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B2B Content Marketing: Strategies to Boost Business Growth

Learn how to create a winning B2B content marketing strategy with our complete guide on content marketing for B2B.

Developing a winning marketing strategy is vital for any businesses today, regardless of what industry you are in or represent. When it comes to B2B content marketing, aligning your strategy with existing or planned sales funnels can go a long way, especially in generating sales and maximizing online reach.

From developing your social media content strategy to aligning your strategy with sales funnels, running a successful B2B company requires more than the ability to network and connect. Understanding the basics of B2B content marketing can help you to integrate your marketing strategy with relevant sales funnels based on specific goals you have set in place.

In this guide, we'll explore how to create a strong content marketing strategy, with information on creating content that draws in potential customers, the importance of engaging content, different content marketing strategies, and more.

What is B2B content marketing?

Business-to-business marketing, known as B2B marketing, is the process of appealing to a business audience rather than a traditional consumer audience. A B2B content marketing plan includes creating, processing, and sharing content such as images, videos, white papers, letters, or blogs with a prospective business audience.

This includes other business owners, corporate investors, and those who may have a vested interest in learning more about your business for their own business purposes.

Why is B2B content marketing important?

When it comes to launching a B2B campaign, building a content strategy is a top priority. A content strategy for B2B organizations is essential as it can help to generate content ideas as you work to create a new blog post or share a new social media campaign.

Some reasons why B2B content marketing is so important for any B2B company include:

  • Builds brand awareness: Promoting a business with a content marketing plan designed for B2B opportunities is one of the quickest ways to build brand awareness. Brand awareness is often all that is required in order for a potential client or partner to take a leap and make an investment of their own.
  • Establishes trust: B2B content marketing not only spreads the word about a brand, but it helps to establish trust with business partners and professionals alike.
  • Generates leads: If you are looking for a way to generate leads and make new potential professional connections, you can do so with the right B2B content marketing strategy in place.
  • Improves SEO: SEO-optimized content will appear in much higher places within popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Through SEO keyword research, you can create a working B2B content marketing plan that can significantly boost your website's overall search engine optimization.

How do you create a B2B content marketing strategy?

Creating marketing funnels is imperative for nearly every type of business online today, regardless of industry. If you are thinking of creating a B2B content marketing strategy, there are a few tips to keep in mind throughout the process, such as:

1. Identify your target audience

A target audience includes the type of individuals you intend to reach with your B2B content marketing strategy, such as buyer personas that are most suitable for your organization or company. Building buyer personas can also help you to identify the type of individual you intend to target, as well as the location, interests, gender, and income level that is relevant to your audience.

2. Set clear goals and objectives

Defining and setting clear goals and objectives is another important task that cannot be overlooked when creating a B2B content marketing strategy. Clear objectives and goals can include the following:

  • Generating more leads: Do you want to generate more leads? How do you intend to do so? Will you be contacting prospective B2B partners in-person at networking events, online, or directly via email/telephone?
  • Building brand awareness: If you are interested in building brand awareness, consider what it will take to get your B2B partners intrigued or genuinely supportive. Will you leverage your existing customers by implementing a referral program or start new content campaigns from scratch to tap into new markets?
  • Thought leadership: Are you interested in promoting thought leadership, or are you seeking new thought leaders? This should be kept in mind before you begin crafting the content strategy that is most suitable for the target audience and demographics you intend to reach.

3. Produce different types of content

Creating content should be a unique, interesting, and fun experience while also providing your audience with useful information and/or data. Creating a content plan is key whenever you are working to develop a B2B content marketing funnel.

There are several content formats to choose from. A few types of B2B content marketing examples include:

  • Whitepapers: The use of official whitepaper documents by a business can include important information, statistics, and analysis of products and/or services. Whitepapers are useful for introducing a business to another potential B2B partner or associate.
  • Case Studies: Using case studies is another way to prove the worth and/or value of a particular brand, product, or service. Case studies can include genuine testimonials from other relevant businesses and professionals within your existing network to lend additional credibility to the studies you publish and share.
  • Webinars: Providing webinars and live learning sessions is another way to establish credibility and create a brand that is authoritative in its industry. Webinars are also an excellent source of income for those who choose to monetize their webinar services.
  • Infographics: Another way to reach a much wider audience is through the use of creative content creation, such as with infographics. The use of infographics can help you to convey a complex issue or information on an in-depth topic in a vibrant, appealing, and easily digestible manner.
  • Blog Posts: Posting regularly using an official blog is a way to establish credibility with other businesses and those in the same network as you.
  • Videos: Today, video media is the most popular format of content across the world and on the internet. Using video media can significantly increase the reach you receive online and with the use of social media.
  • eBooks: If you are a writer or if you are searching for a way to share digestible content with prospective B2B partners or investors, consider using eBooks. Writing and sharing eBooks for sale or for free can lend credibility to your brand, especially if your goal is to operate as a B2B company or organization.
  • Podcasts: Another rising star in the media sector includes podcasts. Hosting your own audio and/or video podcast is not only a way to establish your brand's credibility, but it is also a way to maximize your reach and appeal to a much wider audience in a shorter period of time.
  • Social Media Marketing: Using social media marketing to establish and scale an online following is one of the best tools for B2B companies and non-B2B organizations alike. The use of top social media platforms helps to find followers, garner sales, and establish credibility with improved SEO across the web. As a B2B business, one of the leading platforms in LinkedIn. In fact, 77% of B2B content marketers found LinkedIn to produce the best results, with 93% of B2B marketers using LinkedIn to distribute content.

4. Create a content calendar

Using keyword and content research can help you to find the most relevant keyword and phrase trends in your current industry. Additionally, researching trends can also help you to carve out a digital calendar to keep track of your scheduled content. When you choose to schedule your content and plan ahead of time, it is one way to ensure you stay on track with your content, goals, and research. Additionally, it ensures that your website remains relevant and fresh within top search engines.

By creating a content calendar, you'll be able to create a promotion strategy that helps to increase brand awareness. Promoting your content is a key element involved in any B2B content marketing strategy, big or small. Some ways to promote the content you have created might include:

  • Publications: Sending out publications and printed items is one way to promote content or information that is designed to appeal to prospective B2B partners.
  • Social media: The use of social media can help to spread the word regarding any content, product, service, or idea. It is also useful for networking with other professionals, especially via professional networks such as LinkedIn.
  • Email marketing: Email marketing is still one of the most popular and effective digital marketing methods available today. Using email marketing is also ideal for creating B2B sales funnels.
  • Official blog: Launching an official blog on your website is highly recommended. A blog provides an opportunity to boost website page views, SEO, and, ultimately, potential connections and/or sales.

5. Monitor content performance

Along with crafting a content marketing strategy that is suitable for B2B campaigns, it is equally as important to monitor the performance of said plans. Monitoring analytics in real-time can also assist with determining which CTAs (calls-to-action) work best to appeal to the target audience and demographics you are attempting to reach with your online campaigns.

You can measure your content's performance through a variety of tools, such as Google Analytics, to assess metrics like bounce rate and the number of clicks. Measuring content performance by assessing analytics and data is essential to move forward with future decisions regarding B2B campaigns and marketing strategies.

Create successful B2B content marketing campaigns

Learning how to create winning content marketing strategies can go a long way for any type of B2B. The more familiar you become with content marketing for B2B, the easier it will be to reach and connect with other B2B partners. With Mailchimp, learn how to optimize your content marketing efforts to boost your ranking within search engines, generate leads, and launch a truly successful marketing strategy as a B2B organization yourself.

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