The internet is a vast, infinite hole of everything you’ll ever need to know. What makes up just about everything on the internet from the B2B-centric articles that you read to the games you play is all content. In the modern age of internet jargon, we tend to think of articles or blogs when we hear the word “content,” but there’s so much more to it than that. Webinars? Content. Video posts? Content. Social media feeds? Content. According to HubSpot, content is any piece of your marketing plan that continuously demonstrates who you are and the expertise that you bring to your industry — which brings us to the topic of this particular piece of content: your B2B company’s content strategy.
Why you need a strategy
You don’t put anything out into the world without any purpose behind it, do you? (At least, from a business perspective, I’m not going to draw any conclusions about your personal Twitter feed.) So why would you release content willy-nilly, without thinking about your strategy for rolling it out? But where to start? First off, think about what role content plays in your company’s marketing strategy. What kinds of content marketing ideas do you have that not only fall seamlessly into your company’s strategic marketing process and maybe even enhance it?
When creating your content strategy template
It’s understandable to be intimidated by the idea of creating a bigger picture plan for content that you’re used to just creating when you get the chance. However, you’ll quickly realize that doing this allows you to have more purpose behind your work, and it might even begin performing better once it’s more tailored to your audience. Here at SmarkLabs, we have ten tenets in mind when brainstorming our content strategies:
Publishing consistently
Have you ever looked at a webpage and seen that the last thing they released was from 2017? Or even earlier? Did you stop and think that maybe they’re not even in business anymore? The key to any content strategy template is regular publishing — not only do you want to stay at the top of potential customers’ minds, but you don’t want them to write you off for inconsistency.
Content should provoke action or have a goal
With each piece of content that you create, make sure there’s a reason behind it. Maybe you’re not trying to make a sale with a specific blog post, but perhaps you’re trying to establish trust with your audience, position yourself as a thought leader, or inform people of your services. There might not always an action taken after consuming a blog or video of yours, but there should always be a goal behind it.
Content is relevant to the buyer’s journey
Nobody is going to read or watch something that doesn’t serve them in some way. Try to make sure your content reaches your potential customers at an appropriate time in their buyer’s journey and, hopefully, even moves them forward to their next step.
Clear documented production process
Chances are, you’re not the only one at your company producing content. Whether you’re working with a team of writers, videographers, and graphic designers, you’ll want everyone on the same page when it comes to the production of these items. If there are deadlines, everyone should be well aware of them and given ample time to produce their pieces.
Align content with the strengths of the brand
This is yet another opportunity to get your company in front of people who may not be familiar. You want it to emphasize your strengths, not your shortcomings. What do you want people to know you can do?
Prioritize original content
Sure, you might not break new ground with each blog post you write or video you create. But that doesn’t mean you should just regurgitate what’s already out there. Whatever you create, you want it to be on-brand for your company and add a little something new to the conversation.
Set a clear plan for promoting content
How active are you on social media? Do you regularly send out newsletters? How big is your reach, and how do you plan to grow it? These are things you should ask yourself when creating your content strategy template. Some things, like visual content, work better on social media, while written content might perform better in a newsletter.
What about SEO
For a while, there was a conversation about how important SEO really was in the world of high-quality content marketing. Needless to say, it’s still pretty important — it just takes more thought than it used to. Gone are the days of keyword stuffing. We’re talking about thorough keyword research and targeting now.
Think about tone and style
Your content is an extension of your brand, so it should seem like it. If the rest of your content marketing ideas are conversational and light, your videos shouldn’t be bland. If your marketing materials are strictly professional, you shouldn’t be using slang in your blogs.
Prioritize visual content
Humans are naturally drawn to visuals over blocks of text. If you’re writing about a topic that’s explained better with charts, have a graphic designer on your team put something together that will really enhance the piece. This is especially important if the piece is shared on highly visual mediums like Instagram.
Two weeks into the new year and still not seeing any progress on your company page? You may be sitting behind your laptop right now, wondering how in the world you can get out of the “startup” social phase and begin growing and establishing new leads from LinkedIn. According to Top Dog Social Media, 50% of B2B web traffic originates from LinkedIn, making your company page essential for a successful B2B business.
