How to develop a B2B content marketing strategy in six steps

Estimated reading time
8 minutes
23rd November 2022
Author: Sabrina Stubbs
Posted in: Content Distribution & Promotion, Content Operations, Content Production, Strategy & Planning

Like a map or a blueprint, a B2B content marketing strategy provides direction to a B2B company. It is a broad and structured collection of marketing activities pertaining to multiple content formats that bring you from point A to B, and are subject to change as you progress. 

Traditional marketing is 62% more expensive than content marketing, yet content marketing yields nearly three times as many leads. Hence, a solid content marketing strategy is considered an economical marketing tactic that supports your company’s long-term goals, including brand recognition, lead generation, growth, revenue, and business expansion. It is a game plan for creating, distributing, and promoting content assets in order to accomplish a particular objective.

What is a B2B content marketing strategy?

With the advancement of technology and social media, content marketing is no longer just a method for marketing to customers. Businesses today are also expected to build an all-encompassing content strategy for their target audience. 

The technique of creating and disseminating information with the goal of boosting brand recognition, traffic, leads, and sales for businesses-to-business organizations is known as B2B content marketing. B2B content marketing commonly uses infographics, podcasts, email newsletters, blogging, etc.

Through content marketing, B2B businesses can demonstrate that they share the same values as their clients. Building relationships is crucial in B2B since you rarely sell in large quantities, as B2C businesses might. Since there are fewer customers, because most B2B businesses are niche rather than mass market, there is a significantly higher value per customer. In fact, more than 70% of B2B marketers have claimed to be able to quantify how content marketing has increased lead generation and audience engagement. For instance, when the global pandemic hit in 2020, several B2B businesses like Corona, Google, and Apple leveraged the situation, and devised interesting content marketing campaigns that grabbed a lot of attention. 

What is the difference between B2B & B2C content marketing strategies?

Unlike a B2C content marketing strategy, a B2B one involves the creation and promotion of content ideas that appeal to a business’ audience. For instance, influencer marketing and emotionally charged product launch campaigns may excite consumers, but they won’t impact businesses. Businesses choose authoritative content instead. 

They need information that they can utilize to expand their businesses and address real-world problems. You may provide the material required to wow this demographic with the aid of a clear, logical marketing plan.

What are some elements of a good B2B content marketing campaign?

A successful B2B content marketing campaign should promote brand trust, educate your audience, and encourage businesses to select your goods and services. Above all, a successful content marketing strategy should position you as an innovator or industry leader in the field.

One way to achieve this is by looking at your distribution platforms, particularly social media. Every site has a certain kind of audience, but B2B businesses often see success on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. 

Another great element of a B2B content marketing campaign is the format used. The most common types of material used by B2B marketers for content marketing include social media posts (94%), pre-produced videos (72%), infographics (65%), case studies (73%), ebooks/white papers (71%), and illustrations/photos (56%).

Lastly, you cannot know if a campaign is successful without measuring relevant metrics. B2B marketers commonly focus on KPIs surrounding monthly ROI, website traffic, contact churn rate, conversion rates, and cost per lead. Meanwhile, sales and other teams will pay attention to the average lead response time, customer acquisition cost, and customer lifetime value delivered from marketing campaigns.

Some common challenges faced by B2B businesses include:

• Measuring the right metrics for each campaign
• Choosing appropriate platforms and formats  
• Using accessible yet innovative technology 
• Lead conversions and online visibility 
• Nurturing relationships with clients 
• Logistics and shipping issues 

Now that the main distinctions have been identified, let’s concentrate on B2B marketing strategies.

Six steps to develop a successful B2B content marketing strategy

1) Don’t underestimate goal-setting

It might seem obvious, but every business has objectives. These goals can vary depending on what your business is trying to achieve. In order to create a fool-proof content plan, you need to set reasonable goals. For instance, your business’s aim could be to increase customer engagement, nurture leads or inform and educate your clients. 

In this process, it is vital to keep in mind that your goals are SMART, which translates to Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Sensitive. By doing so, you can ensure that your business is working towards a realistic and feasible goal. For instance, the objective for your B2B business can be to improve lead generation by 50% by March 2022.

