B2B content is the fuel that powers brand awareness and builds trust in your organization. And it’s more important today than ever before as it holds great potential to generate high ROI. A great B2B piece of content can serve as an effective inbound marketing strategy as well as an opportunity to showcase your company’s expertise in the subject matter. However, most B2B writers often focus more on the technology and not on the consumer's pain points. B2B content marketing must be educational, helpful and, at the same time address the customer’s concerns, needs, and wants. Gauging qualitative effectiveness of B2B content: Three questions to ask

To create a result-driven B2B content marketing funnel, you need to create a content marketing strategy and gauge the impact of your B2B content. According to statistics, only 41% of B2B marketers have a content strategy, even though content is the most influential factor in every phase of the customer journey. Analyzing the effectiveness of your B2B content can help to discard stereotypical assumptions and personalize content for different customers. Ask yourself questions like:

• Did the content generate engagement across channels?
• Did it generate quality leads and conversions?
• Did the CTA entice the readers who noticed your content? And did they spend time viewing other company content after they clicked the CTA?

Maximizing B2B content marketing strategy

B2B content marketing is complicated and challenging as your content piece needs to draw attention and engage people who make the buying decisions in the organizations. So, you need to develop a strong content marketing strategy that aligns with your organization's strategic business goals. A B2B content marketing strategy lets you visualize your content marketing efforts. It provides a roadmap that helps you identify the appropriate channels and create valuable content to target the right audience. Here are a few steps to plan your B2B content marketing strategy.

• Step 1: Define specific, measurable, and realistic goals.
• Step 2: Identify your audience and develop customer personas.
• Step 3: Map your customer’s journey.
• Step 4: Identify the problem you are trying to solve.
• Step 5: Determine the channels for content promotion.
• Step 6: Decide on engaging and meaningful topics.
• Step 7: Set up a content plan that includes a content calendar, collaboration, review and publishing.
• Step 8: Conduct a content audit to avoid duplication of content.

Five proven B2B content marketing best practices

Creating relevant, sales-oriented content that resonates with the SMEs of the industry can be challenging. Businesses expect powerful messaging from B2B content; failure to do so can be highly disappointing. The overarching problem with B2B content is it sometimes fails to personalize the message and align with the B2B buying cycle. Let’s explore five of our proven B2B content marketing hacks that deliver results.

#1 Catering to different roles within the target audience: It is crucial to create customer personas to recognize the audience's expertise and commonalities to penetrate your message. A thorough research of the audience's perspectives concerning the solution you are offering can provide insights to transform information into engaging content.

#2 Differentiating your solution from the competition: In a competitive market, solutions and technologies are rarely one of a kind. So, look out for the differentiators, solution enablers, and outcomes that would impact customers. The secret is to match your approach to the customer’s perspective.

#3 Aligning with the B2B buying cycle: Not all types of content work at different marketing stages. For example, do you want to build brand awareness, secure leads, nurture leads or convert leads? Recognize the marketing phase and map your content to the buying cycle to maximize impact.

#4 Maintaining high quality amidst growing competition: Sustaining high-quality content is imperative to stand out in the increasing competition and consistency and authenticity can be your two key armors here. Develop content at regular intervals and strive for excellence consistently. Set realistic and manageable content goals to prevent disappointment.

#5 Measuring ROI and course-correcting often: Define your content marketing goals to measure your ROI at regular intervals. As your marketing campaign evolves, you can track conversions with the help of analytics tools and repurpose or optimize content for upcoming marketing stages.

Ditch static, embrace interactive

Businesses must strive to become more interactive in their web marketing strategies. The traditional brochure-based approach of simply providing readers with information to gain their attention and then expecting them to contact the company for further information is no longer the most effective way to promote B2B content. Interactive content is more engaging than static content, and the most successful brands are those that create web content that is tailored to the needs of their users and encourages them to interact with it.

CMO Axis provides a comprehensive suite of SEO and digital marketing services, including keyword research, link building, and analytics. Our data-driven approach ensures that each strategy is tailored to the specific business objectives. Contact us today to learn more.