How can I upgrade my LinkedIn company page and see more traffic?
Believe me, you’re not the first to ask, and you won’t be the last.Boosting your company page can seem like a hassle and take months to see results. However, by implementing certain tools, you can start seeing results much earlier. That’s why we’ve created a list of three steps to begin executing today.
Increase visual aids
That’s right, bring on the pictures. Did you know that 90% of information sent to your brain is visual? That’s why we encourage you to post more images, such as infographics. According to Demand Gen Report, infographics can increase web traffic by 12%. Executives from companies have little time to consume media, so quick visual aids can help deliver information along with attracting more viewers.
Posting at the right time
Daily posts at the correct time of day are essential to increasing web traffic, along with attracting engagement. According to research provided by Hubspot, “On average, the best time to post on LinkedIn is between 3 PM and 5 PM CDT on Wednesdays.” Now, does that mean you can only post between those times on that day to become successful? Absolutely not. But you’ll see that this is during the time of day where people are either getting out of work or have a break in their day, giving them time to consume certain media. Being consistent with your company page is another crucial aspect of a successful media channel. Try to post three to four times a week and make sure you’re active by engaging with followers on comments, or shares.
Establish Credibility
To initiate web traffic (and maintain it), you need to establish trust with your followers. Give them a reason to follow your company page.
How can you achieve this?
Provide your audience with beneficial industry insights. Don’t get me wrong, posting updates, blogs, ‘meet the team’ inquiries are essential to a company page, but adding sharing latest industry news establishes credibility.
Voilà!
Take a step back and analyze your company page for a minute or two. Ask yourself, “what am I lacking?” Or “where are my successes within my page?” Initiating these tools and analyzing your page will benefit you, starting 2020 on a high note!
Addison Hesterman is an Account Manager and Marketing Specialist here at SmarkLabs. She graduated from Iowa State University and has a passion for helping businesses grow!
Writing a B2B case study can seem like a daunting task. The title ‘case study’ infers hours upon hours of research to create a big, thick document of dry information in the end. While that may have been the case back in the day, it’s a much quicker, exciting process now — that is, if you do it effectively.
Why You Should Prioritize More Case Studies
A survey from the Content Marketing Institute found that the most important marketing tactics for B2B companies are in-person events, webinars, and case studies. If you want to ensure they get the memo that you’re the one they should do business with, your successes must be easy to find – and in as few places as possible. You don’t want to leave a trail of success breadcrumbs scattered around the internet in the hopes that future business will follow it. Development company Devrix suggests making your case studies visible on your website, even on your main navigation menu. You might be asking, “Can’t I just include them in my blog?” Or, “Why dedicate a whole page to case studies?” There are a couple of answers to those questions.
You could include your case studies in your blog, but they aren’t really blogs. Your blog likely consists of industry news and how-to posts, acting as a catch-all. Your case studies serve the purpose of being all about work your company has done. So let them stand out!
You might be hesitant to dedicate a whole page to your case studies because you still think a case study is a bulky project that nobody outside of your organization will want to read. However, it’s common now to use a case study to focus on a single takeaway or two. If you have more that you want to write about — you probably do — then you write more case studies.
B2B Case Study Etiquette
The most important thing to keep in mind about your case study is that the success outlined is attributed to the customer. Not you. Use case studies as a platform for your customers’ successes, not an excuse to show off how you helped get them there.
Involve Your Customers
There are a few ways to obtain the necessary information you need from your client. But a lot of it depends on how hands-on and responsive they are. Some clients like to be kept in the loop and want to be involved in any projects you’re working on that concern them. Others prefer to talk to you only when you’re working on a project for them. If your client is more of the hands-on type, interview them either in person, over the phone, or via email. If your client is a bit more reserved, you will want to ask for the materials you need before you get started. Then, send him or her a draft before continuing to make sure you’re on the right track before committing more time. Sending a draft ahead of time is also an excellent route to take if your case study contains any information that might be considered sensitive or confidential. A way to avoid getting too detailed without omitting necessary data is to use growth percentages instead of specific numbers.
What Should You Include?
Oh! Did you want to know the literal way to write your B2B case study? The format? Well, there are a few ways to do that, as long as you include all of these crucial aspects:
A detailed headline: Don’t just use your client’s name. What project or results is your study actually about?
