By now you’ll hopefully have been converted to the need to be constantly adding content to your B2B website. But understanding the need is one thing... being able to consistently deliver good quality content is another.
Luckily, there are a few simple tips you can keep in mind when creating B2B online marketing content, that can rescue your content from mediocrity and elevate it to ‘must-read’ status. Here they are.
If you’re an expert in your industry, it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of throwing buzzwords, acronyms, and contractions around and confusing your prospects with TMI, leaving them SMH in confusion.
As a digital marketing agency, we can be as guilty of this as anyone, with our talk of SEO, SEM, ROI, and eDMs. But remember, if such terms don’t mean anything to your target audience, you’re better off using everyday English to clearly get your message across.
On the other hand, if judicious use of industry terms helps increase your authenticity and authority in the eyes of that same target audience, go right ahead. And speaking of setting yourself up as an authority...
Your B2B blog shouldn’t simply be a commentary on what is actually happening right now. To add real value for your prospects, it should start with a current hot topic, and then extrapolate a juicy future prediction.
The data shows that blog posts which make predictions about future business trends are more likely to achieve comments, feedback, and sharing – all of which helps increase your blog pages’ search visibility. After all, what business owner doesn’t want to get a look at the future of their industry?
BONUS tip 2a – Make predictions around New Year. After all, that’s when all of us are keen to find out what’s going to happen next, right?
When you’re dealing with B2B marketing, always remember the power of talking about a business owner’s favourite topic: revenue. If you can clearly relate your marketing content to this business fundamental, you’ll have a great chance of acquiring more web traffic.
And to be honest, in B2B marketing, it’s not difficult to relate nearly every topic back to the revenue it will bring to a business.
Put simply, B2B content can and should deal with a wide range of topics. Just be sure to relate these topics back to your readers’ core concern: their bottom line.
Case studies have immense value, particularly during the ‘Consideration’ stage of your online sales funnel. If you can demonstrate to your prospects how you’ve solved particular problems for other clients, you’ll show you have the “runs on the board” and can likely help them out too.
Remember, your case studies shouldn’t simply be advertisements. They should be data-rich, outcomes-focused, and clearly show how you solved a particular issue for a particular client. They can even add lustre to your client’s marketing efforts by providing a good quality back link for their own content.
If you’re brave enough, even failures make for great case studies. After all, that’s often where the most powerful lessons are learned. If you can show your prospects the mistake you made, and importantly what you’ve since changed to ensure it doesn’t happen again, it can be great way to build confidence in your prospects’ minds.
When creating online marketing content, always remember: your content has to make a difference. You want your readers to be so impressed with what you have to say, so that they sign up for your newsletter and put themselves into your online sales funnel voluntarily.
So answer those tough questions. Solve those thorny problems. And show your leads that you have the clear solutions to their troubles – or a path to fulfilling their dreams.
If you’re having trouble figuring out how to fit a particular blog post into your content marketing strategy, it can help to go back to basics. Good B2B marketing content should:
Identify a problem – show that you’re addressing something that your audience deals with.
Show you understand the problem – Your prospects have to be able to relate to the issue you’re solving. And of course:
Solve the problem – this should be the meat of your online content
So reread your content, and ensure it explains clearly how to do, what to do, what it looks like -- with data to back it all up if possible. The more specific, detailed, and actionable you can be, the better your content will perform.
We’ve talked above about how it’s a great idea to relate your content back to your prospects’ bottom line – the dollars and cents of your argument. What better way to do this than with concrete data?
You might be surprised how many data aficionados there are among your blog audience. A well argued position, backed up by 3rd party data, is a sure way to help your marketing content stand out from the crowd.
So get creative and think outside just the written word. Back up your argument with infographics, pie charts, line graphs, and statistics, and really impress your leads.
As professional wordsmiths ourselves, we understand the temptation to shoot for perfection all too well. It’s easy to get bogged down in obsessing over the details and minutiae of the words you’re crafting. But creating the ultimate piece of literature is actually not what you’re meant to be doing.
Of course, you don’t want to serve up any practically unreadable dross. But on the other hand, stylistic perfection arguably takes too long to achieve.
So instead, focus on crafting marketing content that delivers the information it needs to, clearly, succinctly, and compellingly. Keep that novel you’ve got inside you for another day.
Hopefully with the info above you’ve gained new insight into the importance of quality content for your B2B marketing blog.
You should also bear in mind that your B2B marketing content doesn’t have to be just a blog. There are a plethora of rich marketing content formats, such as webinars, FAQ lists, eBooks, videos, free trial offers, check lists, and more.
And you just know what we’ll say next – you should test, test, and test some more to find out which is the best format for your business and the particular customer persona your current campaign is focussing on.
Like to know more about how to create high quality B2B marketing content for your website? Call Crockford Carlisle now on 3891 3800 or fill out the contact form online.