Tag Archive for: owned content

Successful Content Marketing 101

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Content marketing involves sharing any material online, such as videos, infographics, and social media posts, that don’t directly promote a brand but create awareness and enhance visibility regarding the products and services of a company.

It is an important strategy to attract and engage a targeted audience by making a brand seem more relevant through articles, blogs, podcasts, videos, and other media. Content marketing ensures that a company establishes its expertise and credibility while also promoting awareness about the brand so that when a potential consumer wants to buy a specific service or product, that particular company is at the forefront of their mind.

No matter how small or large scaled a company is, keeping its content marketing game updated and effective is the key to attracting and engaging more customers for their business. In this beginner’s guide, you will learn how to create a compelling and successful content marketing strategy for your brand to reach your targeted audience and boost your sales.

What Do You Mean by Successful Content Marketing?

Content marketing focuses on boosting trust in companies’ relationships with their followers. By distributing various content creatively, content marketing ensures that a company attracts more customers, retains the existing ones, and builds loyalty and trust among its audience so that a brand can appear authoritative and influential.
So what exactly is content marketing? It produces and distributes valuable and relevant content like articles, blogs, social media posts, emails, newsletters, videos, and other media forms to attract existing and new customers.

When a company has mastered its game of content marketing, there’s no stopping it from generating profits from positive customer actions.
Content marketing is composed of two elements. First is content creation; pieces of written, spoken, or visually described materials that are engaging and convey a company’s goals to the right people. The second is content distribution. This part of content marketing concerns sharing strategic content through websites, emails, and social media.

Different companies have different content marketing strategies. Some famous companies like Spotify, Airbnb, Slack, and Wendy’s have social media teams that plan strategically to promote their content to customers and interact with them. Other organizations, like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, LinkedIn, etc., use B2B white papers for marketing purposes.
New industry and technology trends also influence content marketing plans. But as long as a company knows its core messages and ideas and how to create material that people will receive positively, it can adapt and evolve its marketing strategies accordingly.

In short, here are some ways in which successful content marketing can help a company or business;

  1. Increases brand visibility and allows the company message to reach the right audience.
  2. Promotes a brand organically and naturally.
  3. Attracts potential new customers and engages existing customers.
  4. Increase conversions and boost revenues,
  5. Establishes a company as an industry leader.

What Are the Benefits of Content Marketing?

Consistent and high-quality content marketing is essential for companies to connect with their audience and to develop trust and reliability in their relationship.
Future Market Insights expects the US’s content creation market to grow with a CAGR of approximately 11.9%. Content creation and distribution have now become a top priority of the marketing department of every company and business, as there are many reasons why a consistent and engaging content marketing strategy can enhance the growth and success of a business.

Creates a Positive User Experience

Successful content marketing ensures that new and existing customers are satisfied with the ideas and messages promoted by a company. If they find your content engaging, unique, positive, and beneficial for them, they will come back for more as your customers will start trusting your brand and find it reliable and authentic. This approach is again helpful to the company as it retains the old customers and approaches new customers with a positive brand impression.

Helps Brands Gain Popularity on Social Media

According to the Pew Research Center, around seven in ten people in America use social media to engage with news, share information and connect, and for entertainment purposes. Creating trendy content on social media will not only garner more brand awareness but also help increase conversions and promote the products and services of a company in a natural way.

Content Marketing Creates Trust Within the Audience

When a company answers a complaint or query presented by its customers, they create value and change the public’s perception of the brand. Best content marketing strategies ensure that the relevant content shows up at the right time and place, thus interacting positively with the customers who will realize that your company’s advice and recommendations are reliable and accurate.

Content Marketing Improves Conversions

Using blogs, videos, or newsletters to bring in traffic, including a CTA, which can guide the audience regarding their actions, are examples of different content marketing plans. When your audience receives the correct answer to their question, their positive response will influence your conversions. When people view your content, it is more likely that they will purchase a product or service from your website, thus generating better leads for a company’s sales team.

Content Marketing and SEO

The consistency and high quality of content marketing also ensure better search engine optimization for your company’s websites. Suppose your content is helping your business gain more brand awareness and build trust with its audience. In that case, the content will rank higher on search engine results, thus positioning the company as authoritative and reliable from the public’s viewpoint.

What Are the Different Kinds of Content Marketing?

Content marketing sometimes uses outbound and inbound marketing strategies to present their content to the target audience.
Inbound marketing feels more organic and natural as the content creates a narrative or tells a story that is relevant and engaging to the audience. Outbound marketing is less effective in creating a positive user experience than the audience usually likes a link that interrupts their content.

So what are the different types of content marketing?

