Do you have a clear and well-documented B2B content strategy? Do you invest in B2B content marketing initiatives?

For most of you, the answer to the first question would be no, but for the second a unanimous yes.

B2B marketers invest so much time and money into content marketing and still don’t bother to create a well-documented content strategy. According to a recent study, only 41% of B2B marketers have a well-documented content strategy.

If you are one of those marketers who don’t have a clear B2B content strategy, this post is for you. In this post, we will discuss five easy steps in which you can create a winning B2B content strategy that helps you drive more conversions and meet your marketing goals.

Ready to find out what these five steps are?

Here you go.

1. Define Your Goals

The process of creating a good B2B content strategy should always start with your end goals in mind. What is it that you want to achieve from your B2B content marketing initiatives?

Set clear and specific goals that can be completed realistically within your chosen time frame. Also, identify the key metrics that you will use to measure your performance on these goals. It is important to have an idea about how to measure your performance right from the beginning. 

Once you clearly understand your goals, the rest of your strategy should be developed keeping these in mind.

2. Understand Your Target Audience

The next step in this process is to understand your target audience and their preferences. Have a clear understanding of who do you want to read your content and what you want your content to achieve.

Is your goal to reach the decision-makers in customer organizations and drive more sales? Do you simply want to create more brand awareness by reaching as many industry professionals as possible? Who is your target audience?

Understanding your target audience helps you better understand what type of content to create and which topics to cover. This helps you avoid unnecessary expenses on marketing that can occur when using the trial and error method, which is quite wasteful. 

Instead, have a clear idea about who you are creating content for and then create targeted and relevant content for them. This will help you take your campaigns to the next level.

3. Identify Content Trends

Before you decide which content types and formats to use for your current strategy, you should do a content audit to see what worked well for you in the past.

You can do this by analyzing the performance of the content on your website and social media platforms. Most social media platforms have built-in analytics capabilities that you can use to understand which content has worked best for your audience.

You can use analytics tools for websites to understand how your web content has performed in the past and what your audience likes.

Based on those insights, you can choose the content formats that you will focus on for your current B2B content strategy. For example, if you see that, in the past, your audience has shown the highest engagement on video content, then create more video content in the future.

You can also leverage social listening tools to keep updated with the latest content trends in your industry.

By the end of this step, you should be clear about which content formats you will focus on more or less for your current content strategy. You can use content marketing tools to better manage your content strategies and get more engagement. 

4. Conduct Thorough Keyword Research

If you want to create good content for your customers and prospects, then you should first understand what they search for most. This is where keyword research can help you. 

Look at the most searched for keywords in your niche and make a list of the ones that are most relevant to your business. Then, sort those keywords by key metrics like search volume, keyword difficulty, etc.

Once you have a list of keywords that you want to target through your content, start researching topics related to those keywords. Usually, you can find multiple topics around a single keyword.

You can also create topic clusters where a broader theme is covered by multiple content pieces on smaller sub-topics. This strategy is also good for SEO and helps establish you as an authority on the subject.

By the end of this process, you should have a list of topics about which you want to create content. 

5. Document Your Content Strategy

Now, coming to the most important step of the process—strategy creations and documentation. 

Please note that I am emphasizing documentation because it is very important to write down your strategy and make sure everyone on your team understands it. Documentation helps get everyone on the same page and ensures that each team member understands the broader strategy.

But, what should you cover in your B2B content strategy document?

Well, there are a lot of things that should be included, but here’s a basic list to get you started.

• List of keywords and topics that you want to cover
• Target audience segments and personas
• Your B2B content marketing goals
• Various content distribution platforms and posting frequencies for each
• Any other relevant information

Apart from this, you should also create a content calendar with exact publishing dates and times for each piece of content. Ideally, your content calendar should have at least a week’s worth of content planned in advance so that you can easily meet your posting schedule. 

Overall, the idea is to make sure that your B2B content strategy is well-documented and easily accessible by your team members. This ensures a smooth process flow and avoids any confusion that may lead to mistakes.

Ready to Drive More Conversions with Your Content?

Having a clear B2B content strategy can help you achieve your marketing goals and get more conversions. 

After all, you can only get the desired results when you are clear about what you want to achieve and how you plan to achieve it. That is exactly what a good B2B content strategy can do for your business.

So, what are you waiting for?

Use this post as your guide to create a winning B2B content strategy for your business and drive more conversions. Get started on it right now.

Author:

Shane Barker is a digital marketing consultant who specializes in influencer marketing, content marketing, and SEO. He is the co-founder of Attrock, a digital marketing agency. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, influencers with digital products, and a number of A-List celebrities.