Why Content Marketing Works and Is Crucial for Marketing Success
Why Content Marketing Works and Is Crucial for Marketing Success
Content marketing is much more than a digital marketing buzzword. It’s an age-long marketing approach that existed before the Internet and is a modern-day game changer. It has gained widespread acceptance and usage and is fast becoming an industry standard.
Customers are shying away from advertising and other traditional outbound marketing approaches and expecting more from companies. Many innovative businesses have shifted to content marketing to meet these expectations, develop a deeper relationship with customers, and boost sales and revenue organically.
In 1996, Bill Gates wrote a famous essay titled ‘Content is King’ and described the future of the Internet and marketing to be powered by content.
Before I elaborate on why content marketing is the king of marketing and why it works, let me briefly define what it means for B2B companies.
What is Content Marketing?
Content Marketing Institute defines Content marketing as a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, drive profitable customer actions.
Unlike outbound marketing, which involves pitching products or services, content marketing provides relevant and helpful content to prospects and customers, helping them solve their challenges. This allows the company to earn trust, build relationships and authority, and organically drive conversions.
Why Content Marketing Is the King of Marketing
Content marketing is often referred to as king because marketing is only possible with great content. It empowers other marketing channels – email marketing, social media marketing, SEO, etc. – and should be deeply woven into every company’s marketing process.
Strategically creating, distributing, managing, and marketing high-quality and relevant content via organic and paid marketing channels increases the chances of generating results.
If you generate results without consciously adopting content marketing, imagine the results when you intentionally power your marketing with strategic content marketing.
9 Reasons Why Content Marketing Works
Content marketing works for many reasons. It’s at the heart of all marketing channels and is the hub that supports and connects every other aspect of marketing.
Consumer values and behavior have changed. Consumers are more intentional about interacting with companies and expect much more than the product they’re buying. Pull marketing now thrives over push marketing.
Here are the top reasons why content marketing works for every industry.
1. Content Marketing Drives Qualified Organic Traffic
This is a crucial reason why content marketing remains on many successful companies' lists. Companies that adopt content marketing, optimize their content, rank high on search engines, and drive highly qualified prospects actively searching for solutions.
According to Demand Metrics, content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 63% less.
Here’s a practical example.
Someone searching Google for ‘the best software to execute a problem’ is ready to take action and is highly likely to do so after reading informative content.
Imagine such a piece of content generating at least 20 marketing-qualified leads a month for over seven years. That’s good business without extra investment.
2. Prospects Need Your Content
Several studies have shown that internet users spend a lot of their time online consuming content – 6 hours and 58 minutes per day, to be precise. These are prospects and customers consuming content related to their challenges and solutions.
According to the GE Shopper Research Study, 81% of consumers go online to find information and answer any questions about a product or service before heading out to the store to make a purchase. Google data supported this and highlighted that 53% of shoppers constantly research before buying to ensure they make the best choice.
B2B is similar. According to the 2022 Demand Gen report, 62% of B2B buyers read at least 3-7 pieces of content before they talk to a salesperson. If a piece of content from your company helps them solve their challenge, they’re likely to convert.
They can be searching for how to use a product or solution your company provides. Developing helpful content around these challenges or solutions is a great way to gain trust, confidence, and conversion.
3. Content Marketing Builds Trust
96% of consumers don’t’ trust adverts and are skeptical of taking action.
Intentional consumerism has gained wide adoption; customers now care much more about a company’s values and crave a deeper connection with the companies they patronize. An average of 20% of customers from 11 countries in a 2022 Statista report said they pay more for brands that reflect their values and can be trusted.
Companies that leverage content marketing to build trust and genuine relationships with prospects enjoy more sales. 7 in 10 customers buy from a company they trust and believe this trust is built through helpful content and effective content marketing.
4. Drives Customers Loyalty, High Retention, and Lifetime Value
The nurturing nature of content marketing makes it ideal for customer-centric, future-minded companies.
Customers are much more likely to stick to a company if they have a good experience with that company. Effective content marketing helps companies deliver exceptional CX and build emotional connections with prospects.
A well-nurtured prospect who stays with a company from the top to the bottom of the funnel trusts the company more and becomes a loyalist and advocate. If the content marketing and experience delivery level is maintained, the company will have a high average order value, retention rate, lifetime value, and referrals.
This, of course, significantly boosts the company’s profit margin.
5. Content Marketing Is Based on In-depth Understanding of Customers
To successfully market to a prospect, one must know the target audience inside and out.
According to Semrush Director of Organic Search Kyle Byers, “Understanding what your audience needs and values will be your key to content marketing success in 2023.”
The first step of content marketing is taking the time to research customers and develop customer profiles and buyer personas according to your company’s market segmentation.
A study showed that many B2B marketers conduct audience research for their content marketing. This is crucial to why content marketing works because this research gives insights into many factors that must be considered for conversion optimization.
Factors like demographics, occupation, income level, research avenues, pain points, blockers, and more are considered during content marketing strategy development.
This high-level understanding of the customer and their behavior helps companies adopt the right strategy, develop and distribute the right content, and generate high results.
6. Builds Relationships
Customer-centric companies build healthy customer relationships with quality content marketing.
Email marketing, social media marketing, community engagement, live interviews, podcasts, industry webinars, etc., show customers you care about them.
Companies that engage customers get feedback and leverage the input to improve personalized marketing and CX delivery, key differentiators in competitive industries.
7. Content Marketing Makes It Easy to Stand Out
In today’s fast-paced, highly competitive business ecosystem, serious-minded companies leverage content marketing to achieve marketing success through differentiation.
Companies adopt branding and content marketing approaches like storytelling to highlight their values and attract customers who believe in the same values.
This helps a company stand out and drive conversions from like-minded customers.
8. Your Customers Are Your Marketing Team
With strategic content marketing, customers take over marketing while you focus on product management.
For instance, a company conducts and publishes customer interviews on its website as testimonials, customer reviews, or expert insights. The featured customers will be proud to identify with the company and share such content with their followers.
Statistics from Bright Local’s Local Consumer Review Survey 2023 showed that 98% of customers read online reviews for local businesses. Northwestern MEDILL Spiegel Research Center’s data supported this by pointing out that the purchase likelihood for a product with five reviews is 270% higher. Also, customers are likely to trust an organization more and take the required action when they see a testimonial or online review.
