Get Expert Insights on B2B Content Marketing Trends

Get Expert Insights on B2B Content Marketing Trends

Creating effective marketing strategies is a challenging task, even when you have your customers’ ears. After all, brands must deal with and account for multiple factors, from creative requirements and budget constraints to channel decisions, when developing their marketing plans. However, the key determinant of successful marketing is the target audience.

If your marketing efforts do not effectively target your buyer persona, your advertisements and promotions are unlikely to resonate with your intended audience. In such a case, your marketing initiatives may become ineffective. 

This is where B2B content marketing agencies enter the game. It is crucial to understand that the target audience differs significantly between individual consumers and businesses. Marketing to businesses requires an entirely different approach. The expert insights offered by B2B content marketing agencies can be a game changer for you if you’re a B2B brand.

Before we get into all the juicy insights of B2B content marketing, let’s answer a fundamental question:

Is B2B Marketing Right for You?

B2B marketing involves businesses promoting their products or services to potential buyers, but unlike B2C — business-to-customer — marketing, the focus is on other businesses rather than individual consumers. This requires specific marketing strategies and techniques. B2B content marketing agencies specialize in this marketing. 

Typically, B2B marketing is carried out by companies that offer products or services aimed at corporate customers, such as industrial goods or business software and consulting services. However, some companies target both consumers and other businesses.

While B2B marketing is based on the same core principles as B2C marketing, the approach must be tailored to the specific needs and behaviors of B2B customers. B2B content marketing agencies keenly understand that, unlike B2C customers, B2B customers tend to have a more structured buying process and make purchasing decisions on behalf of multiple stakeholders.

Expert Insights: Trends to Keep An Eye On In B2B Content Marketing

The popularity of content marketing has also led to intense competition and raised customer expectations. With so many trends in the content marketing world, it can be challenging to determine how to ensure that your strategy will deliver results, especially when it comes to niche like B2B marketing. 

1. Demonstrating Expertise Is Vital

In the current digital age, B2B content marketing agencies understand that B2B marketing can no longer rely only on search-engine-optimized content. Instead, a customer-centric approach is necessary, which means creating content that speaks directly to individuals rather than simply appeasing a Google algorithm. 

However, this poses a challenge, as B2B marketing content must also satisfy and persuade key decision-makers. To achieve this, B2B content marketing agencies focus on the need to educate and showcase specific expertise or even thought leadership.

B2B content marketing agencies leverage journalistic techniques like conducting accurate and relevant research into the client’s industry, quoting expert voices, and linking to reputable sources. These techniques also improve SEO and conversion performance. The content can take many forms, such as white papers, business reports, blog posts, and webinars, and may cover topics like new technology, industry trends, and opinion pieces.

As content marketing becomes more customer-centric, B2B content marketing agencies increasingly focus on creating authoritative content like proprietary reports, business guides, and white papers. Such content showcases their subject expertise and demonstrates their value to discerning target customers.

2. Generate Leads Through Social Media

LinkedIn is the favorite social network in the world of B2B content marketing. According to a study, 78% of respondents stated that they made use of LinkedIn over the previous 12 months as part of their B2B marketing strategy. One of the main reasons behind this is LinkedIn’s specialized lead generation form, which has proved to be a true B2B game-changer that will likely remain relevant for a long time to come.

B2B content marketing agencies make use of social media to advertise content central to your business — think eBooks and white papers — to draw leads to your business. eBooks, in particular, can be a potent tool for generating new leads very quickly: they deliver valuable and specific information to the reader (instead of a sales pitch) in return for their email address or cell number. 

By backing your authoritative content up with consistent and engaging posts on social media along with authentic and frequent interaction with your followers, B2B content marketing agencies transform your content into a potent catalyst in your lead generation process. 

3. An Emphasis on Omnichannel Marketing

It’s no secret that B2B companies face a lengthy sales cycle; consequently, they must engage with their audience across multiple channels. To enhance the customer experience and journey, B2B content marketing agencies make use of omnichannel marketing, which allows for a multi-faceted approach that offers various direct lines to customers.

Some of the marketing tools that B2B content marketing agencies use include short videos posted on YouTube to demonstrate tutorials and case studies, website blogs and articles with short-form videos promoted on social media, audio content such as radio ads, interviews, and podcasts that can also be embedded in blogs, infographics and illustrations within eBooks and white papers, and live stream chats on social media.

However, B2B content marketing agencies are also conscious of the fact that using all of these tools simultaneously without a cohesive content strategy can dilute their effectiveness. B2B companies may find it challenging to achieve the pitch-perfect balance of content strategies. 

This is why B2B content marketing agencies can prove to be invaluable allies to them. These agencies excel, by design, at creating a coherent strategy and messaging that resonates with the target audience and increases conversions. 

The Upshot

Creating great B2B marketing content, more often than not, requires a significant investment of time and resources. It makes a lot of sense for many brands to outsource their B2B content marketing to specialized agencies like AdLift, who create thoughtful and relevant content to help your brand build trust with its audience.