B2B Content Marketing Best Practices & How to Avoid 3 Critical Mistakes
Content marketing is the foundation of qualified lead generation. It works as a key part of search engine optimization (SEO); it can increase the number of indexed pages on your site, inbound links and overall interest in your brand.
Any content marketing provider who guarantees that they can boost your online ranking with “content” alone is telling you a tired story. With over 409 million people viewing more than 20 billion pages each month on WordPress sites alone, the same old story doesn’t get you anywhere.
It’s important that your content marketing has a clear purpose, a compelling message, and a strategy tied to the needs of your audience. In content marketing, quality wins over quantity, every time.
Promotion Is Just One of the Four Ps of Marketing
E. Jerome McCarthy’s 1960 "Four Ps" framework for marketing, while not the only available model, lays a basic foundation for successful marketing. Models like these are called “marketing mixes” because effective marketing requires a multi-faceted approach. McCarthy’s Four Ps are product, price, placement and promotion, and all four Ps must work together to create compelling messaging that attracts prospects.
The purpose of content marketing is not pure promotion, but many content marketing providers treat it as such. The real purpose of content marketing is to create interest around a product or service, not to promote it explicitly. Oxford Dictionaries’ definition of content marketing says that it is “a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material…that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.”
So why do so many B2B providers focused on pure promotion in their content?
Staying Afloat in the Sea of Content
Whether you’re a content marketing provider, freelancer or business owner, your approach to thought leadership and lead generation should be strategic and comprehensive – an approach that includes market research, competitive intelligence, comprehensive marketing planning, and branding work.
If you start without a comprehensive marketing plan, your efforts are likely to fall short. Here are some of the most common mistakes made by content marketing providers:
Mistake #1: Inexperienced Creators
Many content marketing providers employ a revolving door of inexperienced people without a background in the subjects they are writing about or a background in writing and reporting. High turnover combined with a high learning curve is a recipe for shallow, uninspired and frequently unoriginal content.
Many of these content providers also claim to have more SEO experience than they really have without extensive keyword research and the on-site optimization required to maximize inbound lead generation. They also typically lack B2B experience and create B2B and B2C content as if it were the same.
Mistake #2: Quantity over Quality
What is the real goal of content marketing? Why is it such an effective tool for generating leads?
All content is not equal. Content marketing providers who focus on superficial, top-of-the-funnel content instead of building a combination of mid and bottom funnel content, won’t do much to generate leads. Companies who pump out “fluffy” content do little more than create another indexed page on the website.
Copywriters at companies like these lack solid journalism experience and don’t recognize the difference between shallow, derivative content and real substance, especially if they’re trying to create case studies, whitepapers and other forms of vital higher-level content.According to a recent Demand Gen report on content preferences, case studies are the most valuable type of content in the B2B sphere. Moreover, 41% of respondents reported reading between three and seven pieces of content before contacting a salesperson. So if your marketing collateral doesn’t provide the educational content your potential clients find valuable, they won’t stick around to learn more.
Mistake #3: Tunnel Vision
Your marketing strategy should be based on a holistic approach – content marketing built around quantity, or around doing what everyone else is doing accomplishes very little. For example, while having a social media presence is important for B2B companies, some are hyper-focused on it, even though it is not a reliable form of B2B lead generation.
It’s a waste of time and effort to just robotically publish content in hopes that it will resonate with someone. The ability to step back and analyze both the reach and strategic value of your content, including a review of web analytics, is not something all companies do, or even understand. Expertise in the digital and marketing factors that distinguish content that gets results from content that just takes up space is a rare thing in the B2B market
Going Beyond Promotion
Effective B2B content marketing takes more than just engaging blog posts and well-researched case studies. Blog content is important, but so is creating effective home page and foundational content on-site. Every interaction a potential client has with your marketing materials or website should give them the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about your product or services, or make them want to learn more.
While they provide some facets of an inbound marketing strategy, most B2B marketing agencies and other content providers don't do many other outbound activities that have high value, including light website development, article and speaker pitches, email campaigns, and B2B SEO. Without the right a mix of inbound and outbound marketing efforts, your content marketing efforts won’t get you far.