This goes a long way to increase sales, company revenue generation, and the bottom line.
9. Consistent Content Marketing Generates a Compounding Effect
Content on the Internet doesn’t expire. This means that a piece of well-written, evergreen content can continue to generate traffic, leads, and revenue for a company as long as the content stays published.
Much better, the more the content ages, the more backlinks it attracts, which is the more it ranks and drives more traffic. The more traffic it gets, the more the readers will continue to refer back to it and share it with their friends, family, and followers, who will also share with theirs.
The chain continues, and the content becomes a passive income avenue for the company.
There are many instances where a piece of content has generated so much leads and revenue over a specified time.
Statistical Evidence of Why Content Marketing Works and Why You Should Invest in It Today
Being one of the first in your industry to adopt content marketing for lead generation and conversion can benefit your company in many ways.
If you or your C-suite and high-level managers are yet to realize its effectiveness, here is a comprehensive list of statistics showing the importance and effectiveness of content marketing.
- Approximately 83% of purchase decisions occur before a buyer reaches out to an organization, and between 70% and 80% of purchase interactions now happen in the digital sphere. Many decision-makers are embracing this change – 2021 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study by Edelman and LinkedIn, supported by data from Gartner and McKinsey.
- According to Semrush Global State of Marketing Report, out of 1700+ marketers and business owners surveyed, 97% said they had some degree of content marketing success.
- The 2022 B2B Content Marketing report by CMI showed that 73% of marketers have a content marketing strategy.
- 56% of marketers who leverage blogging say it's effective, and 10% say it generates the most significant ROI.
- 82% of marketers actively use content marketing, and 60% of the surveyed marketers measure the success of their content marketing strategy through sales.
- Marketers today create content for multiple audience segments – marketing to three audience segments being the most common – Hubspot 2020 State of Marketing.
- Nearly 40% of marketers say content marketing is essential to their marketing strategy.
- 69% of marketers invested in SEO in 2021, according to Hubspot State of Marketing Report for 2021.
- On average, companies with blogs generate 67% more leads than others. They also earn 97% more inbound links, 55% more site visitors, and 434% more indexed Google pages. – Hubspot.
- According to the 2022 PageFair Adblock Report, 290M monthly active users globally have their adblock on, and 94% of global publishers say they cannot precisely quantify the revenue loss incurred due to adblocking.
- 70% of people would instead read an article about a company than see an ad.
- 54% of decision-makers say they spend over one hour reading and reviewing thought-leadership content weekly.
- 65% of consumers immediately feel a brand is positive and trustworthy after reading a piece of that brand's educational content.
- When deciding between 4 brands, 6% of consumers who read a piece of educational content by a brand chose that brand when prompted to purchase.
- Immediately after reading a piece of content by the brand, consumers were 131% more likely to buy from that brand than consumers who did not read any content.
- According to Hubspot State of Marketing, 2020, 60% of marketers said their CAC has increased in the past three years.
Boost Business Outcomes and Future-Proof Your Company with Content Marketing
If you’re a B2B marketing stakeholder, now is the right time to dive into content marketing. It’s the present and future of marketing, and those who invest today will remain top in revenue generated, profit margin, and overall market share.
Content marketing is cost-effective, sustainable, returns high ROI, builds loyalty, and is precisely how customers expect marketing.
If you need help figuring out where to start or adopting content marketing but not getting the desired results, we'd be happy to walk you through some of our tried and trusted marketing strategies for B2B companies.
Don’t limit yourself to just publishing blogs and posting on social media when you can develop a robust content marketing mix that includes everything you need to achieve marketing success.
Seven Oaks Consulting has extensive experience executing content marketing for B2B companies. We can be your content marketing partner to help you optimize your marketing and generate the positive business outcomes you deserve.
Creating Video Marketing Content on a Budget
Creating Video Marketing Content on a Budget: A Beginner's Guide
Creating video marketing content on a budget is easier now than ever before! In this guide for beginners, we'll walk you through how to create impactful video content with simple tools and equipment
A Guide to Create Video Content on a Budget
In recent years, video marketing has become a powerful means for businesses to engage with their community and drive traffic. However, only some companies have an in-house marketing department or generous budget to execute expensive video marketing campaigns.
The good news is that you can produce results without spending a fortune or knowing how to use a fancy camera, studio lighting, or sophisticated software. You might be overlooking assets right in front of your nose. You can produce high-quality videos from your phone or computer. Here's a guide to creating video marketing that connects and converts by leveraging the basics.
Pick Your Platform(s) for Cost-Effective Video Content Marketing
Before getting too invested in a creative concept, forcreating video marketing content on a budget, knowing where to devote time, energy, and resources is essential. With that in mind, here are the platforms where video can pay off the most:
TikTok: TikTok has been fertile ground for Gen Z and Millennials to create and share short-form video content. Creativity is front and center here. With this in mind, businesses can showcase their products or services in unconventional ways that humanize their brands.
YouTube: YouTube, with its longstanding history, is a popular platform for video marketing with a robust creator community. Many brands have found success here with how-to's, product demonstrations, behind-the-scenes footage, and general branded content that invites customers and prospects into the conversation.
Facebook: Facebook has made video marketing accessible with its high engagement rates. You can use it in the same way as YouTube, but keep in mind platform users tend to respond better to shorter content here.
Instagram: Instagram’s user base and interface with features like Stories, IGTV, and Reels make it ideal for brands to push out product promotions and storytelling with little or no financial investment.
Easy Video Creation
Savvy marketers know how to use tools to their advantage to help their cause. For instance, you can research software and hardware designed for this purpose and use case. A few ideas include:
Built-in Software: Apple products come installed with iMovie. This is a user-friendly option that puts video editing within reach. Similarly, Windows Movie Maker also level the field. You can find tutorials online to get a command of the basics.
Third-party Tools: Products like Lumen5, Animoto, or Adobe Premiere Rush are a step above the standard, helping you produce content of a higher caliber.
