B2B and B2C content marketing require entirely different approaches and strategies. However, these two do have one thing in common: content prioritization. No matter your model, B2B or B2C, the quality of your content will always matter.
Your content is your means of providing solutions, connecting with your audience, gaining their trust, and building brand awareness. To create the kind of content that connects with your audience and boosts your brand awareness, you need a solid, consistent, and appropriately targeted B2B content marketing strategy.
What is B2B content marketing?
A B2B content strategy is the practice of producing valuable and consistent content that puts you in front of your target audience. This strategy allows you to solve your ideal customers’ problems, thus increasing brand awareness, traffic, leads, and sales.
A content marketing strategy is like a blueprint or a roadmap that is much more flexible but still gets you to your goals.
A good marketing strategy for your content is made to inspire a desire for reciprocity in your audience, such that they feel the urge to connect with you and start a business relationship.
The most common forms of B2B content marketing include blogging, infographics, email newsletters, and podcasting. However, creating the occasional blog post or sending out non-targeted email newsletters is not enough. A targeted marketing strategy provides you with a roadmap and guidelines to reach your business prospects.
B2B content marketing first rule: be empathetic!
The first rule of any marketing strategy is understanding your audience and ideal customers. This means you have to capitalize on empathy and understand your customers’ needs and pain points.
The whole point of content marketing is to provide solutions for your audience, and how else can you do that without identifying their problems? It is essential to always remember that marketing is never about you as a business. It is about the person on the other side of the conversation, your customer.
Begin by creating the most realistic buyer personas there could be for your business. Then, divide this prospective audience into brand-directed subgroups, e.g, based on buyer behavior.
Once you have identified your audience, you can move on to identifying their needs, demands, and pain points. After you do this, it is time to convert these problems into relevant pieces of content and incorporate them into your marketing strategy.
2022 trends: B2B podcasts, video and voice search
Every year, there are significant changes in consumer and business preferences that alter the content marketing world. Having a foolproof content marketing strategy means that you are always ahead of every trend. This helps you understand where your clients and customers want to receive information and the kind of information they want to see. Here are 6 B2B content marketing trends you need to watch out for in 2022.
The rise of podcasting
Podcasts are not a new content-sharing medium. They’ve been around for years, but are now gaining more traction than ever before. In 2021, people spent over 15 billion hours listening to podcasts globally – an astonishing and exponential growth from 2019’s 3 billion hours record.
If your brand has not yet tapped into the podcasting and audio marketing space, now is the time to do so. Ensure that you produce quality content to keep your audience listening and interested in doing business with you.
The growth of video marketing
The digital marketing space has witnessed tremendous customer preference changes in recent years. One of these is the exponential rise in consumers’ demand for video. As a marketer, you need to recognize that video is a significant investment area for your B2B content marketing.
It drives engagement, builds brand awareness like none other, and increases your audience’s trust in your business. Invest in consistently creating quality video content that will be valuable and relevant to your customers’ needs and problems. According to Statista, in 2020, over 83% of internet users accessed digital video content, and the trend is projected to continue further as smart TVs continue to spread. If used in the right way, video can be an effective tool to reach your B2B audience, explain your values, and grab the attention of potential clients.
The growth of live streaming
The pandemic caused a significant shift in the way consumers perceive live events. Real-time engagement and live streaming became increasingly popular in the last few years, with consumers preferring to interact with brands and businesses live rather than through pre-recorded content.
While it may not be feasible to make this switch completely, your content marketing strategy can accommodate elements of live streaming to enjoy the benefits of this trend in 2022.
The development of voice search
Voice assistant technology has been around for many years. However, as with most trends on this list, the emphasis on it is only now growing as consumers’ demands evolve. More than half of internet users use their voice search features on their devices, meaning you have the opportunity to achieve your business goals with this avenue.
Strategies that you build to extend your content marketing must include means to cater to voice search. This includes using more long-tail keywords in your content to address terms and longer phrases that are most likely used with voice searches.
The evolution of social media platforms
Platforms like Instagram and Facebook are constantly evolving. Your content marketing strategy must keep up with these changes to continually meet your audience halfway. Your brand must carefully put out content on social media, from content filters to privacy measures.
Your brand also needs to stay up to date with the ever-changing content-sharing algorithms on these platforms, but also keep up with new ways of reaching the desired audience. The creator economy, for instance, is now worth over $100 billion and it’s predicted to keep growing in the future as platforms such as Instagram, Tik Tok, and YouTube invest more to stimulate the production of native content.
Many of the most important creators have reached success in the past couple of years, so the market is still offering huge potential. Their success translates into sales for associated brands: according to Forbes, social commerce is expected to grow to nearly $80 billion by 2025 in the US alone.
Interactive content
Interactive content has been a game-changing marketing strategy for many years, and it’s still making top lists even today. When done right, interactive content can be your secret ingredient for driving traffic and sales, as well as boosting brand awareness and credibility.
Beyond social media platforms, there are many ways to create such content. From polls to quizzes to surveys and questionnaires, your brand can quickly get ahead of this still-peaking trend and make the most of it.
Drive sales with B2B content marketing
Creating the ultimate B2B content marketing strategy for your brand does not have to be complicated. With the correct elements, your content will reach your target audience and help you surpass your goals. If you are looking for an agency able to cover all your content needs, Mowgli is here for you. We specialize in content strategies for B2B businesses of any size: get in touch today to talk about your project!
