How content marketing works in the B2B sector

In the B2B sector, a minimum 57% of a typical purchase decision is made before a customer even talks to a supplier which doesn’t leave much time for changing customers’ opinions. And with the internet being the number one source of information, content marketing is more important than ever for B2B businesses hoping to differentiate themselves from the competition and give potential clients an answer to the question, “ Why should I buy from you? .”

  Content strategies in the B2B sector focus on getting the right information in front of the right audience at the right stage of the buying cycle.
While early B2B content marketing strategies were centred on each piece of content being a mini whitepaper or technical document, this is not the most effective strategy.

Delivering a mix of information types that range from solving simple issues to video how to’s and whitepapers deep diving into more complex issues, B2B content marketing is really about getting information in front of your audience at the right stage of the buying cycle.

According to B2B Content Marketing: 2016 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends paper from Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs, B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy compared with last year (32% vs. 35%), even though the research consistently shows that those who document their strategy are more effective in nearly all areas of content marketing.

Your content strateg y should start with what are the objectives and goals for your content marketing and creating a mix of content that targets your audience at the various stages of the buying cycles.

An important next step in creating and effective B2B content marketing strategy is to u nderstand your audience and what are their motivations and pressure points . Doug Kessler, Creative Director & Co-Founder, Velocity Partners Ltd stated , “Content that understands its audience will be good content. Content that doesn’t can’t be.”

With a clear picture of who you are creating content for and what is the overall aim for your content strategy, mapping topics and content ideas to match your ideal audiences will help steer the direction for your content.

  Content marketing is an effective marketing program which focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content online in formats such as written articles, videos, graphics, surveys and more. For B2B businesses, it can be a highly effective strategy that targets your audience at all stages of the buying cycle, helping inform them and drive their decision to do business with you.

Icon Visual Marketing are experts at developing strategic marketing programs for B2B company’s which include comprehensive content marketing Programs. Contact Icon to speak to our expert B2B marketing team today to discuss your business.