Online Content Marketing for the B2B Sector
A much-overlooked area of online content marketing is in the B2B space, because most businesses in this sector still rely on traditional lead generation sources such as conferences and trade shows. Although 95% of B2B marketers have created corporate social media accounts, half do not publish content on a regular basis. Companies that embrace online lead generation have the chance to make significant gains over competitors that don’t.
Let’s first look at some statistics that illustrate why it is so important for the B2B sector to embrace online content marketing:
- Lead generation:
- According to Biznology over 55% of B2B buyers say they search for product/vendor information on social media
- Fifty per cent of sales go to the first salesperson to contact a prospect so those monitoring social media requests for guidance on a product or service can make easy wins
- Eighty per cent of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement (B2B PR Sense Blog)
- Online Purchasing
- B2B customers now expect the same range of buying options they enjoy as consumers, which is why nearly half of B2B buyers (49%) prefer to use consumer websites to make work-related purchases and 78% of B2B customers (and 83% of consumers) say fulfilment options – such as next-day delivery – are important or very important. (The Future of Commerce)
Clearly B2B businesses need to catch up with the consumer sector as the shift to online is clear.
Improve Your Website Before Investing in Marketing
There’s little point in spending the money or effort on a B2B Marketing campaign, only for your website to turn off potential customers. Before you begin a campaign, make sure to do the following on your own website
- Optimise all your website pages for the keywords your customers will use when searching for your offering by including these terms in the page content and meta tags
- Include content that buyers seek including:
- Details about your products and services (specific information can be put further down the page to avoid it looking cluttered)
- Precise contact information
- Company information
- Testimonials
- Social media icons
- A blog to tell customers about your latest news and launches
- Clear call to actions (buy now, enquire etc)
If you sell products it is highly recommended that you allow your customers to purchase them online. This will not only save you time, but it also removes a barrier to buying for your customers. One Contentedly client saw a significant boost to their B2b sales after we created a wholesale website for them that allowed their clients to order and make payments online.
B2B Social Media Channels
Once you have optimized your website, you should create your social media accounts. For the B2B sector it’s essential to set up the following:
- LinkedIn: while the site works mostly as a networking / job finding service, many people are now using it to gauge the experience of a business and its employees. Make sure your team create professional profiles that include their expertise, and make an effort to produce an appealing company page as well. Create a group for your sector and post interesting articles on it from your blog so that your company comes out top in relevant searches.
- Twitter: twitter is more of a news / knowledge sharing platform so it is a crucial channel to use when trying to raise the profile of a business online. Remember to use relevant hashtags in your tweets so that they are seen by your target customers
- Pinterest: Pinterest is very product-driven so if you have products it is essential that you pin them and where relevant, create boards for specific categories that customers search for
- Google+ and Bing: while these channels have not taken off as much as other social media networks, it’s still vital that you add your business to them so that you can appear in their local results – for example, if you provide a local service, such as accountancy or web design, your customers will likely search online for a nearby provider. Ask happy customers to review your business as well because these reviews influence purchasing behavior
- Facebook: while less relevant in the B2B space, a facebook presence allows you to appear in relevant searches for your product or service. It’s an effective way to get people to review your business in a way that is easily accessible as a large number of people have facebook accounts
- Instagram: this channel appeals more to a lifestyle audience, but if you have a product that you want to promote to consumers to get distributors or retailers excited, then instagram is highly recommended. Beautiful, creative photography is a must here as the competition is intense
Creating Effective B2B Content
When you’re deciding what type of content you should create, it’s advisable to:
- Create an editorial content planner so that you can create several articles at the same time to improve productivity and to reduce the time you need to spend on social media
- Make an effort: don’t spam social media channels with generic content or comments – provide insight for your audience. If you post useless content on your social media pages, many of your followers will automatically mute your posts or unfollow you
- Invest in quality content: make sure your images are high quality and write clear, comprehensive product descriptions that answer the questions potential customers may have
- Write authoritative articles about trends affecting your sector. If you are a service business, for example, an accountant or a lawyer, content marketing is an extremely effective way to sell your service by showing your expertise
- Respond to trending news in a timely and sensitive way
Additional B2B Online Content Marketing Tips
- Always SEO the content on your social media pages so that you are targeting the right terms
- Use hashtags to generate greater exposure
- Update your website frequently through blog articles which helps you appear higher in google results
- Use scheduling tools such as Hootsuite to limit the time you spend on social media – you can post tweets and articles and set them to auto-post so your accounts appear active
- Always engage with other people in your sector and make an extra effort to interact positively with the posts of your customers or target clients
- Create a mailing list that allows you to tell customers of new products easily and quickly. Using a platform such as mailchimp you can personalize emails so that they do not seem automated
- Encourage your team to share / interact with your content
- Always respond positively to comments, even negative feedback
- Track which content resonates with your audience and what doesn’t through google analytics
If this seems a lot to take on, consider working with web content experts who will be able to either help you get things up-and-running or manage your online campaigns in their entirety.
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