Smartphones: The advent of the smartphone has been a great equalizer in the video marketing landscape. You no longer need expensive equipment or a studio to get the job done. You have a total solution in a camera and apps that allow you to capture and refine content on the go.
Ideas for Creating Videos
Creating video marketing content on a budget requires some study. There’s an art and science to getting results. However, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Here are a few concepts to consider when formulating a video marketing plan:
Product Unboxing: This approach is an opportunity to break down your product's features, benefits, and functionalities in ways people might not encounter in their regular interactions with your brand. For inspiration, study Apple’s approach to product packaging and marketing.
How-to Tutorials: As the name suggests, instructional videos can educate your user base on how to use your product or solve challenges they might face on the job. These can establish your expertise, bolster credibility, and create top-of-mind awareness.
While B-to-B marketing requires a different, less familiar approach than B-to-C, you don't have to be stuffy or corporate. Jasper Engineering & Equipment Company has found a way to present its products as a solution while communicating in a way that doesn't use a lot of jargon. A good example of B2C video content marketing is Gerbils on a Train.
A 'Day in the Life': Do you have employees who go above and beyond to meet customer needs? Give them a shoutout and allow them to share what they enjoy about their jobs or present details about their personal lives. This humanizes your brand and engenders trust. People do business with people, not companies, after all.
Customer Testimonials: Ask loyal customers for video testimonials. These first-person accounts don't have to be polished or scripted. Sometimes, the best product reviews are casual. Just be sure to get their permission before sharing anything in any context.
Educational Content: Share industry news, events, or anything your customer base might find helpful or interesting. This positions your brand as a thought leader rather than just sales-driven. Thermon Manufacturing offers an example of how to leverage YouTube to educate technical and non-technical audiences alike.
Live Q&A Sessions: Go live on platforms like Facebook or Instagram to answer customer questions in real time and create a sense of urgency. When done right, these videos can build a sense of community.
User-Generated Content: Encourage customers to create videos of them using your products on the job or whatever the context. You can repost these to diversify your video marketing mix.
Video Success Starts with Consistent Content Creation
Ultimately, the most important factor in successful video marketing is consistency. Regularly create and share videos to stay connected with your audience and position your brand as the industry leader. You don't need a whole team of marketers behind you. All it takes is a vision, the right mix of tools, and a growth mindset.
After you've made the foray into video marketing, how can you take your efforts to the next level? At Seven Oaks Consulting, we help brands level up and continue their upward trajectory. You don't have to go it alone or feel like you're spinning your wheels when you have a partner in your corner.
Seven Oaks Consulting Offers Video Scripting and Consulting
Need help in this area? We’re an expert content marketing agency offering content marketing solutions to B2B companies. We can serve as your content marketing team, pushing out your video marketing content while you focus on your business, or we can be your go-to company for outsourced content. Either way, we align our goals with yours to achieve marketing success. Reach out to learn how we can help.
Content Marketing vs Traditional Marketing
Content Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing: Navigating the Modern Marketing Landscape
Content marketing vs. traditional marketing is the most recent debate in the evolving marketing landscape. Some argue that content marketing is merely a tactical channel rather than a strategy. In contrast, traditional marketing, with its emphasis on the four Ps of marketing (product, price, place, and promotion) as the fulcrum of lead generation and sales, is the only valuable marketing approach. The truth is that either approach can be effective if chosen wisely. Here, we dive into content marketing vs. traditional marketing, and why a modern marketing plan may include both rather than focus solely on one.
Content Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing: Understanding Traditional Marketing
Technically, the definition of traditional marketing is marketing offline – that is, non-digital media. Think direct mail, print advertising, television, or radio commercials. It’s the kind of marketing that’s been around for decades since the first business published a newspaper ‘advertisement’ touting hair tonic, ladies’ dresses, or the latest shows or entertainment. Even as far back as ancient Rome, people used advertising – for example, bread preserved in the volcanic ash in Pompeii displays a maker’s mark on the top. It was a form of advertising used by bread makers to distinguish their product from another’s bread, similar to how we might use a wrapper or label on products today.
The Evolution of Web Marketing
Because I am as old as dirt (well, not that old), I remember the early days of internet marketing. Just as the first automobiles were called ‘horseless carriages’ because the carriage was all people understood as a conveyance, marketers transformed print ads into digital formats. Behold: the banner ad.
The banner ad appeared in the early days of the internet, like a print advertisement in a magazine. Static, except for this incredible thing we called click-through. You could click it and be taken directly to the product page. Wow!
You are probably laughing at this mental picture, but I assure you, back in the late 1990s, it was the 'right' way to advertise. Of course, we still have some static ads – my blog, Home Garden Joy, displays two in the sidebar for affiliate programs we belong to. I do this for a simple reason: I am very choosy about my advertisers, and so are my readers. I was unhappy with the quality and quantity of ads displayed by Google's algorithm technology, so I switched to tightly controlled advertising. It works for me, and my readers seem to appreciate it.
Evolution of Digital Marketing
That brings me to my next point. The evolution of traditional marketing into digital marketing is more complex than one might assume. The two areas overlap. Like content marketing vs. traditional marketing, digital vs. traditional marketing is a false dichotomy. There's no need to choose between them. Instead, finding the right blend of online and offline advertising and incorporating successful content marketing strategies and tactics into the overall marketing plan may be the best way for your company to obtain leads and sales.
The Right Marketing Approach Depends on Target Audience
Choosing the right marketing approach, whether it’s traditional marketing, digital marketing, content marketing, or a combination of all three, depends on one thing: your audience.
Advertise Where Your Audience Is
You must fish where the fish are biting. This means you must market to your target customers in ways that appeal to them and in places where they are spending time. Depending on your target audience, this may mean:
- Print advertisements in magazines or newspapers
- Radio commercials on traditional local radio, national radio, or digital broadcasts
- Google advertising or other search advertising
- Social media advertising
- Direct mail
- Outbound calling (“cold calling”)
- Events and conferences (attending, presenting, a trade show booth or sponsorship)
- Sponsoring the local sports team
- Billboard ads
- Become part of a trade organization (chamber of commerce, etc.)
