As more and more businesses go online, there is absolutely no way of doing business without good quality content. Content marketing is an effective inbound online marketing tool, to attract, generate and retain prospective clients. Be it B2B or B2C, creating value-based content is very essential for businesses to get online visibility, to increase website traffic, to increase sales leads and to get the required ROI.
And all the news about how easy it is to create content or for all the ruckus of how the marketing technique is very basic is so wrong. Content marketing does convert long term marketing goals to effective ROIs. As per a study conducted in Jan 2021, nearly 72% of the B2B companies from amongst the 502 selected for review, have blog sites on their web pages. Companies that created good content on their websites drove in 52% more traffic than those that catered to mediocre content.
What is B2B Content marketing?
B2B content marketing is the process of creating value-based content for widening the customer range in order to build strong brand loyalty and expand sales targets. B2B content marketing fully focuses on businesses. The varied forms of B2B content creation are wholly based on business related topics rather than general topics as it is mostly with B2C marketing. In B2C marketing, there is the freedom of choice for content creation to a great extent but in B2B it is more or less industry-specific. The B2B content, are invariably problem solvers and business information generators.
Importance of Content Marketing
B2B content marketing is important in order to
● To generate sales leads.
● To reduce marketing overheads as online marketing is one amongst the cheapest tools to increase sales and profits of the business.
● Enhance quality business connections with customers.
● Increase online visibility of products/services.
● Increase profits and ROI.
What are the advantages of B2B Content Marketing?
1. Help you focus on a specific segment of the business community.
In B2B content marketing, you can tailor your content as per the requirements of your business clients. Such micro level precision content creation will help you to quickly connect with your prospective clients. Berry Insurance is a personal and business insurance company, which has developed educational insurance content for its customers. The insurance company has generated content on business insurance, workers compensation, liability and so on. They have in fact designed a learning resource hub where they have answers to almost all client queries related to business insurance. They share their content via blogs, podcasts, white paper and videos.
2. Help businesses to portray your products/service in the best possible way.
You create content not just about the products/services you sell but also about the advantages of it for the potential customers. You convert the required content with the necessary value-adds as per your customer needs. In B2B content marketing you can get an edge over your competitors, by showcasing the best you offer to your clients at an affordable price range. B2b customers are surely surfing the net to get the cost- effective prices and details about the products/services they require. Educational videos, tutorial sessions, question/ answer portals, email connections and social media feeds could help you reach out to your prospective customers. Intek, the logistics company have content based on:
● Comparative freight pricing.
● Advantages and disadvantages of using company shipping.
● Freight broker and freight agent comparison.
● Best truckload companies
Intek provides value based info for clients as per what they require- more or less a solution to their business queries.
3. Help to optimise SEO based on keyword searches.
Creating B2B content enhances your online visibility. On incorporating important industry specific keywords in your content, the search engine optimization increases. As you move forward you dive to more technical details pertaining to your industry. Such detailed specifications using distinct keywords also work out as problem solvers for customers who search for business solutions. Incorporating combination keywords in your content is again one of the best methods to be on the top of SEOs.
4. Help to generate quality sales leads, increase ROI and profits.
The final aim of every marketing strategy is to amplify sales as much as gain and and retain customers. In B2B content marketing strategy you create a variety of online content such as blogs, whitepapers, infographics and so on to drive quality online traffic. Once you get the customers on track, the next step is to encourage them to take action by either seeking a quote or filling up a contact request or clicking on the call-to-action button. You can include “lead pullers” across various content and maybe even on various other websites. Wistia, a video hosting business, has product descriptions, podcasts, instructional videos and customer testimonials. Wistia co-marketed a video on “how to produce 3 variety videos on three different budgets”. This content in fact helped the company to generate more sales leads.
TAKEAWAY
For a successful B2B content marketing process, first develop a business strategy for your business. Then generate related content with the needed keywords to showcase your products/services. Continuously develop your B2b online content as per customer requirements and industry changes.