Content marketing is one of the best ways for businesses to connect with their audiences, and it’s no different in the B2B world. Like consumers, businesses still need great content to help guide them through their customer journey. Great content also sets you apart as an authority on your subject and provides your target market with useful information.
Content marketing is one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing. It costs 62% less than traditional marketing and can generate three times as many leads. The beauty of published content is that it is evergreen. It can generate leads for years to come through search engine traffic.
The Growth of Content Marketing
According to Brightcove, 93% of B2B marketers now use content marketing to reach customers. And content marketing is rapidly growing as more and more companies take their business online. Each year unique growth in site traffic is 7.8 times higher for content marketing leaders compared to others.
Content marketing has grown because it has proven useful in a variety of marketing roles. It generates new leads, establishes authority, builds trust with customers, and converts leads to sales.
Understanding Buyers’ Needs
When searching online, people are looking for high-quality information from a reputable source. They want the articles to be coming from someone who has expertise in an area. Blog posts, infographics, webinars, and e-books that include in-depth knowledge and statistics establish authority with buyers.
Since buyers are in different stages of the customer journey, the content needs to address their psychology at each stage. Many people start out without the intent to make a purchase and are looking for simple solutions to solve their own problems. It is best to provide these customers with information and hold off on a sales pitch. At this stage, a sales pitch could turn them off.
Providing additional resources to readers builds more trust in a business. It helps people view your business as the authority with lots of experience and expertise. E-books, case studies, and white papers are examples of content that will guide leads down the sales funnel.
Specific Needs of B2B Buyers
When writing B2B content, it is important to keep in mind the needs of your target market. Unlike with a consumer buyer, the B2B buyer is searching on behalf of others, or at least for the good of the company and may therefore be less emotionally attached to the subject.
While the content must remain useful, it should address the pain points of the target business and guide them to logical solutions that will ease their pain. This could be as simple as an organizational change or method of working, or it could obviously involve your product or service.
When writing B2B content, it is important to keep in mind that you are addressing other business owners. A more formal tone is common when writing B2B content, as it helps to establish authority. A casual tone can occasionally detract from your message.
There is a lot of competition in the world of content, and so to make sure your message is heard, it is important that it is optimized for search engines to find it. To spread the word, it is also helpful to use social media and even forms of social media and search engine advertising. Content marketing increases conversion rates, so it is worth your time and money to promote this content.
Key elements for B2B content:
- Address the pain points
- Connect the information with your services or solution
- Write with a formal tone
- Promote your content
Examples of Great B2B Content
B2B companies are getting creative and creating some excellent content marketing. They are implementing video conferencing, blogs and social media into their lead generation with success. Here are some of our current favorites:
Hubspot
Hubspot is a marketing company that focuses on inbound marketing. Their content strategy is simple: they created two different types of content to address the stages of the funnel.
- Content focused on teaching small businesses about inbound marketing to attract readers to the top of the funnel.
- Resources with eBooks, case studies, webinars and a marketing kit to move leads to the bottom of the funnel.
The content has been a major traffic driver. Hubspot grew from just getting funded to being worth over a billion dollars in only 10 years.
LeadPages
LeadPages is in the business of helping design landing pages. It focuses on marketing assets to help businesses with their online marketing.
- Their content features an expert marketing blog focusing on lead generation and A/B testing.
- They included free marketing resources, courses, eBooks, infographics and case studies.
- Produced “ConversionCast” a popular marketing podcast.
- Launched weekly webinars to build more educational marketing content.
LeadPages gained over 35,000 customers in less than three years. According to Clay Collins, CEO, LeadPages hit over $16 million in revenue in 2015.
How Power Publish Can Help
PowerPublish provides B2B companies with a complete solution to creating and publishing content. We provide access to a talented marketplace of brand journalists, designers, and videographers. Our team of premium brand journalists can create content that matches your message and generates leads for your business.
Not sure what content to produce? PowerPublish has predictive intelligence and can notify you of trending topics as well as dedicated editors on hand to develop ideas with you. Get started with PowerPublish today!