- Affiliate marketing
- Content marketing, including case studies, white papers, videos, and more
- Coupons, sales, and rebate programs
I’m sure I have forgotten traditional, digital, or content marketing methods, but the point is that the list above is not a ‘one size fits all’ list.
The Best Marketing Plan Is Created Just for Your Business
The best marketing plan is one that suits your business. It is a plan created by researching the product, its place in the market, and its competitors. It is a plan that draws from market research into what your customers – not your competitors, not anyone else's, but YOUR customers – want and need from the product or service. A good marketing plan charts a roadmap to position your company among a sea of competitors so that it stands out and helps develop recognition, awareness, leads, and sales.
Content Marketing vs Traditional Marketing: Let Common Sense Be Your Guide
So, regarding content marketing vs. traditional marketing, here are the similarities and differences.
Content Marketing:
- Focuses on awareness, education, and sharing information to empower customers
- Does not overtly ‘sell’ with a call to action
- Provides useful, desirable information
- Meets the consumer need at the point of interest
In sum:
- Educates customers on how to use products or services
- Provides increasingly detailed information to bring customers to the point of sale
- Highly targeted to specific customer groups called "personas."
Traditional Marketing
- Focuses on generating awareness and a desire to own a product
- Does “sell” or calls to action: buy, call, click, etc.
- Motivates through emotional appeal
- Promotes to a mass market or large targeted market to generate interest
In sum:
- Generates interest to generate leads and sales
- Appeals to emotions (keep up with the Jones, look better, feel better)
- Often mass market or to a large audience, but can also be targeted
Content Marketing vs Traditional Marketing: We’re All About Content Marketing
At Seven Oaks Consulting, we have over 20 years of experience in all aspects of marketing: content marketing, traditional marketing, and digital marketing. We specialize in business-to-business content marketing and can provide this service to your company. If you feel content marketing is a helpful adjunct to your marketing program, call us, and let's discuss your ideas. We're honest. If we think we can help you, we'll tell you. And, if we believe content marketing isn't helpful, we'll let you know that, too.
Also Read...
The Case for Content Marketing
Engagement Matters: The Case for Content Marketing
The case for content marketing: this marketing tactic has emerged as a leading tactic in recent years due to its promise to engage audiences, enhance brand visibility, and drive conversions. However, skeptical business owners and leaders might wonder if it's all razzle-dazzle or if there's any substance. The short answer: It's still relevant, and it offers a great deal of value. Here's a look at the why and how.
The Case for Content Marketing
Content provides valuable, relevant, and consistent information to attract and retain a target audience. Unlike traditional outbound advertising — which can sometimes feel intrusive — content marketing seeks to engage and educate people. By inviting them in with trust and authority, your brand is perceived as a helpful guide, not merely sales-driven.
- Valuable: People hate "being sold to". But they do love learning. As one B2B customer said to us, "When you share information, I love it. When you sell to me, I hate it. That's why I love webinars, case studies, etc." - all types of content.
- Relevant: Make sure your content is relevant to the target audience. If your audience is using Sage, sending them content pieces about Acumatica or Oracle isn't relevant.
- Consistent: Don't publish sporadically. Consistent publishing helps build an audience and adds to engagement.
Advanced Analytics Help Assess ROI
Advanced analytics tools provide a look "under the hood." You can see how your audience interacts with your content, which allows you to refine or modify your content strategy. Adaptation is critical to creating content that meets your target audience's needs and preferences. On that note, content marketing transforms the brand-consumer relationship from a transactional one to a deeper connection based on trust and brand loyalty.
In short, content marketing is here to stay, and savvy business owners know they must subscribe to this strategy. Effective content marketing can deliver results and help companies reach people they might not otherwise. In other words, it's an investment brands cannot overlook if they want to stay in business.
Content Marketing vs. Social Media Strategy: Do You Need Both?
Content Marketing vs. Social Media Strategy: Do you Need Both?
Content marketing vs. social media strategy - what are they and do you need both?
Social media and content marketing are two distinct but complementary marketing strategies. Companies can generate mindblowing results from a robust content marketing or social media strategy. However, only top marketers understand the benefits of integrating both strategies.
A robust content marketing strategy provides detailed information that can be repurposed into social media content. Similarly, the insights from social media content provide valuable ideas for a robust content marketing strategy.
Only B2B companies that effectively integrate the two strategies gain optimal results from their marketing efforts. I’ll explain why.
What Is a Content Marketing Strategy?
A content marketing strategy refers to a company's plan to create, manage, and distribute content. The main goal is to build a solid relationship with prospects by sharing relevant and valuable content that addresses their needs, interests, and pain points.
Content can be created in many forms - blog posts, infographics, emails, white papers, videos, podcasts, etc., to capture various audience interests.
Top B2B companies understand that content is a valuable marketing tool for earning customer trust and establishing industry authority. To achieve their content marketing goals, they focus on being the go-to resource for helpful industry information, helping their prospects and customers make valuable business decisions.
A comprehensive content marketing strategy involves:
- Audience identification
- Defining content goals
- Content creation
- Content distribution
- Lead generation, etc.
What Is a Social Media Strategy?
A social media marketing strategy is a plan on how a company intends to use social media platforms to educate, inform, and engage with its target audience, drive traffic to its websites or sales pages, build brand, product, and service awareness, and ultimately meet other business objectives.
It's one of the most popular marketing channels, and smart B2B companies understand the many opportunities it presents to build trust and authority while increasing their margins.
A comprehensive social media strategy involves:
- Audience identification
- Goal setting
- Platform selection
- Content creation and distribution
- Engagement strategy, etc.
Content Marketing vs. Social Media Strategy: How They Differ
Content marketing and social media marketing differ in many ways, from their focus to objectives, content types, and many more.
Focus
Content marketing uses different content types, like blog posts, infographics, videos, etc., to educate, inform, and address audience pain points while building a valuable relationship with them. Forward-thinking companies understand that by creating relevant and informative content, they establish their place as a reliable figure in the industry, giving them industry authority status.
However, social media marketing uses relevant and visually appealing content to attract engagement and interact with an audience in real-time. Customer-centric B2B companies leverage social media platforms to interact with their audience and understand their needs and interests.
