Digital Dilemmas: does content marketing work for business-to-business as well as business-to-consumer?

In the battle for eyeballs and engagement in our digital and connected world, content marketing is the buzzword of the moment.

However, it’s no passing fad, and by planning your content development, monitoring your industry’s news agenda and using your PR eyes to spot stories, you can supercharge brand awareness, leads and SEO.
The fact is we are all online consumers empowered to seek out the information we want when we want it; and that’s as relevant for business-to-business as it is for business-to-consumer.

That power, though, challenges brands to be more strategic and creative in their content. Understanding customers’ wants and values is the first step.

Who are you selling to? How close are they to buying? What is their need? Where are they researching?
Next: the content itself. Your business fulfils a need, which creates a story to tell. Using this to answer customers’ questions in an engaging way makes you a solution provider.

But that’s just the start. Great content means nothing if no one knows about it, so how best to spread the word?

Could you transform a blog into an informative presentation on SlideShare? Could you supercharge an infographic on Twitter into a more arresting animation? Could you spark debate on LinkedIn? Perhaps write a white paper for your website?

Insufficient time is often an excuse to skip more creative content generation, but review your existing PR and marketing collateral with a fresh focus on ‘what is valuable to my customer, rather than to me?’, to find quick inspiration.

Focus on your customer’s journey to final purchase and create content that flows usefully with them.
Content marketing isn’t about single items winning instant results. Each must be part of a series, with a clear purpose, call to action and tracking system.

Be ready with the next piece, agile, and prepared to respond quickly to unfolding trends that emerge in social media.

This approach works equally for business-to-business and business-to-consumer brands because in a world where content is plentiful it is the timely, remarkable and valuable that will always stand out.