3 Devastating Mistakes in B2B Content Marketing
There are 3 mistakes that can completely undermine your B2B marketing attempts - let's review them to make your work more efficient and resultative.
Content marketing flooded the Internet in the last few years. The reason is simple – it is cheaper and more effective than traditional marketing. However, B2B marketers are facing a new challenge because there is just way too much content available online.
Here’s an example: Facebook users post 510 thousand comments, write 293 thousand statuses, and upload 136 thousand photos every minute! It is getting harder for people to consume digital content and distinguish relevant from irrelevant marketing messages.
In the abundance of digital competitors, it is becoming increasingly difficult to create a meaningful content and present your ideas and services to the wider audiences. Most B2B marketers make serious oversights in that regard, so you need to be smarter and more careful than that. In this article, we will show you the 3 most devastating mistakes in B2B content marketing.
Targeting the Wrong Audience
An average user can get lost in the crowd of social media channels rather easily. There are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and dozens of similar networks and they all look very attractive to the average consumer. But you are not the average user. On the contrary, you are a professional B2B marketer and you have to target the right kind of audience.
Justin Osborne, a content marketing manager at Best Essays, recently noted: “Before you start brainstorming and generating content ideas, you have to understand your audience. Who are these people? Where they hang out online? If you answer these questions correctly, you will be able to create content that really resonates with your clients”.
But if you try to cover every single social media channel, you will waste a lot of time and energy. It will also be much more difficult to measure the impact of your campaign. This is exactly why only one-third of content marketers can precisely calculate ROI.
B2B marketers usually target not more than a few hundred followers. The number is even smaller in most cases, which means that you need a customized approach, not an all-around strategy. Keep this in mind and try to build a small community of loyal followers. This way, you will improve brand credibility and generate enough leads for a sustainable business.
CTA is Essential
Okay, so you’ve managed to find the right audience and create an appealing content. The second step is to convince people to act according to your invitation and take concrete action. You can’t expect to win them over using nothing more creative than “Give us a call”. It’s just not good enough.
Unfortunately, a vast majority of B2B marketers make this mistake. They dedicate to content creation so much that they forget to do what matters the most – invite followers to engage. The logic is simple: you provide users with free samples, knowledge, or practical tips, while they give you valuable leads in exchange.
There is no room for compromise in that regard. You must make the first move and send a straightforward CTA. It’s an essence of the ‘give to get’ marketing philosophy. We will give you some examples of direct CTAs here:
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Book your seat for our webinar.
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Take a look at our sample video.
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Buy now and get a 10% discount.
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Take a trial, it’s free!
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Apply now and get the first month free of charge.
Another thing that you have to remember is to add CTAs to every page on your website. The same goes for social media – each post should invite followers to engage. If you skip it, you are making a devastating mistake.
Not Solving Problems
Content quality is the basic precondition of lead generation. If you are only using buzzwords and pompous phrases, you will never impress target clients but chase them away instead. You shouldn’t try to sound highly intellectual because marketing content is supposed to solve problems using a minimum number of words. Less is more in this case.
At the same time, you need to learn to write for your audience, not for yourself. Digital content represents a profitable marketing tool but only if you add value to your posts. Users don’t want to listen to B2B marketers contemplating about the advantages of working with their companies. Think outside the box and give followers practical suggestions, in-depth industry analysis, or new observations.
Listen to their online inquiries and answer their questions. Solve their problems and show them the way to get something done. It will make you look more reliable and trustworthy, which is the best tactic to grow leads in the long run.
CONCLUSION
Content marketing can be super-efficient if you know your target group and prepare a good strategy. However, a lot of marketers don’t know how to deal with the competitors and experience serious failures in the process.
In this article, we showed you the 3 most devastating mistakes in B2B content marketing. Try not to repeat these mistakes and write us a comment if you need additional explanations about this topic.