Content Marketing Strategy Tips for B2B Businesses
You know organic content generates traffic and leads. It’s even a great way to convert readers into customers.
Consistent, high-value content works to build sustainable growth over time, giving your brand the authority and credibility it needs to stand out from the competition.
But what happens if you don’t have a blog (and need to start one) or have a blog that’s been neglected over time? Instead of trying to figure it out on the go (which uses up resources and money), you need to build a content marketing strategy. Once you create a foundation, figuring out what you want your content to do is much easier.
It will also help you map out what type of content to create:
Long-form articles
Case studies or use studies
Newsletter content
Whitepapers
What is content marketing?
A content marketing strategy allows you to dive deep into the what, why, and how that connects your audience to your brand. What do potential customers need to know? Why do they need that information, and how does it make their life better?
Answer these questions to help figure out the next step: creating content.
Develop a content marketing strategy for your B2B business
According to HubSpot, 55 percent of marketers say that blogging is the biggest priority in their inbound marketing strategy. Brands that invest in blogging also see a 13x positive ROI over marketing teams that don’t invest.
Is blog content something your brand needs help with, but you’re unsure where to start? Or maybe you’re stepping into the role of marketing lead and want to get content up and running for the brand.
Before creating any content or hiring a B2B freelance writer, there are a few important questions you need to ask first:
What type of content are you aiming to share on your blog?
Who will write content posts? Are you going to outsource to a B2B freelance writer or tackle writing in-house?
What does the posting frequency look like?
What actions do you want readers to take? Not every post needs a call to action, but every article or blog post needs a purpose.
Once these basic questions are answered, it’s time to start generating content. A lot of brands expect the blog to do all the heavy lifting just because the content is added to it sporadically. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works!
Another huge part of the puzzle is the distribution of content — where will you share it to reach potential customers?
In order for a blog to succeed (and help achieve goals you want for it, such as driving traffic, generating leads, or converting sales), there needs to be a strategy.
Create B2B content with a purpose
Writing the blog is only a start. Once the content is polished and ready to go, the next task is to consider how you want to distribute the content. The best way to do this is by looking at your target customers and where they are in the marketing funnel to help you answer questions like these:
What do they want/need?
What kind of challenges do they experience?
What are some of the pain points they deal with?
How will your B2B product or service make their life easier?
Using these questions as a foundation for blog content will help your B2B freelance writer create value-packed content that is interesting, actionable, and informative for your readers.
Blog posts should engage readers and illustrate why your B2B products and services provide the solutions they want for their ecommerce, DTC, and retail brands. Here are other tips to include when creating your blog strategy:
Look at what questions your target audience is asking
One of the main benefits of having a blog is creating content that answers your customers’ questions and putting your website front and center when the search results pop up. That’s why doing SEO or keyword research is important — it gives you an inside look at what potential customers are searching for so you can create content that answers those questions.
Consider putting together about ten keywords you want your website to appear for during a search and include them (but don’t overstuff!) into your content marketing strategy.
Figure out where you will share content
Don’t expect your content to land in the laps of potential customers after hitting publish. A distribution strategy is just as important as the actual writing of the posts.
As part of your content marketing strategy, think about where the content will be distributed — common channels include social media, email lists, and working with influencers to help share posts. If your brand works with influencers, this is a great way to spread the word about products and services.
Consider outsourcing content writing to a professional
It takes time to build leads and traffic with organic content. Brands expect to see quick results, but it’s important for brand executives to know it doesn’t happen overnight.
Creating ongoing content is a challenge for marketing teams because there’s so much to manage. Outsourcing the writing to a professional is one way to stay consistent. Instead of letting the blog fall to the wayside, consider working with a B2B freelance copywriter to take this task off your hands and free up hours each week to work on other marketing tasks.
Repurpose older blog posts to keep them relevant for new customers
Aside from creating timely posts that engage readers based on news or trends, top-of-funnel content is especially helpful in building brand awareness and reaching potential customers as they come into contact with your B2B service for the first time.
If you’ve got an extensive library built up after a few months, go back to your early posts and look for ways to repurpose or update them to keep them relevant with new data or insights. Think about it this way: the post has been generating traffic for months already, and you're giving it a boost by updating it with new keywords or search terms. Frequently look back at old posts to see how you can update them. Need help going back and doing this, too? A content writer can help put a fresh spin on evergreen content just as they would when creating new posts.
Need support creating consistent, long-form blog posts for your B2B business? Reach out to discuss whether working with a B2B freelance writer is the right move for your brand!