Tag: Content marketing

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Content Strategy: How to stay ahead in a fast-changing world

Content creation takes time and effort but is only part of the story. For content marketing to work, it needs a strategy behind it.

The November B2B Comms Breakdown LinkedIn event I co-hosted with built environment marketing specialist Ayo Abbas focused on getting a good strategy in place and how to stay ahead in a fast-changing world.

A video replay is available (scroll to the bottom), but here’s a summary of the conversation:

What is a content strategy?

Ayo Abbas: HubSpot’s definition of a content strategy is:

“Planning, creation, publication, management, and governance of content.

“A great content strategy will attract and engage a target audience, meeting their needs while driving business goals.”

I think that’s a pretty good definition. I’d probably use the word distribution rather than publication.

When it comes to content strategy, it’s all about how you distribute and reuse content in more places to keep getting the most out of each piece.

Stacey Meadwell: Hubspot covers the key elements. The starting point has to be the purpose – why are you doing it, and what do you want to get out of it?

What is the end goal, and what does success look like after publishing the content?

If you don’t know the point of it and what you want to deliver, how can you ensure it achieves your goals?

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Content strategy: 5 tips for successful delivery

Photo by Melanie Deziel on Unsplash

Coming up with the ideas, creating the content and getting it published is only part of the job.

Content marketing doesn’t really work without a strategy supporting it.

Here are 5 tips to help build a successful content strategy.

1. Identify your target audience

If your content isn’t created with a specific audience in mind, it won’t land. Simple as that.

Content needs to resonate, which means it needs to be relevant. And being relevant is much easier if you know who you want to talk to before you create the content.

Trying to appeal to lots of different groups will inevitably lead to your content appealing to no one.

2. Value for your audience vs the sell

You know what you want your content to deliver something. But content marketing isn’t advertising, it’s not a direct sell. (How many ads do you read?)

Plan your content around building a relationship, positive association and trust with your target audience.

Think about how your audience benefits from reading/watching/listening to your content without you getting anything in return.

Yes, you can have a call to action, but if you are always trying to sell or segue into a sell, it’s obvious and a turn-off.

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General

From sceptic to supporter: The case for B2B content marketing

Not everyone sees the value of B2B content and content marketing, so how do you convince the sceptics and get employees on board to help boost the visibility of your posts?

This was the topic of the August episode of the B2B Comms Breakdown live webinar, which I co-hosted with Ayo Abbas. You can catch up with the video replay (scroll to the bottom) or read on for an edited transcript.

We started the discussion with the case for creating B2B content…

What is worthwhile about content marketing?

Ayo: One of the biggest things about content marketing is that it is a way of positioning yourself as a thought leader, getting your views and projects out there and getting known for what you want to be known for.

It’s about building a brand rather than letting others build it for you. It’s how people get to know, like and trust you and keeps you front of mind. So when I want to buy, I think of you.

The LinkedIn B2B Institute put out some research that showed 95% of the market isn’t in a state to buy. That means only 5% of your target market is actually ready to buy.

So, how do you keep them warm? That’s where content marketing is a valuable tool to help you do that.

Stacey: I see content as a conversation, as a narrative with your existing and potential clients. It’s about nurturing that relationship and keeping that channel open.

There’s a practical element, too. Adding content to your website is good for SEO; that content is sitting there, and people can find it.

It’s all part of your brand building, but it’s not just about the hard wins, the business sales and people wanting to work with you.

That is part of it, but it can lead to speaking opportunities, networking opportunities, and opens the door offline just as much as online.

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Summer content ideas for B2B businesses

Photo by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash

Summer meant slimmer issues of the B2B commercial property magazine I worked on, as more of our subscribers were on holiday.

But we still produced weekly issues with some seasonal, lighter or different features.

One I remember was a ‘favourite film’ survey of property CEOs and managing directors. It was fun and showed a different side to the industry leaders’ personalities.

The choices also became a talking point.

We also used summertime as a hook to look at usually unexplored commercial property markets such as seaside towns and holiday parks.

There were lots of tourist and holiday-related property angles to explore.

While the summer was a slightly quieter time for the property industry, not everyone was away.

And people perhaps had more time to read.

There are also those who might not completely switch off while they are away and might spend a bit of time catching up with some reading.

So don’t discount the Summer period and stop publishing blogs, articles and LinkedIn posts completely.

There is still an audience and a potentially more easily engaged audience.

It’s also a good time to try some different content, perhaps ahead of the autumn period.

Here are some Summer B2B content ideas:

💡 Is there a particular Summer related problem or challenge clients have that you can cover in an article or series of articles?

💡 Do you get certain types of enquiries over the summer that you could write about?

💡 Do a summer-themed survey of clients and/or staff as a lighter get-to-know-you piece, e.g. favourite holiday destination, ice cream flavour, best summer film etc.

People’s choices and favourites often make a fascinating read, and humans are naturally curious.

💡 Use summer events as hooks for market-related content; here are some property examples:

  • Staff summer party – the value of bars with terraces
  • Staff fun day – piece on leisure-tainment
  • Sporting events – sport venues and impact on regeneration

💡 Building designs that make the most of sunny weather

💡 Safe working on developments during hot weather

💡 How your business manages workloads during the holidays

💡 What the summer is like for your business (it might be a busy time).

What are your Summer content plans?

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More content goodness you might like to read:

General

From yawns to yehs: Refresh your B2B content ideas and banish the boring

B2B content creation can feel like a treadmill, can’t it?

The constant need to feed social channels, websites and newsletters can zap creativity and have you scrabbling around for good ideas. And how do you make those dry topics interesting?

In the July edition of the B2B Comms Breakdown with my fabulous co-host Ayo Abbas, we went live on LinkedIn to talk about how to come up with cracking content ideas and get more creative.

Here are the edited highlights; scroll to the bottom to watch the video replay.

How do you find ideas when you have none?

Ayo Abbas: There are ideas all around you. I take stuff from my life, as I walk along, I might see an ad that I think: ‘Oh, that’s smart’.

Or what are they doing? How did they do that?

Also, think about the questions that clients are asking you right now: How do we do this, or I’m finding this really tricky.

Those answers that you’re giving are topics that become content.

There are tools you can use, like Answer the Public, where you search for keywords, and it’ll give you lots and lots of variations and questions around those keywords.

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