Hey B2Bs, If Content is King, Content Marketing is Your Ace!

Content marketing, which already dominates the B2C world, is now causing a lot of buzz in the B2B domain as well. So it is appropriate to begin by describing what this new marketing attraction is? Jayson DeMers in an October 2013 Forbes.com article, “The Top 7 Content Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2014,” came up with a pretty good definition that said,“Content marketing is really about providing valuable information or content to current and potential customers for the purpose of building trust, branding, awareness, and positive sentiment.”

Just as B2B content marketing has begun to proliferate, in a July 19, 2014 Huffington Post blog, Lee Traupel presented a timely piece, “Content Marketing Best Practices for B2B Brands.” In it he cites a CMI/Marketing Profs study that shows B2B content marketers lack the wherewithal to produce content – in the required quantity, of consistent quality, and in any discernible variety. Is it any wonder then that content curation is increasingly being used as a key component in the B2B’s content marketing strategy? If you can’t build it, curate the right content with appropriate accreditation, and they will come to (i.e., visit) your field of articles, blogs, presentations, videos, and webinars, et al.

More importantly, curated content can be distributed using the top five social media sites popular with B2B marketers, namely, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google+ and it is an excellent way to build value with your B2B audience. Mr. Traupel concludes his article with a list of content marketing best practices, which are worth the read so I won’t repeat here. However, as with any marketing program, it is critical to set goals upfront, measure performance, and evaluate/adjust your content marketing plan accordingly.

Speaking of measuring content marketing performance, it is was encouraging to read this TechCrunch article today, “SimpleReach Raises $9M To Measure Content Marketing And Native Ads.” SimpleReach is a startup that helps marketers and publishers measure the effectiveness of their content and ads. TechCrunch reports that SimpleReach “can not only tell customers how well their content is doing on publisher websites and on social media, but also predict which articles will take off — each article is assigned a score between 0 to 99, indicating how much social media traffic it will drive to the customer’s site. SimpleReach then allows marketers to promote those articles through ads on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Outbrain, Nativo, StumbleUpon and TripleLift.”

Of course, the proof of the SimpleReach pudding will be in the eating – time will tell. In any case, today on LinkedIn, I also came across, “Clearpoint’s New Infographic: B2B Content Marketing” that neatly encapsulates the B2B content marketing story. As the ClearPoint Agency, whose co-founder happens to be a friend and former business colleague (full disclosure), summarizes it, “…B2B companies as a whole have joined B2C brands in realizing the potential of content marketing to drive brand awareness and increase revenue. But how is this content marketed from one business to another? Our latest graphic dives into why B2B companies utilize content marketing, and what tactics they are using online to market their content.” I would encourage readers to check out this Infographic.

Hopefully, it should have become clear to B2Bs that content marketing needs to become an integral part of their overall marketing plan. In the aforementioned Jayson DeMers article, his #2 content marketing trend for 2014 foresaw, “The Top New Marketing Job Title Recruited and Hired will be ‘Director of Content.’” I am not sure we are quite there yet. Nonetheless, my main suggestion to wavering B2B marketers would be, if you really believe that content is king, then content marketing has got to be your ace! If you still have any doubts, talk to those B2C marketers, who have integrated content marketing into their Revenue Performance Management cycle and find out how much more “content” they have become with their lives.