Content marketing has gone from a nice-to-have to an essential part of the promotion mix, especially for B2B companies. Not long ago, a content strategy might have meant a few articles, white papers, and case studies. Today, an effective one involves much more.
Your company has a significantly lower chance of success without a viable content marketing strategy, but what matters most isn't just having one; it's building and maintaining a strategy that combines multiple tactics.
The Growth of Content Marketing
Each year the Content Marketing Institute surveys B2B companies across industries, and the findings have stayed consistent: content marketing keeps growing, and the companies that do it well pull clearly ahead of those that don't. A few patterns stand out:
- Strategy matters most. Companies with a documented content strategy are far more likely to rate their results as effective than those without one.
- The most effective companies invest more, dedicating a significantly larger share of their marketing budget to content.
- Brand awareness, lead generation, and customer acquisition are the top goals, with web traffic and lead quality among the most-watched metrics.
- Successful marketers use a wide mix of tactics, often a dozen or more.
With that in mind, here are thirteen of the most effective content marketing tactics for B2B marketers, each with a suggestion for putting it to work.
Content Strategy #1: Create a Portfolio of Case Studies
Interestingly, the tactic B2B marketers often rate most effective isn't digital at all: it's face-to-face marketing at events. But among content tactics, case studies tend to top the list; roughly two out of three marketers find them effective.
Case studies, also called success stories, are real stories about customers and how your product or service improved their businesses. As marketing veteran Robert Bly has long pointed out, everyone loves a good story.
Case studies are more than testimonials. They show how a customer sought a solution to a long-standing problem, why they chose your product or service, and how it solved the problem. They engage your audience, answer their questions, and build credibility without feeling like an ad. More than almost any other tactic, a good case study can turn a cold lead into a loyal customer.
A great strategy is to build a portfolio of case studies. Publish them on your website, email them to your contacts, and encourage your followers to share them on social media. The more you have, the more appealing your company looks to prospective clients.
Content Strategy #2: Create and Publish Videos on Your Website
It's no surprise that video is one of the most effective tactics, since people love stories and moving images, and video conveys emotion better than most other media.
Video keeps visitors engaged longer, helps convert leads into customers, and can earn you visibility in video search (on YouTube and Google) and increasingly in AI-generated results. A strong strategy is to create a series of videos showing customers using your product or service. If you can capture genuine customer testimonials on video, that's even more powerful. Host them on your website and on YouTube or Vimeo.
Content Strategy #3: Create Webinars About Problem Solving
Webinars are another highly effective tactic, and a bit underused, since not every company runs them. For those that do, webinars generate both leads and sales. The keys are a genuinely compelling presentation, an aggressive promotion plan to drive attendance, and solid follow-up to close.
Most B2B companies face problems they need to solve to grow. Consider building a webinar around a fresh solution to an old, nagging problem many of your customers share. Done well, it can draw a lot of qualified leads.
Content Strategy #4: Reward Contacts Who Follow Your Blog
Blogs are a content marketing staple, and most marketers find them effective, with best-in-class B2B marketers rating them especially highly. The downside is that blogs take time to produce results. The upside is that a good post can keep generating qualified leads long after you publish it, so treat blogging as a long-term investment with a long-term return.
A big key to blog success is building and keeping a loyal following. Reward your subscribers with extra content or a free assessment of their business as it relates to your product or service.
Content Strategy #5: Entice Prospects to Subscribe to Your Email Newsletter
Like their print predecessors, email newsletters can be just as effective (if not more), as long as you produce consistent, valuable content. Know your audience well, including what information they want and need. How often you send depends on your audience and how frequently genuinely useful information becomes available: daily or weekly for fast-moving fields, monthly for more mature ones.
One advantage of newsletters is that they arrive by email, giving you a chance to "piggyback" another valuable message alongside the newsletter itself. To grow your list, offer a free report as an incentive to subscribe, or reward subscribers with product samples when they read and share it.
Content Strategy #6: Produce Research Reports That Show How to Reduce Costs
Research reports can deliver valuable insight into industry trends, and well over half of marketers find them effective. They tend to be more technical than newsletters and aren't produced on a regular schedule. You can use them as incentives to sign up for a webinar or complete a survey, and they establish you as the go-to expert in your field.
For a B2B audience, remember that purchases usually involve multiple decision-makers, and at least one of them owns the bottom line. Produce reports that show your audience how to cut costs using the kind of products or services you offer, and you'll capture their interest.
Content Strategy #7: Produce Whitepapers for Your Best-Selling Products
A whitepaper is a type of research report focused on a single product, usually 8 to 10 pages, giving your audience a full understanding of its features and benefits, the research behind it, and real industry applications.
Most marketers find whitepapers effective, so invest in writing them for your top-selling products and services. Be sure to include an economic model that shows readers the return on investment they can expect.
Content Strategy #8: Publish Articles with an Intriguing Ending
Articles are similar to blogs. Both build credibility through educational content, but they differ in cadence and placement. You might publish standalone articles here and there across your site, while blogs flow continuously.
Most marketers find on-site articles effective, but a simple tweak can boost results: end each one with a question followed by a call to action to contact you for the answer. People naturally want answers, so if you make them curious enough, they'll reach out, and you'll have a qualified lead.
Content Strategy #9: Sell eBooks with a Credit Toward a Purchase
eBooks are digital publications similar in substance to printed books, ranging from 20 to 60 pages or more, and over half of marketers consider them effective. Distribute them from your website, Amazon, or other platforms to build your authority.
Free information helps create leads, but attaching a price to your eBook raises its perceived value. A smart strategy is to sell eBooks on topics related to your products, then offer the purchase price as a credit toward a product or service. Anyone who buys is a highly qualified lead. Just make sure the content is genuinely unique and not something readers can find elsewhere.
Content Strategy #10: Promote Your Content Through Social Media
Social media is a core part of content marketing because it's a distribution channel, and because your audience can amplify your content to their own networks. B2B marketers use a range of platforms to distribute content, including LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and X.
Build into your routine the habit of promoting every new piece of content to your social audience. After you publish a blog post or case study, for example, share it with your LinkedIn connections right away.
Content Strategy #11: Create an Infographic About How You Help Customers Make Money
Infographics remain a popular, highly shareable format. You can distribute them from your website, within blog posts, or across social media.
A great angle is to create an infographic showing how your customers can make (or save) money by using your product or service. That kind of concrete, benefit-focused visual makes your audience far more likely to take interest.
Content Strategy #12: Create a Microsite for Each Top-Selling Product
Microsites are small, focused websites (often just a landing page or two) where you can build content around a specific product or topic. They're especially useful for eCommerce and for in-depth educational content.
Because your main website can dilute the message around your top products, consider giving each of them a dedicated microsite that puts the spotlight where it counts.
Content Strategy #13: Build a Mobile Experience
Your audience lives on mobile devices, so your content has to work flawlessly on them, which for most businesses means a fast, responsive website rather than a separate app. For some companies, though, a dedicated mobile app can be a way to attract and retain a B2B audience. If you go that route, plan for the three ongoing demands on time and budget: development, deployment, and maintenance. The more interactive and genuinely useful the app, the more it will engage your audience.
What's Next?
To stay competitive in B2B today, you need a content marketing strategy, but the top challenge marketers cite is producing enough engaging content. Executing your strategy takes writers and designers, and larger companies tend to outsource content creation, especially writing and design, more than smaller ones do. Whether you build the capacity in-house or outsource it, make adding content-creation horsepower a priority this year.
For more on getting results from all of this, see our guide to improving your content marketing ROI, or get in touch and we'll help you build a strategy that works.
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