- B2B Content has to provide value and be useful.
- ROI matters to B2B.
- B2B buyers are looking to be educated before they buy.
- B2B wants a long-term relationship.
- What is an example of B2B content marketing?
- How to do B2B content marketing the right way that increases sales and quality leads.
- Step number one: Find keywords with search traffic and business potential.
- Step Number two: Creating the right content.
- Step three: Promote the content:
- Step Four: Link Building
- Which type of content is most used in B2B settings?
Have you ever wanted a pipeline of potential customers who are presold on doing business with you? B2B content marketing can achieve this goal. Keep reading to find out how.
The main goal of any business tool like a blog or content marketing should be to increase sales. Content that does not lead to sales or leads should not be a priority until you have more business than you can take care of.
There is a lot of misinformation out there on content marketing for B2B. The problem with most of it – they have not put into practice anything they write about. Most blogs have advice that is a so-called *gut feeling* and has never been A/B split tested or at least tried to see if it works. They do a little bit of research on google and just try to recreate what everyone else is saying without ever testing it out themselves.
We are completely different. We use the same techniques we teach and write about. We here at Rock Dell SEO have generated a ton of qualified traffic for the websites We have worked on.
We have a much higher standard than most marketing companies. We judge our success based on the amount of business that is gained from our marketing efforts.
Good content marketing comes down to easy duplicatable steps that have already been proven and optimized for results.
Businesses that consistently create good content and educates their readers will consistently outperform their competitors.
This is what we are going to cover in this article.
- Why is content marketing important?
- What is content marketing for B2B
- How does B2B content marketing differ from B2C?
- What is a good case study of B2B marketing
- How to do B2B content marketing the right way that increases sales and quality leads.
Why is content marketing important?
Creating good content is the number one thing you can do to consistently create the perception of being a leader in your field.
Everyone wants to feel that they are making the best decision possible on whether they should do business with a particular company.
There is always a feeling of risk when working with a business you don’t know. By creating content that educates the buyer, you are creating a relationship with them.
What is content marketing for B2B?
B2B content marketing is the art of creating content to educate your audience, increase brand awareness, and become a thought leader in the field to ultimately drive more leads and sales.
The best content is educational. By educating your audience you are providing value without asking anything in return. This creates goodwill and will always pay long-term dividends in the end.
How does B2B content marketing differ from B2C content marketing?
On the surface, they are both very similar but they do have a few key differences that matter.
B2B Content has to provide value and be useful.
The best content provides actionable tips and is something that can be taken and applied immediately to the situation they are dealing with. Think back to companies that you perceived to be experts in their field. It is always due to the image that they created through their marketing and tools. When a business provides original content that is useful and applicable to your situation you start to feel a sense of trust and look at that company in a different light.
ROI matters to B2B.
Every time a business spends money they want to know that they are going to get a return on that investment and the bigger question becomes, how big of return?
When consumers spend money they are not looking to get a monetary return. They want to know, is the product going to work for me, is it a good deal, can I trust the company with my purchase?
B2B buyers are looking to be educated before they buy.
All good employees want to look good with the decisions that they are making for the business that they work for. They know their career could swing on making a good or poor choice, therefore they will look to minimize the risk before making a decision or recommendation.
The quality of the content for B2B needs to be of higher quality. You are not going to get away with AI-generated content because it won’t hold up to good research or pass the “smell test.”
The content also needs to be much more technical. Business buyers are better informed due to the research that is done before making a buying decision.
Consumers do not care about the educational part. Most consumers can be classified into two buying groups. Those who want the best product no matter the cost and those who want the best deal no matter the quality. Depending on what you sell your content should be focused on one of those two categories.
B2B wants a long-term relationship.
Once a business finds a partner that provides a good ROI and they trust them, they tend to have a long-term relationship with the business. I have personally seen many examples of businesses paying just a little bit more to continue to do business with someone they trust and know what the results will be.
Consumers have very little loyalty to any one brand or company. If they can find the same or a better-perceived quality product for less money they will switch brands without a second thought.
What is an example of B2B content marketing?
Ahrefs is a good example of a company focusing on content to grow their business.
Ahrefs has consistently used its blog to drive traffic. They state “content marketing is our most successful customer acquisition channel. The blog ranks in Google for over 192,000 keywords and gets almost 400,000 monthly visits.”
