5 Types of B2B Content That Work & How To Create Them

Content marketing has become a critical part of B2B marketing strategies. B2B content marketing aims to build relationships, establish thought leadership, and ultimately drive sales by providing valuable information and insights to potential customers.

B2B marketing is a different ballgame than B2C marketing. While B2C companies can rely on emotional triggers and impulse buying, B2B buyers are often more rational and methodical in their approach. B2B buyers typically want to see the value and ROI of their purchase before making a decision.

In this blog, we will explore five types of B2B content that work and provide tips on creating them effectively.

Thought Leadership B2B Content

Thought leadership content is content that demonstrates your expertise and authority in your industry. This type of content establishes you and your company as a trusted source of information and helps you stand out from the competition.

To create thought leadership content, identify the topics most relevant to your industry and audience. This could include trends, challenges, or emerging technologies. Once you have identified your topics, create content that provides valuable insights and actionable advice.

One effective way to create thought leadership content is to conduct original research. This could include surveys, case studies, or market analysis. Original research provides a unique perspective on the industry and allows you to position your company as a thought leader.

Another effective way to create thought leadership content is to collaborate with other experts in your industry. This could include interviews or guest blog posts. Collaborating with other experts allows you to tap into their knowledge and expertise and provides a different perspective on industry trends and challenges.

B2B Educational Content

Educational content is any material or resources designed to help individuals learn and acquire new knowledge, skills, or abilities. This content can take many forms, such as books, articles, videos, podcasts, online courses, tutorials, and more.

The purpose of educational content is to provide individuals with the information and tools they need to improve their understanding of a particular subject or topic. It is often created by educators, subject matter experts, or instructional designers who deeply understand the content they are teaching.

The content can be tailored to different levels of learning, from beginner to advanced, and can cover a wide range of subjects. Educational content can be delivered through various mediums, including online learning platforms, interactive multimedia tools, and other online tools that help individuals to learn and acquire new knowledge.

Educational content is another great way to engage your B2B audience. Sharing tips, best practices, and other educational resources can help your audience improve their skills and knowledge in your industry.

To create effective educational content, start by identifying the skills and knowledge gaps your audience may have. Ask and answer the following questions to get started.

• What are your customers’ most common questions or concerns about your products or services?
• What areas of your industry are the most complex or difficult to understand?
• What are the most commonly asked questions received about your products or services?
• What types of industry thought leadership exists, and are there any gaps in what is being instructed?

Tips for Creating Valuable Educational B2B Content

When creating educational content, start with what you know your audience will benefit from. Don’t try to bite off more than you can, as multiple revisions will likely need to be made.

Use visual aids to help break down complex information into digestible chunks and make it easier for your audience to understand. Visuals, such as infographics, videos, and interactive content, are perfect for extrapolating difficult subject matter. Visuals can also be used to illustrate concepts and ideas that may be difficult to explain with text alone.

To create effective educational content, it is essential to understand your audience’s needs and interests. This requires thorough research and analysis of your target market’s pain points, challenges, and goals.

One effective way to create educational content is to use storytelling. Storytelling is a powerful tool that can help you connect with your audience more deeply. Using real-life examples and case studies, you can demonstrate how your product or service has helped other businesses overcome challenges and achieve their goals.

When creating educational content, using a tone and style appropriate for your audience is essential. B2B buyers often seek informative, authoritative content that provides actionable insights and advice. Therefore, it is essential to avoid using marketing jargon and focus on providing value to your audience.

Another effective way to create educational content is to use real-world examples. This could include case studies or success stories. Real-world examples help illustrate the benefits of your product or service and show your audience how to apply it to their business.

Product-Related B2B Content

Product-related content is content that promotes your product or service. This type of content helps your audience understand the benefits of your product or service and how it can help them solve a problem or achieve a goal.

To create product-related content, start by identifying your product or service’s key features and benefits. Once you have identified your features and benefits, create content that highlights these features and benefits clearly and compellingly.

One effective way to create product-related content is to use customer testimonials. Customer testimonials provide social proof and show your audience how your product or service has helped other businesses achieve their goals.

Another effective way to create product-related content is to use product demonstrations. Product demonstrations show your audience how your product or service works and how it can help them solve a problem. Product demonstrations can be in the form of videos or interactive content.

B2B Social Media Content

Social media is a powerful tool for B2B marketers. Social media allows you to reach a large audience and engage with your audience in real time.

To create social media content, identify the top social media platforms most relevant to your audience. This could include LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and more. Once you have identified your platforms, create the types of content that work best on those platforms and the types of content your audience values.

Content for social media can be almost any type, but understanding your audience and the time they will spend with your brand and content is vital for success.

Shorter content is better. Highly engaging and relevant content is critical. Take the content you have developed for other channels and trim it down to its most effective bare minimum, then see how that fits into your social channels.

Read Next: 5 Best Free SEO Tools for Business Use in 2023

B2B Ebooks 

EBooks are longer-form content pieces that offer in-depth information on a particular topic. To create an ebook, you must conduct extensive research and gather data, analyze it, and present your findings in an easy-to-understand format.

Use images, charts, and graphs to make your ebook visually appealing, and divide it into chapters to make it easier to read. The more in-depth you can make an eBook, the more value it will provide, and the longer you will be able to use it towards your objectives.

Ebooks can become popular, and when they are seen as a valuable resource, the potential for them to earn you backlinks to your website, acclaim in the social sphere, and improved conversion are profound.

To create these content types, follow these steps

Here are some steps you can take to create effective B2B content:

1. Identify your target audience

Determine the types of businesses you want to reach and their pain points, challenges, and goals. This will help you tailor your content to their specific needs.

If you have a target audience in a specific geographic location, spend the time to learn the nuances of that location to ensure you are targeting them meaningfully.

2. Define your content marketing strategy

Decide what types of content you want to create (e.g., blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, videos, infographics, etc.) and what topics will resonate with your target audience.

Create a plan and content schedule to assist in producing and publishing the content. Decide on the appropriate channels and content types for those channels.

3. Produce your content

Use your research to create compelling, informative content addressing your target audience’s needs and interests. Ensure your content is well-written, engaging, and relevant to your audience.

If you use outside writers, guide the writing by providing a blog post outline. The quality returned will be better, and it will be easier to meet publishing deadlines.

4. Optimize your content for SEO

Use keywords, title links, meta descriptions, and other SEO techniques to ensure your content is discoverable by search engines and can be easily found by potential customers.

Writing content will have little point if it doesn’t reach the audience. With over 80% of people using search engines to research and find solutions, you will want SEO to be at the forefront of your content’s main objectives.

5. Distribute your content

Share your content through various channels, such as social media, email newsletters, industry publications, and your own website. Ensure you’re targeting the channels and platforms on which your target audience is most active.

You won’t be able to effectively promote and manage on too many channels, so selecting the few that best match your audience’s intent and behavior and ensuring they spend time on the platforms will help your content reach the targets.

6. Measure your success

Track your content’s performance by monitoring website traffic, engagement, and conversion rates. Use this data to refine your content strategy and improve your future content.

Content effectiveness is critical to improving performance over time. You’ll want to measure metrics like pageviews, time on page, time on site, bounce and exit rate, and channel sources to understand your audience better.

B2B Content That Works: Final Thoughts

Remember, B2B content should focus on providing value to other businesses by addressing their needs and challenges. Creating informative, engaging, and relevant content can establish your brand as a thought leader and build strong relationships with potential customers.

If you need assistance building your content marketing plan, writing content, or optimizing it, contact the Better SEO Results team for assistance.