Objectives
Content marketing’s objective is to use relevant and informative content to build brand awareness, establish authority and expertise, and generate and nurture leads into customers. It aims to capture customers at the different stages of their buyer’s journey, from awareness to consideration to decision-making.
On the other hand, the objectives of social media marketing are slightly different. It aims to use relevant and engaging content to increase brand awareness, foster direct communication with the target audience, drive traffic to specific content or offers, and enhance customer service and support. Companies build strong communities on different social media platforms by engaging their customers consistently, making it easy to convert them into loyal customers.
Content Types
Content marketing comprises various forms of content, from blog posts to infographics, eBooks, white papers, videos, etc. These content are usually long-form, as they’re more in-depth and informative. Companies create detailed content and later break them into smaller pieces to repurpose them on many channels, including social media.
On the other hand, social media marketing is known for short-form content, such as posts, images, infographics, short videos, etc., created to fit into a platform’s content specifications.
Social media platforms have different content length limits. Twitter, for instance, has a maximum of 280 characters. Even when platforms like Facebook allow long-form content with a character limit of 63,206, smart companies make their posts short and crispy to capture their audience’s wavering attention and maintain engagement.
There are many other differences between content marketing and social media marketing, such as content distribution mode, measuring metrics, content lifespan, etc.
Why Content Marketing and Social Media Work Together
Some B2B managers ask, “What is the link between content marketing and social media strategy?” “Does content strategy include social media?”
While content marketing and social media marketing are two distinct online marketing strategies, they complement each other in many ways. Top B2B companies understand that they need both to achieve optimal marketing results.
Amplified Content Reach
Content amplification is one of the vital ways social media and content marketing work together to enhance B2B marketing efforts. Social media is one of the major distribution channels for content. When a company publishes well-written, relevant content on its website, the next step is to share it on different social media platforms.
By sharing valuable content with their social media followers, B2B companies also reach their follower’s networks. How? Most social media users will not hesitate to comment, share, and retweet vital information that would benefit their networks. The wider the content reach, the more significant the visibility boost.
Profitable Engagement and Interaction
Social media helps B2B companies interact with their audience in real time, allowing them to address inquiries and customer complaints.
But beyond that, this social media engagement and interaction provide companies with valuable insights that could inform their content marketing efforts. They get new content ideas to keep their content marketing efforts going. And with more content published on their websites, companies have multiple excerpts to post on social media to increase engagement. It’s like a positive feedback loop.
One of the key benefits of this for B2B companies is that it proves their expertise to their customers and shows them they listen to their complaints across these social channels. This allows the customers to speak up more and helps the companies to keep improving their products, services, and marketing efforts.
Quality Lead Generation
Social media is one of the primary traffic sources for B2B companies. With over 4.2 billion social media users worldwide, innovative B2B companies see social media's untapped potential and try to share their content consistently on these platforms to leverage them.
By sharing valuable, relevant content on social media, these companies direct their social media audience to their websites or sales funnels. Then, they receive in-depth information about their products and services.
After getting high-quality products and experiencing good customer service, these customers return to social media to discuss their experiences, generating more quality leads for the companies.
Integrate Content Marketing and Social Media Strategy for Optimal Marketing Results
While companies can implement separate content and social media marketing strategies, integrating both promises better returns. Companies repurpose their most valuable content on social media to drive engagement and traffic. Therefore, content marketing serves as a feeder source for social media content.Social media serves as an amplification tool for web content.
By integrating both marketing channels, B2B companies build valuable relationships. They also establish their expertise and authority, and generate high-quality leads that turn into loyal customers.
Yes, Content Marketing Still Matters!
Content marketing still has a place in the marketing mix. Consumers are hungry for information online and look to online sources to help guide their decisions. In 2021 nearly 70 percent of online shoppers typically read between one and six customer reviews before making a purchasing decision, according to Statista. This points to the fact that consumers are influenced by the content they encounter in their buying journey.
Leading the Way
That’s where content marketing enters the equation. It’s a powerful means to inform and influence potential customers about how you can add value, while establishing trust. Plus, optimized content marketing can bring organic traffic from search engines like Google. This can translate to improved Google rankings, online visibility and more robust sales.
However, effective content marketing doesn’t happen by design. Both art and science, the brands with the most success know to approach content marketing from an inbound perspective. In other words, marketers have become adept at reaching their consumer base in ways that don’t seem too sales-y or formulaic.
Custom Content Is King
While each brand has its own style, a storytelling framework resonates with consumers and lays a foundation for loyalty. It’s rooted in intentionally tailoring your content to your target audience and their needs, instead of pushing out a message to a general audience. In contrast, an inbound content marketing strategy means your brand and products appear naturally during their fact-finding mission.
For example, if a health-conscious consumer is looking for information about adding protein to their diet, they might be researching protein shakes. If you're a manufacturer or marketer of plant-based shakes, you could write a blog post with recipes. Based on keyword research that produces search engine results pages, you could drive consumers to your e-commerce website naturally.
In short, content marketing is still the secret sauce when it comes to creating brand awareness. Companies of all sizes can remain competitive in a crowded digital landscape while engaging with core consumers more effectively than ever before.
What's Working in Technology Content Marketing
What's working in technology content marketing?
In today's rapidly evolving marketing landscape, using the right strategies in technology content marketing can make all the difference. As marketing professionals, we understand that reaching potential customers with the right content at the right time is essential. Knowing your customers inside and out is at the heart of good content marketing.
On our recent webinar, “Trends in Marketing – What Works and What Doesn’t” our panelists debated shared what works in technology content marketing and marketing.
Our panel included a content marketing expert (Jeanne Grunert), an ABM Strategist (Melissa “Lisa” Watts), and our target customer, represented by Ryan Dube, a digital transformation director. Here, we summarize a portion of the webinar and share what works, with plenty of feedback from our target customer.
Five Content Marketing Tactics for the Technology Industry That WORK
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Webinars and Website Content: The Power Duo
Webinars and website content emerge as the dynamic duo in connecting with your target audience effectively. If webinars are on topic and focus on a technology, solution, or problem the target audience struggles with, they work well to engage customers.
Ryan, our subject matter expert, raved about webinars. “I love attending them because I’m not being “sold to” – I’m there to learn – and that’s key for me.”
