5 Reasons Why Content Marketing is the Ultimate Solution for B2B Businesses

That's why 82% of marketers actively use content marketing and most of the successful B2B marketers either have a documented content strategy (60%) or they use an editorial calendar (80%) to keep track of everything.

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This suggests you're missing out on a huge opportunity if you're not using content marketing as part of your strategy.

Still not convinced about the power of B2B content marketing? Here are five reasons why you should give it a try.

1. Content marketing helps you build relationships.

When you produce helpful, informative content, you’re establishing yourself as a trusted resource in your industry. This helps you build relationships with potential customers and sets the stage for doing business together down the road.

This is especially helpful with customer centric marketing strategies gaining importance.

For example:

Let’s say you write a blog post that provides helpful tips for choosing the right CRM software for your business. A reader who is in the process of researching CRM software comes across your post and finds it helpful.

Now, when that reader is ready to buy CRM software, they’re more likely to think of you and do business with you because they already have a positive relationship with your company.

To attract your target audience and build relationships with them, you should:

• Produce content that is relevant to their needs and interests by creating buyer personas for your target audience.
• Publish content regularly.
• Make it easy for people to find your content by optimizing it for search engines.
• Share your content on social media and other channels where your target audience hangs out.
• Encourage engagement with your content by asking questions and responding.

2. Content marketing helps you drive qualified leads.

In addition to helping you build relationships, content marketing can also help you generate leads. And, by leads, I mean, qualified leads that are actually interested in your product or service and are more likely to convert into paying customers.

One of the most effective ways to generate leads is through gated content, which requires a visitor to fill out a form in order to access it.

This may seem like a barrier to entry, but requiring a visitor to fill out a form is actually an effective way to generate leads.

By requiring a visitor to fill out a form, you’re able to collect data about them which you can then use to segment your leads and target them with specific content that is relevant to their needs and interests.

In short, gated content is an effective way to generate qualified leads, and most successful B2B companies know how to make the most out of this tactic.

For example, Backlinko's homepage copy asks visitors to enter their email address to receive exclusive SEO tips that Brian only shares with his email subscribers.

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By requiring visitors to enter their email addresses, Brian is able to generate leads and build his email list. And, because he's providing value with his exclusive content, he's able to nurture those leads and turn them into customers.

Another way that content marketing can help you generate leads is by increasing your search engine visibility, which leads to more traffic and, ultimately, more leads.

How does this work?

Well, when you create high-quality, keyword-rich content, you’re more likely to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). And, when you rank higher in SERPs, you’re more likely to get more traffic.

More traffic means more leads. It's as simple as that.

3. It helps you become an industry thought leader.

Content marketing is not only an effective way to generate leads, but it's also an effective way to establish yourself as an expert or industry thought leader.

When you produce high-quality, informative content, you position yourself as an expert in your field. And when you become known as an expert, people are more likely to do business with you.

For example, when someone mentions rocket and spacecraft launches, we think of SpaceX and when someone mentions electric vehicles, we think of Tesla.

Why is that?

Because both of these firms have established themselves as experts and industry thought leaders in their respective niches.

People know that when they need a rocket launch, SpaceX is the go-to company and when they need an electric vehicle, Tesla is the go-to.

This is the power of content marketing. It allows you to build trust and credibility.

4. Content marketing helps boost your search engine rankings.

61% of B2B marketers agree that organic traffic generates more leads than any other marketing initiative.

By producing high-quality content, you're more likely to rank higher on search engine results pages. This is because Google and other search engines favor websites that publish fresh, original content.

And once you rank on the first page of Google, you're likely to get more clicks and organic traffic, which will lead to more leads and sales.

High-quality content in itself is quite effective in generating large amounts of website traffic. Combining that with a higher rank on the SERPs will help you get exceptional returns in the form of web traffic and more effective lead generation.

To improve your SEO results, you should:

• Write content that is helpful and informative for your target audience.
• Use keyword-rich titles and descriptions.
• Post new content regularly and optimize it for the right keywords and other search ranking factors.

You can also use high-quality content to build free backlinks, which are one of the most important ranking factors for SEO. They can help you improve your search engine rankings, traffic, and leads.

One of the easiest ways to make your content generate valuable backlinks for your website is to publish original research and case studies. These types of content get cited a lot and drive more organic traffic to your website.

One such example is CMI’s industry reports:

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If you want to get started with creating original research, start by surveying your customers or conducting interviews with experts in your industry. These insights can help you create helpful and interesting content that will get people talking.

Once you have your data, put it into an easy-to-read format like an infographic, report, or blog post. Then, reach out to other websites in your industry and let them know about your findings. Most of the time, they’ll be happy to link to your content if it’s high-quality and helps their readers.

This process may seem time-consuming, but it’s worth it.

Backlinks are necessary for building trustworthiness. It’s well known that many businesses pay a lot for high-quality backlinks but producing high-quality content has multiple benefits, including earning free, qualitative backlinks.

5. It boosts your social engagement.

High-quality content is at the core of any marketing activity. Whether you’re simply promoting educational content or trying to drive traffic to your ongoing flash sale, content marketing is the key to success.

You can use content marketing to boost your social media engagement in a number of ways. Here are three of the most effective methods:

• Method #1: Quality over quantity. It's always better to have a smaller number of well-written, high-quality pieces than a large number of poorly written ones. Your readers will appreciate the effort you put into creating informative, valuable content, and they'll be more likely to share it with their own networks.
• Method #2: Use visuals. People are more likely to engage with content that is accompanied by images, videos, or other visuals. Visual content is a top content marketing trend for 2022 now so be sure to include pictures and videos along with your written content to capture attention and encourage sharing.
• Method #3: Create shareable content. You should make it easy for your readers to share your content by including social media buttons on each piece. You can also include calls-to-action (CTAs) asking people to share your content.

By following the tips above, you'll see a significant boost in social engagement. Just remember to focus on quality over quantity, use visuals, and create shareable content.

When you have a good reach and social engagement on business-centric platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook, it subsequently translates into qualified leads that keep adding to your business.

You can also use social media and content marketing as part of your sales automation process. The key here is to send the right information to the right people at the right times.

Why B2B businesses should use content marketing

B2B businesses are catering to other businesses, not final consumers. It’s a complex sale that usually involves multiple touchpoints and decision-makers.

If done right, content marketing can help you generate greater and more qualified leads than other traditional outbound marketing tactics, and cost less.

This article covers all of the benefits that you can experience by using content to your advantage as a B2B business. From educating your audience to generating leads and improving your SEO, there’s a lot that good content can do for you.

Combine content marketing with a visually pleasing and unique website theme and you have a recipe for success.

So, what are you waiting for?

Start using content marketing to power up your B2B strategy today.