As a B2B marketer, you understand the value of content. Content educates prospective buyers moves them through the sales funnel, helps your customers overcome issues related to their businesses and arms your sales force with tools that not only enhance their learning but give them an opportunity to reach out to prospects and build awareness for your brand.
Unfortunately, creating content is sometimes easier said than done. Read on to learn more about several issues you may encounter with B2B content and the solutions that will help your team get great content in front of your target audiences.
There are certain challenges you may face in your quest to develop and promote high-value content for your brand. Review the following obstacles and solutions for overcoming them.
Many B2B brands encounter this problem. By nature, the industry you serve and the product or service you offer is likely very specialised. Remember that much of your content will be consumed by people who have varying levels of expertise in your industry or other related industries. Your content will also need to appeal to different types of learners. Some prefer reading content while others prefer visual or audio content.
Do not assume that your reader is already well-versed on your topic. How would you explain these concepts to someone in a casual conversation? To enhance comprehension, define jargon and abbreviations that some may not know. Break down topics into digestible sections using thorough explanations and supporting statistics. Use charts and graphs to illustrate key points. Consider developing videos that give people a more well-rounded view of the issue at hand.
If other pieces of content you’ve developed will improve understanding of a new piece of content, provide hyperlinks and consider labeling these as part of a series so that important topics are introduced in the appropriate order. For instance, readers of an e-book discussing the use of ultraviolet light and electrostatic disinfection methods may benefit from being able to access an e-book that first discusses the differences between cleaning, sanitising and disinfecting and best practices for disinfection.
Another point to consider is that your content may be relevant to those whose first language is not English. By translating your content into other languages, you can enhance understanding of your topics and gain new audiences.
Customer success stories can help you convert prospects to customers by showcasing real results. While the best-case scenario is a willing customer that wants to actively promote their success story just as much as you do, securing case studies can often be a challenge. In some instances, you have a perfect use case to share but a client won’t give you permission to use their name in your marketing materials. There are several ways to work around these issues.
If a customer isn’t on board for a longer case study, see if you can condense their experience into a series of shorter testimonial quotes or a paragraph that explains how your product or service has supported their team. Perhaps a customer is open to a case study but it will be too difficult to get the content approved with their name attached (this often happens with large brands with complex legal department requirements). You may be able to draft your story and remove the customer references in favor of descriptors like “a leading international airline” or “a Fortune 500 technology provider.”
You might even run into a scenario where you can use the customers’ name but not any quantitative information that might reveal cost savings, a boost in revenue or employee engagement figures. In these instances, you can leverage the customer’s results by focusing on the qualitative benefits. There is still a lot of value in including these details, and in some cases, they might be even more powerful that qualitative data.
What’s the point of creating content if nobody consumes it? In order to get your content in front of your target audience, you need to have a multi-channel strategy. Your brand’s social media channels and website should feature useful content that is updated frequently. Meanwhile, your public relations efforts will secure placements in industry trade, local and perhaps even Tier 1 media. Your sales team, C-suite and other potentially influential employees should be another channel for sharing your content.
It’s possible that your employees aren’t aware of all the great pieces of content you’re producing internally and getting placed with the media. If you have videos, case studies and e-books available, be sure to share these directly with team members who can amplify them. Consider also granting them access to a calendar that updates them on pending content and upcoming events, like webinars and industry conferences where you’ll be presenting a seminar.
Keeping your team in the loop on the types and pieces of content that are available to them will help them be more engaged. You can even implement solutions like Hootsuite Amplify that makes it easier than ever for workers to share approved messaging that links to your content. If a paid platform is not within your budget, you can arm your team with pre-approved posts to use on LinkedIn, in emails and other relevant channels.
Regularly check in with employees to gain insights on what content is working and any ideas they have for new pieces of content. For example, your sales team can identify concerns that prospects have shared during the buyer’s journey that could form the basis for a how-to guide on overcoming these specific challenges. The sales team can also confirm whether visual assets like infographics are being well received by prospects and customers. Use the feedback to guide the development of future content.
Content helps drive buyers through the sales funnel. Creating high-quality content that will engage your prospects and customers is just as important as promoting it across the right channels. If you’re facing any of the above obstacles related to content development and marketing, know that there are often solutions that will enable you to overcome them.
Looking for a B2B agency that can support your content marketing needs? Contact Mulberry to learn how we can help you create and promote your content to drive wins for your business.
Jess Messenger is an Account Director at Mulberry Marketing Communications, an award-winning full-service B2B communications agency based in Chicago, London and Australia. She enjoys developing PR campaign strategies and writing for B2B audiences across numerous verticals such as retail, foodservice and healthcare.