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A global State of Content Marketing report by Semrush shows that content marketing is something businesses are strengthening their commitment to because consistent high-quality content creation is a surefire way to build trust and awareness of your product or service and drive business success.
But it’s no use banging out content unless you have a clear strategy of how the content you create will meet your target audience's needs. That same report found that 81% of companies without a clear documented strategy were unsuccessful in their marketing efforts.
How do you leverage content marketing to grow your business?
Let's begin by defining what content marketing is. It is the creation and distribution of valuable and relevant content to be used to create engagement with new and existing customers.
Content marketing is explicitly used to build awareness of your product or service using relevant high-quality content that will answer your customer’s pain points so they feel reassured your product or service will solve a problem for them.
Why is content marketing important for your business?
Put simply, content marketing can be essential for lead generation. You can make connections, build relationships, and improve conversions with consistent high-level content. It's an effective marketing method to form solid connections with key decision-makers and coax them along your sales funnel without being pushy.
Is content marketing effective?
There are many benefits to content marketing. For one, it helps to establish you as an authority in the marketplace building trust so that prospects believe in the product or service you are offering and move them along the buyer's journey with ease. Establishing trust and credibility is crucial in the first stage of the buyer's journey, awareness.
In the second stage (consideration) prospects are determined to research and find a solution to the problem, so the content you create will be influential in helping a prospect understand how your product will solve their pain point.
In the decision stage, they are ready to narrow down the options and finally decide on which product or service to buy. If your content has managed to resonate and be of value throughout all three stages then your content will have nurtured those prospects turning them into paying customers.
The best types of content marketing for B2B
There are many types to explore and your tone of voice will depend on which medium you use.
If it’s a blog, write as you speak. This creates a human connection and will make your business appear friendly and approachable.
The rise of podcasts shows people’s insatiable appetite for information. People often turn to podcasts for advice, tips or guidance on how to solve their problems.
Videos are a powerful tool to explain your product or service and are very effective for lead generation and enhancing conversions.
Infographics are a brilliant tool to communicate complex information more efficiently in content marketing campaigns.
Ebooks are great informational tools prospects can download and will educate your customers on the value of your product or service. Ebooks are also helpful to establish credibility as a content creator.
Whitepapers are very effective for B2B businesses offering in-depth well-researched reports about specific subjects.
Email allows you to communicate directly with customers and with the right messaging your email could be very impactful when it comes to marketing your product or service. Embedding a video into your content increases your email click-through rate.
Case studies and testimonials are another way to show customers that you are a company to do business with. A case study will demonstrate how your product or service solves a client’s problem and tell the success story of that client relationship. While a testimonial will reassure prospects as they take that next step towards conversion. Testimonials are your most valuable piece of content as they have the highest rate of sales success at 89% according to this article from HostPapa.
Who doesn’t love a checklist? Checklists are excellent for SEO and are popular with users as topics can be broken down into a list of easy-to-follow steps which makes digesting content quick and easy.
How do you strategise for success?
To maximise your content reach you need to have a focused plan on how your content will best serve your audience, promote the value of your product or service and tell the story of your business. And the key to any good marketing strategy relies on you having a clear roadmap to accomplish your goals. So let’s explore some of the most important tools and techniques to build and implement a powerful content marketing plan.
Know your audience. In other words, who are you writing your content for? This blog post is structured to answer the needs of B2B prospects and clients visiting our website curious to know how their business would benefit from a content marketing strategy.
Get your brand story straight. Knowing who you are and understanding your value propositions will help to create a strong brand identity and tell the story of your company more effectively to target the right audience and generate leads quicker. Use your USP to your advantage as it will set you apart from your competitors.
Optimise your content so that it is seen by search engines and many tools can be used for keyword research such as Semrush and Neil Patel.
Knowing your customer’s pain points will also enhance your ability to connect with potential customers and extend your audience reach.
Create a content calendar. Real business growth depends on a strategy of constant engagement. A content calendar shows a clear plan of action to build trust and awareness of your product that will influence prospects in that all-important decision stage. Being organised will also give you full control over what you publish when you publish and how often you want to publish. You can even schedule your posts in advance so you stay on track with your content strategy during those busier times when you’re snowed under with other tasks.
Use analytics to monitor and measure how your content is performing and use the data to adapt and change your content marketing approach to create more of the content you’re discovering your customers want and need.
Content marketing is an ongoing process and businesses that publish engaging content routinely will simply be more successful at driving traffic to their websites. And the more visitors you have arriving on your website the more your chances of generating quality leads will increase improving your conversion rate.
If you’ve found this blog helpful check out 👉 How to Come Up With Content Marketing Ideas and How to Create Your B2B Content Calendar because a great content strategy will cultivate trust, generate leads and improve conversions. 😉
