Your B2B company needs to be able to understands and grasp the truth that content marketing must be a strategic, focused, and attractive approach with the ultimate goal being to gain an audience. Content has to be original and worthwhile to the customer in order to keep people coming back; potential customers will quickly look elsewhere if they feel a need is not met, or worse, sense the pressure of a sales pitch. But how important is content marketing?

Digital Current shares some numbers regarding content marketing in a recent survey:

• 60%: Number of consumers more likely to purchase a product after viewing content about that product
• 62%: Less cost of content marketing compared to brand marketing strategies
• 15: Number of fresh blogs which need to be created each month in order to gain as many as 1,200 new leads
• 78%: Consumers that believe brands are interested in them, and a long-term relationship with them, when those brands develop original content

Maybe your content has grown stale, tired, and mundane. Every now and then, we all need to be reminded to look at our current strategy with fresh eyes and make changes if necessary.

Content Marketing Strategies

#1 Blog: Express individuality of your company, keep customers update, and remain fresh in content when you post interesting topics and useful information. Readers will keep coming back when they are provided a quick yet relevant read.

#2 Social Media: You would be hard pressed to find someone who is not active on a social media site in some way. Embrace technology in all its forms; if you have resisted, put that notion behind you and jump on board with the rest of this century.

#3 SEO: Start with a creative title with target keywords, then deliver content related to your title. Focus on keywords (but don’t stuff), and give SEO friendly titles to all images.

With these content strategies in mind, here are some questions to ask regarding your own company:

Do you have a strategy? Without a plan, you will go nowhere. Set some goals and begin to think about where you want to be in 5, 10, 15 years. Work toward fulfilling those visions.

Do you know your audience? Writing to a general crowd versus one in which you know the needs of the people will determine what type of content is created. A generic message will not be effective; if a customer does not sense that the content is applicable to their own needs, they will look elsewhere to have those needs met.

Do you sell your business? Vital sums it up like this: you (the B2B company) should be providing information that is not going to scream “buy my product!”, but is saying to consumers, “I understand you and I can offer solutions”. As people’s purchasing decisions have evolved, so too has the amount of information they seek on the products they are considering.

Do you ask for a response? Is there an opportunity for potential customers to provide their business name and any needs that business may have, maybe in exchange for an awesome, useable, downloadable content pdf?

No one-size-fits-all

Producing content is a challenge for many B2B companies, and not just producing it, but producing quality content which engages a specific audience. This is where the effort to understand your customers comes into play, not just in order to make a sale, but to develop a one-on-one relationship for the purpose of drawing them in.

There is no one-size-fits-all plan for B2B content marketing, although some may beg to differ and will proceed to tell you why they believe this is true. In reality, 28% of B2B marketers use between 5 and 9 content marketing methods in order to grow leads, and almost 64% use more than 9. How you develop your specific brand of marketing depends on you, the needs of your business, and the audience you want to reach.

Give some new and fresh content marketing strategies a try. You may not see results overnight, but stay committed to the goal and watch what happens.