With such an abundance of content being published every day from businesses and website owners it is becoming ever more of a challenge to not only create interesting content, but keep to a set of guidelines which ensures your content is of value within an overall marketing strategy.
From experience, B2B technology and other service providers have a very different set of objectives which shape the production of content.
Typically, we can summarise B2B content as needing to tick two boxes:
1) The need for service providers to educate potential buyers
2) The need for potential buyers to trust the service provider
By keeping these two simple goals in mind, content produced will form the basis of a two way relationship between the parties, putting buyers in a relaxed state of mind where they are happy to absorb further information about your product and allow you as a seller to educate them through to eventual sale.
With an average level of commitment being 36 months, a buyer’s trust is paramount before proceeding through to final round discussions and complete buy in.
What type of content will enable trust?
Prospects need to connect with your brand somehow. They will be able to do this now if you already have a good brand presence. Alternatively, publishing case studies and interviews with recognisable partners or end clients will help a prospect create a positive association and therefore a base of trust with your brand. Produce case studies that are humanised, with a picture of the end client clearly pleased with their experience. As they say, a picture speaks a thousand words and a great image of a C level executive with a smile on his face goes a long, long way.
What type of content will add value?
Adding value to your overall strategy, produce content that gives prospects information that can be processed to help them perceive and reason your brand as a potential supplier. Create impartial guides on best practice approaches to challenges your customers face. Provide steps on how to overcome these challenges using any service provider. By doing so, you will offer content which can act as a resource to refer back to and share with colleagues, adding value to the prospects existing operations and keeping your brand in front of them.
Amo Sokhi, Managing Director at Polaris. Polaris is an SEO agency in London specialising in organic search marketing for clients in the B2B, Travel and E-Commerce sectors.