Make sure your webinars are packed with information to make them effective for your audience to ensure they're working for technology content marketing.
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No One-Size Fits All Content
One key takeaway from the conversation is the understanding that technology marketing success depends heavily on understanding the customer and marketing to them on a much more detailed, personal level than other forms of marketing.
No longer can marketers rely on a "one-size-fits-all" approach. For instance, a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) might engage with content on Instagram, gathering insights from different sources, while someone from an engineering background might seek data-driven content, such as cases, comparisons, charts, and technical information. Recognizing these nuances is essential for tailoring content to suit the preferences of the intended audience.
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Personalization and the Customer Journey
Personalization extends beyond just understanding the customer's persona; it involves knowing where customers acquire their information and tailoring content delivery accordingly. This shift from broad outreach to targeted, relevant content addresses customers' specific needs at different stages of their journey.
The customer journey encompasses various stages, such as the education phase, the consideration phase, and the decision-making phase. Effective content strategies must align with each of these stages to provide the right information at the right time, ultimately guiding potential customers toward a purchase decision.
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A Customer-Centric Approach to Technology Content Marketing
A central theme that resonates throughout the conversation is the importance of understanding the customer. Listening to their preferences, pain points, and preferred channels of information consumption is paramount. Content strategies must revolve around the customer's needs, gaps, and challenges. Marketers must position themselves as solution providers who can bridge those gaps effectively.
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The Power of Engagement and Relevance
In a world where information is abundant, engagement and relevance are the cornerstones of successful content strategies. Engage with customers in meaningful ways, such as by attending conferences and industry events. By actively participating in the industry discourse, marketers can identify gaps and challenges that their solutions can address.
Technology Content Marketing - the Right Approach
The right approach to technology content marketing (and overall marketing into the tech industry) makes a big difference. Our panelists agreed: personalization, and a deep understanding of the target market, is essential for success. When you start with the customer's problems, and think of them as an individual, your messages will resonate with them.
Content Marketing vs SEO - Which Is Better for Marketing?
Content marketing and SEO are digital marketing strategies that guarantee optimal online visibility, engagement, and overall success for any B2B company. However, some content marketers and B2B companies are confused about the similarities and differences between the two strategies and which to devote the most effort to.
Three key questions remain:
- Is one of these strategies superior to the other, or do they function better when integrated?
- Should B2B companies focus on one or leverage both for overall company success?
- What’s the best way to approach SEO and Content marketing?
Understanding the distinct attributes of each strategy and the potential synergistic power of both remains the only way to determine the answers to these questions.
Content marketing and SEO complement each other, and research has shown they work best when integrated. B2B companies that resolve how to complement both strategies make the most of their powerful synergy and stay ahead.
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable content in the form of blogs, videos, eBooks, and podcasts to educate or inform an audience. Companies leverage it to educate and inform their audience about their products and services, helping them understand how the company stands out from their competitors.
By consistently publishing and distributing valuable industry information, B2B companies present themselves as reliable go-to resources for industry thought leadership information. This helps the company build trust and authority, enabling them to convert their prospects easily.
To excel with content marketing, you need an efficient content marketing strategy that includes plans for audience research, content planning, creation, distribution, analytics, and others.
What is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimization, refers to the strategies and techniques used to improve a website and its pages to rank at the top of search engine result pages (SERPs). Ranking high on SERPs increases a website’s visibility, as research has shown that most people don’t go beyond the first page of a search engine when seeking information.
The increased visibility generates more traffic, increasing the website’s leads and conversion rate. The primary aim of SEO is to increase the quality and quantity of traffic to a website from search engines.
Companies adopt SEO to increase their company's, product's, or service's awareness, improving their revenue generation chances.
To execute SEO successfully, you must have a robust SEO strategy that includes plans for keyword research, link building, competitive analysis,on-page optimization, off-page optimization, and technical SEO, amongst others.
Difference between Content Marketing and SEO
While content marketing and SEO are similar or complementary, they have differences in their goals, scope, and the role search engines play.
The Goals of Content Marketing and SEO
Content marketing aims to build brand awareness, establish industry authority, and build solid and beneficial relationships across all marketing channels with potential customers. To achieve this goal, companies create relevant and educational content that resonates with their target audience, depending on the marketing channel.
However, SEO aims to increase a website’s visibility and rankings on search engines, enabling it to attract high-quality leads. Companies achieve this goal by optimizing various elements, such as website load speed, meta, and title tags, HTTP status codes, mobile friendliness, backlink structure, etc.
SEO significantly increases the chances of success on one vital content marketing channel – search engine marketing.
The Scope of Content Marketing and SEO
Another difference between content marketing and SEO is their scope. Content marketing focuses more on content creation in various formats and distribution through multiple channels, such as social media, blogs, search engines, emails, etc.
On the other hand, SEO involves all technical, on-page, and off-page activities in helping a website achieve the most content distribution and visibility on search engines.
Role of Search Engines in Content Marketing and SEO
This is a more subtle difference between content marketing and SEO. Content marketing emphasizes creating high-quality, relevant content that addresses the target audience's needs, preferences, and pain points. When content marketing involves website content, the content might help the website rank on search engines.
However, SEO is more direct in helping websites rank on search engines. It focuses on the website’s technical sides, content structure, and other on-page and off-page elements like keyword research and integration, quality backlink building, user experience, etc. All these help search engine algorithms understand a website’s relevance and rank it at the top of SERPs for those searching for related information.
Content Marketing and SEO: How They Complement Each Other
Content marketing vs. SEO shouldn't be the question. The better question should be how can both work together for optimal results. SEO and content marketing complement each other, from keyword optimization to brand and product visibility, user experience, and link building.
Keyword Optimization
Keyword optimization is one of the most vital ways SEO helps actualize content marketing goals. When users seek information on search engines, they do so with keywords. Identifying and optimizing for these keywords is only possible through extensive keyword research, an SEO activity.
To rank high and generate traffic from search engines where prospects actively use these keywords, companies create relevant content that addresses prospects’ needs and pain points and integrate these keywords naturally into them.
