Apr 10, 2020
Content marketing is a critical success factor in the game of digital marketing. But according to last year’s research study, only 25% of marketing professionals believe their B2B content marketing strategy is actually effective. The study involved over 150 B2B marketing professionals from a wide array of industries.
Only one in five marketing professionals said they felt confident that they were creating content that was relevant to their target audience. These aren’t empty insecurities, either. The study found that a majority of B2B content marketing strategies aren’t driving the kind of results marketers are looking for.
Losing Confidence in Effective Marketing
In 2017, about 12% of survey respondents said they felt their B2B content marketing strategy was extremely effective. That number dropped to nearly 3% in 2018. Meanwhile, the percentage of marketers who felt their content marketing wasn’t very effective climbed by almost 10%.
Only the percentage of marketers who felt their B2B content marketing strategies were “somewhat effective” saw a significant climb from 19% in 2017 to 47.3% in the following year.
This downward trend has had a direct impact on B2B marketers’ confidence in their strategies. Only 2.7% of marketers felt extremely confident while 66.4% were not at all or only somewhat confident in their strategies.
Discrepancies in Metrics
For marketers to build more effective B2B content marketing strategies it’s important to take a look at some of the discrepancies noted in the report. The qualitative research found that marketers prioritize engagement and personalization when creating the content targeted to their audience. But the content’s performance in these areas doesn’t match up with those priorities.
76.5% of marketers said that creating engaging content is a key marketing component. But only 54% of marketers said their content engaged their target audience. Another 43.8% of marketers said that customized content is essential to effective B2B content marketing, but only 34.5% of marketers personalized their content.
Creating More Effective Content Marketing
It’s important to remember when you’re creating B2B content strategies that not all content marketing works the same. Using a content marketing strategy that’s designed for customers rather than businesses isn’t likely to get you the metrics you want to see. Your target audience is familiar with B2C strategies because they use them themselves, business-to-business strategy requires a whole new set of insights, research, and plans.
To improve B2B effectiveness, it’s essential to close the gap among the marketing discrepancies listed above. If creating engaging and customized content is important to your strategy, you need to focus on improving those elements in your content.
Routinely analyze your target audience and tweak your marketing personas to improve the customization of your content. Don’t be afraid to create niche content that satisfies subsections of your target audience. When content is customized and meets the needs of the user, they’re more likely to engage with it and be driven to action.
More than any other audience, a B2B audience is seeking efficiency, relevancy, and actionable expertise. To learn more about how to create effective B2B content marketing, sign up for the TopRight blog! If you’d like to receive more great marketing tips like this, please follow me @TopRightPartner, connect with me on LinkedIn, or buy a copy of my latest book, Marketing, Interrupted.