How to Maximize Your Reach with B2B Content Marketing

What Is B2B Content Marketing?

Business-to-business (B2B) content marketing involves creating content to help attract other businesses. This content may include blog articles, webinars, videos, and white papers.

The goal is to provide useful information and get businesses to consider your products or services. This builds trust, which leads to more sales.

Why Do You Need to Market to Other Businesses?

B2B content marketing includes many of the same steps as consumer marketing. You need to create tailored content that connects with your audience.

But B2B transactions are often more complex and costly compared to consumer purchases. Businesses want to take the time to make sure that they are getting the best value when buying products or services from another business.

B2B content marketing helps educate your future clients. You can also continue to benefit from its effects long after you publish a piece of content. It continues to contribute to your search standings.

Your content can help boost your SEO and drive more organic traffic to your site. It gives people something to share, which adds to your domain authority. It generates backlinks and online mentions of your brand, leading to higher rankings.

How to Create Your B2B Marketing Plan

Take the time to plan your B2B marketing strategy. Here are the steps involved.

1. Market Research

You should first learn more about your target audience. This is an important step in developing a B2B content marketing strategy, as it helps you better understand their needs.

Make a list of the businesses that you want to target. Research these businesses to find out what issues they face. Consider their industry and how your products or services can help. You can then tailor your content to better address these issues.

Your website also provides access to useful information on your target audience. You can view your website analytics to find out which pages users spend the most time on. This can help you figure out which of your solutions they’re most interested in.

2. Create a Marketing Funnel

Use a marketing funnel to guide leads through your buying process. A funnel includes three main stages:

• Top of the funnel (TOFU)
• Middle of the funnel (MOFU)
• Bottom of the funnel (BOFU)

Here’s a quick look.

TOFU:

The top is where you attract potential customers. This stage is all about reaching a large audience and driving traffic to your website or landing pages. This is often achieved with blog posts, social media updates, videos, and paid ads.

MOFU:

For the middle of the funnel, you present your solutions and build trust. When potential clients find your content helpful, they may look for additional information. This involves the use of white papers, eBooks, and webinars.

BOFU:

The bottom of the funnel is where you provide demos, free trials, detailed case studies, and any other information you can provide to close the deal. It’s your last chance to convert leads into customers. Address any final objections and highlight your unique value proposition.

3. Explore Content Types

Content is designed to educate and persuade potential clients. B2B marketing often includes the use of multiple types of content, including:

• Webinars
• Emails
• Blog posts
• White papers
• Case studies
• eBooks

Out of these types of content, webinars perform best for B2B. The people making decisions for other businesses want in-depth knowledge, which they can get from a webinar.

Emails are also effective. They keep your audience engaged. You can use emails to reach out to potential customers and keep them from slipping away.

Blog posts are used at the top of your marketing funnel to generate awareness. They also help increase organic traffic through SEO.

White papers provide detailed information on a topic. They are more thorough compared to blog posts, which helps you establish your business as a trusted source.

Case studies offer proof of the value of your products or services. You can use case studies to help showcase how your solutions can benefit future clients.

EBooks can also generate and nurture leads. Like white papers, they help educate your audience with more in-depth information.

4. Grow Your Authority

Establishing your business as a voice of authority adds to your credibility. You can work toward this goal by sharing helpful content.

Use data and research in your content. Adding data-driven suggestions builds more trust with your audience.

These steps help contribute to your online presence.

5. Develop a Content Distribution Strategy

You need a content distribution strategy for publishing and sharing your blogs, emails, and other content. It outlines how and where you plan to distribute your content.

Over 90% of B2B marketers use social media to distribute content. However, you should also use email marketing and guest posts.

SEO should be part of your strategy. Using relevant keywords in your content can improve your search rankings. This increases its reach.

6. Audit Your Content

Audit your content regularly. Look for any knowledge gaps. This includes new topics that you could cover.

You should also look for outdated information and underperforming content. Update or repurpose your content to keep it fresh. You can continue to get use out of your old content with frequent audits.

Pay attention to the following metrics:

• Total visits
• Bounce rates
• Conversions
• Backlinks
• Click-through rates (CTR)
• Keyword ranking

Use this data to figure out what content performs best and worst. This can give you a better idea of what works for your B2B marketing.

Continue to track these metrics and adjust your approach as needed. Over time, you should get a better sense of how to craft effective content.

Conclusion

Developing a B2B content marketing strategy requires research and planning. You need to consider the needs of your audience -- which is other businesses.

If you can find a way to address your audience’s biggest concerns, you’re more likely to get results. To create a successful B2B content marketing campaign, learn more about what troubles your potential clients to better solve their problems.