All businesses use content in their marketing in one form or another. But how much thought and effort do you devote to the strategy behind the content you use to market your business to the companies who are your potential customers? It isn’t an accident that companies with a well-executed content strategy enjoy significantly improved results in B2B marketing than those that don’t have a strategy. In fact, 62% of B2B organizations that enjoy the most success with content marketing report they have a documented strategy. Below, we explore how to develop a B2B content marketing strategy that will help your business achieve success.

Why Content Marketing is Important for B2B

Did you know that, on average, 47% of B2B buyers report that they engage with three to five pieces of content from a company before engaging with a salesperson? And 60% of people decide to investigate a product after reading about it?

B2B content marketing is vital for businesses because it educates and informs target audiences, positioning them as industry experts and building trust. By providing valuable insights and addressing pain points, content marketing supports longer B2B sales cycles by nurturing leads and guiding them through the buyer’s journey. Additionally, it offers a high return on investment compared to other marketing channels, as it can attract organic traffic, generate leads, and drive sales over time. Evergreen content, which remains relevant and valuable for extended periods, further contributes to long-term benefits, such as increased brand visibility and thought leadership.

B2B Content Types

What types of content do B2B marketers use most often, and why?

Blog Posts

Blog posts are short-form articles that share insights, industry news, and thought leadership. They typically range from 500 to 1500 words. Blog posts can improve your search engine rankings, build brand awareness, nurture leads, and drive traffic to your website.

Whitepapers and Ebooks

Whitepapers and ebooks are long-form content pieces that provide in-depth analysis and expert insights on a specific topic. They often exceed 10 pages or contain more than 2,500 words. These formats can position your brand as a thought leader, generate high-quality leads, and build trust and credibility.

Case Studies

Case studies showcase how your product or service has helped clients achieve their goals. They are story-based content that highlights a specific customer’s success. Case studies can build trust and credibility, convince potential customers, and generate leads and sales.

Webinars

Webinars are live or pre-recorded online events that deliver presentations and discussions on a specific topic. They engage your audience, generate leads and sales, and build relationships with customers and prospects.

Infographics

Infographics are visual representations of data that combine text, images, and charts to make complex information easy to understand. They can improve content engagement, boost social media shares, improve SEO by garnering backlinks, and increase website traffic.

Videos and Podcasts

Videos and podcasts share information and stories in an audio or video format. They can be short or long-form. These formats can improve brand awareness, engage your audience, drive traffic to your website, and generate leads and sales.

Key Elements of a B2B Content Marketing Strategy

A successful B2B content marketing strategy will incorporate these elements:

Clear Goals and KPIs

Define what you want to achieve with your content marketing. Are you aiming for brand awareness, lead generation, customer retention, or thought leadership? Having clear goals helps guide your strategy.

Identify the metrics that will help you measure your progress toward those goals. Some common B2B KPIs include increased leads, website traffic, conversion rates, and social media engagement. For email campaigns, look for increases in opens and click-through rates. You can also measure increases in backlinks to your website. You will ultimately want to keep tabs on your expenditures for your content strategy so you can measure your returns on your investment (ROI).

Target Audience Research

A successful B2B content strategy should identify your target audience(s) with as much detail as possible. A helpful way to do this is to develop buyer personas.

Buyer personas are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customer, based on market research and real data. They help you understand your target audience’s demographics, motivations, pain points, and buying behaviors. By creating detailed buyer personas, you can tailor your marketing and sales efforts to resonate with specific customer segments, increasing engagement and conversions.

AI tools now make it possible to quickly analyze CRM data and find patterns in customer behavior, demographics, and purchase history. This can help divide audiences into segments and create more accurate buyer personas. There are also AI-powered generators that create detailed buyer personas based on the data you provide. Tools with natural language processing (NLP) capabilities can analyze customer feedback, reviews, and other communications to find common themes and attitudes, which can also shape buyer personas and content.

Include in your personas the types of content your audiences consume and what platform(s) they use. This will help tailor your content to their needs.

Competitive Analysis

Analyzing your competitors can also help inform your B2B content marketing strategy.

Benchmark your business’s performance against your competitors by assessing various metrics, such as market share, revenue growth, customer satisfaction, product quality, and pricing.

Benchmarking helps you better understand your market position, determining where your business stands in relation to its competitors. You can also pinpoint weaknesses and areas where you can optimize your processes and strategies. You may discover competitors’ innovative approaches and strategies that you will want to adopt. You can establish appropriate

benchmarks to strive for and measure your progress and use data-driven insights to make strategic choices that will help you stay competitive.

Content Planning for All Stages of the Marketing Funnel

Plan your content for the stages of the funnel: awareness, consideration, and decision.

• Awareness Stage: Create content that attracts your target audience and builds brand awareness. This includes blog posts, social media content, infographics, and videos.

• Consideration Stage: Provide valuable information and resources to help your audience make informed decisions. This includes case studies, whitepapers, ebooks, and webinars.

• Decision Stage: Offer personalized content and calls to action to guide prospects towards a purchase. This includes product demos, pricing information, and testimonials.

Distribution and Promotion Strategy

A robust B2B content marketing distribution and promotion strategy is essential to maximize the impact of your content. First, leverage your owned channels, such as your website and blog. Optimize your content for search engines (SEO) to attract organic traffic. Create a content calendar to ensure consistent posting and strategically distribute content across different channels.

Second, utilize social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and relevant industry-specific groups to share your content and engage with your target audience. Share valuable insights, join discussions, and participate in relevant communities. Additionally, consider paid advertising on social media platforms to reach a wider audience and drive traffic to your content.

