Put simply, B2B content marketing is a set of tactics to deliver high-quality, valuable content to your target audiences. The goal is to attract, engage, and generate new leads and customers, all while retaining your existing ones.

One key thing to remember is that there are some important differences between content marketing campaigns for B2B and B2C brands. It’s true that content marketing for both kinds of businesses starts with understanding the pain points of the audience, continues by providing great content that solves problems, and ends with driving revenue.

However, the approach is wildly different thanks to the differences in the buyer’s motivations and decision-making process.

When it comes to B2C brands, the focus is on creating “snack-sized” content with the goal of engaging or entertaining their potential customers.

However, for a B2B content marketing strategy, the focus should be on a wider range of content that can show off your company’s expertise in its industry. Rather than entertain, the goal is to inform, inspire, and engage prospective leads while helping them ease these pain points.

In fact, according to the latest research from Content Marketing Institute, B2B marketers use content marketing specifically to drive brand awareness, educate their audiences, and build their brand’s credibility.

Top Formats for B2B Content Marketing in 2020

Content creation is, unsurprisingly, one of the keys to content marketing success. Let’s dive into some of the top performing content types for B2B content marketers.

Blog Posts

Blogs are the linchpin of B2B content marketing, thanks in no small part to their SEO benefits. They also work double-duty, acting both as content and as a primary channel to share that content. Their length will depend largely on the subject and target audience, but it’s wise to begin with blogs in the 500-600 word range.

If you’re considering your lead generation funnel, blogs are ideal for appealing to your top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) audience. Educational content helps to build trust with your business.

Infographics

Squish the words “information” and “graphic” together, and what do you get?

Some of the most popular and engaging content on the internet!

Infographics have the unique ability to condense text, data, and valuable information into a visual format that is pleasing to the eye. Relying on graphs, charts, icons, images, and a variety of other visual elements, infographics make the wall of data easy to understand. They’re fantastic for providing an overview, showing trends, explaining processes, and much more!

Video

Video marketing is on the rise across industries and the internet. B2B marketers create relevant content in the form of how-to videos, explainers, product reviews, and more.

More forward-thinking companies have started producing webinars, live video events, and ephemeral video content – like Facebook and Instagram Stories – to cater to their audiences’ differing content preferences.

Gated Content

“Gated content” is content that users must provide details to access. The details users must deliver are usually contact information, like an email address, and their name.

For this small price, they get access to great content like eBooks, case studies, buyer guides, webinars, exclusive courses, and more. Gated content is an essential part of B2B content marketing; if your audience is willing to give you information in exchange for this content, they are signalling to you that they can be moved to the next stage of your marketing funnel.

Content Marketing Success

The crux of any successful content marketing plan is content that is relevant, engaging, and of high-quality. Create content with easing your audience’s pain points in mind, and you can’t go wrong!

Looking for a little more help designing your B2B content marketing strategies? Let’s talk about how we can make this happen for you.