If you're a B2B marketer looking to step up your blogging game, you'll be delighted to know that creating strong content doesn't have to take days and dozens of drafts. In this ultimate guide, we'll dive deep into the essential strategies for crafting powerful B2B blog posts that capture readers' attention, get your message across loud and clear, and drive more conversions for your business. So break out the coffee pot — it's time to turbocharge your blog post-writing skills!
How to Create a Strong B2B Blog Content Strategy
You’ve created the perfect foundation for a B2B blog content marketing strategy — catchy titles, keyword research and social media promotion. Now it's time to get creative and churn out quality content that meets your goals.
When considering B2B content marketing, it's crucial to understand the basics. Best practices for B2B content marketing start with setting goals, executing those goals by crafting compelling stories, and measuring success through analytics along the way. Knowing your target audience and having a clear strategy are also essential components. In addition, to stay ahead of the game in B2B blog content creation, don't forget to introduce statistics and data points into your posts.
The bottom line?
It can be challenging to craft engaging work that will attract leads and propel them from the middle of the funnel onward. But with the right tips and tricks, you can create a strong B2B blog content strategy to engage readers and convert them into customers.
Let’s jump in.
Have a Content Marketing Blog Strategy
Shifting to a content-focused marketing strategy is the key to success in the modern digital age. As businesses become more competitive, a comprehensive B2B content marketing strategy can take your business to new heights.
A solid content marketing blog strategy is all about creating relevant, informative and engaging pieces of content that capture and captivate your target market. This kind of strategic planning brings brand recognition and drives product interaction, equating to increased sales and ROI. If you truly want to skyrocket your business, having a solid content plan prepared is essential.
Creating strong B2B blog content is an essential part of any business. High-quality content will help you keep your customers engaged, attract new leads and retain existing clients. By creating content that resonates with your customer base, you can also maximize the effectiveness of your B2B marketing funnel. B2B blog posting is also essential for increasing website traffic — making it worth the investment.
Define Your Target Audience
If you're a B2B company, it's important to have a clear understanding of your target audience.
Who are you writing for? What are their pain points? What interests them? What is their decision-making process like?
Developing buyer personas can be a helpful exercise in this regard. By taking the time to understand your target audience, you'll be able to produce content that resonates with them and meets their needs.
Identify the Right Topics
If you're looking to get ahead with your content creation, the key is identifying the right topics. Consider the following steps for creating content:
Understand Your Value Proposition:
To avoid getting lost in the vast landscape of content creation, start by finding your niche and understanding what makes you unique.
Document Your Strategy:
Creating an editorial calendar can help your teams stay aligned on what’s important for the business.
Dig Deeper Into Your Target Audience:
You’ll also want to dig deeper into what questions and problems your target audience is trying to solve, so that you can accurately address those pressing matters with expert solutions.
Involve Product, Sales and Business Development Teams:
Product and sales teams will be able to provide ideas for content development based on discussions with prospects and customers. Use this information to create new content.
Explore Industry News:
For businesses looking to become strategic partners to their clients, consider curating news stories that are relevant to your customers.
Follow the Data:
Finally, use data and analytics from social media or surveys to identify the most successful topics that can give you maximum visibility.
Craft Compelling Headlines and Titles
As the front line in grabbing attention and drawing potential readers in, headline writing is essential to any B2B content marketer's toolkit. Taking the time to craft compelling titles and headlines can mean the difference between content that is widely read or left to gather virtual dust. Crafting incredible headlines takes time, but it is more than possible with some practice and a few best practices listed below:
1. When starting your headline-writing journey, consider the target audience for your post, hone in on a specific feeling you want to evoke from them with words, and use keywords rather than thin out ideas — all of which will help create titles that accurately reflect the content inside.
2. Consider adding numbers to your headlines, as they often have a higher success rate.
3. Be sure to thoroughly proofread and test out different headlines before you hit publish.
With a bit of practice and ingenuity, you will soon be creating headlines that are too irresistible not to click.
Write Engaging B2B Content
Writing engaging content doesn't have to be a daunting task. In fact, with just a few simple steps, you can make your content informative and fascinating:
Tell a Story:
Take advantage of storytelling to bring something special to the table: Weave a narrative featuring personal anecdotes or data-based trends to keep it compelling.
Formatting and Visuals:
Remember great formatting, visuals and other elements will make your piece stand out.
Be Empathetic:
Most importantly, adopt an empathetic approach to content marketing; in other words, prioritize building long-term relationships with your audience by sharing meaningful insights, rather than spamming them with sales pitches.
By focusing on engagement, you'll be well on your way to crafting unforgettable content every single time.
Optimize for Search Engines
SEO has become essential for content creators, especially when writing B2B blog posts. If you want your material to be seen, ranking highly on search engines like Google is the way to go. Thankfully, optimizing your content doesn't have to be intimidating. With just a few tips, you can ensure that your posts are at the top of the list:
1. Choose keywords and phrases that relate directly to your topics, then add them strategically throughout your post.
2. Don’t forget about meta descriptions! Enticing descriptions can often make all the difference between people clicking or just scrolling by.
3. Make sure that your post is formatted in a way that search engines can easily read and understand.
By making SEO a priority, you'll be able to ensure that your content reaches the right people at the right time.
Showcase Thought Leadership
Showcasing thought leadership is a smart way to get noticed. Whether you're an executive or a small business owner, it's a must to establish yourself as a credible source of information. The pandemic led to companies also focusing on this form of content marketing. Approximately 66% of decision-makers agree that COVID-19 led to an influx of thought leadership content, while about 40% note there is more thought leadership content than is manageable.
