Tag Archives: Content Strategy

Writing content for B2B websites

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Most B2B websites – if they want to incorporate content marketing into their overall marketing strategy – should have lots of informative content on their websites aside from the usual business content.

A slight problem is some executives and decision makers are too busy to go through lengthy chunks of text and some want to do lots of reading before they can decide in your favor. So you have to keep your business partners in mind while creating content for your B2B website.

To handle this problem you can either organize your content in such a manner that it can be contracted and expanded according to convenience, or you can create excerpts and detailed descriptions separately and your prospective business partners can go through them according to their preference. But be sure that even in your excerpts you provide all the necessary information that they require in order to make a decision. Preparing an excerpt doesn’t mean you leave the critical details.

You also need to be well versed with the language within your business sector. Professionals working within your particular niche are used to certain jargons and terminologies and they also have phrases that make them feel more comfortable while going through your content. If you really want to convince them that you are the person or business they ought to be working with then you have to speak their language. It is not as difficult as it sounds. If you are a professional well-versed with your industry lingo there is no problem, but if you’re totally new a little bit of research can help you. A language is after all a language, you just need to use some words here and there to convey that you are writing as an insider.

In order to achieve this you can create a separate list of words and expressions that are common in that particular business. Then practice using those words and expressions while creating random sentences and paragraphs (but make sure that they make sense). Very soon you will feel comfortable talking in a language particular to a B2B section.

This will also help you search engine optimize your B2B content because professionals belonging to that business use particular terminologies and search expressions.

Writing content for B2B websites is not markedly different from writing for other websites (technology, general interest, news, etc.) you just need to get acquainted with the language and you must also know what the decision-makers want to read before going ahead with the business.

Creating productive content

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Content marketing demands that you continuously create and publish quality content for your website. The primary purpose of creating content for your website or blog is making your visitors more aware of the qualities of the product or service you provide.

Somewhere publishers forget this basic purpose and simply start publishing content for the sake of improving search engine rankings, covering all the keywords and creating link bait content. Although these reasons are not out of line the problem manifests if these are the only reasons for which content is published. They might think they are doing something great for their business but actually they are not achieving much. There is a difference between random, aimless activity and actually being productive.

In order to carry out a more effective content marketing campaign you need to create productive content. What makes your content productive? It should achieve the following for you:

  • Educate your visitors about what you are offering
  • Make you stand out in comparison with your competitors
  • Inform your visitors of new developments vis-a-vis your products and services
  • Establish yourself as an authority in the subject dealing with your business and consequently help people trust you
  • Provide help textually, in audio or visually as much as possible so that they don’t have to call you or write to you in case they are facing a problem regarding some purchase or the usage of your product or service
  • Organically improve your search engine rankings so that people can easily find you for the right keywords
  • Maintain fruitful buzz around your online presence whether it is your own website/blog, on other websites or blogs (people linking to your content) or on your social media profiles such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr and YouTube
  • Act as a PR tool in case there is a misunderstanding or a communication gap, or even a smear campaign against your business

The features listed above make your content productive. They actually achieve the objectives defined in a well laid out content marketing strategy. Simply creating content based on your keywords and key phrases might get you some good traffic but you won’t be able to convert that traffic into business.

Creating productive content obviously requires more effort and sometimes also money, so you don’t need to rush. Take your time. Rather than publishing 5 blog posts or articles in a week, publish just a single article, but make it highly useful and productive. I guarantee you it will fetch you multiple times more traffic than your 5 articles/blog posts per week.

How to disseminate your content

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Spreading content

After you have figured out what sort of content your business requires and you have started publishing that content the next step is distributing and disseminating that content. Simply publishing content on your website or blog is not going to be very profitable unless people become aware of it and start accessing it. You may already have a steady flow of traffic to your website or blog and this can further gain traction once you produce more and more content but still you have to take measures to make your content accessible to as many people as possible. Listed below are some channels that you can use to disseminate your content

Publishing content on your website or blog

This is the easiest way of making your content available but for this people need to be aware of your website and blog. If you already have an audience, great, but if you are in the process of building an audience than along with publishing content under your website you also need to focus on other sources.

