Digital Interactive Services

The different types of content you must focus on if you are in the B2B space

The content marketing space is abuzz today with an array of channels to connect with target audiences. Oddly, few marketers leverage these opportunities. Most limit themselves to a few mediums, comfortable with methods where they are assured of results. Disseminating content across diverse channels, however, can bring spectacular gains, helping you explore unknown markets and grow exponentially.

Before diving into the nitty-gritty of content dissemination, here are some more advantages of diversification:

1. With trends changing rapidly, today’s most popular B2B marketing medium may be overtaken by another. Diversifying your content channels mitigates the risk of obsolescence and protects your brand.
2. Audience’s needs and tastes vary widely. It is essential to engage with them using different writing styles, types of content and media platforms. If diversification is integral to your strategy, you will be able to network and connect more effectively with varying markets.*

Let us take a closer look now at the varied channels for content dissemination.

Blogs

Blogs are the dependable stalwarts of B2B content. Done right, they will ramp up your site’s SEO rankings. For this, you must analyse the language your target audience uses when searching for information. Identify keywords from your findings and use them intelligently in your blog so that these keywords appear high up on the list of their searches.

Blogs are a versatile medium, lending themselves to varied writing styles. A good thumb rule is to adopt a relatively informal, conversational style that will educate and inform your readers - and keep them coming back for more.

White papers

A white paper is a report authored by industry experts, focusing on specific issues pertaining to products or services. It informs and persuades viewers and highlights solutions to problems.

Unlike other B2B communications, a whitepaper is backed by research, more academic in style and detailed and authoritative.  For B2B content marketers, whitepapers are an effective means to:

1. Educate existing and potential clients on industry-related issues
2. Promote specific methodologies
3. Build credibility, and
4. Capture new leads when viewers offer their email addresses and other information about themselves to download the paper.

A whitepaper, however, is not the space to make a product pitch as that is likely to put off the target audience.

eBooks

As a content marketing tool, eBooks fall between whitepapers and blogs -less academic than the former but more extensive and detailed than the latter. That gives them a wide appeal when writing on complex business topics.

eBooks are an effective way to generate leads as users who download them must provide their contact data in exchange for your content. They are a proven way to enhance your brand strength. Here are some tips on writing eBooks:

1. Select a topic that your customers are concerned about for your eBook.
2. Research topics that your competitors have not covered.
3. Write in an engaging and semi-formal style.
4. Include an impactful takeaway for every chapter and end with a prominent call-to-action (CTA).
5. Design your eBooks in a consistent visual style to give them a professional appearance. 

Videos

Video marketing rocketed with the arrival of YouTube in the early 2000s and has raced ahead of other channels to dominate B2B content marketing. Hubspot reports that in 2022, the majority of marketers favour investment in influencer marketing. In brief, brands that wish to stay relevant cannot ignore the significance of video content.

Here are some best practices for making impactful B2B video content:

To target video content accurately, understand where your customer is positioned currently in the buying journey.  For example, at the earliest stage of creating awareness, educational video blogs appeal to a wide audience. At a later phase, when buyers are considering various options, video case studies and product overviews provide credibility and persuasiveness. When viewers are on the verge of buying, client testimonial videos can nudge them into action, besides helping customers across all phases of the sales funnel.

Video tutorials are a strong example of how visuals score over text. B2B buyers are especially drawn to videos when they provide crisp, easy-to-understand content on products/services that build confidence. Position tutorial videos at high-visibility spots such as welcome emails or your website’s homepage.

Emailers

Email, arguably the oldest B2B content marketing channel, continues to hold its own against new, snappy entrants like social media and video marketing; so don’t abandon it.

An important aspect to remember when developing your email campaigns is that this content is mostly accessed by existing customers who keep returning to your brand. Reward their loyalty by adding value to your content.

To attract fresh audiences, vary your offerings and explore the many new possibilities that current technology offers to make email marketing a seamless, attractive experience.

Here are some best practices in email marketing:

1. Write crisp, attractive subject lines.
2. Limit yourself to a single, powerful call-to-action (CTA).
3. Segment emails according to your subscribers' needs and align your messages to where they are positioned in the buying process; your messages will then sound more personalised.
4. Ensure that your email is appropriately designed for all formats - especially smartphones, the device most favoured by subscribers to access their inbox.

Case studies

Case studies, at their core, are all about building a story around your company, its products or services, the customers it serves and what they think about your business. Some advantages of this medium:

1. Case studies go beyond testimonials or reviews in terms of detail and impact. Typically, a case study is a step-by-step narration of the challenges faced by a company when helping a client accomplish some objective. Such stories resonate with the target audience, who identify with the client as the protagonist. Creatively written case studies can make a deeply positive impression on readers.

1. Case studies help organisations in generating business leads and showcase their success stories. Here are some tips for writing an effective case study:
2. Give your story an eye-catching title.
3. Use visuals (infographics, charts, quotes etc.) to enliven your content.
4. Construct the narrative logically by introducing your client, presenting the problem, the solution you developed and the outcome. At all times, the client should be at the centre of the story.
5. Conclude with a punchy call-to-action that will nudge your viewers closer to using your services or products.

Recycling marketing content

Diversifying content gives you the flexibility to tweak and recycle it across channels - a simple, cost-effective way to engage customers. Some examples:

1. Spin off eBook content into brief blog posts and promotional emails or use it to create infographics, videos, and podcasts. While such repurposing will require tweaking the original material to fit into varied media formats, it will still be a time-saver compared to creating new campaign content.
2. Use case study material to create PDFs for sales teams to show prospective customers. Add this content to emailers and company newsletters or develop it into video scripts to share on social media and company websites.
3. Convert your popular blogs into videos with relevant images and minimal text.

Diversifying B2B content keeps both your existing and new customers interested and engaged in your brand. Explore, analyse, and enjoy the unique benefits that every channel offers to stay on top of your game.

*For organizations on the digital transformation journey, agility is key in responding to a rapidly changing technology and business landscape. Now more than ever, it is crucial to deliver and exceed on organizational expectations with a robust digital mindset backed by innovation. Enabling businesses to sense, learn, respond, and evolve like a living organism, will be imperative for business excellence going forward. A comprehensive, yet modular suite of services is doing exactly that. Equipping organizations with intuitive decision-making automatically at scale, actionable insights based on real-time solutions, anytime/anywhere experience, and in-depth data visibility across functions leading to hyper-productivity, Live Enterprise is building connected organizations that are innovating collaboratively for the future.