Business to business marketing is a very different beast than business to consumer. But, with that being said, following core marketing principles, regardless of the target, is usually a good bet for success. It is just important to tweak your efforts appropriately. When it comes to strategies for B2B marketing, creating good content is a must, whether it is to be used online or off.
Here are just a few tips for making the most of this marketing technique.
Do Your Research
Research lies at the heart of any successful marketing strategy, and this is particularly true of content marketing—without it, you run the risk of creating content that serves very little use to your target audience.
You want a full understanding of who you market is, where they are located and what their primary needs are. You can accomplish this with a variety of tools, such as surveys or Google metrics. Paying for a consultation with a marketing professional may be a worthy investment that will increase your ROI over the long-term.
Plan Ahead
Unlike consumers, whose purchasing ‘’cycles’’ are not as easy to predict, businesses often follow a certain cycle, making it easier to know when they may be looking to make purchases ,or what particular products they may be seeking at a certain period of time. This predictability gives you an advantage in creating your content and knowing the best time to release it.
Focus on the Consumer
This tip may seem kind of obvious, but many businesses can make the easy mistake of focusing their content strategy on pumping up the business, listing all the reasons why it is so great, and why it is so excited about this particular product or service.
Yes, you need to let potential clients know what makes you so great, but the core of content marketing should focus on how your business can provide the solutions your market seeks. First and foremost, a business will be interested in how you can solve their problems, and increase their bottom line. When putting together your content, remember to think from their perspective.
Make Your Business Website a Resource
When it comes to online marketing, ‘’content is king’’ as the saying goes. Your website should be chock full of content that is helpful to your target market, not just a listing of products and contact information.
You want to write informative pieces that offer the information your potential clients are looking for; don’t get too technical or in-depth—they should be simple enough that a layperson can understand the concepts. If you don’t feel like anyone in your company is able to produce the content, pay a writer who can.
Infuse Content with Examples and Analogies from the Prospect’s Life
Remember the earlier point about focusing the content on how a product or service can solve a problem, rather than simply waxing poetic about how great it is? To accomplish this goal as effectively as possible, it is important to relate the benefits of your product or service to their everyday lives and the specific situations where it may be of use.
For example, if you are touting the benefits of virtual data storage, painting a picture of the cluttered office full of poorly organized boxes of data files is a picture that anyone interested in this product can probably relate to all too well.
Kelli Cooper enjoys blogging about all things business and marketing; she recommends learning more about the GoGapless Directory and how it can maximize your ability to connect with prospective business clients.