 

Social Media Content Marketing

Everyone should know the importance of the power of social media, especially when technology has become cheaper than ever and accessing news is faster and easier. Social media is essential in content marketing because it allows companies to reach a greater audience in less time and provides multiple opportunities to present content in various ways, like live streams, stories, photos, and videos. Many businesses invest lots of money to promote their brands through content creation on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

Website Content Marketing

Website content marketing refers to the content you publish via web pages. Website content marketing is one of the best content marketing strategies as it can create a strong brand presence online, thus allowing it to rank higher in search engine results. This approach enhances brand visibility, ensuring that your company’s website and content pop up in the right places and in front of the right audience, thus generating better leads and conversions.

Blogging in Content Marketing

Blog content marketing uses blogs to engage potential customers by sharing a creative and relevant narrative that can achieve customer trust and loyalty. Blogs are regularly updated web pages on a website that contains content written in a conversational or informal style. Blogs can also include inbound or outbound links and social share buttons that can further contribute to promoting a website.

Digital Marketing / Infographic Content Marketing

Infographics are content that presents information or data through visual representations like charts or diagrams. Infographics display this information in a format that is easy to understand and uses short statements and words, clear images, and simple context to communicate a company’s message clearly and effectively. Infographics are a great form of content marketing to tone down a complex, research-intensive, or educational topic so that more audience members can understand it.

Podcasts as Content Marketing Strategy

Podcasts are digital audio files available as series, episodes, or installments so subscribers can listen to each audio when the host releases it.
The number of podcast listeners worldwide is increasing yearly, so many companies and businesses are now sharing their podcasts to share a topic of their choice with their desired audience. With the right creativity and content marketing strategies, podcasts can help brands communicate their expertise and thought leadership regarding a specific topic.

Paid Ad Promotion

Paid ad content allows companies to reach a broad audience and place themselves on social media, banners, loading pages, and sponsored content where they want to be seen by their customers. Another method of content marketing is a paid ad promotion, in which specific content is created and distributed for the advertising and advertisement of a brand. This method uses PPC ads, paid social content marketing campaigns, and sponsored placement of these ads.

Video Content Marketing

Videos are also important content to raise a brand’s profile online. Companies usually post videos on YouTube or social media platforms, but companies can also publish in the form of courses, webinars, or live videos.
Video content marketing helps companies boost conversions as audiences find videos more reliable and authentic. It means that if a company promotes its products and services through a tutorial and promotional videos, they allow its audience to learn more about its brand in depth.

What Are Some Examples of Successful Content Marketing?

Alo

Alo is a luxury activewear brand that uses social media marketing strategies to generate sales and revenue for its products. When you look at their Instagram account, not only will you see the different Yoga products that the brand presents, but you will also notice that the brand tries to resonate with its audience by letting them know that they can not only wear their clothes in a gym studio but also while going for a walk in the park. They use top models like Gigi Hadid or Kendall Jenner to showcase their clothes while staying genuine and authentic by creating awareness about physical activeness and a Yoga community online.

Taco Bell

Taco Bell also uses clever social media content marketing strategies to target teenagers and adults aged 18 to 34. Their best content marketing approach is to reply with witty remarks and comebacks in response to customers’ feedback, especially on Twitter.
Taco Bell uses fun and engaging, and sometimes bold ideas to capture the attention of its new and existing customers. In this way, people are encouraged to try out their products and then leave feedback on their social media platforms, thus generating more visibility for the brand.

Spotify

Spotify uses data generated by millions of listeners on their apps to create their annual “wrapped” content marketing campaigns. It is a brilliant idea to use in-depth analysis of the songs and music that shape the lives of their consumers and then create a playlist for them that displays the most played songs of the year. This strategy is fun and engaging for Spotify’s users and gives artists a statistical examination of their year’s top songs.

Conclusion
Creating clever and unique content marketing campaigns can take time and effort, even for experienced digital marketers. However, with practice and creativity, any company can achieve successful content marketing and reach its targeted audience through different digital media channels.

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Content Marketing for PR

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Content marketing involves sharing any material online, such as videos, infographics, and social media posts, that don’t directly promote a brand but create awareness and enhance visibility regarding the products and services of a company, also known as owned content.

Using content marketing for PR is a modern way of owning your reputation and it is an important strategy to attract and engage a targeted audience by making a brand seem more relevant through articles, blogs, podcasts, videos, and other media. Content marketing ensures that a company establishes its expertise and credibility while also promoting awareness about the brand so that when a potential consumer wants to buy a specific service or product, that particular company is at the forefront of their mind.

Owned content is a key strategy for fast-growing brands. No matter how small or large scaled a company is, or whether a consumer brand or a B2B company, keeping its content marketing game updated and effective is the key to attracting and engaging more customers for their business. In this beginner’s guide, you will learn how to create a compelling and successful content marketing strategy for your brand to reach your targeted audience and boost your sales.

