Creating Great B2B Marketing Content for Social Media, Blogs and Emails
Every leader I have worked with has something important to tell their market. But getting your word out can be HARD. At times, it can feel like screaming at the top of your lungs with no noise coming out. You know you are meant to have great impact, but how?
Most business to business companies communicate on a 1-to-1 plane with their market. Actually, it could be called a 1-to-1-to -1-to-1: one sales person has one meeting with one company, one step at a time until they make a sale. While this is necessary for closing each deal, it doesn’t increase your company’s visibility, nor does it help you stand out, differentiate or speed up growth.
If you want to grow and especially if you want more out of your growth (profit, referrals, loyalty, leads, fun, and legacy), you must add a platform that allows you to speak as 1-to-many. Email, blogging, and social media allow you to increase your reach and have your say.
If you just mentally checked out, then you can expect more of the same silent yelling and the same slow approach to growth. Online content and social media are here to stay in the B2B world. The average B2B buyer today checks out 3-5 pieces of content before engaging a sales person. Who authors those pieces of content will make the difference for who become the winners of tomorrow.
If you are ready to expand your influence and really fulfill your potential, I’ve put together tips on how to create content that moves your market to action and gives you’re the visibility you deserve.
Write to Your Audience
Research, write and share information on the topics your audience is struggling with. DO NOT write about how your company solves these problems. Write broadly to help your audience address their issue or achieve success. Be of service to them genuinely.
Here are some audience centered topics:
- Goals
- Challenges
- Industry trends
- Statistics that are relevant to them
- Best practices
- Stories of success (NOT CASE STUDIES…STORIES)
Be Human
Express your core values and strengths on the people side of your organization and simply be INTERESTING.
- Create employee profiles: Take a selfie and tell who are they, how long have they been with the company, and something interesting about them. Celebrate your people and show the wonderful humans in your organization.
- Be fun: Share a joke, a factoid, inspirational quotes or historical stories you come across that speak to you and reflect what you believe.
- Share what is informing you: Blogs, books, speakers, conferences.
- Include others: Ask if anyone in your company would be willing to write with you. Feature clients, vendors or partners in your blog as well. Celebrate those around you.
Tap Into Your Industry
- Discuss hot topics that made headlines and give your point of view.
- Ask people their opinions.
- Share other people’s content. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Be the one who curates and collects wonderful stuff. Make it easy for your audience to get a hold of things that help them grow and prosper.
- When you attend events, take pictures of people and share them! We were not there; tell us what we missed.
- Use the calendar:
- What are people focused on in target markets each quarter? Work with a theme to create content.
- Capitalize on holidays: the common, quirky, industry, or even weird. Say something about these and be genuine.
Pre-plan your writing topics so you don’t face writer’s block. Spend a session brainstorming ideas using this list and then place them in the calendar.
Build a Legacy
What do you want to be known for AND/OR what do you think the world needs to hear?
- Encouragement
- Optimism
- Ideas
- A new way to look at something
HOW CAN YOU HELP YOUR AUDIENCE ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS? Hint: you can’t do this by selling them. People love to buy, but hate to be sold. Online content IS part of trust triggering interest and building trust. It is NOT part of closing the deal. You are providing information THEY need and want to make the right decision for their goals and motives.
Your Product or Company
Yes, you can talk about your stuff, but it should only be 1 out of every 5 posts.
- Use amazing headlines that speak to what your audience cares about.
- Use FAQ formats and ask your sales people the common objections, questions or misinformation they come across.
- Turn your product information into a helpful graphic.
- VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO
- Tell success stories from your customers. Quantify examples of success wherever possible.
We’ve created two great resources to help you create memorable B2B content.
- B2B Content Brainstorming Guide that will help you better understand your audience, so that you can write about what they really care about.
- Blog Checklist to make it easy for you to plan your blog workflow – the who/what/when for writing great blogs.
Enter your email below and check them out.
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You have an awesome company and an awesome vision. Isn’t it time to step into the spotlight and change the game? The sales process is slower and more gated than ever before. You need a backdoor to gain your market’s attention and trust. Content is the key.
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