2) Understand your user base 

Doing your research, getting to know your target users, and understanding what they are specifically seeking, are some of the most important steps in developing a content plan. You can give your audience or clients the appropriate content by learning about their interests and tastes. Knowing your audience’s demographics, including their age, income, region, and other information, can be pretty helpful for tailoring your content. Hence, this step can subsequently lead to better conversions.

Focus groups and/or the distribution of questionnaires and surveys are excellent methods to ascertain specific details about your target audience. Utilizing interactive tools like live polls, real-time competitions, rapid notifications, etc., are ways to get insightful input from your audience. These methods can also be used to analyze your client’s spending trends, buying patterns, and purchase histories.

Furthermore, another way to get a more comprehensive understanding of your client base is to create B2B Buyer Personas. This is a process of building a fictional personality based on your target clients that allow easier identification of any complications or pain points. 

Understanding your user base and the individuals that make up your audience allows you to better personalize your content, and ensure it stands the best possible chance of making an impact.

3) Keep an eye on the competition

The next natural step is to conduct in-depth competitor research on the kind of content being published. The goal here is to do a complete audit of what your industry competitors are doing and out-ranking your rival keywords once you have a good sense of what you can accomplish, with the current and potential content.

This procedure aids in identifying their vulnerabilities, competitive advantages, and areas for improvement in order to distinguish your business from theirs.

4) Plan your content and campaigns

Marketing is often considered reactive, but it’s easy to become proactive once you have established your goals and analyzed your competitors. This step involves putting together a content brief to outline several aspects of your strategy, such as:

• Choosing relevant content formats and formats to display your content 
• Developing a social calendar 
• Curating topics and themes 
• Designing timelines, projections, and spending plans
• Setting reasonable targets and deadlines
• Aim for suitable KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) 

5) Don’t forget to measure results

Based on the SMART goals you set at the beginning of this process, it is imperative to ensure that your results align with these objectives.  

Today, there are multiple useful content marketing platforms and tools that may assist you in evaluating various areas of your performance. Google Analytics, for instance, may provide you with detailed information on traffic, sales, social media success, general business growth, and much more. There are also other tools, such as SE Ranking, that give you valuable information on top organic pages, high-performing focus keywords, and other content-related issues.

Alternatively, Turtl provides a digital content platform with a built-in analytics dashboard, which allows users to track how well each section of their content is performing.

Constant monitoring of these content marketing KPIs and metrics can allow you to gauge and avoid issues. Given how unpredictable and dynamic the world of digital marketing is, it is essential to constantly plan and keep an eye on your content.

6) Update and reoptimize content as you go

In order to continually gain further exposure after creating the content plan, your B2B business must work towards constantly repurposing, updating, and promoting its existing content. This process includes the careful assessment of published content to look into three main elements in order to increase the value of the overall piece of content. These three areas are; relevancy of the content, improvement of content, and lastly, the addition of CTAs, new links, or any other medium or formats.

There are two-fold reasons for this. Firstly, you want to ensure that all the information produced is current and indicative of best practices because Google loves new content. Secondly, several of your website’s older posts may continue to receive a lot of organic traffic, indicating that readers are still interested in what you have to say. Therefore, content repurposing on your website can save team resources without overwhelming your readers.

The ability to amend content quickly and easily, therefore, benefits not only your business but also the performance of your content. This is why the tools like Turtl’s intuitive creation studio can prove invaluable, as it allows users to make real-time edits with no disruption to the reader’s experience.  

The Turtl Takeaway: Get your B2B content marketing strategy in order as soon as possible!

Marketing without a strategy is like driving without a map; it’s dangerous!

While it might take a lot of time and effort to build a successful strategy, it will ultimately be worth it. A strong B2B content marketing strategy will help your company make more sales, attract more leads, and grow its brand reputation in the process.

So follow the six steps above to get the right people on board, steer them in a purposeful direction, build a brand, and create content that sells.

And once you’ve nailed your marketing strategy, read through Turtl’s 10-step guide to elevating your content to build the best possible content ⤵

Shane Barker is a digital marketing consultant who specializes in influencer marketing, content marketing, and SEO. He is also the Founder and CEO of Content Solutions, a digital marketing agency. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, influencers with digital products, and a number of A-List celebrities.