What Do You Mean by Content Marketing?

Content marketing focuses on boosting trust in companies’ relationships with their followers. By distributing various content creatively, content marketing ensures that a company attracts more customers, retains the existing ones, and builds loyalty and trust among its audience so that a brand can appear authoritative and influential.

So what exactly is content marketing? It produces and distributes valuable and relevant content like articles, blogs, social media posts, emails, newsletters, videos, and other media forms to attract existing and new customers.

When a company has mastered its game of content marketing, there’s no stopping it from generating profits from positive customer actions.

Content marketing is composed of two elements. First is content creation; pieces of written, spoken, or visually described materials that are engaging and convey a company’s goals to the right people. The second is content distribution. This part of content marketing concerns sharing strategic content through websites, emails, and social media.

Different companies have different content marketing strategies. Some famous companies like Spotify, Airbnb, Slack, and Wendy’s have social media teams that plan strategically to promote their content to customers and interact with them. Other organizations, like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, LinkedIn, etc., use B2B white papers for marketing purposes.

New industry and technology trends also influence content marketing plans. But as long as a company knows its core messages and ideas and how to create material that people will receive positively, it can adapt and evolve its marketing strategies accordingly.

In short, here are some ways in which successful content marketing can help a company or business;

  • Improves your reputation in a consistent manner.
  • Increases brand visibility and allows the company message to reach the right audience.
  • Promotes a brand organically and naturally.
  • Attracts potential new customers and engages existing customers.
  • Increase conversions and boost revenues,
  • Establishes a company as an industry leader.

What Are the Benefits of Content Marketing for PR?

PR is the management of your reputation, and owned content is your calling card. Consistent and high-quality content marketing is essential for companies to connect with their audience and to develop trust and reliability in their relationship.

Future Market Insights expects the US’s content creation market to grow with a CAGR of approximately 11.9%. Content creation and distribution have now become a top priority of the marketing department of every company and business, as there are many reasons why a consistent and engaging content marketing strategy can enhance the growth and success of a business.

Creates a Positive User Experience

Successful content marketing ensures that new and existing customers are satisfied with the ideas and messages promoted by a company. If they find your content engaging, unique, positive, and beneficial for them, they will come back for more as your customers will start trusting your brand and find it reliable and authentic. This approach is again helpful to the company as it retains the old customers and approaches new customers with a positive brand impression.

Helps Brands Gain Popularity on Social Media

According to the Pew Research Center, around seven in ten people in America use social media to engage with news, share information and connect, and for entertainment purposes. Creating trendy content on social media will not only garner more brand awareness but also help increase conversions and promote the products and services of a company in a natural way.

Content Marketing Creates Trust Within the Audience

When a company answers a complaint or query presented by its customers, they create value and change the public’s perception of the brand. Best content marketing strategies ensure that the relevant content shows up at the right time and place, thus interacting positively with the customers who will realize that your company’s advice and recommendations are reliable and accurate.

Content Marketing Improves Conversions

Using blogs, videos, or newsletters to bring in traffic, including a CTA, which can guide the audience regarding their actions, are examples of different content marketing plans. When your audience receives the correct answer to their question, their positive response will influence your conversions. When people view your content, it is more likely that they will purchase a product or service from your website, thus generating better leads for a company’s sales team.

Content Marketing and SEO

The consistency and high quality of content marketing also ensure better search engine optimization for your company’s websites. Suppose your content is helping your business gain more brand awareness and build trust with its audience. In that case, the content will rank higher on search engine results, thus positioning the company as authoritative and reliable from the public’s viewpoint.

What Are the Different Kinds of Content Marketing?

Content marketing sometimes uses outbound and inbound marketing strategies to present their content to the target audience.

Inbound marketing feels more organic and natural as the content creates a narrative or tells a story that is relevant and engaging to the audience. Outbound marketing is less effective in creating a positive user experience than the audience usually likes a link that interrupts their content.

So what are the different types of content marketing?

 

1. Social Media Owned Media

Everyone should know the importance of the power of social media, especially when technology has become cheaper than ever and accessing news is faster and easier. Social media is essential in content marketing because it allows companies to reach a greater audience in less time and provides multiple opportunities to present content in various ways, like live streams, stories, photos, and videos. Many businesses invest lots of money to promote their brands through content creation on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

2. Website Content Marketing

Website content marketing refers to the content you publish via web pages. Website content marketing is one of the best content marketing strategies as it can create a strong brand presence online, thus allowing it to rank higher in search engine results. This approach enhances brand visibility, ensuring that your company’s website and content pop up in the right places and in front of the right audience, thus generating better leads and conversions.

