The complete B2B content marketing guide

A scroll-stopping LinkedIn post, a super-compelling case study, or the type of monthly newsletter you read every single word of — have you ever looked at another business’s content and thought: how do they do it?

We’re here to demystify B2B content marketing. We look at what B2B content marketing is, why content marketing matters in B2B, and how to write — and publish — B2B marketing content that converts.

Let’s get started.

What is B2B content marketing?

Business-to-business (B2B) content marketing is a subset of marketing that uses targeted informative and/or entertaining content to attract, engage, and convert a professional audience. B2B content writing speaks to the target buyer’s pain points at work, before positioning a product or service as the solution to their needs.

While the ultimate goal of B2B content marketing is to drive a sale, the most successful B2B content will focus on building a relationship between the brand and audience. Using a pre-defined B2B content marketing strategy, content will guide readers through the B2B content marketing funnel. At first, it’s all about creating awareness of the brand. Then you’ll want to build trust within your professional audience before edging them towards a purchasing decision.

B2B content marketing can be a slow burn. Research suggests that B2B buyers interact with up to 13 pieces of B2B content before making their decision.

But don’t let that put you off! Content marketing is an essential and powerful component of B2B marketing today, delivering many valuable benefits.

Why B2B content marketing matters

Here are some key reasons why content marketing is important in a B2B marketing strategy:

• Content marketing can save you time and money: Content is the marketing investment that just keeps on giving. Blog posts can rank on Google for years. An email nurture campaign will warm up leads while you sleep. Content can also help prospects to self-qualify, so you know that once you get on a sales call or platform demo with them, they’re the right person to be speaking to.

  
  

• Content can boost your SEO (and boost your brand reach): Succeeding with SEO is about understanding how search engines work and the key phrases your prospects are actively searching for. SEO can be so powerful for promoting your brand that we’d recommend 90% of the content you publish should have an SEO target in mind. Better still, SEO has a compounding effect: the more high-quality ranking content you publish, the easier it becomes for your future content to rank too.

  
  

• Content increases brand awareness: B2B content marketing is less about the hard sell than other forms of marketing. This means you’ll have branded content that appeals to your audience, whatever stage of the B2B content marketing funnel they’re at. If they’re ready to buy, you’ll have a piece of content that allows them to become a customer. If they’re still learning about the problem they face and the potential solutions in the market, you’ll be ready to help them there, too. This keeps your brand top of mind and builds essential trust.

• Content builds trust and credibility: Long-form content performs best in B2B — we’re talking blogs of 1500-3000 words. And that offers a lot of scope to establish your brand as an expert in its space. Compared to a paid ad or sponsored post, where you’ve got one or two sentences to make an impact, B2B content allows you to get into the details and position your brand as a trusted partner in your prospect’s working day.

• Content drives more traffic to your website: This works for several reasons. One, because you’re creating more high-ranking content, you’ll get more eyes on your site. But once you become known as an authoritative voice in your space, you may get more backlinks as other brands start quoting your content. All of this amounts to better SEO and higher-performing content marketing.

• Content can generate leads and conversions: Content can be so impactful for lead generation and conversion that we wrote a whole guide on how content marketing drives sales, but here’s the gist. By keeping prospects engaged with your content across the B2B content marketing funnel, you’ll take them on a journey from never having known about your business to following your business’s content to becoming a paying client.

• Content builds your brand presence on multiple channels: Content marketing for B2B includes your website and blog, email, and social platforms like LinkedIn and YouTube. Again, a multi-channel approach helps your brand be where your prospects are. And with smart repurposing, you can get a lot of mileage from a single high-performing piece.

Learn more about why content marketing is essential for B2B businesses.

Understanding the B2B content marketing funnel

We’ve referenced the B2B content marketing funnel several times in this article so far, but what is it? And how can brands use the B2B content funnel to improve their marketing effectiveness?

In simple terms, the structure of a marketing funnel aligns with the steps a customer takes in their buying journey. First, they explore the market for a solution to their needs, then they might shop around and demo several options before ultimately making a decision and converting into a sale.

These steps are mapped against the three key stages of the B2B content marketing funnel: top/upper funnel, middle funnel, and bottom/lower funnel.

• Upper funnel content drives awareness and interest. It’s all about capturing new leads and exploring the problem your product or service solves. Upper funnel content includes “How to…” or “What is…” guides; the type of content that addresses general needs and informs or educates, rather than pushes for a sale. Think of it as a wide net you cast out to help reel in the right types of buyers.

  
  

• Mid-funnel content creates intent among a now smaller group of qualified leads. Product comparison guides and gated ebooks can be helpful here as they help build a business case for choosing your brand.

  
  

• Lower funnel content focuses on decision-making and action. At this stage, prospects are positioned to buy. Content can help remove friction from their decision-making and increase a sense of urgency. Customer success stories that promote real (and jealousy-inducing) results will encourage leads to act.

Dive into our explainer on B2B marketing funnels for more information and content examples.

Types of B2B content and distribution channels

B2B content can be owned, earned, and bought (a.k.a paid). 

• Owned content is the content your brand produces on your website, blog, email campaigns, and social media. Owned content is the backbone of B2B content marketing and, as it’s owned and controlled by you, you can easily scale it up or down as time and resources permit.

