A content strategy links a content plan to your audience and business objectives. It covers what content to make, who it’s for, how it’s published and who will create it. All content operations are covered in your content strategy – including the overall plan, roles and responsibilities, and governance of content.

Content marketing is about creating, distributing and promoting your content. Powerful content marketing provides information people want without selling to them. It’s about getting engaging, customer-centric content found by the right audience and reporting on its impact.

Importance of high-quality content for B2B

If 94% of people ignore paid ads in SERPs, we may reasonably assume that organic content isn’t simply preferred, it’s a trusty go-to. You don’t have to dig far to discover that content marketing has proved ARR growth for companies time and time again – even if they famously don’t use Google Analytics to track blog performance.

If you checked the last link and think Ahrefs’ content marketing plan is plain crazy, consider the quality of Tim Soulo’s content. He immersed himself in writing customer-focused, deeply researched articles because he knew the ROI of high-quality content.

There's no question in my mind about the ROI of content marketing. I've seen it generate millions in value for every SaaS company I've worked at

Create a B2B content marketing strategy

The very best B2B lead magnets bring in the bucks, and much faster too. Here’s how.

1. They remove doubt by allowing you to plan content from previous behavioral data patterns. If you look at what your most valuable customers consume, i.e. those with the highest lifetime value, you can produce content that drives the right people into and through your pipeline.

2. Content analytics reveal buying intent so you can prioritize leads far earlier in the process – right from the moment your content is read.

3. By making your lead gen asset interactive, you’re meeting buyer expectations, increasing engagement levels, and inviting more intent data. Use case study videos and SME interviews inside long-form content to build proof points and affinity.

Content drives demand. But there is a catch – average content might generate leads, but you need compelling, useful, and persuasive content to drive true demand. The most successful demand generation leaders are partnering closely with content and comms teams to shape strategy and messaging, collaborate on creation, distribution, and optimization, feedback metrics and impact, and create aligned targets to support shared revenue goals.

Kate Terry

Head of Demand Generation, Unily

When you understand your customers, you can engage them with marketing that offers them value and drives performance. The key to success lies in the use of first-party data — one of the hallmarks of any digitally mature business. This is information that is specific to your business and that customers willingly provide. When used in the right way, it allows marketers to understand and predict their customers’ individual needs, reaching them with relevant and meaningful messaging.

Dunya van Troost and Katherine Armstrong

Ads and privacy: Exceed customer expectations, Think with Google

Modern B2B content marketing

Millennials are the majority of all B2B buying groups today, making up 73% of B2B decision-makers.  

As we delve into the realm of modern B2B marketing strategies, three significant themes have come to prominence: personalized and targeted marketing, advanced marketing automation, and the rise of content marketing.

Winterberry Group

Outlook for B2B Marketing: A Market In Transformation, Whitepaper

The B2B content marketing funnel

Distributing and promoting content

One thing that will never change in marketing is the connection between audience pain points and value. The more you understand your audience, the better product you can build and the better content you can use to build affinity and educate that audience. Always start with your audience and then backtrack into keyword research. I'd suggest never doing either keyword research or content planning in isolation

Content reports to bookmark

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