Consider content as an investment that will affect people’s perception of your business, their interest, and ultimately the purchase of your product or service.
Creating a b2b content marketing strategy is a crucial process for any business that produces content. Remember that the customer has to go through all the stages of the buying funnel, so the goal is to grow leads and convert them into customers.
What is a b2b content marketing strategy?
A content marketing strategy is a description of your plan for acquiring customers through content.
It usually involves analyzing your customers and the types of information that they will need when looking for solutions to their problems. The content marketing strategy also includes business goals and the role of your content in the process of achieving them. Last but not least, a content marketing strategy contains a plan for creating and distributing content.
Creating a b2b content marketing strategy is an essential process for your business that helps to focus your work. In this article, we want to show how you can create an effective strategy by following 10 simple steps.
Step # 1 – Define your goals
Simply posting content cannot be your goal. Ask yourself what your business goals are and how the content can help you achieve those goals. Make your goals as realistic as possible, taking into account the realities of your business and industry.
Step # 2 – Define your audience
To correctly create your content marketing strategy, it is important to understand who it will target. Your content needs to be relevant to engage your audience and motivate them to take the desired action.
Step # 3 – Analyze your competitors
Gather information and analyze the content posted by your competitors. Explore their websites, social media, and other channels. This will allow you to identify their strengths and weaknesses, the quality of the content, and their position –this will be your advantage.
Step # 4 – Identify the best channels
At this stage, you need to determine which channels your audience prefers so you can place your content there. Publishing content on a website is mandatory, and social media is also important – this can be LinkedIn, YouTube, or other relevant channels. Analyze audience activity on major networks, for example using Google Analytics.
Step # 5 – Determine content quality
Think about the types of content you are going to create. Apart from blog articles on your site, what will be the most relevant and interesting for your audience? Consider videos, infographics, webinars, eBooks, podcasts, etc.
Step # 6 – Analyze your resources
Now that you know what type of content you require and for whom you will create it, make sure you have everything you need to implement your b2b content marketing strategy. Think about who will create and publish your content – perhaps you should consider an article writing service as your partner in creating content. A lot of B2B companies consider this type of service as the best choice when it comes to quality and ROI.
Step # 7 – Create a content publishing calendar
An editorial calendar is a document that contains information about your content and who is responsible for its implementation. It has a huge impact on the efficiency of your content marketing strategy, so don’t ignore it. Besides, there are tons of editorial calendar templates on the internet that can help you.
Step # 8 – Create your content
The important thing here is creating the right amount of content for customers at each stage of the buying funnel. The content should be professionally matched to its type, edited, and create value for the readers.
It is also important to determine the optimal frequency of content posting. To do this, you need to remember that quality is more important than quantity and estimate how competitive your business niche is. According to HubSpot, posting 1 to 4 times per week is optimal for small businesses.
Step # 9 – Promote your content
If you want to achieve your goals, don’t ignore this part. Spread your content on social media and use email marketing. Make sure you capture visitors’ attention with your latest content every time they’re on your website.
Step # 10 – Measure results and make adjustments
To measure the success of your content marketing strategy, you need to go back to the goals you set in the beginning. All sorts of analytics programs such as Google Analytics, Ahrefs, etc. can be your assistant in measuring results. By constantly tracking your progress, you can readjust your content marketing strategy so that it’s always up to date.
In summary
There is no standard solution for developing a content marketing strategy that you can simply copy and expect to succeed. Any successful strategy is specifically created for a company and its specific industry. Treat the steps in this article as a blueprint for creating a content marketing strategy that drives your prospect’s buying decisions.
Be patient, put in the effort, and keep analyzing and making adjustments. After all, it is in the long term that your content marketing strategy will bring you bottom-funnel results.
Need help?
If you have a content marketing program or are planning one, download our eBook 100 Mistakes Businesses Make When Starting, Optimizing and Scaling Content Marketing Programs.
This eBook will walk you through the mistakes of hundreds of other companies and the challenges they faced in implementing their content marketing programs. To learn more about how Tempesta Media can help you streamline your content creation process and deliver quality content at scale, contact us today.