Creating a successful B2B lead generation plan starts with sharing your brand message through an effective content marketing strategy. How can you make sure that your strategy is providing a good return on your investment by providing high-quality leads? After all, a report from the Content Marketing Institute found that while 88 percent of all B2B companies utilize content marketing, only 30 percent have an effective strategy in place.
Even in B2B lead generation efforts, it’s important to remember that it’s still one person talking to another, trying to communicate and do business together. One of the foundational components to your content marketing strategy is the quality of your message and how you deliver it. Keep these tips in mind for your next B2B marketing campaign:
- Show it, don’t say it. When it comes to your value, telling your audience how great you are may turn your audience away. Instead, provide your B2B contacts with a steady feed of useful, insightful content with topics that answer a critical question or address a need. You won’t need to tell your potential buyers that you’re the expert; they’ll know it. This is also a great opportunity to use a case study and highlight how you were able to solve a problem for a customer in a real example.
- Utilize influencers. Identify some experts in your industry that you can pull in for content marketing opportunities. Whether inviting them to write an edition of your newsletter, or simply pulling a quote from a published piece, you can lend credibility to your own content with the voice of an expert. You could have an influencer guest-write your blog, or you could link to one of their blogs on a social media platform.
- Tailor your content. Identify the different stages that your target audience members can be in and then specifically create content that addresses their current situation. Your stages may be as few as three: awareness, evaluation and conversion. When you target your potential buyers in their specific stage, you’ll have more success moving them to the next step and increase your return on investment for your content.
If your B2B marketing plan could use a fresh perspective, or if your lead generation efforts are lagging, talk with SJC Marketing. We’ll walk you through a plan to help you develop a successful content marketing campaign and help you achieve your growth.