Publishing an electronic newsletter

Publishing an e-zine is one of the oldest and the most effective ways of spreading your content on a regular basis. Have an opt in e-mail list and display a subscription box on your website and on your blog. You can either just publish content in the e-zine or you can first publish it on your website or blog and then mail links to your subscribers. Services like MailChimp and Aweber have great features and they also provide you with ready-made subscription forms that you can straightaway copy/paste onto your website and blog

Making RSS subscription available

RSS feeds are a great way of regularly distributing your new content. If you are using a content management system to manage your website and blog the feature that generates RSS feeds must already be there (you can also use http://feedburner.com for better statistics and enhanced exposure). Once you have generated an RSS feeds link display it prominently on your blog and website and elsewhere so that people can easily subscribe to it.

Using social media channels

Although your blog is very much a part of social media you can use other avenues such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Tumblr. Many businesses publish content keeping such distribution channels in mind. Extensive research has been done on what sort of content goes viral on social media websites: what sort of heading and what sort of format attract the most attention and encourage people to share your content.

Submitting articles to article directories

There are many article directories that accept articles free of cost. It is a much outdated method but it is still being used by those who have just started spreading around their content, and to an extent it does work. The only problem is the quality of most of the articles in these article directories is not up to the mark and consequently they don’t carry much authority.

Writing for other blogs

Writing for other blogs exposes your skills in front of an entirely new audience and it also gives people an opportunity to visit your website or blog and know more about you and your business. There are many successful bloggers who are constantly looking for guest bloggers to provide them the much-needed respite and if you can write well you can approach them. With every blog post a small bio of yours appears carrying your credentials, primary URL and also a link to your RSS feed.

Submitting slides and PDFs

You can create information slides and PDFs and upload them to websites like SlideShare and Scribd. I personally feel compared to full-fledged blog posts and articles it’s much easier to create slides carrying main points.

Publishing white papers

White papers pack lots of useful information without beating around the bush. Writing and publishing white papers might be a difficult task because it requires lots of research work and fine tuning (most white papers are scholarly and detailed) so you may want to spend more than a couple of weeks preparing a single white paper. But once it is prepared and published on your website you will reap great dividends for a long time.

Attending meetups and workshops

If there are meetups and workshops happening in your niche you must try to attend them so that more and more people come to know of your presence. This may not directly help you expose your content in front of them but it will certainly bring you in contact with several influential people in your business and some of them may mention your website or blog through their blog or social media updates.

These are some prominent channels you can use to distribute your content over the Internet.

Creating a content marketing strategy specifically for your business

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Different businesses have different content marketing requirements because they have different markets. Some require visual content (videos, images) and some require textual content; it all depends on what sort of market you are trying to target.

Defining a content marketing strategy for your business

This involves understanding how you are going to use the power of content to spread the word around and get people’s attention. Content marketing, as I explained in my previous blog post (Content marketing pain points, and how to go about it), is not a one-time affair; it is not a campaign. It is an ongoing activity. You cannot do content marketing for a week or for a couple of months and then start evaluating the matrices. The effect takes some time and effort to manifests. Anyway, this has already been explained.

In order to create a content marketing strategy for your business you have to understand your audience. Content means there are consumers. Whatever content you decide to produce you must have consumers for it. You either reach out to them or they discover you, whatever is the case.

If you are marketing electronic gadgets to a comparatively younger audience then you most probably need visual content. For instance, lots of companies create short videos of how their gadgets are to be used and what features they have. They also promote images of their various gadgets. Textual content is there just as a supplement but it rarely plays a big part (of course there are headlines and descriptions but it’s the visual part that generates most of the traction).

Comparatively expensive gadgets such as high end cameras and other equipments need extensive reviews and this is where textual content plays a very important role. There are many gadgets review websites that maintain a commendable balance between audiovisual and textual content.