3. Blogging in Owned Media

Blog content marketing uses blogs to engage potential customers by sharing a creative and relevant narrative that can achieve customer trust and loyalty. Blogs are regularly updated web pages on a website that contains content written in a conversational or informal style. Blogs can also include inbound or outbound links and social share buttons that can further contribute to promoting a website.

4. Digital Marketing / Infographic Content Marketing

Infographics are content that presents information or data through visual representations like charts or diagrams. Infographics display this information in a format that is easy to understand and uses short statements and words, clear images, and simple context to communicate a company’s message clearly and effectively. Infographics are a great form of content marketing to tone down a complex, research-intensive, or educational topic so that more audience members can understand it.

5. Podcasts as Content Marketing Strategy

Podcasts are digital audio files available as series, episodes, or installments so subscribers can listen to each audio when the host releases it.

The number of podcast listeners worldwide is increasing yearly, so many companies and businesses are now sharing their podcasts to share a topic of their choice with their desired audience. With the right creativity and content marketing strategies, podcasts can help brands communicate their expertise and thought leadership regarding a specific topic.

6. Paid Ad Promotion

Paid ad content allows companies to reach a broad audience and place themselves on social media, banners, loading pages, and sponsored content where they want to be seen by their customers. Another method of content marketing is a paid ad promotion, in which specific content is created and distributed for the advertising and advertisement of a brand. This method uses PPC ads, paid social content marketing campaigns, and sponsored placement of these ads.

7. Video Content Marketing

Videos are also important content to raise a brand’s profile online. Companies usually post videos on YouTube or social media platforms, but companies can also publish in the form of courses, webinars, or live videos.

Video content marketing helps companies boost conversions as audiences find videos more reliable and authentic. It means that if a company promotes its products and services through a tutorial and promotional videos, they allow its audience to learn more about its brand in depth.

What Are Some Impressive Examples of Content Marketing?

1. Alo

Alo is a luxury activewear brand that uses social media marketing strategies to generate sales and revenue for its products. When you look at their Instagram account, not only will you see the different Yoga products that the brand presents, but you will also notice that the brand tries to resonate with its audience by letting them know that they can not only wear their clothes in a gym studio but also while going for a walk in the park. They use top models like Gigi Hadid or Kendall Jenner to showcase their clothes while staying genuine and authentic by creating awareness about physical activeness and a Yoga community online.

2. Taco Bell

Taco Bell also uses clever social media content marketing strategies to target teenagers and adults aged 18 to 34. Their best content marketing approach is to reply with witty remarks and comebacks in response to customers’ feedback, especially on Twitter.

Taco Bell uses fun and engaging, and sometimes bold ideas to capture the attention of its new and existing customers. In this way, people are encouraged to try out their products and then leave feedback on their social media platforms, thus generating more visibility for the brand.

3. Spotify

Spotify uses data generated by millions of listeners on their apps to create their annual “wrapped” content marketing campaigns. It is a brilliant idea to use in-depth analysis of the songs and music that shape the lives of their consumers and then create a playlist for them that displays the most played songs of the year. This strategy is fun and engaging for Spotify’s users and gives artists a statistical examination of their year’s top songs.

Conclusion

Creating clever and unique content marketing campaigns can take time and effort, even for experienced digital marketers. However, with practice and creativity, any company can achieve successful content marketing and reach its targeted audience through different digital media channels.

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B2B Content Marketing Strategies That Work

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Running a successful business might seem like a dream to many startup owners and new entrepreneurs, but it’s achievable with the right B2B content marketing strategy. In this world where content is king, businesses must recognize the power of effective content marketing.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll dive into the most successful content marketing strategies for B2B businesses, the importance of having a solid plan, how to create one, and answer some frequently asked questions.

Buckle up, and let’s embark on this exciting journey to business success with growth marketing PR!

Significance of a Robust B2B Content Marketing Strategy

Delving into the crucial aspects of a well-designed B2B content marketing strategy helps us understand its importance in driving business growth and success. A solid plan plays a vital role in multiple areas:

