B2B Content Marketing: What is Content and Why Do We Care?
Imagine a client walks into Mad Men's, Don Draper’s office and says, “What is newspaper advertising, and why should I care?” Preposterous, right? But here I am, asking you the same question about content.
Any marketing expert will tell you that content is king in today’s digital marketing world. In fact, 80 percent of B2B marketers have a content marketing strategy. Despite the prevalence of B2B content marketing, I suspect that many business leaders don’t fully understand the meaning of content and all that it can do for your business.
When a colleague mentions content creation, probably the first thing that pops into your mind is blogging. That’s certainly understandable. How many blog posts have you read or seen referenced by lunchtime each day? Blogging may be the fastest and easiest way to position your thought leadership in the current marketplace.
According to Hubspot, B2B companies that blog generate 126% higher lead growth than those that don’t. A good blog post addresses questions your customers and prospects are asking.
SEMRush suggests that blogs should be between 1500-2500 words. This allows you to cover topics in depth, provide valuable information, and optimize your content for SEO. However, the optimal length of a blog post depends on your audience's needs and content goals.
Support Your Content Marketing With Multiple Content Formats
While blogging is important, it should not be the only form of content for B2B marketing. Businesses should not rely on just one form of content. If you limit your content marketing to just a few formats you'll only reach those who prefer that type of content.
Over the past several years, advances in technology have drastically changed the types of content available, how people prefer to learn/research, and what format they prefer to consume information.
Messaging should come in multiple formats to ensure that your various audiences have the opportunity to engage with it.
VIDEOS
The statistics behind the amount of people who are consuming video content are mind-boggling. Videos perform very well when compared with other types of content formats.
- 2.6 billion people use YouTube every month
- 250 million hours of video are consumed on YouTube every day
- Consumers watch an average of 19 hours of video every week
PODCASTS
Podcasts have become popular over the past few years because they are easily accessible to audiences who are on the go. Podcasts are simple to produce and add thought-leadership credibility to the individuals and companies who create them. The content from podcasts can also be repurposed in other content formats.
EBOOKS
Ebooks allow you to really get creative with your content. They provide in-depth information on a topic but are typically more entertaining and tell the story storytelling way than a whitepaper does.
WHITEPAPERS
Whitepapers are detailed guides your customers can use to solve problems. Usually at least six pages long, this type of content is meatier than blog posts or tip sheets, with more detailed explanations, statistics, graphs, and charts.
CASE STUDIES
Case studies are a form of content that is a must-have by every business, especially when it comes to showing how your product or service performs. They provide real-life examples of how you have solved a problem for a customer. They provide social proof of the effectiveness of your product. .
INFOGRAPHICS
Infographics allow a business to tell a complex story in a simplified format. They appeal to people who have only a few minutes to digest your content, but they are so effective because, in that short span of time, you can convey a ton of information.
NEWSLETTERS
Newsletters are an extremely effective way to communicate with your customers. The information you share keeps your company, product, or service top of mind. Businesses maintain relationships by providing valuable information. Newsletters are also a great way to bring traffic back to your website.
Why Do We Care?
Content marketing just makes sense. According to DemandMetric, content marketing costs 62 percent less than traditional marketing, yet it generates about three times as many leads. With every “transaction” of B2B content between you and your prospects, you are receiving something in return. You earn trust as a knowledgeable resource, maybe even an expert, for a subject. If done properly, you also will be gathering pieces of information each time they download content such as whitepapers and eBooks. The ROI is directly proportional to the quality of the content that you produce.
Importantly, you must care because your competitors and the businesses you target know that content marketing makes sense as well
So now what?
Now that you understand what content is and why you should care, what are you going to do with that concern? Will you be part of the 30 percent creating the same or less content than a year ago or do you want to be one of the majority of the most effective B2B marketers publishing near-daily quality content?
Image courtesy of Unsplash.com