The process you used: How did you solve this client’s problem? You’re not a magician. You can reveal your tricks.
The results: Be as specific as the client allows you to be. Brag brag brag!
Quotes: Try to get quotes from your client about the work that you did for him or her.
Call to action: Allow anyone who’s reading to reach these same results by getting in contact with you. You don’t want them to have read the whole case study just to be confused about how to hire you!
If you need help getting started on writing an effective B2B case study, check out our free Smark Toolbox’s case study template.
When it comes to creating a content strategy, it’s essential to prioritize video. It may not be cheap or easy, but we can help you with that. B2B video marketing is well worth the investment in both money and time. Don’t believe our words? We have the numbers to back it up
HubSpot found that 87% of consumers would like to see more videos from their favorite brands.
So obviously, HubSpot deduced that 99% of marketers who already use video plan to continue doing so, and 88% plan to spend more.
90% of consumers find that videos help them decide whether or not to make a purchase, according to Social Media Today.
People stick around on a webpage for approximately two more minutes when there is a video present than when there is just text to read. Crazy Egg also states that these consumers are also 64% more likely to make a purchase.
Getting Started with B2B Video Marketing
If you’re not on the video train yet, it’s about time you get started. If you’re looking for ways to get those wheels in motion, you’ve come to the right place. Here are some video ideas to help you get started with your video content strategy.
Video blogs
Do you already have a blog? Congratulations, then you already have plenty of video blog content. While the fact that a piece of content you’ve put time and effort into writing isn’t getting the traffic you’d hoped is a tough pill to swallow, a good consolation is that you can repurpose it into video content. If the piece you’re working with is long, take a single point you make in the post and elaborate upon it for the video. If the article is short or easy to segment into bullet points, you can summarize the whole thing in a video blog.
Executive interviews
Do you have a CEO with a real personality? Is the founder of your company a compelling storyteller? Put them in a video! Whether the purpose of the video is to tell the story of your B2B company or to announce an exciting new campaign, putting real people involved in your business in front of the camera is a great way to humanize your web presence and get people engaged.
Explainer videos
What do your customers tend to struggle with? Ask your customer service team what questions they answer most often and be proactive by creating a video that directly addresses them. Not only will this take a little bit of pressure off of your customer service team, but it’ll also be handy for your consumers to be able to troubleshoot some of their issues with a simple Google search.
Testimonials
Do you look for reviews of a product before you make a purchase? Video testimonials from past customers are a way to spread the word about your business. They also help people who are still deciding whether they want to spend their money with you the little nudge they might need.
Animations
If you have a great animator on staff — or are willing to bring one on board, your video possibilities are endless. Animations are an excellent way to explain something on the more technical side and bring some personality to a topic that might be dry in front of a camera.
Where are you posting these?
Will these videos you’ve created live on your website, or are they a part of a more extended content strategy to create a more robust social media presence? If you’re going to post your content to social media, it’s essential to make sure people will watch it. It’s not as simple as just taking the video and uploading it to all mediums. Format a square version for Instagram, cut a quick clip that’ll intrigue people enough to head over to your website for the full version. For reference, HubSpot recommends keeping your Instagram videos below 30 seconds, Twitter videos below 45 seconds, Facebook videos below a minute, and YouTube videos below two minutes. And as for anything in the B2B marketing space, don’t forget optimizing your video content for search engines, by using captions and turning on autoplay. Don’t autoplay the sound, though! Think about the last time you had a random video playing in one of your browser tabs. Did you go to the correct tab and actually watch the video, or did you mute the page? One more thing that shouldn’t come as a surprise to any B2B marketer: include a CTA! Even if it isn’t clickable, end your video on a note that tells your viewers what to do next.
Your B2B video marketing should elevate your content strategy. Let us help! Learn more about our award-winning video production services and capabilities.
Do you want to expand your LinkedIn network? Interested in ways to find and attract quality connections? Growing your LinkedIn network helps gain exposure and can be a vehicle to establishing yourself as an expert in your field. In the B2B environment especially, it’s imperative you build a positive reputation for both yourself and your brand. LinkedIn is the best social network for B2B marketers to communicate with other businesses, share content, as well as engage with prospects. According to The Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide, 94% of B2B marketers on social media use LinkedIn to publish content. In this article, you’ll discover five ways to help increase your LinkedIn connections and grow your network.