  1. Carving out thought leadership: By consistently producing insightful and valuable content, your business can establish itself as an authority within your industry, garnering trust and respect from your target audience. This thought leadership can lead to speaking opportunities, guest posting, and collaboration with other industry leaders.
  2. Lead generation and nurturing: High-quality content attracts potential clients and keeps them engaged throughout the buyer’s journey. By offering relevant content at each stage of the buying process, you can guide prospects toward conversion more effectively. This approach leads to increased sales and client retention.
  3. Relationship building and customer loyalty: Consistently delivering relevant content allows you to connect with your audience deeper, fostering trust and devotion that contribute to long-term business relationships. This connection can lead to repeat business, referrals, and strong brand advocacy.
  4. Enhanced search engine rankings: Creating engaging and informative content optimized for search engines boosts your website’s visibility, leading to increased organic traffic and improved rankings. This increased visibility helps your business attract potential clients and reinforces your reputation as a thought leader.
  5. Brand differentiation: An effective B2B content marketing strategy allows you to distinguish your brand from competitors by showcasing your unique value proposition, expertise, and insights. This differentiation can attract clients explicitly looking for your unique solutions and industry knowledge.
  6. Educating your audience: A solid B2B content marketing strategy focuses on educating potential clients about industry trends, best practices, and solutions to their challenges. By doing so, you empower them to make informed decisions while positioning your brand as a trusted source of information.
  7. Expanding your reach: A diverse content marketing strategy helps you reach a broader audience by leveraging different content formats and distribution channels. This extended reach can lead to new business opportunities and partnerships.

Designing a Powerful B2B Content Marketing Strategy for Maximum Impact

Creating an impactful B2B content marketing strategy requires a well-thought-out approach that addresses your target audience’s unique needs and preferences. Below, we break down the essential steps to craft a winning strategy that drives results and sets your business apart:

  1. Set clear objectives: Begin by defining your content marketing goals, like increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or improving customer retention. Establishing specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant goals will help guide and measure your strategy’s success.
  2. Identify your target audience: Understand your ideal clients by creating buyer personas that detail their demographics, job roles, pain points, and goals. This knowledge will help you create content that meets their needs and preferences.
  3. Perform a content audit: Assess your existing content to identify gaps, areas for improvement, and successful pieces that can be repurposed or updated. This audit will provide insights into the content types that resonate with your audience and inform your future strategy.
  4. Develop your content themes and topics: Based on your audience’s interests and pain points, create content themes and subjects that demonstrate your expertise, provide valuable insights, and address their needs. Use keyword research to identify trending topics and optimize your content for search engines.
  5. Choose appropriate content formats: Select the designs that best align with your audience’s preferences and platforms. These formats may include blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, videos, podcasts, webinars, or social media posts.
  6. Create a content calendar: Develop a content calendar that outlines your publishing schedule, including the types of content, topics, and channels for distribution. This calendar will help you maintain consistency and ensure your content remains fresh and relevant.
  7. Distribute and promote your content: Leverage a mix of channels to distribute and promote your content, e.g., your website, email marketing, social media, guest posting, and paid advertising. Tailor your distribution strategy to reach your target audience effectively.
  8. Engage with your audience: Encourage engagement by responding to comments, answering questions, and participating in industry discussions. This active engagement will help build trust, foster relationships, and solidify your position as a thought leader.
  9. Measure and optimize: Regularly track and analyze the performance of your content using relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) aligned with your goals. Use these insights to refine your strategy, improve your content, and drive better results.

The B2B Content Marketing Best Practices for Stellar Results

To ensure your B2B content marketing strategy effectively engages your audience. It drives the desired results, consider the following best practices:

  1. Focus on quality over quantity: Prioritize creating high-quality content that can provide value to your audience rather than whipping out a large volume of low-quality pieces. Valuable content will attract and retain more leads and build lasting relationships with your audience.
  2. Tell a compelling story: Craft engaging narratives that connect with your audience emotionally. Storytelling helps humanize your brand, making it more relatable and memorable to prospects and clients.
  3. Optimize for search engines: Implement SEO best practices like using relevant keywords, optimizing meta tags, and ensuring your website is mobile-friendly. This optimization will improve your search engine rankings and increase your content’s visibility.
  4. Personalize your content: Tailor your content to address your target audience’s unique needs and preferences. Personalized content demonstrates that you understand your audience, resulting in stronger connections and improved engagement.
  5. Use data-driven insights: Leverage data and analytics to inform your content marketing decisions. Analyze your content’s performance, audience behavior, and industry trends to create content that resonates with your target market.
  6. Repurpose and update existing content: Maximize your content’s value by repurposing successful pieces into different formats, e.g., turning a blog post into a video or infographic. Frequently update your content to ensure it remains relevant and accurate.
  7. Leverage user-generated content: Encourage your clients and partners to create testimonials, case studies, and guest posts. User-generated content adds credibility and authenticity to your brand while providing fresh perspectives for your audience.
  8. Collaborate with influencers: Partner with industry influencers, thought leaders, and experts to co-create content. These collaborations can expand your reach, boost your credibility, and provide valuable insights to your audience.
  9. Test and experiment: Continuously test different content types, topics, and distribution channels to determine what works best for your audience. Remain flexible and willing to adapt your strategy based on your findings.
  10. Promote content consistently: Share and promote your content across various channels, including online communities, email marketing, and social media. Consistent promotion ensures your content reaches a broader audience and increases its impact.
  11. Use a ghost writer: leaders often have many ideas and unique points of view but lack the time to write an editorially relevant piece. Or perhaps they would should be writing a book. Either way, ghostwriting is a perfectly acceptable tool for busy CEOs and executives to develop a notable presence in a competitive B2B industry or environment.