How to do B2B content marketing the right way that increases sales and quality leads.
- Find keywords with search traffic and business potential
- Create the right kind of content
- Promote the content
Step number one: Find keywords with search traffic and business potential.
You will need to either use Google or a good keyword explorer for this step. There are a lot of different ways to do this but I will stick with the top three, I have used and found to be the most effective.
The first step is determining what you are going to promote. Are you going to promote a specific product or the company in general?
Promoting a product
- Ask your sales staff what are the most common objections they are getting when potential customers do not end up doing business with your company. Create content around these objections to answer them satisfactorily. If your sales staff is hearing these objections then you know that a lot of the visitors to your website have these same concerns and they need to be answered.
If it’s a price-based objection, you need to create content showing the value of what your product provides.
If it’s a timing-based objection, create content around the need to move forward without delay and what the drawbacks are to delaying the decision. These can be case studies showing the results and what they have to gain by getting started today.
If it’s an information-based objection, create content to provide the information they need to make the decision.
- Promoting the product itself, focusing on middle and bottom of funnel keywords.
Use google and your keyword research tool to find buying intent keywords. Ask yourself what words are customers googling when they want to purchase the product you provide. An easy place to start with is google analytics. Determine where your current traffic is coming from and what search terms they are using.
There is a difference between general product keywords and specific buying intent keywords. If you need sales and quality leads the best place is to start with buying intent keywords. These keywords signal that the researcher has decided they want the product you are providing but are now in the process of trying to decide on what company or product to use.
Ex: Content Marketing. If someone searches for “content marketing” they are just getting started on the journey. They may just be looking for general information or how to do it themselves. If they search for “the best content marketing companies” this signals buying intent. They have decided they want content marketing but are now researching who the best companies are.
Look at the first page of Google for your keywords. What keywords are they ranking for and what content are they using to rank those keywords. Create better content around those specific keywords than your competitors and try to outrank them.
Promoting the company: Your primary goal here should be providing information and value to the reader.
Look for keywords that solve a common pain point for your customer and that have business potential. *This is the primary strategy that Ahrefs uses to determine what articles to write. If you search the Ahrefs blog for content marketing. You will find an article on how to create articles using their tools.*
Google your industry and the product you provide. See who ranks at the top. Analyze what keywords they are targeting. Pro Tip: google will always tell you what they want to see. Just look at the top search results and see who is ranking on the first page.
Step Number two: Creating the right content.
There are four different types of search intent to be aware of. Your article should focus on what is tied closely to what google thinks your keyword search intent should be. Google has worked hard on improving its algorithm to determine people’s search intent. Google’s goal is to provide the most relevant search result to searchers.
Informational intent: The searcher has a question that they are trying to answer, or wants to know more about a specific topic. This type of content marketing should be targeted to provide the information that the searcher is looking for based on the keyword being targeted.
Navigational intent: Searchers with this intent are trying to get to a specific website. There is not a lot of value in creating content for this keyword intent. Having a website that is findable and indexed will be enough to satisfy this search intent.
Transactional intent: Searchers are looking to make a purchase with this intent. They know what product they want and are ready to purchase it. This can be one of the most valuable intents to create content around. Your content should be focused on promoting your product. The more content you create around the product the higher it will rank and the better chance you have of reaching that searcher.
Commercial investigation: Searchers have the intention of purchasing what you are selling but need more information first. At this stage, they are researching the different available products. This is the most profitable intent to target with B2B content marketing. You will consistently get the best leads and sales from these searchers.
Step three: Promote the content:
Your content should be shared with your email list and on your social market channels at the very minimum. I also like to promote it with some paid ads just to get traffic going to it. This will give you a good idea of how it is going to rank and what the response is going to be. If the initial results are promising I will keep driving traffic until I no longer see a positive ROI.
Step Four: Link Building
Your article is going to need some inbound links if it is going to rank well. We use a couple of different link-building tactics. But mainly it means just sharing our article with relevant websites and guest posting.
Which type of content is most used in B2B settings?
The content that is used the most is informational. Businesses want to be educated before making a purchasing decision. There is an old saying that knowledge is power. Businesses know that the more knowledge they have the less chance of them making a mistake with their purchase.
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