How your B2B content marketing strategy can help build your brand’s authority

When it comes to B2B marketing, content marketing has proven to be one of the most effective ways to maintain and build top-of-mind awareness and thought leadership. According to the Demand Gen Report, 96% of B2B buyers want to view more content from industry thought leaders and 46% of them read three to five pieces of content before deciding to engage with a sales representative.

The problem is many B2B marketers don’t always know how to approach content marketing in a way that will increase brand awareness and generate new leads and customers.

In fact, if B2B marketers find themselves constantly requiring more advertising budget to increase traffic levels, instead of relying on organic growth, it probably means something is lacking within their content marketing strategy. So where do you start?

Find the big idea

Every great product or service starts with a big idea. Recognising the power of a big idea can help you create a content marketing strategy that will result in a ton of repeat visitors and referral traffic over and over again. To best explain what a big idea is, have a look at these two book titles below.

Which book do you think sold better?

If we take a look at these two financial self-help books, we’ll see that both books offer the same thing: they teach the basics of saving and investing money. But, can you guess which title led to more sales?

Rich Dad Poor Dad is an international bestseller, which has sold over 32 million copies worldwide and has been translated into more than 40 languages.

On the other hand, 101 Ways to Find the Money to Save and Invest is mostly unknown. By taking a closer look, we can see that Rich Dad Poor Day has a big idea lying behind the book. What’s the big idea? That the “Rich Dad” in the book gave the author (Robert Kiyosaki) way better financial advice than his middle-class “Poor Dad” did. It challenges conventional techniques of managing money, thus making it more attention-grabbing than other books of its kind. This big idea makes it stand out among thousands of self-help books, which is why the book appears different and more valuable for the reader.

How do you create your big idea for B2B content marketing?

How does a “big idea” fit into your inbound and content marketing strategy? In B2B marketing, one of the most significant differences from B2C marketing is that instead of targeting a consumer who is making a purchase dictated by their personal needs, you are targeting an organisation which needs a viable solution to a specific problem within a particular budget.

First, you need to step back and consider your buyer persona.

For B2B marketing, this means instead of focusing on the wholesale hats business you are trying to attract, focus on the specific person in that business who is the primary decision maker, and figure out what is the one big solution that would be different from all the other noise out there.

When thinking about the persona, ask yourself:

Who is your target persona?

For instance, if your brand offers online security tools for multinational companies with hundreds, if not thousands of employees, your target persona could be someone like the chief technology officer or the chief information officer, who is 40 to 50 years old, a holder of an MBA with experience in the IT sector and looking to improve their organisation’s IT security capabilities. Someone like this might have a thorough knowledge of security solutions which are reliable and cost-effective. And, if they don’t, it could potentially cost them their job.

They might be looking to find an innovative company they can trust and a product which will be the best fit for their company, so they are looking for valuable content that gives them the information they need. What kind of content might this persona find appealing? Articles with the latest updates on cybersecurity such as What’s on the dark side of the cloud? or How to determine the best POS system for your company could be a good start.

How do they go from awareness to a decision?

Returning to the example with the CTO/CIO, when this persona is considering a specific online security product, they are probably looking for high-quality information and expertise on the topic. They already know the basics, so they don’t need someone to explain it to them.

They need content that reflects the industry trends in online security, what their peers are doing and how this product will benefit their own company.

What do they want to see that will help them in their career?

Here, they need to see the unique features this company offers that will help them build their business case, and in turn, give value to them.

They are looking for reassurance that choosing one product over the other will not only benefit their company, but also build their own reputation and standing.

Now you’ve found your persona, you can move further through the process of finding your BIG idea. A memorable and straightforward method is to follow the acronym of B-I-G.

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