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When the time comes to review your b2b company’s content marketing strategy, it can prove to be a harsh reality—not all of your content will perform as well as others; your content may not generate the traffic and leads your company is looking for, or perhaps you’re spreading your content too thin.
There are several challenges that can come with any content marketing strategy, and it’s perfectly all right to run into a few speed bumps along the way! Here are a few ways your b2b marketing company can refresh its content strategy.
1. Track your content analytics and performance
A great place to start with refreshing your content strategy is to measure your current analytics and perform a content audit. You’ll want to first measure your content’s analytics on a monthly basis at the least. This will give you enough recent data to understand which content is engaging your audience.
Once you’ve taken note of your content performance, you can then work on a content audit. Here's how you can get yourself started:
- Take note of content that hasn’t received any views or notable attention within the past few months.
- For blog content, look into a page’s bounce rate and the average time people are spending on the page.
- Highlight any content that is outdated or can use an update. For example, a blog post about the “top digital marketing trends of 2016” can be updated based on data and trends from the current year.
- Arrange your content using topic clusters, to help keep track of related content (and to make search engines happy too!)
2. Focus on content that your audience is interested in and engaged with
It can be difficult to have a full grasp of what your audience is looking for from your content—whether this is from outdated buyer personas or too few content pieces to form any conclusions. Think about what your company offers to its clients and customers and the problems you are trying to solve.
People come to your website to not only learn about your company but also to find solutions to key industry issues they may be experiencing. That's why research is a crucial part of your content strategy. You need to be aware of the top challenges that people in your industry are facing. What’s keeping them up at night (besides the stress of an upcoming deadline at work)? What are some of the questions no one else in your industry has found a solution to? Capitalize on the issues you know your company can help with, and convey to your audience that you have a solution.
3. Incorporate multiple content formats into your strategy
We’ve talked primarily about smaller content pieces—such as blog posts—but content can come in multiple formats. In fact, blogging alone may not prove to be a sufficient strategy for your b2b company. When you’re attracting potential new leads to your website, blog posts are a great place to start. However, to further engage your audience and move them closer to conversion, you’ll want to offer more enriching content pieces. These can include the following:
- eBooks
- White papers
- Infographics
- Case studies relevant to your industry
- Online webinars
You also must consider how some of your prospects want to read and engage with content. For example, a white paper may be too daunting for some people—even the term “white paper” can make a prospect picture pages-upon-pages of text. By offering a variety of content formats, you can provide your audience with different options to best fit their preferred method of reading.
For an even further, in-depth look into the process and strategies in content marketing, check out The Marketing Helpline's article1, "What is Content Marketing?"
4. Distribute and promote your content across several channels
As important as it may be to have a dedicated section of your website for housing your content, this doesn’t mean it should be restricted to only your site. Most notably, social media is an excellent place to promote your content—yes, even for b2b companies! When you publish a new piece of content, you should also share it through your company’s social media channels—especially LinkedIn.
Additionally, content distribution platforms like Medium are excellent, free resources for you to house your content as well. Remember, your audience can be in multiple places online and may not always be accessing your website for content. By distributing your content across several channels, you provide multiple touchpoints to reach readers—both new and returning!
A content strategy that’s gone stale isn’t the end of the world. With these tips, your b2b marketing company can refresh its content strategy and provide consistent, quality content to your audience. To help stay organized with your content—and up-to-date on SEO best practices to promote it—download thinkdm2’s topic clusters eBook.
1 Loutsaris, Aires. "What is Content Marketing?" The Marketing Helpline. Posted May 17, 2020. Retrieved June 30, 2020 from https://themarketinghelpline.com/what-is-content-marketing/
