Jun 16, 2015

B2B Marketing Myth: Content Marketing Is About Selling A Brand

Content Marketing Myths“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Joe Pulizzi’s quote on the Content Marketing Institute website is perfect for our fifth and final installment of the B2B Marketing Myth Series.

While “marketing” is one part of the phrase content marketing, we’re focusing a little more on the content part of the equation in this post. A recent study from Forrester Research found that only one in seven B2B marketing leaders believe that their content marketing efforts have very effectively delivered business value during the past 12 months, with 51 percent feeling instead that their efforts have only been somewhat effective.

4 TIPS TO BOOST YOUR CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY:

  1. SHARE INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE

    Show your current and prospective customers that your company knows the industry better than any competitor. Are there any new developments? Share them, or publish a blog discussing them. Establish your brand (and your leadership) as a valuable source of information and solutions.

  2. OFFER SOLUTIONS TO REAL PROBLEMS

    Identify a common problem your customers face in day-to-day operations. Then, offer options from all different angles. This rich content helps prospective customers find you organically through a search engine, liking what they read and continuing on the purchasing path to engaging with your sales and service. You can also follow this up with a call-to-action to really steer the conversation.

  3. BLOG

    Blog tpics are endless no matter your industry. Blogging gives the chance to share your best tips, introduce members of your team and bust industry myths. If you’re short on ideas, B2C composed a list of 32 ideas for your next article ranging from featuring your favorite tweets to writing a code of ethics. Pick one or pick a few and use them to add to your content offerings. Just remember one topic equals one blog post – don’t overdo it.

  4. CREATE INFOGRAPHICS

    Infographics share content that can be easily scanned and understood. They perfectly combine visuals with industry information. This infographic on infographics reports that website traffic increases 12 percent after the addition of an infographic. Infographics are more likely to be shared, spreading your content and establishing your brand.

The goal of these methods is to gain trust from your audience and highlight your industry know-how. When in doubt, follow the 10-4-1 rule. This states that for every 15 social media updates, 10 should be curated from other’s content, 4 should blog articles of your own, and only 1 should be a landing page.

The bottom line is – if your potential customers do not trust you, they are not going to come to you for your products or services. Make the commitment to your audience so that they will make a commitment to you.

Looking for something specific? Check out our blogs on these topics:

Industry

Marketing Technique

Ready to talk with the experts in B2B marketing?
Request a free proposal.