How to create a great B2B content marketing plan - Authors' Guilds

How to create a great B2B content marketing plan

How to create a great B2B content marketing plan

Content Marketing Plan

Content Marketing Plan

The business to business content marketing strategy is different from the business to customer content marketing plan because the former targets companies and wholesalers who buy in bulk while the later targets consumers who buy in pieces.

To create an effective B2B content marketing plan, you need first to set your marketing objectives to know what you want to achieve through the content you are creating. It is the objectives that will determine your content marketing plan.

Here’s how to create a content marketing plan that will help you achieve your goals and drive desired results:

Set your objectives

You need to know why you want to develop the content and how it will help in generating leads and boosting sales. Your goals should revolve around: 

  • Generating leads
  • Increasing customer base
  • Creating brand awareness
  • Improving SEO
  • Improving customer loyalty
  • Sharing new business ideas
  • Attract new prospects

Creating content is always relevant when running a business as it helps in communicating and engaging your target audience. But you must have in mind what you intend to achieve with the contents. Then know how much time you are willing to invest in creating and posting the content.

Create a blog

You need a blog where you can create contents to prove you are a thought leader in your industry. You get to share this content through your social media platform to drive more traffic to your site. 

Creating a blog helps to cater to the different buyer personas by posting contents that speak to each of them. It serves as a resource for your customers where they can get valuable information about various things they seek. 

There are lots of information you can share with your target audience via your blog, especially those that may seem like much on social media platforms. Examples of content to share are industry news discussion, market conditions, best practices, event promos, tutorials, how-to videos, media mentions, and so on. Don’t forget to add media such as images, infographics, GIFs, videos, and other necessary visual elements.

To get the most engagement out of your blog and to be in good standing with the algorithms, you’ll need to include metadata, relevant keywords, and references.

Identify your audience

To be able to create content that resonates with your audience, you need to identify and understand your audience. You should be able to anticipate the needs of your audience and address them in the contents you are creating. You have not made a point if your target audience does not understand what you wrote. 

If you need help understanding your audience, use tools such as the Google keyword tool, which helps in searching the common words used by buyers on the search engine. You can use the Google search console and analytics to monitor the behavior of your site’s visitors. Also, find out the demographics such their age, gender, location, interests, and so on to understand them better.

Create and post contents regularly

After getting to understand your audience, create contents they will find relevant so that they keep coming back for more and even subscribe for updates. 

According to LinkedIn, most decision-makers read at least one hour of thought leadership content in a week. They get to evaluate B2B service providers through what they read and would most times decide not to do business with them if they feel the contents are of low quality. So make your blog posts part of the contents they stumble on to read and ensure it provides valuable information presented with high quality.

Aside from the inspiring texts, ensure it comes with the right media and length. You should also post it at the right time for optimal engagement. Aim to post at least 16 contents per month to drive more traffic to your site so that more of your target audience, which primarily are decision-makers, get to discover your brand.

Create articles that show your company is serious about its goals and would not get a break, even after accomplishing it. Also, limit promotional items on your blog, only focus on addressing your audience’s needs through your contents. 

The primary goal of your blog is to provide solutions that could help improve the business of customers or solve their general problems. Only then will they see you a thought leader they can always trust and come back to for insights.

Experiment with different types of contents such as videos, podcasts, GIFs, infographics, and even ebooks. You don’t have to dwell on texts every time. Include special treats for your audience, such as giveaways, discounts, or special offers.

You should also try guest posting to get more people to see your article and come back to your site. You can reach out to popular business news websites to submit your articles for consideration. 

Connect with social media

You can take your brand’s awareness to another level by investing your time and contents on relevant social media platforms. You can build a community on these platforms to share your contents and also drive traffic back to your website. 

The most relevant platform for B2B business is the LinkedIn platform, where you can share quality contents that will depict you as a thought leader and connect you with other decision-makers and drives the most traffic to your site. 

You can also use Twitter and Facebook, which, although they have their purposes, can also increase brand awareness, help your search ranks, and drive traffic to your website. 

You can also register your presence on forums like Quora, which allows industry experts to answer questions members to prove themselves as thought leaders. 

Take a step further to put your brand on visuals by using the YouTube social platform. It is one platform that has proven to increase brand awareness, generate leads, boost sales, and so much more.

Don’t forget paid ads

Aside from creating quality contents and posting at the right time across blogs and social media platforms, you’ll need a content distribution strategy to help your contents hit the search engines. You can use paid content distribution networks like Google Ads, Microsoft adCentre, and so on if you plan on launching a new campaign. You also need some paid socials like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social platform ads to get to your target audience.

Analyze results

Track the results of your content marketing efforts to know if you are getting a good return on your investments and see how you can improve your marketing strategy. Use tools like Google Analytics, Hootsuite, Buffer, and so on to track engagement, user behavior, conversion, and of course, SEO.

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