In such a rapidly changing environment like the Internet, B2B companies often struggle to understand the concept of content marketing and implement it properly. For some, it’s still reserved for the consumer market, so they abandon the idea.
According to 2016 B2B Content Marketing Trends – North America, marketers are predominantly using it but the effort is largely ineffective. For example, 88 percent of them reported using content marketing last year.
However, the effectiveness of content marketing effort suffered. For example, despite the vast majority using this strategy, only 30 percent claimed their content marketing was “effective.”
When it comes to social media, the perception of the effectiveness of B2B marketing is very similar. The Social Media Examiner asked Facebook marketers if they agreed with the statement: “My Facebook marketing is effective” in the recent Marketing Industry Report.
Here are the results:
As evident from the chart, only 46 percent thought their Facebook marketing effort was effective. So why do so many B2B companies fail at content and social media marketing?
Reason #1: A Lack of Documented Strategy
Content Marketing Institute’s (CMI) report claimed that the effectiveness of content marketing effort increased with a documented strategy by 48 percent. Although there is no accepted basic template to create a strategy, this task is easy when the right data is available.
The following elements should be included in the strategy:
- Mission Statement involves measurable goals that the strategy needs to accomplish and increases effectiveness by 49 percent (CMI).
- Target Audience involves people targeted by the content. It should help them solve their information needs.
- Platform involves a website, a social media site, or a blog used to accomplish aforementioned goals.
- Keyword Research involves identifying phrases that connect the target marketing with the content.
Reason #2: Lack of Consistency
Producing content consistently was identified by CMI research as one of the top challenges facing B2B marketers.
2016 B2B Content Marketing Trends – North America
Indeed, this is a complex task that requires a lot of effort, and the same holds true for social media marketing as well. To eliminate this problem, a B2B company needs to have a dedicated staff that will perform responsibilities related to content marketing: production, research, etc.
The principles of producing consistent content:
- You have to do it every day!
- Plan ahead.
- Edit, edit, edit.
- Don’t forget the essentials of creating marketing texts.
Reason #3: Bad Content
As shown on the chart above, producing engaging content was identified by B2B marketers as the top challenge. Indeed, a lot of marketing campaigns lack good writing and the content’s usefulness to the reader should be improved.
Another critical mistake is skimping on images and videos. A marketer who does not produce a creative content will not achieve meaningful results. That’s why the top priorities of B2B content creators should be as described by CMI.
Reason #4: Thinking That a Brand Can Be Grown Without Investing in Content Marketing
One could get good content marketing for free five years ago, but not now. The current market is way too saturated with content, so it’s very easy to get lost among other brands. As a result, you get you pay for.
Many B2B marketers have already realized the importance of sufficient funding for their campaigns. 2016 B2B Content Marketing Trends reported that more than half of participants planned an increase in their marketing budget in the next 12 months.
Reason #5: Completely Ignoring Personal Branding
Regardless of whether a company operates in a B2B or a B2C industry, it should be well-known that people tend to connect and trust other people, not businesses. Thinking that your business does not need a “face” in the digital world is a mistake because you deprive them of an opportunity to connect with you easily.
To avoid it, appoint a person – be it your head of marketing department, CEO, or ordinary employee – to be the “face” of the brand. This person would interact with the prospects and help them connect with the company.
Tools for Content and Social Media Marketing for B2B Companies
- SalesFusion.com – marketing automation platform that allows to align marketing with lead scoring
- Curata CMP – this content marketing platform was designed specifically for B2B marketers
- Terminus.com – account-based marketing software designed for B2B marketers
- Assignmenthelper.com.au – the tool for creating effective and engaging marketing texts to enhance content production effort
- SpreadFast.com – a tool for monitoring, managing, and measuring multiple social media accounts.
Don’t Let Your Marketing Fail
Don’t reserve strategic content and social media marketing for the consumer marketing because you have every opportunity to excel as B2B. Avoid these mistakes, boost your bottom line, and gain more clients!
