Content Marketing is an Integral Part of Business

by David Jones Digital Marketor

With more eyes on screens, marketers are looking at content marketing to stay connected with customers especially in appalling circumstances. The unpredictability of the situation is the main reason that good content will be your most valuable marketing asset right now. Even if consumers may not necessarily buy from you now, it’s the time when relationships are built between brands and customers and they might even look for information and distractions to brands.

Development of Content Experiences after COVID-19

When Bill Gates published an essay in 1996 called Content is King, he made frighteningly accurate predictions about the modern state of content consumption. The broad opportunities he envisioned for companies have grown only exponentially into the market monster it has today.

Recent surveys have found that 69% of B2B marketers plan to increase digital advertising budgets by 2021 and if they do, brands will need to increase their access to content creation in terms of quality and strategy to stand out from the crowded digital landscape. The first half of the year 2020 has changed abundant surprises for the world and the market universe has seen its fair share of reductions in advertising and reduced budgets due to declining revenues. Restrictions on attendance at physical events have also drastically affected B2B content consumption, forcing marketers to find innovative approaches to fill their market funnel.

Uncertainty is the order of the day and this also applies to B2B practices. Many CMOs know too much about budget cuts during the COVID-19 boom but the general trend has been to shift focus from acquiring customers to retaining customers.

Overview of Modern B2B Content Marketing

Traditional marketing techniques for B2B marketing have proven not to be as effective as inbound marketing due to the nature of the message. Interrupting your audience is a key feature of outbound marketing while inbound marketing aims to solve a challenge or a painful point that the customer faces right when they are looking for the solution. When your prospect is looking for a solution online, it is the ideal opportunity to improve brand awareness and accelerate conversions.

Some of the goals of B2B content marketing are to let your target audience know about your brand, to develop the information they have about the brand, and to allow the consumer to see the benefits of using your product or service. Over time, the target changes lead to your company and convert a potential customer into a qualified lead. What distinguishes B2B content from B2C is that it must have some use for the reader. If the reader cannot apply what he has learned, then B2B content has not achieved its goal. There are exceptions to this rule, but the primary goal is to be considered as a resource for other professionals in your target industry.

Increase Value Addition Is Decisive

In the modern scenario, it has become more important to communicate responsibly to your customers, focus on educating them and create trust and credibility. This, in turn, will influence sales and revenue and help retain your existing customers. The quality of value that your content content adds to a prospect needs to increase over time to convert them into a paying customer. Similarly, an existing customer will look for another kind of valuable addition gradually. The daily challenges of the modern customer have drastically changed and your content needs to be delivered as your brand will help them in these new circumstances. Your ability to adapt will shape the potential impact your content can have on your bottom line. While it is important to set realistic targets for 2020, it is also time to expand content to counteract any foreseeable loss of revenue from existing customers.