10 Things You Need to Know About B2B Blogging
In recent years, we’ve learned that B2B blogging has the potential to be just as useful as B2C blogging. However, we’ve also learned that the two aren’t born equal. We can carry across many of the same principles from B2C blogs, but there are some very important differences. Today, we’re going to discuss the things you need to know about B2B blogging, so keep reading for some insights regarding content creation, posting, and more.
Consider the Blog’s Purpose
First things first, we can’t do anything until we think about the purpose of our blog. It’s one thing creating content, but surely you aren’t just writing something so people have something to read when they’re bored. No, you want to get all sorts of clients on the first step of the purchasing journey. Of course, there’s a need to provide value and position yourself as a market leader within your niche. Yet, you also want to support prospective clients and get them into the sales cycle.
Once you consider the purpose of your blog, content creation actually becomes much easier. You can think about what the audience needs in order to take that first step and then base your content marketing on this.
Content Marketing Strategies Lead to Success
We can’t ignore the fact that those with a content marketing strategy are more likely to succeed within their market. However, don’t fall into the trap of creating a strategy and then ignoring it; you shouldn’t devise a strategy just for the sake of it. Instead, it should contribute towards every aspect of your blog.
With a strategy in place, you know what metrics are most important, how to experiment, measure conversions, and keep pushing towards those goals. Without a strategy, it’s easy to get lost, push in the wrong direction, and even have different members of the same team not working in harmony.
- Carefully Choose Topics
Now we know the blog’s purpose and you have a strategy; you now need to do what causes many people headaches and choose a topic to write about. Don’t worry, we know how frustrating it can be to have endless sheets of paper full of ideas. For us, it starts with the problems you want to solve. Remember, most clients will come across your business because they have this problem and need somebody to trust in the niche.
B2B blogging starts with providing answers. Too often, we see companies getting philosophical and creating content that the audience doesn’t need. With tips, advice, and actionable insights, you show your expertise and actually provide information that’s genuinely useful for the reader.
2. Grow a Community
Over time, one of the best things you can do with a blog is encourage a community-like atmosphere where visitors feel compelled to return. Since each and every visitor has many different options online, you need to give them a reason to not only choose your blog once but to keep returning. Whether this comes from social media, the comments section on posts, or even via a dedicated forum, this is up to you.
As you build a community, your brand gets a reputation for helping others and you become the place to be whenever somebody has a question. In fact, with a forum, your links will be what new customers come across because most questions will get covered eventually.
3. Consider Guest Blogging
While some will say that guest blogging is a thing of the past, the reality is that it still works…as long as you’re willing to carefully select the strategy. When writing on another website, make sure the business has similar values without being a direct competitor. To make things easier, you can even look for those that are actively seeking a guest blogger. As long as a good number of your audience can be found as readers, you can be confident that you’ll get results.
With competition increasing and the fact that it’s getting harder to make an impression, we think it’s wise to work with others. As well as posting on other blogs, why not invite professionals onto your platform? Collaboration can often unlock success, so it’s something we recommend as part of your content creation calendar.
4. Focus on Keywords
Over the years, there have been a number of changes in Google’s algorithms, but one thing remains the same; the importance of keywords. With every post, you should have a focus keyword or phrase. It’s easy to over-complicate algorithms and Google rankings, so we have some advice; Google your term. Rather than spending hours researching keywords and writing content without actually seeing what the Google search looks like for the term, search it.
By doing this, you can see the type of content that’s getting to the top of results. You can assume that these are answering the question and providing the best experience for users. If your own content is far away from what you’re seeing, perhaps you should reconsider the post. You don’t want to be exactly the same as the competition, but there should at least be some similarities.
Read More: 8 Successful Strategies for Keyword Research
5. Try Roundups
Roundups come in many shapes and sizes, but we know that they work for B2B blogging. With a roundup post, you could provide a collection of statistics, strategies, tools, a list of your recent posts, industry news, and much more. For others, they like to get opinions of people in their industry and gather them all in one place. Whichever route you choose, make sure it’s a topic in which your audience will find value.
Essentially, you become the host blogger of this specific topic and results are always better if you can get other experts involved. If possible, look through your forums or even on platforms like Quora to see what questions your audience is asking.
After choosing a topic, select the right people to get involved with the roundup. Although popularity is important, you could also look for good contributors, sharers on social media, and those with pure talent who deserve some exposure.
When attempting to contact influencers to get involved in roundups, always offer a personalized message. Additionally, make you ask specific and concise, using a simple subject line. Instead, explain the benefits of the project and why they should get involved.
From here, all that’s needed is the content creation itself. Every good roundup post has:
- A catchy headline
- Subheadings
- An overview of the readers’ sticking points
- Introduction of influencers
- CTAs
- Questions
- Good links
- Engaging featured image
Once it’s posted, don’t forget to share it and get your hard work seen. What’s more, all the contributors can share it with their audience too.
6. Always Include CTAs
In all forms of content marketing, a call to action (CTA) has the potential of being the difference between success and failure. What action do you want your audience to take and how do you want them to take it? Whether you’re writing for an individual consumer or a business, this doesn’t change. Perhaps you want them to sign up to a trial of your service, so make it easy for them to do so.
7. Offer Visual Imagery
These days, nobody wants to see a full page of text. The moment we open a web page and see this, we’re seconds away from clicking the ‘back’ button and trying a different link. Therefore, we suggest including images, videos, infographics, or just something for the eyes. Not only does it keep the reader engaged, it also helps to tell the story. Especially with B2B blogging, visual content provides context and will generate results.
8. Consider Blog Length
Before we finish with some quick-fire tips, another consideration that often gets forgotten is blog length. Compared to B2C blogging, you do have license to go into more detail and provide longer content. However, the readers need to be aware of the type of content they’re clicking on. If you’re promoting a standard blog post, it shouldn’t take 30 minutes to read. If you’re promoting it as a whitepaper or a report, there’s more freedom to take more of the reader’s time.
Bonus Tips
If you’re thinking about content creation for your B2B blog this year, here are some more tips:
- Practice makes perfect with writing
- Consider outsourcing the writing to a professional if you don’t have the skills or time in-house
- Consider paid promotion for more attention and exposure
- Check analytics and regularly review
- Produce specific content for different stages of the buying journey, using unique keywords for each
- Get involved with influencer marketing
- Generate exposure and results across the funnel
- Track ROI and frequently update your strategy
If you can follow our advice, there’s no reason why you can’t nail B2B blogging and content marketing this year.
Bonus! Marketing Tools:
2. Bilbi AI: Daily Marketing Campaign Insights
