Create A B2B Content Marketing Strategy – 6 Important Steps

Content marketers create b2b marketing strategies.

by Jim Frost

January 12, 2023

in Blog, Business Content, Content Strategy

No Comments

340

What is B2B content marketing?

Content marketing is particularly important in the B2B sector. B2B content marketing is the creation and marketing of content that is deliberately used to reach specific B2B target groups. The main aim is to make your own company better known and to use the content created to generate qualified leads.

B2B content marketing and the customer journey

While companies in the B2C sector usually interact with a very large number of customers, the B2B sector is characterized by a select customer base and long-term customer relationships. Organic B2B content marketing is therefore characterized not only by defining an understanding of the needs and wishes of the target group but also by delivering appropriately tailored (SEO) content along the touch points of the customer journey.

The consideration of the customer journey is sometimes neglected in B2B content marketing. But only marketers who understand at which points of the customer journey the right content for the target group has to be placed to be found by B2B prospects can reach B2B customers and win them over in the long term. In particular, organic visibility in the form of search engine optimization is a crucial factor here. Target groups that are looking for B2B services often use search engines like Google as a first step. This means that companies that perform well with unique B2B SEO content can also be reached by the potential target group.

Also read: Local Business SEO Tips – How to Get Found in Local Searches

6 important steps in the process of B2B content marketing

As a result, B2B content marketing builds on developing a long-term content marketing strategy in close coordination with the touch points of the customer journey. Basic steps are taken – from the B2B target definition and the conception of an SEO strategy to the publication and continuous review of the content.

1. B2B goal definition

As a basis for B2B content creation, the first step is to define which goals are to be achieved using the content marketing strategy. B2B content is always aimed at a specific target group and ideally fulfills a benefit. Only those who define goals can later measure the success of their strategy.

Lead generation is usually one of the overarching goals to acquire new customers. At the same time, B2B content marketing also reflects the general language and communication skills of a company, so that content can be used to position itself as a company and to strengthen its brand. In addition, it can be a possible goal to improve the bond with existing customers and to pass on expertise.

Also read: How To Write Service Page Content For Your Business Website

2. Analysis of the target group

In the second step, a professional target group analysis is carried out. This is crucial to correctly implement the customer approach. Key questions at this point are, for example:

What problems (and questions) does my target group have?
How does my service help solve these problems?
What characteristics do the people within my target group have?
How does my target group look for solutions to problems?

A well-founded target group analysis is necessary to develop specific buyer personas in the next step. Buyer personas are abstract profiles of potential business customers that fit into the target group’s scheme. The more extensive the service offered, the more complex the target group. Several decision-makers such as buyers or managing directors are usually involved in the acquisition of extensive services so many different needs have to be met at the same time. And in the B2B sector: only those who know their target group in detail can deliver ideally tailored content and choose the right content formats!

TextProz is a content marketing agency that helps B2B brands and enterprise companies tell great stories through content. Visit our content services page to get an overview.

3. Development of a B2B SEO strategy

Content marketing sees itself as a sub-discipline of an all-inclusive SEO strategy. In addition to technical aspects such as loading time, sitemap, or robots.txt, content marketing in B2B SEO must be adapted to the special needs of the target group.

In B2B SEO, it is important to get to know customer requirements in detail through intensive competitor analyses, keyword research, and topic research. Many special features in this sector have to be worked out when designing an SEO strategy and require a rethink. Purchasing processes in B2B e.g. takes significantly more time, so customer contact must be maintained through trustworthiness and expertise. In the B2B area, the choice often falls on long-tail keywords, i.e. long, specific search terms, as these often reflect the complex interests of the target group. Low search volumes should not deter you in any way, provided the search term covers a specific interest.

Also read: 9 Tips That Will Help You Write Incredible Business Emails

Another aspect is choosing the right content format. Whether classic white paper or dynamic video content on YouTube – the possibilities in B2B SEO are almost unlimited. While classic text content such as advice is often found in B2B, innovative content ideas offer a lot of potentials to stand out from the digital competition.

4. Creation of an editorial plan

After the strategic planning down to the last detail, the practical implementation follows. From the agency’s point of view, there is a clear recommendation here: Successful B2B content marketing is whoever focuses on quality instead of quantity. Half-heartedly created blog articles and guides are extremely rarely crowned with success.

Even if analyzes carried out in advance have revealed a wide range of questions, search terms, and potential formats, companies should initially focus on the most popular content. To plan the publication, it is advisable to create a structured editorial plan.

The editorial plan records which topics are published and when. At the same time, the planning defines which content formats are used and on what basis, e.g. the results of previous keyword research, the content is created. As a rule, a well-founded editorial plan is put together a few months in advance. Possible trend topics should also be taken into account and correctly classified over time.

Also read: What is “Good Content” and How It Attracts Customers To Your Business

5. Publishing and Marketing

The success of a content marketing strategy depends not only on what content is published but also on how visible published content is for the target group addressed. Based on this, it can make sense to advertise content in a targeted manner after publication.

Also read: How Does A Business Benefit From Good SEO Content Marketing?

6. Continuous evaluation

Concrete SEO KPIs are used to evaluate how successfully published content performs. With the help of the evaluations, it can be determined which content needs optimization. Poor rankings are usually an indication that the content created in its current form is not relevant enough compared to the competition. Here it is important to check search terms again and, if necessary, to expand or change content.

But be careful! An organic content marketing strategy takes time. While the first tendencies become apparent after a few weeks, well-founded results are sometimes only visible after several months.

Content formats in the B2B sector

A large number of content formats are available for the transmission of content in B2B. The majority of companies opt for classic formats that are often used in B2B:

As a rule, these are formats that are primarily designed to convey expertise. To fully exploit the potential of B2B content marketing, the B2B target group should be fed the right content along the touch points of the customer journey.

B2B SEO – Stand out with special content!

Blog articles, white papers, and guides are among the true classics in B2B SEO. To stand out and also improve access to the B2B target group, the marketing strategy should be fundamentally expanded.

In particular, channels such as B2B Sites and Guest Blogs are proving to be effective in the age of new digital marketing.

Also read: SEO For Online Business: 10 Tips For Website On-Page Optimization

Exploit B2B social media marketing potential

Social media are one of the first points of contact between companies and B2B target groups. While it used to be argued that specific B2B groups were not active in social networks, this argument is mostly omitted today. At B2B networks such as LinkedIn, all B2B users meet digitally from trainees to management.

The possibilities of B2B social media marketing are manifold. To strengthen your expertise in organic marketing, it can be worthwhile to prepare traditional content on your website such as white papers, blog articles, webinars, or case studies for publication in social (B2B) networks. Of course, social media also offers ideal conditions for bringing your brand into focus. But purely organic strategies sometimes have a hard time in B2B social media marketing – an interaction of organic and paid advertising measures has proven to be particularly effective in practice.

TextProz – Your B2B content marketing agency

As a B2B content marketing agency with an expert team of content creators and editors, we offer you both competent advice and operational support in all areas of B2B content marketing.
We understand B2B content marketing as part of an all-inclusive online marketing strategy. We accompany you through all disciplines of online marketing and work closely with you to develop an effective marketing concept to achieve your goals. Contact TextProz now!

Jim Frost

Jim Frost is an experienced content writer with a decade-long experience in helping businesses grow. He has written multiple articles on topics such as business, finance, technology, marketing, and more.