Focus on Content in B2B Marketing

Lately all the talk in B2B marketing has centered on social media. However, to be successful with social media, you have to provide real value and that usually comes from great content.

Paul Dunay in his blog post, “4 C’s of B2B Marketing” has defined this very nicely. His 4C’s are:

• Content – the creation of a steady stream of engaging content
• Connection – connecting with the audience you wish to attract
• Communication – communicating with them in an ongoing conversation
• Conversion – and then converting them at the illusive moment of need

What is content marketing?

Wikipedia defines content marketing as “an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases.”

The old ways of pushing out content is no longer effective. Now, B2B content marketing’s agenda is to educate and inform customers and prospects. Content Marketing’s slogan is – “Don’t pitch. Don’t sell. Don’t interrupt. Educate, inform and provide value to customers and prospects. Your business will grow.” (See Content Marketing – The Ultimate Cheat Sheet).

Here’s a short but highly informative slide show that explains how to use content effectively as inbound marketing.

Using content for inbound marketing

HubSpot, calls inbound marketing as flipping traditional outbound marketing on its head. Instead of interrupting people with television ads, inbound marketers create videos that prospects want to see. Instead of buying print ads in trade journals, they create their own blog and build an active community around it. Cold calling is replaced by useful content and tools that help people find them and contact them for more information.

More and more B2B marketers are shifting their marketing budget out of expensive pay per click (PPC) advertising and traditional media and into content creation, optimization and social media. Junta42 reported that for the third straight year, marketers are planning to spend significantly more on their content marketing efforts. For 2010, approximately six in 10 marketing professionals surveyed plan to increase their spending on content initiatives.

Key content marketing survey findings:

• According to the survey, Content Marketing Spending comprises 33% of the total marketing budget (up 11% from 2008)
• Smaller companies spend more than 2x that of larger companies on content marketing
• Marketers are increasing their focus on mobile content solutions
• Only 7% of marketers are spending less on content in 2010

Download the complete content marketing spending report here (no signup required).

How are you using content marketing in your B2B marketing? Share your ideas by leaving a comment