Improved Visibility and Brand Awareness
Content marketing and SEO work hand in hand to improve a company’s website’s visibility on search engines, creating awareness for its products and services. SEO is used in content marketing to help search engines identify and index well-written content that addresses customer needs.
The more readers find the content useful, the more search engines will help push it to a larger audience. Content marketing efforts are more fruitful when the content reaches a broader audience, and SEO helps achieve this by pushing the content higher in search rankings.
Quality and User Experience
Content marketing and SEO also work together to improve content quality and user experience.
By conducting extensive keyword research and SERP audits, companies gain more insight into their target audience’s expectations. They can then create content that addresses those expectations.
The quality of a piece of content depends a lot on how relevant it is to the readers. And the more relevant the content is, the better the user experience.
Engaging, informative content improves a website’s search engine rankings. It keeps readers hooked on your website longer. And the more people stay on your website, the greater the odds they'll contact you.
Increased Link-Building Opportunities
Great, informative, and exhaustive content attracts backlinks from other websites. The more backlinks content receives, especially from authoritative sources, the more search engines recognize the content and website as relevant and trustworthy. And this makes the search engine algorithms push the content higher up on the SERPs.
Great content and SEO marketing strategies lead to more organic link-building opportunities. In turn, this increase a website’s ranking, visibility, traffic generation, and ultimately lead generation and conversion.
Integrate Your Content Marketing and SEO Strategies and Achieve Optimal Results
Undoubtedly, optimal online marketing results come with integrating SEO and content marketing strategy. An extensive content marketing strategy without a complementing SEO strategy is ineffective. You can miss out on many organic leads and leave a lot of money on the table. Similarly, a robust SEO strategy without solid content marketing backing it up is almost futile.
The ideal approach is to develop a complementary SEO content marketing strategy that includes content marketing and SEO plans. Smart B2B companies integrate both strategies to give their brand, products, and services much-needed organic visibility, ultimately increasing revenue-generating opportunities.
The Important of Content Marketing for B2B Companies
Content marketing is important for B2B and B2C companies.
Content marketing is a valid marketing approach for both B2B and B2C companies. However, many are skeptical of adopting content marketing as part of their strategy because they’re unsure of itsf ROI. Here, we dispel the myth that content marketing does not produce significant ROI and examine its importance in the marketing mix.
Content Marketing for B2B Companies Is Similar to Marketing for B2C Companies
Here’s a typical definition of content marketing;
‘A type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (blogs, white papers, case studies, videos, social media posts, etc.) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.’
This definition shows that content marketing is crucial for every business.
There’s a need for B2Bs to understand their prospects' pain points and adopt content marketing strategies to educate and inform the prospects about their products and services and how they solve those pain points.
There are many reasons why content marketing is essential for B2B companies, from helping them build trust and authority to showcasing their products and services and generating high-quality leads.
7 Top Reasons Why B2B Companies Need to Have a Strategic Content Marketing Plan
1. Builds Trust and Authority
B2B buyers constantly try to mitigate risks and optimize purchases. They scrutinize every piece of information they receive before making purchasing decisions. When a company consistently presents itself as the go-to resource for expert industry information and insights, they become a trusted authority.
Smart B2B companies can use content marketing to build trust and authority by consistently creating valuable and relevant content. Building a B2B content marketing strategy that includes case studies, blogs, customer testimonials, thought leadership whitepapers, etc., signals industry expertise and helps build buyers’ trust.
2. Helps B2B Buyers Make Purchasing Decisions
B2B buyers are conscious of making purchasing mistakes that could negatively impact their ROI and customer relationships. They extensively research products and services before making any purchase decision.
B2B companies can use content marketing to provide relevant educational content that helps these customers make informed purchasing decisions. They can provide this information using marketing materials that show detailed product information, use cases, demos, and how the products and services help problem-solving.
By using transactional content for B2B marketing, companies can get their customers, who are at the decision stage of their buyer journey, to make instant buying decisions.
3. Improves SEO and Website Traffic
Strategic content marketing helps B2B companies rank higher on SERPs for different money keywords, increasing website traffic and driving MQLs. During product research, most B2B buyers use keywords to query search engines for specific information regarding their needs. This is especially true when they don’t know about companies offering the required solutions.
Because search engines reward quality content with high-ranking and qualified leads, strategic companies can rank for those keywords, have more visibility, and deliver exceptional content detailed enough to answer all the prospects’ questions. Creating content relevant to your target audience and search engines can generate high-quality leads, leading to increased revenue.
4. Helps Companies Stay Competitive
Most B2B companies are already leveraging content marketing to drive leads. And since B2B buyers conduct online research before purchasing, companies not adopting content marketing lose out on many sales and market share.
It has become a critical differentiator among companies with similar target markets.
5. Bring Higher-Quality Leads
High-quality lead generation is one of the many benefits of content marketing to B2B companies. Content marketing generates more qualified leads because it drives leads actively seeking solutions. These prospects don’t waste time making purchasing decisions when they encounter content they resonate with.
Different approaches to content marketing help companies attract people at different stages of their buyer's journey. With informational and educational content, B2B companies can attract customers at the awareness stage of their buyer journey. Companies can also attract higher quality leads at the consideration stage of their journey, with a different approach to content – transactional.
Knowing how and when to use each approach to content marketing for B2B lead generation is vital to increasing sales and revenue. . It all lies in the company’s content marketing strategy.
6. Content Marketing is Cost-Effective
Content marketing is a cost-effective marketing approach for B2B companies for valid reasons. Consistently updated quality and valuable content can rank at the top of search engines for years and generate leads year-on-year. This is cost-effective in the long run and requires an insignificant investment compared to paid marketing.
Furthermore, valuable content can be repurposed into other forms, such as infographics, videos, podcasts, eBooks, whitepapers, etc., which can be used in other marketing channels like email, social media, etc. This reduces the cost of generating separate marketing materials for these other channels, reducing the overall marketing cost for a company.
With a solid content marketing strategy, companies can save the costs of running daily, monthly, or yearly paid ads and achieve similar or even better results.
Showcase Your Products and Services
Content marketing is an excellent way for B2B companies to showcase their products and services. Customer-centric companies create content that answers their audience’s questions while suggesting their products and services as the necessary solutions.
