B2B Content Marketing Tactics For 2019

Content marketing — it’s not just for B2C companies anymore. Increasingly B2B providers are finding content marketing an effective way to generate leads and keep clients engaged throughout the entire customer journey. If your organization has hesitated to add content marketing to your marketing mix, or if you’re new to B2B content marketing, read on. Here are six things you need to know to succeed at B2B content marketing in 2019.

B2B Content Marketing Has Room for Improvement

In the United States, 87 percent of B2B companies now include content marketing in their marketing efforts. While content marketing has become popular, it still doesn’t make up a large share of marketing budgets, with most B2B companies spending just 11 to 25 percent of their marketing budgets on it. When asked to rate the maturity of their content marketing efforts, most companies described it as adolescent. So, if your B2B content marketing isn’t yet mature, you’re not alone. There’s a lot of room for improvement.

Good Content Sparks Lead Generation

The first area of your content marketing that you should think about improving is the area that most B2B marketers use content marketing for in the first place: lead generation. In fact, 80 percent of B2B marketers say that lead generation is the main reason they engage in content marketing.

If your lead magnets haven’t been as successful as you’d hoped, it could be as simple as your choice of format. Specifically, you’ll want to make sure that your lead magnets are in one of the following formats: content downloads, webinars, demo offers, free trials and polls/surveys, since they’re the ones that generate the most leads. As far as content downloads go, the most successful are articles, case studies, research reports and videos.

Success Starts with Goals, a Plan and Measurement

Of course, content marketing works best when it’s strategically planned and implemented. Like almost everything else, success depends on how clear your goals are and how well you follow your plan. When creating your B2B content marketing plan, consider the following:

Content to Needs to Be Both Credible and High-Quality

The quality vs. quantity debate still rages on in the content marketing world, but one thing is certain, content needs to be reliable, informational and entertaining to be successful. The good thing for new companies is that most people don’t care about sources as long as the information they receive is credible. But establishing your brand as a go-to source of quality content only helps, since many people also value the source of information as much as the information itself.

Some ways to improve the quality of your content include researching your topic thoroughly before creating your content and using data to back up your claims. Another good idea is to stay away from sales-y messaging that could tarnish the perceived quality of your content.

Different Content Formats Serve Different Roles

There are many ways to present content, and you don’t have to use the same format to reach your audience, even if you’ve had some success with it. Some formats are more effective than others in reaching certain audiences and some members of your audience might not use a certain platform, so it’s best to try at least a few.

Here are the most popular and effective content formats:

• Social media content
• Blogs
• Newsletters
• E-books/white papers
• Videos
• Infographics

You can repurpose material from one format to the next, but try to offer slightly different content in each format to get your audience to engage with you in more than one place. Also, remember that some formats are better for certain tasks. Reports and ebooks work well for lead generation, for example, while blog posts can help drive website visits and videos can keep your audience’s interest piqued.

Reaching Audiences is as Important as Creating Great Content

Lastly, there’s no use having great content if no one sees it. To promote your content, you’ll want to use a mix of paid and unpaid channels like email, social media, search engine marketing and advertising.

By setting clear goals, creating a responsive strategy and measuring your ROI, experimenting with various formats and distribution models, you’ll be able to considerably improve your content marketing efforts and create even better results. And, in case you need some help along the way, we are always here.