Third, email marketing is a powerful tool for nurturing leads and promoting content. Segment your email list based on interests and behaviors to deliver targeted content. Create compelling subject lines and engaging email content to encourage opens and clicks. Finally, explore content syndication opportunities with industry publications and websites to reach a larger audience and gain valuable backlinks. By implementing these strategies, you can effectively distribute and promote your B2B content, generating leads, building brand awareness, and driving business growth.

Measuring and Optimizing Performance

To effectively measure and optimize the performance of a B2B content marketing strategy, it’s crucial to track key metrics and analyze the data to identify areas for improvement. Start by setting clear goals and KPIs aligned with your overall business objectives. These might include increasing website traffic, generating leads, improving brand awareness, or driving sales.

Once you’ve established your goals, use analytics tools to track the performance of your content. Monitor website traffic, engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments), conversion rates, and lead generation. Pay attention to which content pieces are resonating with your audience and which ones are falling flat. Use this information to identify trends and make data-driven decisions.

To optimize your strategy, consider A/B testing different content formats, headlines, and calls to action. This will help you determine what works best with your target audience. Additionally, analyze your competitor’s content marketing strategies to identify opportunities for improvement. Stay up-to-date with industry trends and adapt your approach as needed. By continuously monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing your content marketing efforts, you can maximize your ROI and achieve your business goals.

B2B Content Marketing Best Practices

Focus on Education Over Promotion

Instead of directly pitching your products or services, prioritize providing valuable information to your target audience. This approach positions your brand as a trusted advisor, rather than a pushy salesperson. Offering helpful content helps you attract the right audience–those who are actively seeking solutions for their pain points. Strong, helpful content also provides value which helps build trust and nurture relationships. When you consistently deliver high-quality information, your audience will perceive you as a reliable source they want to come back to.

Create In-Depth, Data-Driven Content

High-quality, data-driven content establishes your brand as an industry authority. By providing detailed insights and actionable advice, you can solve problems for your audience, demonstrate your expertise in your field, and, because search engines favor high-quality content, you can improve your website’s search engine rankings.

Optimize for Search Engines

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps your content appear higher in search engine results, driving organic traffic to your website and generating more leads. By optimizing your content, you increase visibility, making your content easily discoverable by potential customers. By using relevant keywords, you can attract people who are actively searching for your products or services.

Repurpose Content Across Channels

Repurposing content allows you to maximize the value of your content by sharing it across multiple channels. This allows you to reach a wider audience, improve engagement, and save time and resources.

 Leverage User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is content created by your customers. By sharing UGC, you can foster community and interaction with your brand and increase credibility. Positive UGC can also help improve or repair your brand’s reputation.

Collaborate with Industry Experts

Collaborating with industry experts can help you reach a wider audience and establish your brand as a thought leader. By collaborating with experts, you can introduce your brand to new audiences, enhance credibility, and create high-quality content that resonates with your audience.

Building a B2B Content Strategy Framework

When undertaking a new content strategy, deploy a strategic framework for best results.

Define Goals and Objectives

A robust content strategy begins with clearly defined goals and objectives. These should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Goals might include increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or boosting sales. Objectives might involve specific actions, such as publishing a certain number of blog posts per month or achieving a specific social media engagement rate.

Create Buyer Personas

We’ve already touched on buyer personas so you understand how important they are. Spending the time to create accurate buyer personas ensures your content resonates and drives conversions.

Map Content to Buyer’s Journey

The buyer’s journey outlines the stages a customer goes through before making a purchase. Mapping content to each stage is crucial. At the awareness stage, you might provide informative blog posts or webinars. In the consideration stage, case studies and whitepapers can be effective. Finally, at the decision stage, product demos and personalized content can seal the deal.

Develop Editorial Calendar

An editorial calendar is a roadmap for your content creation process. It outlines topics, publication dates, and who is responsible for each piece. It also helps you maintain consistency and ensures timely content delivery. A well-structured calendar prevents last-minute rushes and ensures a steady flow of high-quality content.

Establish Workflow and Processes

Efficient workflows and processes streamline content creation. This includes steps like topic ideation, research, writing, editing, design, and publishing. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities, along with effective communication, are essential for smooth collaboration. A well-established workflow minimizes bottlenecks and delays.

Plan for Content Distribution

Effective content distribution is key to reaching your target audience. This involves identifying the most suitable channels, such as social media, email marketing, and content syndication. A well-executed distribution strategy ensures your content reaches the right people at the right time. It’s important to track the performance of your content across different channels to measure its impact and make necessary adjustments.

B2B Content Marketing Services

Globe Runner offers these B2B content marketing services to help your business achieve its goals.

Content Strategy Development: This involves creating a comprehensive plan for your content marketing efforts. It includes defining your target audience, setting clear goals, and outlining the types of content you’ll produce.

Content Creation and Production: This service focuses on creating high-quality content that aligns with your strategy. It may include blog posts, articles, whitepapers, case studies, infographics, and videos.

SEO and Keyword Research: This service helps your content rank higher in search engine results. It involves identifying relevant keywords and optimizing your content to improve its visibility.

Content Distribution and Promotion: This service ensures your content reaches your target audience. It involves sharing your content on social media, email marketing, and other relevant channels.

Performance Tracking and Reporting: This service helps you measure the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts. It involves tracking key metrics such as website traffic, engagement, and conversions.

Content Optimization: This service helps you improve the performance of your existing content. It may involve updating old content, adding new keywords, or improving the overall user experience.

Partner with Globe Runner to Elevate Your B2B Content Marketing

A well-executed strategy ensures your content aligns with your business goals, reaches the right audience at the right time, and delivers measurable results. To achieve real success with B2B marketing, it pays to have a well developed content strategy and a solid partner to execute that strategy. 

Ready to elevate your brand and grow your B2B business with compelling content? You can choose all or a selection of Globe Runner’s B2B content marketing services to propel your company to the next level! Schedule a consultation today to get started.