Are you producing more valuable content than ever before but not seeing any changes on the bottom line? Maybe you’re doing it wrong.
If you don’t have a B2B marketing strategy that guides your content creation, your efforts could be going to waste. A strategic plan ensures your content will guide your prospect through the steps they must take to achieve a company goal. Every written article, audio or video should have the purpose of moving them along to this ultimate outcome. A properly organized B2B marketing strategy will draw more qualified leads and provide the nurturing necessary to prepare them for purchase.
B2B Demand Generation
Demand generation creates a desire for your product or service. It educates the prospect of various benefits, motivating them to purchase. Your content should be designed to uncover or instill that need, one that might not have been obvious to the prospect before, and show them why your solution is the best. Your carefully crafted messaging will result in quality leads and closed sales.
Sales and Marketing Work Together
Your B2B marketing strategy requires cooperation between sales and marketing teams. Communication is essential, as marketing efforts can continue to educate and encourage potential customers until they are ready to complete the transaction. Insights from the sales team also help shape future marketing strategies, which results in better leads and a smoother buying cycle.
Creating Your B2B Marketing Strategy Plan
In order to increase sales, your sales team must receive qualified leads that are inclined to buy. Content that sees results is content that establishes trust, reinforces the demand for your product or service, answers common questions, addresses concerns and objections and positions the company as the expert in the industry:
- Brainstorm typical scenarios your target customer deals with and come up with topics around these. The topics should relate to your core product or underscore its usefulness in some way.
- Offer examples of how your product or service can work for them with webinars, reports, videos, apps or instructional blog posts. By giving, you are establishing trust and demonstrating your expertise, making you the logical choice when it comes time to purchase. You are also pre-qualifying your audience since those who register for this information have already demonstrated that they believe it’s something they need.
- Develop an influencer marketing strategy to attract new interest and broaden your reach.
- Schedule your content to coordinate with the steps in your sales marketing funnel so there’s a logical progression of information that builds on previous information, leading to a sales decision.
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Evaluate, Analyze and Refine
Set up a system to evaluate the effectiveness of your content. Analyze how it’s performing in relation to your goals and make adjustments as necessary. Invite discussion with sales and marketing to encourage new ideas and get fresh perspectives. Eliminate what is not working and expand on the things that are succeeding, keeping the principles of B2B demand generation in mind. When your B2B marketing strategy aligns your content with your company’s revenue goals, the result is greater growth and sales success.
