B2B Content Marketing

B2B Companies Must Adapt to Buyer Behavior or Lose to the Competition

Just being online or only relying on sales reps to grow your business doesn’t work anymore.
It’s too much effort for too little ROI.

You’ve already felt this and have likely looked for help in using newer strategic approaches.
But most agencies tell you to focus on one channel like SEO or Social Media.
Or they tell you that you must become an authority and to create a ton of content to stand out in the marketplace.
Much of what they pitch is either so limited that it won’t be very effective or it’s overly complex so that it makes it hard to even get started (and is overpriced).

Read our Top 7 Keys to Building More Business Online for B2B Companies

What is B2B Content Marketing?

Our definition is “B2B content marketing is using content (website, blogs, downloadables, social posts, ads, etc.) to strengthen your business’s visibility, awareness, lead generation and sales.”

Why it’s Important and Why to Keep it Simple

There are an infinite number of things you can do to market your company to other business buyers, but extending yourself too thin makes those efforts result in less and more complicated than it needs to be.

How to Keep it Simple: Focus on What Your Buyers are Looking For and Asking For

Search Engines and Social Media provide transparency into what b2b buyers are searching for online and what questions they are asking in relation to the problems you solve, the products you sell and the services you offer.

• BtoB Keyword Research will give you the specific terms & phrases these buyers use when searching online, how often they are searching them and how many competitors are showing up for these searches
• BtoB Social Media Research will show you what questions B2B buyers are asking their peers, professional communities and subject matter experts. Not only do you get to see the questions here, but the answers being giving are seen as well.

This is vitally important as both of these research methods give you what you need to create focused content that will be found organically and get B2B buyers seeing it, clicking it and contacting you to do business with you.

Download The 7 Keys to Building More Business Online for B2B Companies

What is the Biggest Issue B2B Companies are Dealing With?

A lack of having a clear strategy and a lack of time to do everything.
We can tell you from experience that both of these go together every time.
A typical B2B Content Marketing Effort has a multi-approach strategy that isn’t adequately focused making it lack clarity and the lack of time comes from doing too much and trying to learn how to do all of the things you aren’t good at.

How Do I Simplify My B2B Content Marketing Efforts?

The B2B buyer’s journey has a clear pattern so it’s easier to make sure you show up where your customers are looking.  So our approach is to:

• Set your Content Marketing Goal
• Look online to find out what B2B buyers are searching for and where
• Create pages, posts, papers and ads that answer the questions found in your research
• Optimize your website to promote this new content online and capture leads
• Promote and Advertise your new created content and optimized website to those who are searching for it and where they are searching for it

Doing this you will get more visits, more lead submissions and more lead calls for your products and services.

What are the Most Effective Types of B2B Content Marketing Assets?

The top 10 list below is what we have found to be Massively effective at generating new B2B leads and closing new sales.

1. Website
2. Blog Posts
3. Paid Search Ads
4. Social Media Ads
5. Case Studies
6. Videos
7. Email Nurturing
8. White Papers / eBooks
9. Product / Service Spec & Sales Sheets
10. In-Person Events

How to Target Your B2B Buyer Effectively

This is where most B2B organizations struggle.
Luckily the search engines and social media platforms have made it much easier to get in front of new customers.

Search engines allow you to target those who are searching for your products, services, company and competitors.
They also allow you to retarget the visitors that have come to your website or your customer lists which can be uploaded to these platforms.

Social Media platforms allow you to target very specific criteria.
You can identify customers through criteria such as sex, age, geography, interests, affinities, job titles, companies worked for and much more.
With these platforms you can also retarget the visitors that have come to your website or uploaded customer lists.

Doing this well is actually really easy for experienced B2B Content Marketing professionals.

B2B Content Marketing Case Study

Fill out the form below to download a case study on how this B2B content marketing approach is executed and the results it produces.

Two B2B Content Marketing Examples

The content marketing examples listed below are successful efforts that generate huge amounts of money for the companies that deploy them.

HubSpot’s Approach to B2B Content

We always point to the success of HubSpot’s content marketing as an example.
Their approach is similar and nearly identical to how we construct B2B Content Marketing Strategy & Campaigns.

