Every day, people are bombarded with thousands of advertisements — a lot of which they opt to skip. So how can you get past the clutter and deliver your message to the right audience?
The answer is content marketing. This has become the new norm to reach more people and increase profits, with 79% of B2B marketers reporting that their organization has a content marketing strategy.
What Is Content Marketing?
The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as:
“A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
What makes content marketing so effective is the value it provides. It’s something that people seek out and willingly consume.
The goal of content marketing is to consistently provide value that’s relevant to a clearly defined audience — your client persona. So if it doesn’t provide value or you target the wrong audience, then it becomes more challenging to achieve your desired customer action.
Businesses of all sizes use this technique to market their products and services because it’s an effective way to achieve marketing objectives.
Why is Content Marketing Important for Business?
To understand why content marketing is important, let’s talk about the buyer journey and how content can influence people at different stages:
Awareness – When customers start doing their research on potential solutions to their business problems, relevant and optimized content can place you right where your potential customers are searching. Top of Funnel (TOFU) content such as blog articles or eBooks are useful at this stage to help increase brand visibility, demonstrate your expertise, and build up your credibility.
Consideration – At this point of the buying cycle, the customer starts comparing their options. Middle of Funnel (MOFU) content such as product infographics and datasheets, explainer videos, trials or demos, can make it easier for customers to evaluate your products and services.
Decision – When the customer is about to make their purchase decision, Bottom of Funnel (BOFU) content such as case studies and testimonials can help swing decisions in your favor.
Your content should be designed to address the customer’s needs at their current stage of the buyer journey, but also to move them along to the next.
B2B Content Marketing Tips:
How to Make Your Brand Stand Out
Now that you know more about content marketing, here are 9 content marketing tips you can incorporate into your marketing strategy.
1. Build targeted landing pages
When you create landing pages for your offers, keep your target audience in mind. Will they be able to relate with the landing page content? Is your offer something they find valuable right now?
Offer specific content that matches your customer’s place in the buyer’s journey. Be strategic with the keywords you use as well. The best practice is to use the same keywords in your content as your customers do when they search.
2. Offer valuable gated content
An effective way to generate quality leads is to offer useful and relevant content in exchange for the user’s contact details. B2B marketers can make use of lead magnets like guides, infographics, white papers, and eBooks that their target audience find beneficial.
3. Create an integrated omnichannel experience
Communicating to your audience through different channels helps you stay top of mind. When your messaging is consistent across your various channels, your audience will have a better idea of who you are and what you can offer.
You don’t need to be on every channel or social media platform. Strategically select those platforms where your audience are most active and engaged.
4. Tell a story...or not
While brand storytelling is a powerful tool to get your message across, not all content has to tell a story. Sometimes, a straightforward post that serves its purpose – such as one which states interesting facts or answers a common question – is more than enough to retain people’s attention. After all, as Microsoft reported, the average human attention span has dwindled from 12 seconds to 8 seconds only.
If telling a story makes sense for your content (for instance, it will help people relate better with your product or service or it will cultivate trust), then by all means, go for it. Just remember that not all content needs to tell a complex and engaging narrative.
5. Use data to back up your content
Create more impactful content by using statistics and facts to back up your assertions and the points you make. It’s important to make factual statements and not mislead people, especially since content marketing is all about building trust and credibility. Don’t forget to provide the appropriate citation and include a link to the original source, if possible.
6. Use emotional and actionable words
Using these kinds of words on your copy will not only make people read your content — they'll also be compelled to share it with others. Use words that evoke emotions and produce actions, such as:
Some of the best practices you can follow, especially for headlines, are to include odd numbers and data that share results.
7. Segment your audience
According to Campaign Monitor, a marketer’s secret weapon is relevancy—and it’s also the fastest route to revenue. They found that marketers experienced a 760% increase in email revenue from segmented campaigns. Segmenting customers – whether based on the buyer persona, their stage in the buyer journey, or a recent action they have taken with your company – will give you better customer response than blasting generic emails to your entire database.
8. Run A/B tests
Conducting A/B split tests is crucial for marketers. Through this, you’ll be able to see which kinds of content, headlines, and calls to action work best on your target audience. You can run split tests on any component of your campaign, like visuals, copy, and landing pages.
When you know which strategies work, your content marketing becomes more effective and produces better results.
9. Check analytics and optimize
Analytics allows you to determine what kind of content is working. You can evaluate content based on topics, formats, visuals, and even the profile of people who engage with them. Based on these insights, you can then make changes to your content strategy.
Remember as well that the content you develop must be optimized for search engines so it will be easier for people to find it.
If you don’t have your own team of marketers who can do these for you or you simply aren’t sure where to start, marketing consultants such as Beeline can help you craft and execute your content marketing strategy
Don’t miss the opportunity to use content marketing to grow your business. Apply these tried and tested content marketing tips today.
Want more content marketing ideas tailored for your business?
Book a consultation with Beeline!
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