It’s not just the gadget industry that produces and markets content; it can be used by any business. Take for instance the real estate industry. I get lots of work from realtors and builders. New properties are being speculated upon, sold and purchased and older properties go through various hands, and all this needs to be put up on the website and this in return results in lots of keyword-targeted content.

So start defining your content marketing strategy keeping your audience in mind.

The two most important components of a content marketing strategy are

  • What contact to produce
  • How to make it accessible to as many people as possible

I have already explained how to produce your content. Now regarding how to make it accessible to your audience. Targeting is very important here. If you want to promote android phones then you must take your content in front of people who are eager to try out the latest android phones. If you want to market a new drug for tonsilitis then your content must reach people who are looking for such a cure.

In the next blog post I’ll talk about how to distribute your content.

Content marketing pain points, and how to go about it

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Defining content marketing

Many people talk about content marketing but very few understand what it exactly means and even the ones who understand it sometimes don’t know where to start and where to go. In order to benefit from content marketing you need to first of all understand what it means.

What is content marketing?

It is not marketing per se: you are not running an advertising campaign and it is not a media blitz. Content marketing is not an event, it is an activity stretched over a long period of time. Content marketing constitutes of the following core functions:

  • Generating and publishing high-quality content that informs and engages your audience
  • Spreading your content using various online channels (search engines, blogs, e-mail newsletters and social media profiles)
  • Generating new content based on the requirement of your audience

And the cycle continues if you function in a highly competitive business environment.

The main purpose of content marketing is keeping your customers and clients informed and educated in an engaging manner. It is not a one-way communication channel: you continuously obtain feedback from your audience and produce new content accordingly. Add entertainment to information and you have got yourself a winner. Take for instance the Will It Blend campaign where a person tries to blend everything he can get hold on. This campaign single-handedly has helped Blendtec increase its profits by a whopping 700%. This is not just an exception. There are many businesses that are leveraging content marketing to revolutionize their bottom lines.

Content marketing channels

You can use the following content marketing channels to publish and spread your content:

  • Blogs
  • Article directories
  • Social media and social networking tools (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.)
  • E-mail newsletters
  • Online forums
  • Your own website
  • E-books
  • White papers
  • Webcasts
  • Video series

You don’t necessarily have to focus on all the channels mentioned above; you can stick to 3-4 channels and create a compelling presence over there. For instance your company’s business blog coupled with Twitter and Facebook profiles can give a big boost to your content marketing efforts.

Where to start content marketing?

In content marketing too it is all about demand and supply, like any other product or service. Your customers and clients are looking for something and you provide it to them. Make it something that is not easily available. They will value your content if it is highly useful and if it is not easily found elsewhere. Quality and relevance is of great importance.

Before extending your content marketing reach to different channels thoroughly analyze your website and see what sort of content it has. Does it properly inform your customers and clients? Does it make them want to do business with you? Is it simply marketing hype or you really reach out to your customers and clients?

After you have made sure that content on your business website is up to the mark you can start spreading your content over your business blog, Twitter and Facebook profiles and other online channels. You can create content in any form suitable to your particular business needs. Some prefer text, some videos, some images and some a balanced mixture of all of these. It depends on your comfort level and your audience.

Don’t let content creation intimidate you. Taking an example from highly successful content marketing campaigns can seem a bit formidable so draw your own plan. Clearly define your audience and start creating content accordingly. You can start publishing small articles explaining various aspects of your product or service. A good start would be a comprehensive FAQs section. If you already have it perhaps you would like to expand it further.

Then you can create small blog posts dealing with various issues. Suppose there is a problem your customers or clients are facing constantly and they are talking about it on Twitter and Facebook. Aside from addressing the issue on individual channels you can also create blog posts on your own business blog and explain in detail how you plan to address the problem. This will instantly hit a chord with your customers and clients and they will be encouraged to reach out to you.

After creating blog posts you can post the links on your social media profiles. You can invite feedback from fans and followers and create further content based on that.

I hadn’t intended to create a very long blog post so I will stop here. In my next blog post I will try to write about how to create a content marketing strategy specifically focused on your business and your audience.