Why Content Marketing is a Crucial Part of your B2B Lead Generation

As a B2B company, you should be pushing to reach new clients and generate new income at all times.  You may have a strategy in place to generate new business or you may have had some success with word of mouth referrals; but, are these methods giving your audience the maximum amount of leads possible?

It is important to have a proactive method of generating new business for B2Bs and content marketing is the powerful tool that allows for this to happen. It expands your reach to a whole new section of a market that you have otherwise not have had easy access to.

Having a great online marketing strategy opens up entirely new funnels to generate revenue. It is proven that today people are searching and buying smarter with 83% of B2B buyers doing their research online before making their next purchase. This is where your clients are looking before making a decision, and this is why having an online presence with strong content marketing will prove to be invaluable.

The 2014 Acquity Group State of B2B Procurement study saw massive growth in online research and spending by B2B buyers. Their findings include:

• 30% of B2B buyers reporting that they research at least 90% of products online before purchasing
• 94% of B2B buyers report that they conduct some form of online research before purchasing a business product
• 55% of B2B buyers conduct online research for at least half of their corporate purchases
• Buyers rely on a variety of online sources to make a purchase decision. The most popular sources include supplier websites, Google searches, user product reviews, blogs, social media and third-party websites such as Amazon Supply.

This means two very important things for business –

• A strong online presence that makes it easy for your clients to find you and learn more about how you can help
• The need to tell a more compelling and engaging story via content marketing that will have your potential clients engaged with your brand even before you meet them

Here are some examples of how content has helped brands and businesses get more out of their lead generation strategy and how you can do the same for your business:

1.   Brand: General Electrics (GE)

Clever use of content that: creates a brand with a personality.

Content marketing is all about communication and to stand out from the crowd, you need to have a voice of your own that your clients can immediately recognise.

Take GE for example  – with a current number of 417,000 subscribers on Twitter, 226,000 on Instagram and 93,507 on YouTube, this is a brand that has done content marketing right by showcasing a personality that engages their audience.

Not only does the brand have a personality but they are constantly in the process of telling stories. These stories range from their latest discoveries, technologies, and having a passion for a subject that helps GE expand its reach to the market.

GE’s bold personality shows in their ability to take risks in their content marketing. The brand is not afraid to use humour or demonstrate their love for a subject while openly engaging with their followers.

2.   Brand: MYOB

Clever use of content that: understands the different needs of the audience

Your business may require for you to speak to a range of audience – from small startups to big businesses – and sometimes, a one-size-fits-all approach may not work. This is where your strategy needs to consider the needs of your audience to produce content that is relevant.

MYOB is an example of a company that is able to recognise the varying needs of its audience. As a provider of business management solutions, the brand has gained a deep insight into the needs of its clients at different stages of their business development.

The brand produces content on its hub that is cleverly angled to the needs of its different customers – from providing tips to emerging businesses to developing a breakthrough solution for brands to take the customer experience to the next level.

3.   Brand: FireRock

Clever use of content that: visually engages its consumers

Our brains are wired to respond to things that are visual. It tries to make sense of the world and does it almost entirely by sight. Canva design school explains this is one of its visual marketing posts:

“Our brains are made for looking, and if your visual marketing and brand is not trying to take advantage of our brains constant craving for new visual information, then it is missing out on one of the best ways to tap straight into people’s heads.”

This is where FireRock, a HubSpot customer that manufactures pre-engineered masonry products for contractors and home builders, has taken advantage of this knowledge. The brand has one of the best Pinterest accounts for a B2B company.

Captivating through image is so important these days. Your customer’s attention is growing shorter while their to-do list is growing longer. You want to stop them in their tracks with something visually powerful that gets the message across and helps them understand who you are and what you do in a simple second.

While FireRock optimizes Pinterest for their business, there are other ways to use visuals too. Through infographics, images and videos, you too can create your piece of visual marketing material that speaks for your brand.

As new media and channels emerge, it is important that your brand continues evolving its strategy to include them. So, take time to consider where and how you should showcase your business’s visual content and how you can market it to your target audience in an engaging manner.

4. Brand: InVision

Clever use of content that: focuses on providing a solution instead of selling a product.

The end goal of content marketing is to generate leads that lead to conversion and return on investment. However, there is an essential key to all of this that most brands and businesses tend to overlook – trust-building.

InVision is a is a prototyping platform that helps companies collaborate on designs. Since its launch in 2011, InVision has built a user-base of more than 700,000 and a fervent audience of blog subscribers.

But if you were to look through their blog, you would hardly be able to find mentions of the platform. What you will find however are publications available for designers. The articles focus on thought leadership in design, inspiration and culture. The brand is able to tap into the needs, wants and passions of their audience and bring that to the table rather than offer a sales pitch that the audience could turn down.

This is how a brand like InVision builds trust – they gain a true and meaningful insight into the needs of their audience and prove by action that they are the perfect solution.

4. Conclusion

Throughout these examples, there is one key thing to note – content marketing made an impact in their businesses. By applying the right strategy and executing content that meets the needs of your audience, you too can take your business to the next level.

Adopt thoughts and lessons from these industry giants. Find your brand’s tone of voice, use it to your advantage and never forget the importance of providing for your audience.