 

Aligning Your B2B Content Marketing Strategy with Sales

One of the keys to a very successful B2B content marketing strategy is to align your content creation efforts with your sales goals. Here’s how you can achieve this alignment:

  1. Collaborate with the sales team: Regularly communicate with your sales team to understand their challenges, objections they face, and the questions prospects ask. Use this data to create content that addresses these concerns and helps move prospects through the sales funnel.
  2. Create sales-enablement content: Develop resources like case studies, whitepapers, and product comparison sheets that the sales team can use to support their sales conversations and demonstrate the value of your offerings.
  3. Align content with buyer’s journey stages: Ensure your content addresses prospects’ needs at every step of the buyer’s journey, from consideration and awareness to decision and post-purchase.
  4. Use content to nurture leads: Implement a lead nurturing strategy that uses personalized content to engage and educate leaders, building trust and moving them closer to conversion.

Leveraging Social Media for B2B Content Marketing Success

Social media platforms offer excellent opportunities to amplify your B2B content marketing strategy. These few tips can help you make the most of your social media presence:

  1. Choose the right platforms: Focus on the social media platforms that are most relevant to your industry and target audience. LinkedIn, for example, is an excellent platform for B2B businesses. At the same time, Twitter and Facebook can also be effective, depending on your niche.
  2. Share valuable content: Post a mix of your original and curated content from reputable sources to provide value and variety to your audience. This approach demonstrates your industry expertise and keeps your followers engaged.
  3. Engage with your audience: Respond to comments, answer questions, and participate in industry-related discussions to build relationships and establish trust with your followers.
  4. Promote thought leadership: Share insights, opinions, and expert advice on industry trends and challenges to reinforce your brand’s thought leadership position.
  5. Leverage hashtags and groups: Use relevant hashtags and join industry-specific groups to expand your reach and connect with potential clients and partners.
  6. Monitor analytics: Regularly analyze your social media performance to identify which content types and topics resonate most with your audience. Use these insights to refine your social media content strategy.

 

The Video’s Role Successful Storytelling

Videos have become an increasingly popular and effective content format for B2B businesses. Here’s why incorporating videos into your B2B content marketing strategy can be beneficial:

  1. Increased engagement: Videos are more engaging and more accessible to consume than text-based content. They can effectively communicate complex information in a shorter amount of time and hold your audience’s attention.
  2. Improved retention: Studies have shown that people retain information best when presented in a visual format like video. This improved retention can lead to better brand recall and higher conversion rates.
  3. Stronger emotional connection: Videos uniquely evoke emotions and create a more personal relationship with your audience, fostering trust and loyalty.
  4. Boosted SEO: Search engines prioritize video content, making it more likely for your website to appear in search results when you include videos.

B2B Content PR Strategy: The Long-Term Benefits

Implementing a well-rounded B2B content marketing strategy drives not only immediate results but also offers long-term benefits for your business:

  1. Evergreen content: High-quality, informative content can drive traffic and generate leads long after publication, offering lasting value and contributing to your business’s growth.
  2. Scalability: As your business expands, your content marketing efforts can scale accordingly, providing consistent results at varying levels of investment.
  3. Continuous improvement: By tracking your content’s performance and optimizing your strategy, you can continuously refine your approach and improve your results.
  4. Brand equity: A strong content marketing strategy builds your brand’s reputation and equity, providing a competitive advantage in the market.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a B2B content marketing strategy differ from a B2C strategy?

While B2B and B2C content marketing strategies aim to create and distribute valuable content, their target audiences and goals differ. B2B PR strategies provide in-depth, informative content for business decision-makers, while B2C strategies aim to entertain and engage individual consumers.

What is a B2B content marketing plan?

A B2B content marketing plan is a documented outline of your content marketing strategy.

It typically includes your goals, target audience, content formats, distribution channels, and a content calendar. This plan is a roadmap for your content marketing efforts and helps ensure consistency and efficiency.

How can I work with a B2B content marketing agency?

B2B content marketing agencies specialize in creating and executing content marketing strategies for businesses targeting other businesses. To work with an agency, start by researching potential partners, reviewing their portfolios, and understanding their expertise. Once you’ve selected an agency, collaborate closely with them to develop a content marketing plan tailored to your goals and audience.

How do I measure the success of my B2B content marketing strategy?

