The Benefits of B2B Content Marketing: How to Use Content to Drive Leads and Boost Sales

Content marketing is a staple of B2B marketing and a proven tactic to integrate into your marketing mix. However, around 10% of marketers do not use content marketing, resulting in lost opportunities for lead generation, conversions and business growth. To help you appreciate the value, we have put together a piece that highlights the benefits of B2B content marketing and gives you strategies to use it to generate more leads and fill the sales funnel.

The Benefits of B2B Content Marketing

There are plenty of benefits of B2B content marketing. As a snapshot, we have compiled a list that showcases just how much of a factor it plays in business success.

• Boosts Brand Awareness: The more your audience and key prospects know about your brand, the better. Content serves as one way to get your brand in front of them. The more you create, the more recognition and awareness. If you are utilizing pieces in the right channels you have a greater chance for your audience will see it!
• Increases Website Traffic: One way to generate more traffic is to improve your search engine positioning. This happens by strategically optimizing your content for keywords your audience is searching for. Carefully select and incorporate your keywords into online webpages to increase rankings. Use these tips to get started.
• Drives Other Marketing Activities: When you think about email marketing, social media and advertising, it is all powered by content. For example, you distribute content via email, promote it on social media and use it as an offering for advertising. Ultimately, the right assets enable you to reach more prospects in a mix of ways and increase the chance of generating quality leads.
• Generates Leads: 80% of content assets are gated and can yield conversion rates up to 45%. Remember, not all assets should be behind a form. Pieces such as blogs, articles and infographics should be easily accessible since they are perfect for brand awareness. More high-value assets such as eBooks, white papers and webinars are better gated. This pushes unknown prospects to convert into a known lead to receive more information than one might get from a blog or article.
• Helps Move Leads Through the Sales Funnel: As mentioned above, different asset types serve better for different stages in the sales funnel. We will dive into the specifics below, but the more variety you have, the more seamlessly you can move leads through to conversion.

How to Use Content Marketing to Your Advantage

Now that we have covered a few of the benefits of B2B content marketing, it is time to dive into how to strategically use it to your advantage to generate more leads and boost sales performance.

• Create a Content Calendar: There are a lot of content types available to produce, but there are also other factors, like resources and budget, that go into determining what is feasible for your team. One way to keep production organized and prioritized is by creating a content calendar. It is one of the most tried and true techniques in the book, but it is such an important element to marketing success. The more your content is planned out, the more you understand any gaps you need to fill to reach all audiences. Here’s what to include in your content calendar:
  • Asset type
  • Title
  • Author
  • Status
  • Date published
  • SEO information (such as keyword used)
  • Link on website
• Utilize Specific Content Throughout the Buyer’s Journey: Each stage of the buyer’s journey is best supported by specific content types. Here are a few to consider for each stage and why they are important.
  • Awareness: This stage is about getting the word out about your brand and bringing to light an obstacle your audience might be experiencing. These assets are typically ungated, which makes them easily accessible to your audience.  A mix of blogs, articles, videos and infographics are best for this stage.
  • Consideration: This stage sparks the need for a solution. At this point, you want them to consider your product or solution and to do that, in-depth gated content generates the most success. Items such as eBooks, white papers, guides and product reviews are best at this stage.
  • Decision: This is the final opportunity to make an impact. At this point, you want to showcase your product/solution, its benefits and the successes of your customers. Content such as demos, sales presentations, case studies, testimonials, product or solution comparisons and decision checklists are best at this stage.
• Promote Content Across Various Channels: As we noted, content is the cornerstone for driving a huge percentage of marketing activities. Here are a few tips on what to promote across your integrated marketing channels:
  • Social Media: Social media allows you to reach a broad audience and boost brand awareness. Before sharing content, think about the audience and the specific platform. An article may be suited better for LinkedIn while a short video might be more ideal for Instagram. What will encourage engagement from your audience and help get your social media followers to your website to learn more? Sharing blogs, articles and guides that direct to your website is always a good place to start. Ensure that your calls to action (CTAs) within those pieces are clear and concise to drive your audience to the next step.
  • Email Marketing: Email marketing provides you with a specific audience, whether curated from subscriptions and personal networks or purchased lists. In your emails, distribute educational content, product updates, company news and anything that makes sense to inform your database. There will be opportunities to segment your database and deliver more targeted items. For example, if you segment your database to all the vice presidents of the organizations, you can send a content piece that talks about leadership or management techniques that would apply to those vice presidents. Think about your audience and offer items that will make a connection.
  • Advertising: Like email, paid ads look at a subset of people based on targeting characteristics. To get these individuals to convert, consider those characteristics when selecting what to offer. Oftentimes, high-value assets such as eBooks or case studies are great to use but remember to always have a form in front of these assets so that you can generate a lead.
  • Events: Any conference, tradeshow or event that you attend or exhibit at presents an opportunity to share content and more about your brand. Have brochures ready to hand out to people who visit your booth. Consider creating an infographic that highlights key brand wins and benefits. Something as simple as a slideshow running in the background behind your booth can go a long way in educating audiences and sparking sales conversations.

The benefits of B2B content marketing are stark and including these strategies for utilizing content to your advantage is sure to improve brand awareness, prospect interest and lead generation.

Looking for content development support or someone to help plan and execute your content strategy? Contact us today or request a free marketing consultation to learn more!