They find what their customers are searching for & asking, write about it, optimize for it, publish & promote it and finally convert from it. And they charge a premium, making it highly profitable for them to build even more content.

General Electric’s B2B Content Marketing

The other example we love to share is GE’s Txchologist publication.
http://txchnologist.com/

This site focuses on updates and innovations created by GE and then published to a community of B2B customers that eagerly reach out to inquire and purchase.

What Are the Differences Between B2B Marketing Agencies?

There are 3 types of B2B Content Marketing Agencies.

1. The Creative B2B Agency
2. The “We Can Do It All” B2B Agency
3. The Performance Focused B2B Marketing Agency

The Creative B2B Agency is overly attentive to your visual identity (logos, colors, fonts, etc.), your brand message, the feeling your company provides to customers.

The “We Can Do It All” B2B Agency will literally tell you that they can do everything well. While most B2B agencies can actually do everything those who promote it typically make the experience and the work complicated, confusing and painful to work through.

The Performance Focused B2B Content Marketing Agency is always working to find B2B customers in the middle to the end of the buying journey and optimize your content, placement and assets to generate more leads and more sales.

At Acumen we are a Performance Focused B2B Content Marketing Agency and are a fit for those companies who are looking to expand their existing marketing efforts to drive more leads and sales.
“If you care more about the color of your font in an email footer than you are about increasing the visibility of a high converting page on your site, then we are not a good fit.” – John Bracamontes

Knowing where you are at in the stage of your business will guide you to what type of B2B Marketing Agency is right for you.

Are We a Fit For You?

If you are a B2B company looking to take lead & sales growth to the next level by creating focused campaigns that use research and best practice B2B digital marketing strategy then contact us today so we can discuss the process of going from “I Want to Win” to “All I Do is Win!”.

Call Us: 866-357-7422

Send Us a Contact Request

“We work with a number of B2B companies in a handful of different industries including Commercial Printing, Accounting, Commercial Real Estate, Technology, Private Equity, Engineering and Manufacturing.”

More on How We Approach B2B Content Marketing

Own Your Story and Connect with Customers Online

Don’t be fooled.
Content Marketing isn’t only copywriting and pretty pictures.
You must be strategic & unified across all of your digital marketing channels.

Smart companies understand the value of a well thought out content marketing program that can drive new leads, new customers and greater revenue.

Tell Your Story & Get Found at the Same Time

The problem with most content marketers and agencies is that they think they can just create blog & social posts for people to notice your company.
And while a small percentage of those same people know that more needs to be done, they don’t actually know how to do it.

This is why being good at marketing across all digital channels is mandatory.
This is How You Get Found!

How We Approach Content Marketing

Our approach is simple and effective.
We start with research from within your company, in search engines and across social media. This guides our content ideation, making sure it is accurate and in-demand.

We then construct a multi-channel strategy that maximizes the found opportunity online and gets you in front of your target audience.
Profiles & pages are built, copy is written, images & videos are produced, ads are built, websites are optimized, tracking is finalized, Everything Needed for You to Win Online is Done!

B2B Content Marketing Buyers Journey

Content Marketing Channels

We build, modify & optimize all channels used to deploy your Content Marketing efforts. These channels & tactics include:

• Website Optimization & Performance Websites
• SEO / Search Engine Optimization
• PPC / SEM / Pay Per Click Management & Optimization
• Social Media Managment & Optimization
• Email Marketing & Marketing Automation & CRM
• Video Marketing
• Graphic Design & Photography
• All Content!

Notice that we use the word Optimization a lot.
That’s because it is one of the most critical parts of any Content Marketing program.
If research & optimization are not employed and paired with a detailed tactical strategy, then your content marketing will suffer.

Content Marketing Analytics & ROI

Most Content Marketers and Agencies struggle with measuring ROI.
We Don’t!
We can tell you what is working, what isn’t, why and what you should do next.

Contact Us About Content Marketing

You can give us a call now at 866-357-7422 or by filling out the form below.