For you to measure the success of your content marketing strategy, track relevant Key Performance Indicators or KPIs that align with your goals. Common KPIs include website traffic, social media engagement, lead generation, and conversion rates. Use analytics tools to monitor these metrics and optimize your strategy accordingly.

Conclusion

There you have it! You can elevate your business to a new height with a well-crafted B2B content marketing strategy. Following our outlined steps and incorporating best practices, you’ll create compelling content that resonates with your audience, generates leads, and fosters lasting relationships.

It’s time to let your content shine and watch your business take flight. The sky’s the limit!

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3 Compelling Components of Corporate Storytelling

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Telling your company story is imperative and corporate storytelling is as much of an art form as writing a novel.

Yes, a PR company can help, but in order to be effective AS a story, it needs to be told and re-told, which means everyone has to be able and willing to tell the story. Additionally, your story will influence your company culture, the way your customers relate to you, everything. It’s important to get the story right.

You’ve probably heard that there are only 7 basic stories ever written. Every single story falls into one of these categories – each its own journey:

Overcoming the Monster
Rags to Riches
The Quest
Voyage and Return
Comedy
Tragedy
Rebirth

One of the great modern-day corporate stories is Steve Jobs returning to Apple after his humiliating exit. It’s a “Voyage and Return” story. Look closely at those stories. What’s missing? The motivation, the characters, the setting and/or place. This is where telling your story becomes individualized and authentic. Personally, I believe one of the most compelling story aspects is motivation, but setting/place can also set a compelling stage for the journey and the characters. What makes Steve Jobs return so compelling is the setting/the time. Apple was in trouble. Big trouble. It was his chance to return to his visionary roots and undoubtedly, his time away from Apple contributed to the turn-around.

So let’s look at a few of the OTHER elements that contribute to great corporate storytelling.

The Character

In corporate story-telling, the character can be a founder or the brand. The best brands have personalities all of their own. One of my absolute favorite brands is Coca-Cola. For over 30 years, their brand has been a happy one, spreading joy around the world. I envision Coca-Cola’s brand persona as a group of people from around the world smiling together and laughing together as the life of the party, the center of the action, the group everyone gathers around. Notice how my character is defined by the setting (the world, the party), we’ll get to the setting in a minute. The point is to envision your brand as a persona, who are they? Are they serious or comedic? Are they reserved or wild? Are they old or young? Your brand is as complex as a person, so you can enjoy the multiple aspects of your brand, but the important thing is to choose no more than 1-2 personality elements to focus on. Simplicity creates powerful brands, and multiple personalities muddle them.

Keep in mind, in our example of Steve Jobs,  Steve Jobs doesn’t make the story compelling, Steve Jobs is more compelling (as a character, an icon) because of the story. This is true of all stories – the character is made great by the other elements of the story, not the other way around. Without the other elements in the story, there are no compelling characters.

Motivation and/or Inspiration

Marketers will recognize this is “The Why.”   What’s the compelling motivation behind the main character’s actions? Is it service? Is it retribution? Is it righting a wrong? Is it glory?  Great motivations drive action. Sometimes, in novels or films, a truly compelling character will have conflicting motivations, this can be true in corporate storytelling as well. For example, perhaps the character is driven by both the need to serve and glory. Humans often have conflicting motivations, but for the purposes of corporate story-telling, it’s most effective to emphasis one motivation. In corporate story-telling, we rarely have 1,000 or more pages to develop our character’s motivation. Focus on a single motivation as the driver.

Interestingly, using the above example of Steve Jobs’ motivation, in the corporate story about Jobs’ return, the motivation is left absent. This is brilliant because it leaves us all to wonder and speculate what his motivation really was. Personally, I believe the reason its left out of this corporate story is it’s probably unflattering, but leaving it out makes the motivation as absent even more powerful than if it had been included.

The Setting/Time

In corporate story-telling, the setting and time are often represented as the “ah-ha” moment, which is made richer by what was happening to the character or in the world at that moment. Was the character liberated? Frustrated? Was there an event that triggered the action? Perhaps the setting/time impacted the motivation and most certainly impacted the action.

Take for example the Coca-Cola brand, they started spreading joy at a time when globalism was really first taking hold, also during a time of great cultural upheaval for the United States, 1971. The “I’d like to buy the world a Coke,” is considered the world’s most famous commercial and it’s joy and happiness is in direct contrast to what was happening in the United States at the time. Somehow, the brand of Coke delivered a much-needed smile to America. In fact, the story behind the creation has similar-it happened under frustrating circumstances.   Coca-Cola didn’t hold a mirror up to us, it provided us with an escape. Since then, Coca-Cola has always focused on creating moments of joyous respite, during the best of times and the worst of times.

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Keep in mind, while you must have all these components in a story, one of these components will be the star in your corporate storytelling. In the Coca-Cola brand example, the star is the setting. In the Steve Jobs story, the star is the journey.