1. Post Frequently
I know, sounds obvious, right? But here’s the thing… Firms know posting consistent content is important, but how many are actually following through with a strategy? That’s the real question. For example, in the early stages of growth, many businesses tend to get in the habit of posting consistently on LinkedIn. Great! That’s what you want! However, after a short period of activity, they start to post less because they’re not seeing a positive ROI from their efforts. But here’s the problem… You need to give your posts TIME. If you are relatively new to the LinkedIn world in terms of consistently staying active, your page will need time to grow so it can reach an audience. And in order for that to happen, you must be dedicated to posting A LOT. That means posting multiple times a day or at the very least a few times a week. When you consistently stay in the feeds of your followers, there’s more opportunity to comment, like and share your posts. This interaction gets you introduced to their connections and gives you another way to grow your network. Be sure your posts are adding value by talking about your business as well as industry updates. For instance, if your company provides resources such as consistent blogging or webinars, share them! Get in the habit of promoting new content as well as company updates to your page. After all, if you are going to have a LinkedIn page, why not be as active as possible on it? Want to make these posts even more appealing and enticing for your readers? Include a CTA!
2. Engage With Your Connections
Review your LinkedIn feed regularly and share, comment on and like updates posted by your connections. You can start relationships with new connections by commenting on their updates and joining conversations on popular posts. All it takes is one helpful response on a post for that prospect or firm to notice you and check out your page. Do this enough times, and you will encounter people who want to learn more about you. That’s when your network can really start to grow!
3. Add LinkedIn URLs to Emails
Your LinkedIn profile can work for you in many ways: as a resume, a collection of previous client work, awards and accomplishments, testimonials, etc. all in one convenient spot. We all send emails, right? Sometimes hundreds a day to clients, prospects, and leads. In your email signature, start adding your LinkedIn URL at the end! Sending prospects to Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms may work, but none of those platforms provide the benefits and opportunities that LinkedIn does.
4. Add Keywords to Your Profile
Just like writing for SEO to get your content ranked on Google, keywords in your profile will help prospects find you. The main areas to focus on are your “Headline,” “Summary,” and “Experience” sections. These sections are all searchable and are where your traffic will spend most of their time. When filling out these sections and writing for SEO, tell stories, be creative, and use any keywords that you believe are most relevant to your content. Try putting yourself in your prospects’ shoes. Think about something you like to search and learn more about. What are the words that you’re actually typing? And how are the results that come up related to what you wrote? Now work in reverse order to make sure the keywords you would search for are prominently featured on your page!
5. Personalize Your Connection Requests
When you’re scrolling through your feed and click the ‘connect’ button on someone’s name, LinkedIn will send a pre-written message that’s cold and impersonal. Something along the lines of, “Let’s connect!” These types of requests are typically ignored. Visiting someone’s profile and sending something like, “Hi! I’d like to join your LinkedIn network” is also ineffective because it comes off as simple and lazy. Instead, visit the person’s profile and put some time and thought into your connection requests. Write a personalized note that is friendly and inviting. You’ll also want to explain why you want to connect and the advantages it can bring to you both. Whatever you do, DO NOT make it a sales pitch! Remember, we are trying to connect with these individuals to build rapport and grow each other’s network. There is a time and a place for closing a sale, and trying to connect with someone new on LinkedIn is not the time or the place to be pushy with sales.
Recap
As mentioned earlier, getting peers and prospects to land on your LinkedIn page is the end goal. Post frequently using keywords, be active on feeds, use URLs in emails, and personalize your messages. When done correctly, this gives you the best shot at leading prospects to your page. And the more prospects you can funnel to your page, the faster you’ll grow your LinkedIn network! To learn more tips and strategies like these, check out our blog or get in touch today!