Even more, they provide detailed content highlighting their products' specific features and benefits.
Since B2B buyers at the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey use online information to compare products and make buying decisions, content marketing becomes strategic for companies that leverage it.
The fascinating thing about using content marketing to showcase products and services is that, when executed well, it can be so engaging and fun that the customer never loses focus or interest. For instance, a product review can be developed to deliver value and drive conversions without the readers feeling they’re being sold to.
Leverage Content Marketing, Adopt a Strategy, and 10X Your Results
Companies that adopt content marketing and create valuable content are sure to win in a competitive B2B market. It’s a non-negotiable for companies that want to be future-proof and increase market share and profit margin. Hopefully, you have the insights to adopt an effective content marketing strategy, execute it well, and generate 10x your results.
Content Clusters: What Are They and How Do They Work?
Content clusters, also called a B2B pillar content strategy, consist of related groups of content on a website. This content may be a group of articles and blog posts, or multiple types of content, such as blog posts, articles, presentations, videos, infographics and so on. No matter what type of content pieces are featured, however, they are all grouped under a main idea or topic – an umbrella, if you will, or a pillar, whichever visual works for you – and are related through a series of logical, connected keywords.
Why Develop Content Clusters?
I’m not exactly sure when the term content cluster came about, but over the past several years, it’s become apparent that using big, long form content pieces (pillar posts) with layers of related yet separate content pieces works wonders to boost a site’s organic search traffic.
How Search Engines Work – How Content Is Discovered
If you think about how search engines work, the answer to “why develop content clusters?” readily becomes apparent:
- Search engines send scouts, called spiders or bots, to scour the internet for new content.
- They follow links from page to page to find and review new materials published online.
- Materials are indexed according to keywords – what the bot considers the main topic of the content piece.
- Google and other search engines use an algorithm to rank the content according to usefulness, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (the infamous E-A-T formula).
When search engines encounter content, they look for links as they scan the web page, and then they follow those links, and so on…and that helps the content rank well. We know from experience and data tracked over many years that the more your website interlinks in a logical, helpful way to the visitor or reader, the better.
B2B Pillar Content Strategy
A B2B pillar content strategy starts with pillars, or big concepts related to the heart of your website. On my gardening website, Home Garden Joy, pillar topics include vegetable gardening, composting, and seed starting, all basic concepts for new gardeners to master. On a fashion website, pillar topics might include capsule wardrobes, choosing flattering colors, or classic pieces to add to your wardrobe.
Each website’s pillar content varies according to the theme, unique spin, or ‘tilt’ as Joe Pulizzi calls it, of your site. A B2B pillar content strategy focuses on key concepts a business might be marketing to other businesses. Each topic, or pillar, in a B2B pillar content strategy should be broad enough to cover the idea thoroughly. Keyword-rich articles, linked from the pillar topic, create an ecosystem of content pieces related to a single concept or thought.
How to Begin a Content Cluster or B2B Pillar Content Strategy
Newcomers to content clusters or B2B pillar content strategies often wonder where they should begin. Ask yourself these questions:
- What questions does my audience ask that my business is unique positioned to answer?
- What key search terms do these questions relate to?
- What is the search volume for this term?
- Are there synonyms or related topics? If so, what is the search volume for those topics?
- What has my competition published on this topic?
- Have I published anything on this topic? If so, how many visits does it get?
- Could my previously published pieces on this idea benefit from a rewrite?
The Seven Oaks Consulting Technique of Building Pillar Clusters
At Seven Oaks Consulting, our team of professional B2B content marketers uses a technique we call spider mapping to develop content clusters.
- We put the main idea or big concept for the pillar content strategy in the middle along with its search volume, competition, and links to the top 3 content pieces into the big center circle.
- Then, we brainstorm ideas around the big idea. These ideas go into the little surrounding circles.
- We then conduct additional keyword research to develop out the shorter articles in the circles that looks like planets orbiting the sun.
Here’s an example from my own gardening website, Home Garden Joy. The primary idea is how to grow beets. We then spun off “beets” into multiple interlinked concepts, including recipes, to build a content cluster around growing beets.
And then – voila. We have a content cluster. Writers receive their assignments, with the pillar content piece (the big idea in the middle) a long form topic and each orbiting topic developed into a supporting yet unique article.
We make sure that the pillar links out to the shorter pieces, and the shorter pieces link to the pillar. Then, we make sure that there are other links from our website into each piece.
Tools to Help Develop Content Clusters
There are a ton of SEO tools available to help you develop content clusters. I’ll share some of our favorites here.
- SEM Rush – the big daddy of SEO tools. On the expensive side but you get a ton of great tools in one monthly package. It will help you assess keywords, compare competitive sites, and develop ideas.
- Moz – another great SEO tool to help you find keywords and develop your strategy.
- Keysearch – a low- priced yet feature-rich keyword search tool that also helps you pinpoint the top sites currently ranking for keywords you’re hoping to use and rank for.
- Yoast – I absolutely love the paid Yoast plugin and it is worth every penny. We use it on all of our sites. It finds orphan content, or content that is not linked to anything else on the site and thus harder to find for search engines. It also helps us see if our content is readable and hits the right SEO buttons to rank well. Lastly, a paid Yoast subscription provides access to their library of educational materials, which is also great if you are new to SEO!
- AnswerthePublic – this tool used to be free but is now a reasonably priced paid tool. It lets you assess keywords and develop conceptual lists around keywords.
Again, there are dozens more platforms and tools just like these out there, and every content marketer will have her favorite. I recommend starting with free or low priced tools (Google search analytics tools, Keysearch, AnswerthePublic) if you’re just starting out.
2B2 Pillar Content Strategy Part of Our Services
We provide B2B pillar content strategy creation as part of all of our content marketing packages, so if you’re reading this and feeling overwhelmed, give us a call. We worked with technology and manufacturing companies to develop robust content marketing strategies to boost website traffic, brand awareness, leads, and sales.
Our content clusters include keyword research, content topics development, writing and editing for proper organic SEO, and our unique subject matter expert review (which no other content marketing agency provides!). Please contact us for a free consultation and discussion of your content marketing goals.
Video: Content Clusters, Creating B2B Content Pillars
