5 Uses for B2B Content

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What Does Content Offer B2B Marketing?

In the fast-paced world of B2B marketing, it is easy to get carried along in a trend and not remember why you originally found it worthy of your time. Content became king a while back but what does it actually do for us? As we enter a new year, it is the perfect time to take stock of your investments.

Here are five of our favorite ways to leverage content:

1.      Sales collateral to engage with prospective customers- Content is important at every stage of the sales funnel but can be invaluable in furthering conversations. A well-timed infographic to grab the attention of a new contact or an educational white paper to provide value to a prospect can move someone along. Many buyers do the majority of their research prior to speaking to sales, so use content to start that conversation and engage with them until they are ready for a call.

2.      Woo and delight your current clients- Don’t forget about your current customers when building out your content portfolio. Send them pieces that address current pain points that a new update to your solution can solve. Help them become experts in their field by sending thought-leadership pieces to subtly remind them of your own expertise. If you have the resources, try building out content to recap a successful project with a client and send it to them with a big “thank you.”

3.      Syndicate for lead generation- Perhaps your current list of potential and current clients isn’t as robust as you would like. Pick your best pieces to start the conversation with new prospects and invest in lead generation. The more quality pieces you have to syndicate, the more likely it is you will get higher volumes of qualified leads. Make sure that you don’t use pieces that focus solely on your solution—remember you have to earn their attention before they are willing to hear you talk about yourself.

4.      Improve your SEO with strategic pieces- Take a look at your portfolio and do a little audit. When people do an online search, what key words do you want them to find you with? If you don’t already have updated content around those topics, start building it out. Then get it online so your target audience can find you more easily.

5.      Build partnerships with co-sponsored content- You might be building your brand awareness right now and don’t have the name recognition you aim to achieve. Try building partnerships with bigger brand names and collaborate on content. Work on a research project and create content based on your results or perhaps you could simply create content on your integration with well-known partners (with their permission). If you syndicate the resulting pieces, you not only strengthen your business relationships but also increase your audience reach.

It feels as if there are always more ways to learn to use content in B2B marketing. We are hosting a webinar next Thursday, January 19, at 1 PM Eastern to learn from an expert (Michael Krieger of MRK Marketing) about how to better leverage content for sales. Please join us as we learn about how we can harness the power of content in 2017.