  
  

• Earned content is free publicity for your brand via a third party. It’s usually earned by reputation and word of mouth, but you can also go looking for earned coverage by approaching the media with a press release or guest post, for example.

  
  

• Bought or paid content requires financial investment. Think sponsored posts on LinkedIn or a Google Ads campaign. A paid-for feature in an industry publication also counts as bought content. 

A B2B content marketing strategy can apply all three types of B2B content across its distribution channels. The most popular distribution channels for B2B content marketing include:

• Your company website (owned)

• On-site blog/resources center (owned)

• Email marketing (owned)

• Social media (owned)

• SEO (owned)

• Industry publications (earned or paid)

• Paid advertising (paid)

• Podcasts and webinars (owned or earned, depending on whether you’re the podcast host or guest).

We’ve written a dedicated guide to understanding distribution channels for B2B content marketing if you want to learn more.

How to create a B2B content marketing strategy

‘Strategy’ can sound intimidating. But break down the key elements of a B2B content marketing strategy and you’ll find you either know most of it already (like who your audience is) or that you can easily lean on partners — like a B2B content agency like Scribly — for help.

Here’s how to create a B2B content marketing strategy in nine steps:

1. Define your content goal(s): We looked at some content goals in the ‘why B2B content marketing matters’ section above, but what do you want your content marketing efforts to achieve? Set clear, measurable, and achievable goals to keep you (and your content agency) accountable and better validate success.

   
   

2. Understand your audience: There’s a saying in marketing: you can’t be everything to everyone. And that’s true for a B2B content marketing strategy as well. Be specific about who your target audience is and what pain points they’re experiencing that your product or service can resolve.

   
   

3. Map your dream customer’s journey: Here’s where the B2B content funnel comes back in. Consider your target buyer’s purchasing journey from initial awareness to completing a sale. Then ideate content to fit each of those key stages.

   
   

4. Research competitors and industry trends: This isn’t about copying, but learning from the best and doing one better. You may be inspired by a brand outside of your competitive set. You may want to knock a competitor off the top spot in the SERP. There might be a trending topic in your industry that you can speak about authoritatively. It’s important to keep one eye on what’s happening outside your business when creating your content strategy.

   
   

5. Develop key messaging and positioning: Ever had a colleague who said one thing and did another? How much would you trust them to deliver on a key project for you? Consistency is key in B2B brand communication, and every piece of content you publish should reinforce your key message and positioning.

   
   

6. Choose your content distribution channels: With so many B2B content channels available to you, it makes sense to hone in on two or three and do them really well, before expanding from there. Think about where your target buyer is when prioritizing channels.

   
   

7. Create a content calendar: B2B content writing doesn’t happen by magic. A calendar or plan will make it clear what needs to be written, when, by whom, so you don’t fall behind — and nothing falls through the cracks.

   
   

8. Optimize for search and discoverability: Remember how we said that 90% of your content should be written to rank? Keywords are a critical component of an SEO strategy, but there’s more you can do. Formatting, internal linking, and Google’s EEAT criteria also drive SEO performance. Not sure where to start on that? We can help.

   
   

9. Publish and repurpose your content: A good B2B content strategy never really ends. It evolves. Learn from your highest performing content to do more of what works and repurpose successful pieces for other content channels. 

Discover more content strategy tactics in our guide on how to create a B2B content marketing strategy that actually works. 

How real businesses are using B2B content marketing

Here are just three examples of B2B marketing content and the strategy behind it:

1. Eco Office’s localized SEO blogs are highly focused on reaching potential buyers in and around the Bay Area. Local SEO brings efficiency wins for the brand and its audience.

2. RatedPower has invested in lower-funnel resources, like an ROI calculator, to reinforce the value of choosing their solution.

3. JT builds trust for their brand in the telecoms and cybersecurity space by reporting and commenting on breaking industry news, including cybersecurity breaches. This is smart because it also allows them to promote the security of their products.

Need more inspiration? Here’s more brilliant B2B content marketing examples (and why they work).

How to check your content marketing is working

If you don’t measure the effectiveness of your content, you’ll never know where to invest more budget and where to pull back. Performance measurement is a no-brainer, but which metrics you track is up for healthy debate and will depend on your content goals.

Example content metrics across the B2B marketing funnel include:

• Upper funnel: Website traffic, social reach, and content engagement. These will determine if your audience is growing and your content is getting read.

  
  

• Mid funnel: Time on site, gated content downloads, and clickthrough rates of newsletters. At this stage, you want prospects to be actively considering your product/service. Healthy visit durations and a committed following suggest they want to learn more.

  
  

• Lower funnel: Conversion rates, pricing page views, demo requests. Here, you want to be closing as many sales as possible. How well is your content convincing people to buy?

Learn how to measure content marketing ROI in our guide on key B2B content marketing metrics.

Scribly can help you build your B2B content marketing strategy

Scribly’s team of B2B content marketers has been involved in the content strategy of over 200 brands. We’ve achieved real results for our clients, scaling their content marketing efforts and increasing effectiveness. 

Ready to do the same? Book a free content strategy call today.