6 Tips For Making Effective B2B Content Marketing Campaigns

A lot of people seem to think that marketing is only important for companies that sell products and services to consumers (B2C companies). However, businesses that sell products and services to other businesses (B2B companies) have just as much need for effective content marketing as their B2C counterparts.

But, what makes for effective B2B content marketing? The audiences are different from the B2C sphere, so B2B marketing strategies need to be 

Discover essential strategies to elevate your B2B content marketing and drive significant business growth.

What Is B2B Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a marketing strategy that relies on the creation and distribution of relevant, high-value content to your target audience throughout their buyer's journey. B2B content marketing specifically targets other businesses with this content.

As the strategy often targets specific businesses or industries, it is useful as part of an account-based marketing strategy where you create (or modify) content for a specific account to nurture them along the buyer's journey.

Tips for Making More Effective B2B Content Marketing

Creating great content marketing materials that move the proverbial needle isn't easy. However, there are a few things that you can do to improve your odds of achieving success with your B2B content marketing strategy:

1. Understand the B2B Content Marketing Landscape

Before you embark on a B2B content marketing journey, you need to have a map of the B2B marketing landscape for your target industry.

Unlike B2C marketing, B2B marketing focuses on logical process-driven purchasing decisions and often involves a longer sales cycle. It's often the case that multiple decision-makers or key stakeholders are involved in the purchase decision before a B2B deal is closed.

The key? Fostering relationships built on trust and value. After all, companies seek to partner with innovators who can empathize with (and more importantly, solve) their business challenges.

To foster a relationship, you need to know who to approach and the best way to approach them. This is where conducting some market research and creating buyer personas can help. 

2. Craft Content That Resonates with B2B Audiences

To captivate a B2B audience, your content must speak their language. It's about creating insightful, educational material that resonates with industry leaders seeking to overcome specific pain points.

It's time to peel back the layers of generic content and produce data-driven, humanized stories that glue eyes to screens and tickle the intellectual curiosity of your prospective clients.

This often means putting a little extra thought into your content strategy. Consider your audience's challenges and how they can be solved, then generate content that answers their pain points.

For example, a common manufacturing pain point might be upholding parts tolerances while maximizing throughput—producing more parts that meet strict quality standards.

Some examples of marketing content for that audience might include blogs or content offers about using automation to increase consistency and productivity, how to set up a manufacturing process that minimizes downtime between processes, or key strategies for eliminating parts variance.

3. Leverage the Right Platforms for B2B Engagement

If your content is published in the woods, and nobody's around to read it, does it move the needle? No, it doesn't. 

Choosing the right platform for your B2B content is crucial for driving engagement with your brand. It's essential for ensuring your message reaches the right audience.

Platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and industry-specific forums are the digital watering holes where different audiences gather.

Leverage these platforms to share your content and engage in meaningful conversations.

LinkedIn

As the premier professional networking site, LinkedIn is the go-to platform for B2B marketers looking to connect with industry experts and decision-makers. Creating LinkedIn posts, sending InMail, and purchasing ads are all great places to publish content for an account-based marketing campaign.

X

X's fast-paced environment is perfect for sharing insights, following trends, and engaging with thought leaders in real time. It's also a great channel for promoting new downloadable offers, blog posts, and other content. 

Facebook

Did you know that Facebook has 2.9 billion monthly active users? While the platform is typically seen as being more for interacting with consumers, Facebook groups centered around specific industries or professional organizations can be a great way to interact with a more business-oriented audience.

Industry-Specific Forums

Engaging in niche forums allows you to dive deep into industry conversations and position your brand as a problem-solver. Find niche communities on a variety of platforms to drive engagement with your brand and position yourself as an expert in your field.

4. Determine Your Optimum B2B Content Frequency

Finding the right cadence for your B2B communications is more art than science. It's about striking a balance that keeps your brand top-of-mind without overwhelming your audience.

Regular, value-packed content fosters a consistent, trustworthy presence, nurturing leads through the sales funnel with a rhythm that resonates with the beat of business needs.

But, how frequently should you publish content? The answer varies depending on the platform. For example, blog articles (like the one you're reading now) should be published at least once a week. However, some estimates state that an ideal rate of content publication for an established blog is four to five blogs per week.

5. Measure Success in B2B Content Marketing

What's a campaign without a success metric? As with any marketing strategy, B2B content marketing needs measurable goals. But, which content marketing metrics should you track? Here's a short list:

• Traffic Sources. In their own article on content marketing metrics, this was HubSpot's first suggestion. Knowing where your traffic is coming from (offline sources, direct traffic, organic search, paid search, organic social, paid social, etc.) is key for identifying where your target audience is. It also helps you gauge the success of your content marketing efforts across different platforms. For example, if your social media traffic is lagging, you may want to focus on creating content for your social media marketing.
• Device Type and Browser Type. It sounds odd, but if you're using content marketing as part of your overall account-based marketing strategy, knowing what kinds of devices and website browsers visitors are using to view your site can be useful information. This helps you cater your website experience to serve the quirks of the devices and browsers your audience uses or identify niche audiences that are interested in your brand. For example, do you have a large number of linux users? More Android devices vs Apple devices? This kind of information helps inform your buyer persona profiles.
• Backlinks. How many other sites are linking to your content as an authoritative source? The more backlinks you have from reputable sites, the better it will be for your SEO and your content's ranking in Google SERPs. Also, track your backlinks from toxic domains and use the Google disavow tool to keep these toxic links from hurting your site's rank. 
• Clickthrough Rate (CTR). What percentage of visitors who view a piece of content go on to click your offer and CTA links in that content? Your clickthrough rate helps you determine how effectively your assets convert your visitors. This is a great conversion-tracking metric that any marketer should track.

These are just a handful of the metrics that you should track. If you're on HubSpot, consider setting up a custom reporting dashboard to make it easy to see your progress towards your content marketing goals. 

Tracking as many metrics as you can will help you confirm your campaign's performance and where your content has been the most innovative and inspirational.

6. Choose the Right Content Format

Every piece of content is a small part of the whole that is your marketing strategy. Here's a list of different content formats to consider for your B2B marketing efforts:

• Blogs and Articles: Ideal for SEO and providing in-depth insights. These articles help establish your brand as an authority in your field and can be a helpful resource for your prospects.
• Whitepapers and E-books: These are the cornerstones for thought leadership and lead generation. When possible, try to insert as much research (especially original research) as you can. This helps make your whitepapers/E-books as authoritative as possible.
• Case Studies: Real-world success stories that prove your worth. They can serve as "social proof" of your organization's ability to deliver on your promises by showcasing past successes.
• Infographics: Visual data that educates and engages at a glance. This can be a great way to share important data and gain the attention of your audience.
• Webinars: Interactive sessions that establish your brand's voice and authority. The interactivity of a webinar helps keep your audience engaged and can even be an opportunity to learn more about their priorities.
• Podcasts: An audio/visual content type offering industry insights "on the go." Making a podcast can help extend your reach through popular podcast apps and generate interest in your brand. Also, some prospects may prefer listening to audio over reading a blog post or E-book.

Remember, primary research is good as gold in B2B marketing. By conducting and sharing your research, you showcase your brand's innovative spirit and cement your position as an authority.

Need Help Crafting and Distributing Great B2B Marketing Content?

Book a meeting with the experts at Bluleadz to discuss how you can implement and optimize your B2B content marketing strategy to attract, convert, and delight your audience.

Discover how you can leverage your content and your HubSpot tools to build a strong foundation for success moving forward.