If it’s time to create or reinforce your story, begin with taking stock of these elements, determine where your strength is and be sure to simplify your story so it’s easy to tell. If you’re “stuck” with your story, contact us. We will help you create a story worth telling and even work with you to create content that tells your story.

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Social Media Marketing or Advertising? What’s Better For Your Budget?

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Bet your starting to think about next year’s social media marketing plan. And as importantly, where will social media marketing fall into the mix? Will there be more? Less? The latest Advertising Trust report from Neilsen may offer some insights to help you in your planning process.

One of the strongest reasons to increase your social media is the the number one source of consumer trust and action is “Recommendations from people I know”.  Trust and action are often hand in hand, and we can’t discount the value of trust, but its also hard to measure. However, what creates trust and what creates action can be different. For example, consumers report that humorous ads resonate most with them. We know that humor is a powerful tool, especially in social media. It might be more powerful than cats, dare I say (GASP). However, humor is rarely what makes people take ACTION.

The action taking piece is the one I’m always most interested in looking at more closely. And its really no surprise that word of mouth leads the pack. Ads on social networks have a lower trust score than they do action score. That’s actually true for several advertising types. With respect to social media, there are two key take aways:
1)  Use social to build trust and be very aware of what motivations exist for taking action.
2) The power of your tribe: when they share what you’ve got, its a more credible source. So be very aware of what and why people share on social. Tribes deeply impact our actions.

Now, the challenge with a report like this is that these results are all self-reported. The challenge with self-reporting is that people don’t always really know why they do what they do. I know, YOU always know why you do what you do. Or do you? Your motivations may not always be clear even to you. That’s why I started Captivation Motivation Training. 

Just remember, what type of message you use impacts trust and action. Decide what you’re trying to establish in every single post. Be purposeful in your social media practice and you’ll find that you can actually be more human.

 

 

 

PS: If you’d like to download the Neilsen Report for yourself: click here

This post originally appeared on Akamai Marketing

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Building Content That Attracts Customers and Clients

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When your building content, you’ve got to remember not to be blinded by the demographics. Sort of. To explain: last we I talked about how you shouldn’t be too blinded by demographics in social media, because, people like to talk to other people, not marketers. Building content that attracts customers and clients is about putting yourself in their shoes.

What to Consider When Building Content

Guess what? The same is true of content. If you’re building content, you should build it to attract the kind of people you want to do business with. I don’t mean the demographics of the audience, I mean the characteristics. Consider what inspires your ideal audience. What brings them into your world and shows that you can relate to them? One of the readers of last week’s post, Gwen, made a salient point: she wants to work with other women-owned businesses, so she supports women businesses in her sharing and tweeting. Not exclusively, but it’s definitely a focus. But what Gwen does very, very well is communicate in a tone that’s likely to attract professional women. She is supportive, positive, and warm in her tweets and engagements. Women are likely to be attracted to that type of communication so she naturally attracts more of the type of business she wants with that tone.

Dress for the customer you want

But again, it isn’t about demographics, its about attracting the type of business you want. Communicate to your potential clients like they communicate with their peers. It’s the same philosophy of dressing for the job you want. It’s one thing to know who your audience IS, it’s another thing to know who you want your audience to BE. Dress for the audience you want. And that’s what we need to think about in our communication with our audience. If you aren’t sure what I mean by that, take a step back, start a listening campaign. Start watching what your ideal customers talk about, what they share and who they share it with. Start tracking your clicks on your posts – which of your posts created action? Which were reshared? You’ll learn a lot from your audience if you dig a little deeper.

When you create content, think about what your ideal customers would like to see and in what format they’d like to see it. By content, I don’t just mean blog posts, and Tweets and Facebook updates, I mean all content. Content can be expensive to make, so make it worth your while. Consider companies who are creating infographics. They know that infographics are easy to read quickly and easy to share: perfect for our attention-deficit social media community. But other companies create white papers, they are trying to attract decision-makers who have the time and budgets to dig into info deeper. Using video is extremely powerful, when you consider who will be viewing the content (I’m still not clear on who this Bollywood-Planned Parenthood video was trying to say and to whom), but a video that speaks to your audience in a way that they can relate? Powerful stuff. Me? I create blog posts that are conversational in tone, occasionally take a risk and encourage some creative thought-I like people who can appreciate that tone, I work well with them.

And that’s really the point. When you stake your ground and create a strong voice, you may not attract everyone..but you will attract those people who you wish to attract and work with. At the end of the day, its more important to find the people who have the characteristics of people you work well with.

What are the characteristics of your ideal clients?

Photo Credit (Creative Commons) http://www.flickr.com/photos/uggboy/

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