Wednesday, September 13, 2017

HOW TO CREATE A CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY FOR YOUR B2B TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATION

Content marketing is an important aspect of your inbound marketing strategy. Inbound needs content to work, and the popularity of content marketing is growing each year. In fact, according to the Content Marketing Institute, 70% of B2B organization marketers say they plan on creating more content in 2017 than they did in 2016.

And, 25% of respondents to this survey were from the Technology Industry, which means understanding the key ingredients to creating a content marketing strategy is more important than ever for your B2B Technology organization.

There are a lot of ingredients that can go into creating an excellent content marketing strategy, but there are four important points you need to understand in order to form the basic structure of your strategy. Just like how there a lot of ingredients that make chocolate chip cookies taste good, but there are a few basic ones you need to make the cookies actually work.

Key Content Marketing Ingredients

The first key point to know is how many decision makers are involved in the organization, who those decision makers are, and what they care about. Whether it’s a CIO, CFO, Compliance Manager or any other C-Suite individual, you need to understand who they are so you can write to and create the level of content they need.

Usually, decision makers are thinking about the following four questions when looking for a solution to their business needs:
  1. Is this solution a good fit for my business?
  2. Does this vendor know anything about my business and my market?
  3. Do they understand the problem we’re trying to solve?
  4. Can I work with this vendor and trust them to help with a critical responsibility?
Coming to an understanding of who your clients are and what they want is a first step in a creating a content marketing strategy for your business that will assure them you have the answers to their questions.

The second key point to understand is how your audience researches their problems. Obviously, you want to publish content your client will actually read and understand. You wouldn’t create an entire content marketing strategy based on infographics if you knew the CEO you wanted to target didn’t usually consume infographics and preferred more in-depth reports. That’s why, just like in the first key point, it’s important to gain a deep understanding of who your clients are.

Make Your Content Work for You

The third key ingredient to having a content marketing strategy that works for your business is your editorial calendar. No content marketing strategy is complete without one, but it’s having the right one that will make your strategy effective. The right editorial calendar will help your clients complete their research on their own by putting out content that identifies their pain points and offers solutions to them.

The fourth and final key point to remember is you must let your clients guide themselves through the process. If you create good content for each stage in the buyer’s journey, then your clients will have no problem going through the process on their own. When they are able to do this, your clients will feel as if they are in control of their own research and decision-making process, which is more likely to guide them towards choosing your company on their own.

When building a content marketing strategy, it is important to understand that it isn’t just your organization’s feature or function that sets you apart from the competition. Your content marketing strategy plays a major role in making sure your clients see why your business is the best option for them.