Folloze-Demand Gen Report Research asked marketers to rank their top three challenges in executing marketing initiatives focused on buyer engagement. The results:
- Delivering a consistent customer experience (63%)
- Engaging today’s digital-first buyers (57%)
- Delivering personalized marketing at scale (49%)
Overcoming these challenges take a multi-pronged approach.
Consistent Customer Experience
Delivering a consistent customer experience requires alignment between marketing and sales. When the two teams work together to design marketing programs that entice buyers and lead them through their buyer's journey, conversion rates increase significantly.
87% of sales and marketing leaders say that collaboration is the key to enable critical business growth.
Engaging Today’s Digital-First Buyers
As B2B buyers have increasingly shifted to doing research online, the digital buyer experience has become an important demand generation strategy. This requires developing content within a consistent marketing channel strategy, with an emphasis on content orchestration and sales orchestration.
Personalized Marketing at Scale
The more personalized you can make your marketing, the better success you will have. 73% of B2B executives say they want personalized experiences similar to the way B2C companies operate.
That’s why so many businesses have added account based marketing strategies to their B2B marketing platforms. ABM solutions allow personalization at scale by orchestrating the entire buyer's journey, providing relevant, engaging content at just the right time.
Content Ideas for B2B Marketing Campaigns
All of this, however, leads us back to content. If you don’t have content that provides value to B2B prospects, you’re missing out on your biggest opportunity to grow sales. As buyers research problems, solutions, and providers, they are learning and forming impressions.
Whether you use an ABM platform and account based marketing strategy or not, you need to be in the mix and provide relevant content for them to find or risk brand irrelevancy.
The industry’s top performers have shifted their focus away from selling and moved toward informing. That may seem slightly counter-intuitive, but B2B buyers seek out information and thought leadership much more than advertising messages. Valuable content builds trust in a way that advertising can’t. 90% of the top-performing B2B content marketers say putting their audience’s informational needs ahead of their company’s sales messaging is their most successful strategy.
So, ready for some content marketing ideas that work in 2021? You’re going to know (and hopefully already employ) some or all of these B2B content marketing strategies.
1. Blog Posts
Blog posts allow you to inform and educate buyers while also providing solutions. This type of content keeps your website fresh and helps build SEO and brand awareness.
2. Guest Posts
Guest posts on industry sites help establish your credibility and provide valuable backlinks to your company website. You may also want to consider featuring guest posts from industry leaders or customers on your website to drive engagement and sharing.
3. Infographics
Infographics can highlight your original insights or aggregate industry information into one place. Infographics are often shared on social media, which gives you additional exposure. They can also quickly capture someone’s attention when they are browsing through pages and might otherwise miss important takeaways.
4. Original Research
Original research can be a difference-maker in your B2B marketing strategy. Original research can provide a fresh perspective on industry issues. It can also pay dividends for years as your research may bring additional media exposure when cited.
5. Surveys and Results
An easy way to get feedback on industry issues is by incorporating surveys into your content marketing mix. Not only can you gauge opinion on issues, but the results give you original content that may spin off other content ideas.
6. Gated Content
Gated content helps you assess buyer interest and intent. By asking for an email before getting content such as eBooks, Whitepapers, or Guides, buyers know they will likely be getting a follow-up. This indicates at least some level of interest and helps you capture leads.
7. Content Hubs
41% of B2B buyers read three to five pieces of content before they even think about engaging with a salesperson. Wouldn’t it be better if they read all that content on your site? High-performing websites are increasingly generating content hubs around high-performing search topics. In many cases, companies and brands are acting more like publishers by creating deep resource centers.
Content hubs focus on a central theme and then branch off into spokes, taking a deep dive into individual aspects.
8. FAQs
A great way to engage with B2B prospects is by creating Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on your site. By answering the most asked questions, you are providing relevant information, establishing your authority, and driving traffic to your site.
9. Webinars and Live Events
Four out of ten B2B companies report that live events and webinars are their best source of high-quality leads. Used for education, demos, and training, these events generate leads and create additional content. Webinar and live event content can be recorded and posted for viewing later. Slideshows can be created along with whitepapers, eBooks, and blog posts.
10. Video
Did you know that video now accounts for more than 70% of all internet traffic? B2B videos are no exception. 59% of executives say they would rather watch a video than read text.
The most common types of B2B videos being produced are:
- Explainers or how-to videos
- Social media videos
- Presentations
- Sales videos
- Video ads
Many B2B marketers will produce videos that can accompany blog posts or articles but can also live on a separate site such as YouTube.
11. Podcasts
Podcasts help position your company as a thought leader. You can either host your own and invite customers or industry experts to join or be a guest on industry podcasts.
12. Content Curation
Not everything you create must be 100% original content. When you curate industry knowledge in one place, it can be valuable. If B2B buyers know they can count on you to help them stay on top of emerging trends, it can lead to repeat visits.
13. Success Stories
One of the biggest challenges in B2B sales is risk mitigation. When you’re asking someone to invest in your products or services, they are taking a risk. When they see others in their industry succeeding using your solutions, it gives them more confidence to make purchase decisions.
Nurturing the Buyer Experience
B2B content marketing helps nurture the buyer experience and drives them through the sales funnel. By producing content that can be personalized at scale, you create assets to deliver across multiple channels to foster engagement and conversions.
We hope some of these ideas will lead to more ideas for your B2B marketing strategies. Let us know your thoughts.
