A B2B marketer's guide to content creation
From challenge to triumph
08/03/2024
Content creation has long been a challenge for B2B marketers. Not to mention maintaining a consistent flow of fresh and up-to-date material.
According to the latest B2B Content Marketing Trends Research, 57% of marketers believe creating the right content for their audience is challenging, while 44% believe the challenge is creating quality content.
As a B2B marketer, you already know content’s powerful role in business. Skilful content creation not only engages your prospective customers but has also proven invaluable in positioning your brand as a thought leader in the industry.
However, even the most seasoned marketers sometimes grapple with the complexities of content creation, struggling against time constraints, limited resources, and rapidly evolving trends.
So, let’s dive into some effective ways you can tackle these content creation obstacles and boost your B2B marketing strategy.
The importance of content for B2B businesses
Content is the backbone of successful B2B marketing efforts. It allows businesses to convey their brand’s value proposition to prospective clients, partners, and investors. It also enables them to stand out from the competition and build trust with their target audience.
Even more, content provides an excellent platform to demonstrate expertise, knowledge, and thought leadership in your industry.
Without relevant and engaging content, initiating meaningful conversations with your potential B2B clients can be tricky. Your audience craves insights, solutions, and value—all of which can be effectively communicated through a well-crafted content piece.
Whether through your website content, blog posts, case studies, white papers, videos, or social media updates, each form of content provides a unique opportunity to connect with your target audience, address their pain points, and showcase how your product or service can solve them.
But it’s worth noting that B2B content creation isn’t a one-size-fits-all process. It involves understanding your audience, capturing their attention, and delivering the right message at the right time. This brings us to a crucial point—content creation challenges and how to overcome them.
4 common content creation challenges facing B2B marketers (and how to overcome them)
1. Understanding your target audience
Attempting to create content without clearly understanding your target audience will likely lead to ineffective messaging.
Investing time in market research, utilising analytics tools, and hosting focus groups is crucial. With a clear picture of your audience, their preferences and pain points, your content will resonate on a deeper level.
2. Developing a content strategy
Your content strategy is a guiding star, helping you better understand your audience’s needs and preferences and tailor your content to fit their requirements.
Without a clear content strategy, your content might lack the direction and consistency needed to grab the attention of your potential clients. It can also hinder your ability to set your business’s short- and long-term goals.
Create one that sets a solid foundation for all your content marketing initiatives to ensure all your efforts align with your brand’s values and objectives and that your team works towards a common vision.
3. Dealing with limited time and resources
The constant pressure to achieve more with less is all too familiar in the world of B2B content creation. From cutting down on production time to optimising workflow management, the answer often lies in seeking external help.
Outsourcing your content creation to a freelancer or specialised content agency will allow you to streamline the process and increase production capacity without compromising quality.
4. Boosting content visibility and engagement
Creating great content doesn’t promise success—it also needs to be seen!
Leveraging SEO to boost your content’s visibility is essential (organic search remains one of the most effective ways to increase site traffic).
In addition, employing a fine-tuned social media strategy can help your content reach more potential customers. Engaging directly with your audience via comments and messages nurtures relationships and fosters trust.
Bonus: 3 strategies to create more (and better) content
Creating more valuable content can feel like a daunting task. However, with the right strategies, you can elevate your productivity and the quality of your content. Let’s explore three strategies your business can employ to achieve this goal.
1. Upskilling your team to help them create content
Your marketing team is at the heart of your content creation endeavours. They’re the ones who understand your business inside out and who are best positioned to craft compelling narratives around your products or services.
However, the process of B2B content creation demands more than just a fundamental understanding of the business. It requires a unique blend of skills that aren’t always present within your team.
That’s where upskilling comes in. Upskilling is the process of teaching your existing employees new skills to help them tackle their tasks more effectively. In content creation, this could mean enhancing their capabilities in areas such as writing, editing, design and digital marketing.
Not sure where to begin? Start small. You could set up regular skill-sharing sessions where team members can learn from each other’s strengths.
There are also abundant online courses available on platforms like Coursera, Udemy and LinkedIn Learning that can empower your team with the latest tactics in B2B content creation. Remember, the most resourceful teams are those that never stop learning.
2. Hiring a team specifically to create content
Creating a dedicated team to generate content can significantly lighten your load. With the sole focus on content development, an in-house content team can maintain consistency in your messages and drive value-based customer interactions.
This approach can be quite effective, especially if you’re scaling your B2B operations.
There are multiple factors to consider when selecting your team members. Ideally, your team should consist of writers, SEO experts, graphic designers, and social media managers.
This multidisciplinary approach will ensure a comprehensive content strategy that can effectively navigate the complexities of B2B marketing.
However, this model requires a few things to consider in both financial and managerial aspects. These include:
- Scale of your business: Small businesses may find it inefficient to maintain an in-house team due to their limited quantity of content needs. On the other hand, larger firms may benefit from dedicated teams who can cater to their complex requirements.
- Budget: Can you afford to recruit and maintain a full-time team? You’ll need to factor in the cost of appraisals, bonuses, infrastructure, and other overheads.
- Time: Do you have the time to manage another team? If not, perhaps outsourcing or hiring freelancers may be a better option for you.
- Budget: Can you afford to recruit and maintain a full-time team? You’ll need to factor in the cost of appraisals, bonuses, infrastructure, and other overheads.
3. Outsourcing content creation to a specialised content agency
When you choose to outsource your content creation, you can combine expertise, innovation, and efficiency. Working with a specialised content agency can free up your internal resources, allowing you to focus on core business areas while entrusting your content strategy to professionals. This approach comes with its own set of advantages that include:
- Access to a diverse skillset: Content agencies typically comprise a multidisciplinary team of strategists, writers, editors, and SEO specialists. Each member brings a unique skillset to the table, helping to enrich your content and make it more engaging for your target audience.
- Keeping up with content trends: Content marketing is a dynamic field that changes rapidly. Specialised content agencies stay updated with the latest trends, SEO guidelines and innovations. They can adapt your content strategy to match these changing trends and keep your brand relevant.
- Providing consistent quality content: With their vast experience, content agencies clearly understand what resonates with various audiences and what doesn’t. They can consistently produce high-quality content that aligns with your brand voice, meets SEO guidelines, and, most importantly, provides value to your audience.
Getting started with content creation
Effective content creation is paramount for B2B marketers aiming to boost their brand presence and engage their target audience. By considering the significance of content in B2B marketing and addressing common challenges such as audience understanding, resource limitations, and content visibility, businesses can unlock the full potential of their marketing efforts.
Whether through upskilling internal teams, hiring dedicated content specialists, or outsourcing content creation to specialised agencies like ours, there are numerous avenues to explore in creating quality content. Each approach offers its own set of benefits tailored to your business’s unique needs and circumstances.
At ONO Comms, we understand the importance of impactful content in driving B2B success. Our content strategists, writers, and editors are dedicated to helping businesses like yours craft compelling narratives that resonate with your audience and drive meaningful results.
So, if you’re ready to take your B2B marketing efforts to the next level, contact us to discuss how we can collaborate to create stellar content.
