of companies across the world, and marketers are hungry for B2B blog marketing tips. According to a study conducted by Content Marketing Institute (CMI), blogs are the 3rd-most popular content marketing strategy, just behind social media marketing and articles.
First, let’s see a generic definition of what a blog is. Just like social media marketing, email marketing, direct email, etc., the blog is another marketing tactic that uses unique and original content to drive traffic to the website and get your business more online visibility. This popular marketing channel can help you support business growth, if promoted in the right way to the right audience.
The Evolution of Blogging – These B2B Blog Marketing Tips Supports the New Purpose
In the early 90s, the blog was used as an online journal by individuals to express their thoughts and opinions. Now it has expanded to a platform where millions of people share their ideas, with millions following those pages. Although this transformation came in with a set of disadvantages, one cannot overlook the impact it has created.
A company can blog and market their blog for various purposes. Some of them are:
- To improve website traffic through Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Enforce the organization as an expert and thought leader in a particular industry or solution or service
- Gain inbound leads
Having a blog and churning out content will not guarantee success. One needs to be aware of the purpose of the blog, the targeted audience, and how to market it to them. For instance, blogs run by individuals operate differently from business blogs. The marketing strategy for a blog varies for B2B and B2C companies. For B2C, marketing becomes easier as they are dealing with customers who are looking for a final product. But B2B businesses deal with other organizations that are looking for specific solutions or services. Considering the highly competitive market, it is important for B2B companies to share highly refined content through blogs, and market it to the relevant target segment.
7 B2B Blog Marketing Tips to Pull Traffic and Harvest Leads
Here are a few practices for B2B organizations to successfully market their blog to create more traffic and generate leads.
1. Exclusive and Educational Content
Everyone loves good content. Readers keep looking for original and quality content that adds value and provides insight. Unfortunately, many marketing writers have failed to understand this. They still run their content marketing through promotional materials, 3rd-party publications, and low-quality writing that is repetitive (and even plagiarized). This will only deteriorate the brand value of the organization as well as the writer.
According to this research by TIME, you have 15 seconds to gain your reader’s attention for your content. If you are unable to impress him or her within this timeframe, he will move on to better content, or will be less-attentive while reading the remaining part of the blog. Content should therefore be original, educational, and uniquely crafted, with a catchy heading and a carefully-written first paragraph.
The topics should also be selected carefully. Give your take on relevant topics, be the first one to talk about a new trend, give a small learning session on something that your followers would find informative. Be different from the crowd. Offer that refreshing breeze to your audience. This will make the reader choose your blog out of thousands of others in the ocean web. Always remember, well-crafted content sells itself! It just needs that initial visibility.
2. Email Marketing
Email marketing can be considered to be the DNA of a B2B business. Organizations are heavily dependent on this method to generate leads and strengthen the branding initiatives. Leverage this platform to boost your blog marketing. Pump up your existing list of subscribers, social media followers, clients, prospects, etc., and you are ready to go.
Create a monthly newsletter with all the relevant industry news and tag your social media and blog links at the bottom. However, you need to ensure that you are not explicitly promoting your blog. Offer value to the readers. Make it a knowledge-gaining experience for them. Provide links to relevant research and the latest analytics. That way it will be mutually beneficial, and the reader would want to come back. You can also send exclusive content to an elite-reader group to boost engagement and circulation rate.
3. Social Media Marketing
As Jay Baer says, “Content is fire, and social media is gasoline.” Social media platforms help you to market your blog to a wide range of audiences. B2B buyers use social media to connect with their prospective customers or clients and do research on products and services, and to study the feedback. So, first start by analyzing which platforms you want to use for social media marketing.
Usually a B2B organization uses the following six social networks – LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, and SlideShare. LinkedIn is the most leveraged platform as it offers the higher possibility of reaching out to your target audience. When you have a new blog post shared through social media marketing, it will immediately give you thousands of audience members, depending on your follower count.
And never underestimate the power of sharing and retweet! Those are simple buttons that have made thousands of content pieces go viral! You can also subtly request that your follower-base share the articles with their circles. This will not only boost a single blog, but will also expose your blog platform to a new set of eyes.
4. Branding
There are not many B2B organizations without a branding strategy. Branding involves positioning your organization in a consistent way throughout your content marketing initiatives. Branding could be anything from physical components such as banners, brochures, visiting cards, etc. It could also be digital, such as videos, whitepapers, or even websites. Ensure to leverage all these materials to promote your blog. Give a link to your blog at the end of a promotional video. Be sure to include the link at the final slide of a client presentation. In short, promote it when you promote your brand.
5. Content Syndication
Promoting your blog through all the above strategies can help you gain significant results. But sometimes, doing all these activities on a daily basis can be a big challenge! That’s where content syndication is gaining popularity among bloggers and companies alike. It’s a process where you publish your blogs on third-party websites, and usually, on websites that are either popular or possess a high domain authority.
This method is extremely useful for companies that do not have time to execute customized campaigns to promote their blog. These can be either paid or free campaigns.
Investing in an in-house team for social media marketing or other means to drive traffic can be a costly affair. So, B2B organizations would gladly pay for content syndication, as it is easier for them to build traffic this way. Here are some of the benefits of content syndication:
- Ensures that your site gets maximum exposure
- Drives traffic to your site
- Better search ranking
- Promotes you as a leader in the industry
- Builds a relevant audience for your content
6. Include Good Graphics
According to Jeff Bullas, articles with images get 94% more total views than articles without images. Now that’s quite an exciting number, isn’t it? But it comes with a warning. You simply cannot use any image and expect the numbers to favor you. Instead of using a “pure-filler,” the graphic should be relevant to the content you present. It should be interesting enough to hold the reader’s attention and prompt him to open the blog. In short, the graphic should be used as a window to show what’s on the blog before a reader clicks the link.
Another fact is that content presented in the form of an infographic will gain at least 50% more engagement than plain text. So a good graphic not only boosts your blog traffic, but enriches your content marketing as well.
7. Make Your Blog Mobile-Friendly
During November 2016, for the first time in the history, mobile web browsing surpassed desktop browsing. By 2019 mobile is predicted to account for 79% of all web traffic. The item once considered a luxury has become an integral part of human life. Many people, especially the young generation, use smartphones to access the internet.
It is important to have a website that’s mobile-friendly and loads faster. Simple UI, easy navigation, and optimized content are the keys to have a mobile-friendly blog page. This will also boost the SEO initiatives for your website and drive traffic.
B2B Blog Marketing Tips Will Give Your Blog the Respect It Deserves
Blogs are one of the key aspects of a good content marketing strategy. Having thought-leadership blogs with a good blend of graphics and text can drive traffic to your website and boost your B2B business. It can also present you as an industry leader and an expert solution provider.
Producing unique content can create a steady flow of readers to the blog platform and expand your business pipeline. Good quality content can also help in strengthening your social media marketing through increased followers and engagement. Therefore, it is not too late to embrace it now and promote your blog through the ways mentioned above.
So, what you’re doing right – and what needs an adjustment? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments.
