How to Kick-Start Your B2B Content Marketing Strategy
It is not easy to develop a B2B content strategy that aligns your content messaging with your target audiences. Yet, only 32% of B2B marketers have a content strategy. In fact, 88% of B2B marketers use content marketing in their overall marketing strategy.
A customer-focused marketing strategy is essential to create a B2B content strategy that will reach new customer engagements and acquisition goals. The B2B content strategy for marketing will be successful if you ensure that your customers receive value.
These are some fundamental principles of B2B content strategy that will help you and your team kick-start the process.
1. Identifying your content’s point of view. Here’s a tip: Be customer-focused.
2. Once you have started to create content, it is possible to measure your efforts. Another tip: Make sure your content is generating tangible business results.
3. Your team should align their talents with the content you are creating. Last tip: Not all marketers think in the same way.
A Customer-Focused View of Content Pays Off
To engage customers with your brand, content marketing strategies must be aligned with the viewpoint of your reader. Every B2B content marketing strategy should include information that customers find valuable and align with your brand.
According to Forrester Research, Kraft Foods launched Kraftrecipes.com as a website that shared recipes and ideas for using their products. Kraft Foods’ value-driven content helped buyers make better purchase decisions and encouraged them to follow the journey. Customers were able to feel valued by them encouraging them to make a purchase rather than pushing a coupon.
Your content should be customer-focused, regardless of the buyer type (B2C or B2B). You can also influence purchase decisions by using customer-centered content in a B2B content marketing strategy. This will drive leads and, in turn, generate revenue.
Prioritize Content Goals and Set Goals
Forrester recently surveyed B2B marketers to determine their level of maturity in content marketing. 52% were still at the beginning stages of creating a content strategy and then executing it. B2B marketers are adopting a customer-focused approach in content development. However, tracking buyer interactions at every stage of the buying cycle is a crucial principle to your B2B content strategy.
A B2B marketer’s dream is to provide buyers with valuable content that they can read, watch, and interact with that encourages them to move forward in the buying process. But if these interactions aren’t measurable, how can you be sure your content strategy is effective and support tactics are?
Your B2B content marketing strategy should be customer-focused. Make sure your team follows a practical approach to content creation that aligns with short-term goals. Your team will be more successful if they can meet and reward these short-term goals. This will result in increased customer interactions and a more significant revenue stream. These long-term goals ensure that content drives tangible business outcomes.
Align talent with content creation
To align your strengths and content creation needs, balance your team. B2B marketers should be focusing on content that is buyer-aligned. This content must be engaging, inspiring, and challenging. This shift may prove difficult for marketers whose backgrounds include product marketing, sales positions, and direct marketing.
Planning and preparation are essential for reaching new heights. However, it requires physical and mental stamina as well as planning. B2B marketers should consider skill assessment and training when developing strategies. Talent must be aligned to a style of content creation that is relevant to the content application and sees the buyer’s perspective before the team can hit the trails.
Begin with your team to discuss what content will be most valuable to your customers. A B2B content marketing strategy that is customer-focused will accomplish the following:
To engage buyers, address their concerns
Motivate them throughout the buyer journey
Get support from top-of-the-line executives
