Content marketing is more than a buzzword. Brands are using content marketing to generate brand awareness, foster trust, engage audiences, and nurture customer relationships. All of this can eventually lead to better conversions and revenue, which is why 69.6% of businesses actively invested in content marketing in 2020.
Image via HubSpot
But, B2B content marketing can be tricky, especially if you’re competing with brands with deep pockets.
Sound familiar?
I feel your pain and I have your back. In this post, I’m going to elaborate on three B2B content marketing tactics that can produce sure-shot ROI, no matter the budget. Let’s get started.
3 B2B Content Marketing Tactics to Multiply Your Conversions
If you talk to an experienced content marketer, they’ll tell you how challenging it’s becoming to score conversions on the dint of content marketing alone. And, they’re not wrong. Brands are leveraging a multi-pronged approach (paid + organic) to beat the competition.
That said, content marketing remains the backbone of modern digital marketing. If you use the right B2B content marketing tactics, there’s no reason why your brand can’t earn big sales. Let’s take a look at three such effective strategies.
1. Educate Your Audience
If you haven’t already started a blog, there’s no better time to do so than now. Despite the abundance of content being published, consumers are starved for quality content. By serving great content in digestible formats, you can become a trusted resource for your target audience.
If you already own a blog, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Simply, step up the quality standards and create informative content in a way your competition isn’t doing. Your content should fulfill the three E’s of content marketing – excite, educate, and engage audiences.
Out of these three E’s, educating audiences is the most crucial for B2Bs to earn conversions. The better informed your audience is about your products, the more top-of-mind advantage your brand will enjoy. If your content marketing is channeled towards educating the target audience, you will never fall short of traffic on your website. Attracting the right audience will eventually lead to better conversions.
So, think of different ways to educate your target consumers about your product and brand. Webinars, podcasts, and videos are all effective means to showcase your value proposition and provide information in a fun way.
But one under-rated tool that needs a special mention is infographics. You can create infographics to convey loads of information in a digestible way. Since nearly 65% of people are visual learners, they can comprehend information more easily through pictures and infographics than text-only posts. It’s no wonder why infographics get maximum shares on social media.
For instance, a boring topic like stock and shares can seem almost palatable when it’s presented through a crisp infographic like shown below:
Image via Venngage
2. Go Above and Beyond Blogging
And while on the topic of educating customers, we can’t ignore blogging. But regular blogging just won’t make the cut anymore.
Why so?
In one word: Competition.
In fact, 80% of marketers are already on the blog bandwagon. Consumer fatigue levels are high and their tolerance threshold for sub-standard content is really low.
To stand out, you need to keep varying your content formats and presentation styles. Mix up regular blog posts with quirky GIFs and insightful whitepapers. Show off your content creation range and keep your audience on their toes. This way, you can cater to people with different content-consumption habits.
When we talk about blogging, let’s not restrict ourselves to long-form content. Crisp social media posts can be as engaging and informative. The content case study can help you understand more about it. Moreover, they are more popular than blog posts among B2B content marketers, according to the CMI report cited earlier.
Image via Content Marketing Institute (CMI)
Tune in to trending topics using social media tools like Buffer. You can filter down the topics according to your industry, location, and audience demographics. You can also get a sneak peek into your competitors’ social media content and create something better. Don’t forget to optimize your content length, posting frequency, and times for each target platform.
Want a pro tip?
Humanize your brand on social media by sharing your personal struggles and brand stories through your content. Take inspiration from video-editing platform, Wistia. Their posts regularly feature their employees, which gives their content a real, raw quality that modern consumers love.
Image via Instagram
3. Track Your Content Marketing Performance
It’s pointless to invest effort in a strategy and not measure its returns. Remember that you can’t improve what you can’t measure. So, monitor your content marketing metrics closely and draw insights from your experiences.
If you’ve started content marketing without defining your KPIs and metrics, I’m afraid you’re fighting a losing battle. It’s time to backtrack a little and pick the metrics that matter the most to you. Use these industry benchmarks to guide you:
Image via CMI
If, like most B2B marketers, email engagement is the top precursor of success for you, track your open and click rates. Low conversions can mean that you need to rehash your email marketing campaigns. You may need to split test emails with different sample audiences or revamp your subject lines or content.
The point is that you will never spot these errors if you don’t track your campaigns. You may continue living in a bubble and believe that everything you’re doing is working, even when it’s failing. So, use robust analytics tools that offer detailed reports in real-time. Document your results, avoid the same pitfalls, and repeat successful strategies in subsequent campaigns.
Ready to Turbocharge Your Content Marketing?
That’s it, folks! That’s what a great B2B content marketing strategy looks like. Now, you have to interweave these tactics into your larger plan to get the best bang for your buck. Depending on where your content marketing stands currently, you might need to overhaul your strategy or make a few tweaks here and there.
What is your approach towards content marketing? Share your hacks, tips, and tools with the community through the comments section below.
About the Author: Shane Barker is a digital marketing consultant who specializes in influencer marketing, content marketing, and SEO. He is the co-founder of Attrock, a digital marketing agency. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, influencers with digital products, and a number of A-List celebrities.