different things for different brands. Based on your business goals, you can tailor and refine your B2B content marketing strategy to meet specific organizational needs.
Although the outcome will differ across brands, there are at least three essential elements every B2B content marketing plan needs:
- Contextual understanding of customers. It’s impossible to create content that resonates with target audiences and influencers if you don’t understand them. Survey customers and prospects. Learn more about their motivations, pain points and how they move through the buyer journey. This helps you achieve a better grasp on their individual needs, allowing you to develop and distribute content that results in conversions.
- Comprehensive content audits. B2B brands can accumulate massive amounts of content over time. Content audits determine how well certain assets are performing based on different criteria (performance, quality, rank, etc.). These insights allow marketers to identify areas for content improvement, as well as opportunities to develop new assets.
- Ability to scale and repurpose content assets. Repurposing and recycling content allows marketing teams to create new pieces from existing content assets. For example, white papers can be used to create blog posts or tip sheets. One successful article can give way to a larger piece, like a data study. You can find inspiration for new content by looking back at your own archives.
Get Results From Content Marketing With Walker Sands
At Walker Sands, our content writers and strategists develop copy that informs your target audiences, keeping them engaged throughout the buying journey. Our team identifies content opportunities your competitors are missing and develops content that drives quality, actionable leads for your business.
To learn more about creating an effective B2B content marketing strategy, check out our white paper, “Seven Steps to Generating ROI with B2B Content.”
To get started, contact us today and discover how Walker Sands can develop a content strategy that will generate brand awareness, grow leads and increase revenue.