B2B needs content marketing badly and there just can not be two opinions about that. But at the same time, B2B must employ the correct content marketing strategies and know exactly what pitfalls to avoid.
You should bear in mind the fact that B2B customers have started educating themselves through numerous online resources and your content should be such as to draw their special attention to your brand.
Unique, well-conceived and imaginatively crafted content leads to brand awareness. The plain truth is people should like and enjoy the content you are putting out and be eager to share it with their friends.
Besides, there is an explosion of visual content as psychologically speaking people are fonder of visuals and videos than mere drab text.
If a prospective B2B customer is choosing from amongst companies that provide similar products/services and finds that they deeply appreciate the content from one of them, it is most likely that they will prefer that company over others.
It is common knowledge that prospects develop trust in B2B businesses that have higher search engine rankings and well-conceived content can help you get first page ranking in search results.
It is a fact B2B buyers largely rely on content while making purchasing decisions. It is reported that more than 65% of the B2B buyers rely on content when selecting the supplier. As such B2B content marketers must explore all resources when creating content.
According to recent B2B Content Preferences survey, however, many B2B customers say they are totally overwhelmed by the enormous amount of content available on the internet. They are therefore discerning and keen to identify trustworthy content that is based on verifiable data rather than hollow sales messages.
This apart, it is also seen that most B2B customers particularly prefer three formats – white papers, E-books and webinars. Though other forms of content play an important part in the B2B decision-making, it is predominantly these three above-mentioned formats that are most rewarding.
B2B marketers are now seriously planning to increase their content marketing activities as it is conclusively proven that good content alone results in increased sales lead generation.
B2B markers must appreciate that without quality content, email marketing will prove less productive and social media marketing less effective.