3 elements you need for a successful B2B content marketing strategy

It’s widely accepted that content marketing is a must-have for any successful B2B company. In fact, content marketing is 3 times more efficient in terms of leads than outbound marketing and around 72% of companies say content marketing increases their lead generation.

But what makes a great B2B content marketing strategy? It’s actually quite simple. It goes without saying that the content should be unique and of a high quality, but every successful, B2B content marketing strategy should keep these 3 things in mind…

1. Identifying your target audience is key

If you start creating content before you’ve identified who your existing and potential customers are, you’re going to be wasting time and resources. If you don’t know who you’re talking to, how do you know what to write?

2. Make sure your content speaks to your audience

Once you’ve identified your target audience, you can tailor your content to their specific wants, needs and problems. Making sure your content speaks to your audience is the best way to ensure your content is engaging, insightful and successful in helping you reach your business goals.

According to Content Marketing Institute’s 2020 report, 50% of all content created by B2B marketers last year was geared at people in the first stage of their journey, in other words, those at the top of the marketing funnel. This is great as content is a fantastic way of enticing new business and engaging with a new audience, however, it’s really important to create content for your existing customers. Content aimed at existing customers is a great way to increase retention and can even lead them to becoming advocates for your brand. The report highlighted that just 11% of content was created for existing customers so this is clearly something B2B companies should be looking at improving.

3. Constant self-promotion will backfire

Content Marketing Institute’s most recent report also highlighted that the most successful B2B content “prioritizes audience’s informational needs over organization’s sales/promotional message.” This means, you need to be creating content that is valuable, informative and helpful to your audience, rather than just being all about you.

You need to ask yourself:

• What are they searching for?
• What problems do they need to overcome?
• How can you be of service?
• What insight do you have?

Creating content with these questions front of mine will make you an authority in your field and can lead to potential customers viewing you as a trustworthy source of information; a solid foundation to turn potential customers into actual customers. It won’t harm your rankings on the search engines either.

That’s not to say you should never self promote. Letting your customers and potential customers know about new products, services, offers or even a little glimpse behind the scenes of your operations are all good ways to build brand trust and loyalty, but they shouldn’t be the only type of content you create.

Getting help with your content marketing

Around 62% of companies currently outsource their content marketing because they don’t have the time, expertise or resources to manage their strategy in-house. Outsourcing your content means you have access to skilled personnel without the burden and cost of hiring an employee and all the things that come with that (salary, pension, benefits). That could help ease the pressure if you don’t have a particularly large budget to play with.

Forever is a digital agency in Manchester who have an experienced content marketing team on hand to help you get in front of your core audience. If you’re one of the 38% of companies who are currently not outsourcing their content marketing, get in touch with us to see how we can help.