If you’re part of a small team, you know how difficult it can be to stay on top of content demands. From posting on social media to blogging, producing a steady stream of high-quality content every week requires valuable time and resources. However, it’s not something you can skip — it’s proven to be effective in attracting new visitors and converting them into leads. In fact, new benchmark data from HubSpot shows that “the small companies that publish 11 or more blog posts per month drive much higher traffic than companies of the same size that publish fewer than 11 blog posts.” If you’re having trouble producing enough content and time isn’t in your favor, read these ideas for some quick, easy ways to generate and repurpose engaging content.
Podcasts
As of June 2019, there are over 750,000 podcasts. The popularity of podcasts has steadily risen, with many people using them as a form of education and entertainment. On top of that, they’re super easy to produce. All you have to do is sit someone down and interview them while recording the conversation. The content doesn’t stop there though. You could transcribe the podcast and turn it into a blog, make it into a video by filming the conversation, or pull quotes and create images for social media — the possibilities are endless.
Webinars
Similar to podcasts, webinars are a great way for B2B companies to reach their audience. In fact, a study from the Content Marketing Institute found that marketers rate webinars in the top five in terms of the most effective tactics they use. The main reason for this lies in the fact that webinars help build trust with your audience and provide them with valuable information. In addition, webinar registrations allow you to collect data on potential customers such as their email, phone number, and company name. There are also many ways to repurpose webinars, similar to the ones listed above for podcasts.
Surveys
Surveys are a great place to start when developing a content strategy. They allow you to ask your audience questions, uncover their challenges/pain points, and uncover out what kind of content they’d be interested in. Beyond this, survey results can inform your content with unique data. For example, your survey data could be used in a whitepaper, data visualization, slide deck, research article, or quotes on social media. Supporting your content with your own data will differentiate your brand and help you stand out as a trusted expert in your industry.
Recap an event
Most people take notes when they attend conferences to remember important bits of information. You can use these notes to create a blog recapping the event. To make the recap as valuable as possible, you’ll want to take detailed notes throughout the entire conference and be sure to highlight the main takeaways from each session. Also, by adding pictures, videos, and details about each speaker, you can help your audience feel like they were part of the event too.
Turn blogs into slide decks
If your audience isn’t responding well to long-form blogs, try turning them into a slide deck where you can simplify the information and focus on key points. The average person’s attention span today is eight seconds, according to a study by Microsoft. This means you need to make your content as short and as simple as possible. Slide decks are helpful with this because they force you to summarize, turning long sentences into short bullet points. In addition, they’re a great downloadable asset that customers can save for future reference.
Create an infographic based on a blog
Infographics are a great tool for engaging your audience because they are easy-to-read and visually pleasing. They include data points and statistics, shown in the form of a chart or graph, as well as copy. Because infographics offer a detailed overview of a topic, they can be used to summarize a longer-form blog post. This type of infographic would be called a “visualized article,” but there are many other kinds of infographics you can use for a variety of purposes. To learn more about them, check out this article by Pikotchat.
Interview SMEs (internally and externally)
An SME, also known as a subject matter expert, is a powerful resource for producing content. By making an effort to conduct interviews with SMEs, you can develop a large pool of content to pull from whenever you’re short on ideas. An interview with an SME typically revolves around asking them about their knowledge or expertise on a particular topic or field. It’s important to note that this can be done with both internal employees and external experts. In addition, the interview can be repurposed into a podcast or blog.
Interview customers for a case study
Do you have a customer who has seen success with your product? Submit a request to interview them for a case study! This type of content elevates you and your client by highlighting the mutual benefits of your partnership. An effective case study includes an overview of both companies, the problem, the solution, how the solution was implemented, and the results. It’s also important to note that case studies can be shared during the sales process to add credibility and help in turning prospects into customers.
Run a curated newsletter
Sending your clients a weekly newsletter is a strategic way to share the latest content available on your site. In reality, it’s a piece of content that advertises the content you already have. A newsletter should be divided up into different sections based on content, such as “On the Blog,” “Industry News,” or “Latest Resources.” A weekly newsletter helps you drive more traffic to your website and establishes your company as a trusted, reliable source of information. Lastly, it allows you to build a base of subscribers that can provide you with feedback on your content so you can make adjustments accordingly. If you’re having trouble keeping up with content and need some extra help, contact us to find out how we can support you in meeting your content goals.
