B2B companies face unique challenges when creating content. In addition to reaching specific audiences, content must be relevant, of high quality, and accurately reflect a brand’s voice. According to CMI’s 2014 Benchmark study, successful B2B companies tailor content to display relevant information, such as industry trends and thought leadership, to build authority. To help you visualize each content area, we’ll use the example of a business coach creating content for their clients.
When providing information to the B2B community, industry trends are a highly relevant topic of conversation. Regardless of where content will live, industry trends can be captured in an interesting bar or line graph when comparing history, or a pie chart when describing market share. In the case of a business coach, a visual representation in SlideShare of outcomes after receiving coaching, such as an increase in sales or clientele, provides industry-related information that shows a clear relationship between service and value.
In most industries, people want to hear from the movers and shakers. In other words, thought leadership is winning big on the B2B content front. Whether an industry authority works with your company or not, conducting interviews with a well-known leader is interesting to the average B2B client. For a business coach, recording a short interview with a thought leader in business success contributes to the authority of the coach’s brand.
In addition to offering thought leadership, building authority requires clear communication of a company’s specific characteristics. For most B2B companies, an active presence and complete brand information needs to be available through multiple channels in order to reach prospects wherever they are online. As an example, a business coach will need to ensure their website, social media profiles, third-party review sites and directories are all developed on-brand.
Many B2B companies must spend more time nurturing leads, as their sales funnel is longer, both in process and in duration. As a result, creating content specifically for B2B customers at a certain buying stage can enhance the effectiveness of your marketing campaign and help achieve desired results. A business coach, for example, may create and distribute an infographic highlighting the benefits of coaching to attract leads, while case studies may be distributed to email subscribers with the intention of moving them through the sales funnel.