Despite the increase in competition, thought leadership continues to be a successful tool for companies who employ it properly. About one in two decision-makers awarded business to an organization after engaging with their thought leadership. The problem for most decision makers is the value being provided. Approximately 71% of those surveyed said that less than half of what they read is delivering insights that are valuable.
By focusing on content that delivers value, such as industry news, trends and challenges, companies can stand out from the competition when creating this kind of content.
Curate the News
Curating the news is more than just a way to stay informed about what's happening in the world; as a business, it's an opportunity to join relevant conversations to your industry and engage with potential customers. As mentioned above, decision-makers note that less than 50% of what they read is delivering value. Valuable industry news can help your organization be a trusted resource of information. Additionally, only 19% of households in the U.S. are currently paying for online news. Even fewer people are paying for a second subscription. By licensing news content, you can showcase important information that is unique to your audience, while saving internal resources.
Promote Your Content
Promoting your content is about getting eyeballs on what you’re putting out there, and with the right strategy, you can reach a wide spectrum of readers in no time.
But how should you promote?
Social media and email marketing are great tools for growing your list and getting attention. But it takes savvy planning, smart use of influencers and knowledge of the platforms to make them work their magic. That's where best practices come into play. Consider the following:
Gated Content:
For gated content, consider partnering with publishers to generate leads. Your team should also create CTA banners on your site to drive organic traffic.
Newsletters:
Curated newsletters and emails can be a great way to connect with audiences. Consider showcasing your new articles alongside industry news and updates.
Social Media:
Social media can be a great place to connect with audiences. Post updates to channels such as LinkedIn and Facebook for more engagement.
Track Goals and KPIs
There's no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of which content marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) are best for your business. The KPIs that will help you track and achieve your goals depend on various factors, including the nature of your business, industry and specific goals.
Nevertheless, there are some general principles you can follow when choosing KPIs:
1. Be Clear in Your Goals:
Make sure you're clear on what your goals are. What do you want to achieve? Once you have a good understanding of your goals, you can start looking at which KPIs will help you track progress toward those goals.
2. Which KPIs Are Most Relevant:
Think about which KPIs are most relevant to your industry. What metrics are commonly used in your industry to measure success? This will give you a good starting point for choosing KPIs.
3. Consider Which KPIs Will Best Help Your Business:
Consider which KPIs will be most informative and useful to you and your team. Which KPIs will help you make better decisions and take action to improve your business? These are the KPIs you should track.
Outsource Your Content Development
If you're looking for a way to make the most of your time, consider outsourcing content development. Quality content matters, but quantity is also important, especially in such a competitive landscape. For companies looking to maximize their budget and their team’s time, outsourcing can be a great tool. In fact, 55% of B2B companies are already outsourcing content to a certain extent. Consider the following benefits:
Showcase different perspectives:
By outsourcing content, you can feature different experts from across the industry, making your content more valuable to potential customers.
Save money:
By licensing content from reputable publications, you are able to provide breaking news, without your team having to spend hours in research time.
Produce more:
One constraint of content production is constantly producing new pieces. By outsourcing some content, your team can focus on specific topics that can only be managed by in-house expertise.
Wrapping Up
Writing blog content for your B2B business doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, it could be easier than you think.
By outsourcing your blog creation, you can ensure your content is of the highest quality and remains consistent across the range of topics related to your business.
All that’s left is to ensure you’re generating valuable leads while keeping your marketing strategies up to date. You can take advantage of these benefits immediately with a full range of content-licensing options available through NYTLicensing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are you looking to get your B2B blog content in tip-top shape without all the hassle? Below, we’ll walk through some basics and essentials of crafting effective content that carries an impactful message with our most frequently asked questions.
What makes a good B2B blog?
When creating content for your B2B blog, it’s crucial to consider the reader’s experience and how the content can help them make informed decisions.
A good B2B blog should also:
● Be well-written, informative and have a clear purpose
● Include relevant keywords to help boost search engine visibility
● Engage the reader by using storytelling techniques and compelling visuals
● Provide value to your target audience, whether that’s through providing helpful tips, product reviews or industry news
How do you measure the success of your B2B blog content?
The success of your B2B blog content can be measured by looking at key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs can vary depending on what type of content you’re creating but typically include metrics like page views, time spent on a page, bounce rate and conversions. By tracking these KPIs, you can gain valuable insights into your content's performance and whether it’s meeting your goals.
How do you repurpose and recycle your content?
Once you’ve created content for your B2B blog, it’s important to ensure that it reaches as many potential customers as possible. This is where repurposing and recycling your content comes in handy. By taking existing pieces of content and transforming them into different formats, you can reach a wider audience and maximize the impact of your content. For example, you could take a blog post and turn it into an infographic or take a video and turn it into a podcast — the possibilities are endless.
How do you create a content calendar?
Creating a content calendar is a great way to stay organized and ensure your blog is regularly updated with fresh content. Start by listing all the topics you want to cover in your blog, then create an editorial outline. Once you’ve d
eveloped the outlines, it’s time to add them to your content calendar. This will help you track your content creation.
What type of content is most used in a B2B setting?
In a B2B setting, the most common type of content is educational and informative. This could include helpful blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, videos, webinars, podcasts and more. This type of content aims to provide valuable insights that can help your customers make informed decisions about their business needs. This content should be tailored to the target audience and offer actionable advice to help them succeed.
