B2B Content Marketing: Tips for Optimizing and Promoting Your Content

Content marketing is commonplace on company websites and blogs and consistently proves its advantage in search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Most B2B marketers are using it in their marketing strategies, but the question is: are they using optimizing and promoting their content effectively?

Here, we will break down popular formats and uses for content marketing, and then explain how to optimize it to best resonate with readers and show up on search engines. We will also review different ways to get it in front of your audience.

Content Optimization

When you are developing your content, it is important to make sure that you first determine the topic or keyword that is guiding the piece. (Here is a great guide from HubSpot on identifying the right keywords.)

The keywords need to be clearly defined up front, because they need to be strategically placed:

In the title
In the opening and closing lines
In the URL (if applicable)
In other places throughout the piece.

Keywords should be used naturally in the piece. To learn more about keyword placement, check out these blog posts from HubSpot and Moz.

Why should you do this? To optimize your content to rank higher on search engines including Google, Bing, Facebook, YouTube, and more. It also adds a level of clarity for the reader so they easily understand what the piece is about, how it is relevant to them, and what you want them to learn from it.

Where should you do this? Across multiple platforms. Successful B2B campaigns are not limited to a single format or platform. The good news is that once you create a piece of content on one format/platform, it can be easy to repackage it for others so you are not starting from scratch for each piece.

For example, the topic of a popular blog post can easily become a slideshow, an infographic, a video, a whitepaper, and of course, a social media post. Developing content requires an investment of time so make the most out of it – consider how to apply your work to channels outside of your website, including direct mail newsletters or other mailings, email messages, and social media posts.

The key is to ensure that no matter what format or platform, your marketing content is consistent with your other brand standards and messaging. This helps build trust with the reader, as well as an association to your brand.

This HubSpot download is one of the best collections of “hacks” and strategies for strategically planning out content creation: 34 Tips and Tricks for Planning and Creating Content.

Practical Example

Here is an example of how we have repurposed the same content into multiple formats.

We first wrote a blog post series titled, “The Future of Direct Marketing.”
This was then reformatted into a downloadable eGuide.
From here, we will turn this into an hour-long webinar featuring the perspective of some of our marketing partners. (Sign up here to be notified when registration opens)
Then, we will repackage the webinar into a weekly video series covering the most important points of each section.

Content Promotion

Since most B2B marketing content is in a digital format, it is natural to think of digital marketing strategies for promotion first. It is easy to add your content piece’s link to an email message or paid social media advertisement.

However, what many marketers do not realize is that direct mail is also a great avenue for promoting your content. If you are including the URL on the piece, you may want to consider keeping it as short as possible so it’s less work for them to type out. What may be even better is to include a QR code that they can scan and go directly to the piece, or an Augmented Reality (AR) animation that they can scan for a digital preview of the content before they go online. QR codes and AR animations both make it easy to take the next step.

The Bottom Line

Content marketing is very powerful for B2B marketers. It provides value and education for the reader that ultimately help you build trust and strengthen the relationship with them over time.

Do you have plans to energize your content marketing strategies this year?

Additional Resources

Content Marketing Statistics

41% of respondents have a documented content marketing strategy.
80% use metrics to measure content performance.
43% measure content marketing ROI.
66% prioritize audience’s informational needs over organization’s sales/promotional message.
48% craft content based on specific stages of the customer journey.
Only 5% rate their organization’s level of success to be extremely successful, followed by 21% that say they are very successful.

Source: B2B Content Marketing Metrics 2020