More than half of business-to-business marketers are planning to spend more on content marketing in the next 12 months, the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) has claimed.
The CMI is an organization that aims to help marketers attract customers through compelling storytelling, and has said that 60% of B2B marketers will spend more on content marketing in this year.
“Sixty percent of B2B marketers plan to spend more on content marketing in the next 12 months,” said Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute.
Distribution Channels:
Publishing content is just the start of the process. In order to succeed think about making your content as ‘shareable’ as possible. Add your links to dofollow social bookmark sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit to your news pages, as well as Facebook and Twitter links so that anyone who likes your content can share your content easily.Additionally, add an RSS feed to your news pages so that users can subscribe to your content feeds. Another way to engage with customers and use the content you’ve created is to begin publishing weekly or monthly content-led newsletters.
“Successful content marketing requires the right tools to support it, but with the marketing technology space getting so crowded it can be difficult to select the right platforms to deliver content to the audiences that matter.”
The claim from the CMI comes as it launches a guide and infographic illustrating the Content Delivery Funnel – showing marketers how best to use technology in their content marketing programs.
The guide and infographic have been launched in conjunction with Demandbase.com, a real-time B2B personalization and targeting platform.
“Content marketing can feel so overwhelming, but the dissection of the Content Delivery Funnel makes it easier for marketers,” said Jason Stewart, director of marketing at Demandbase.
“Organizations can deliver relevant content at every stage of the funnel in an automated fashion, as long as it’s understood which technologies to use, and when.”
Content marketing is becoming an increasingly vital component of an overall online marketing strategy, and technology plays an important role in that.
More brands these days are looking to appeal to customers through valuable and relevant information, rather than simply through advertising. Any brand that is not also a publisher could soon be left behind.
When creating content you need to bear in mind the following:
Be engaging: Content should be interesting, informative, and ultimately engaging to your target audience. Your daily content update is not another opportunity to deliver your business sales pitch.
Offer Something New: Whether you are the first to tell website and social media followers about a new product or service launch, or you are publishing informative advice and opinions on industry trends, always try to offer users something new.
Understand the Conversion Hooks: It is important to utilize content to be able to drive potential customers along the funnel and further perform actions. This can depend on who you are targeting with the content and what your goals are for each target. It may be simply connecting with them socially or the reader signing up for your email newsletter. It is essential to monitor the ROI of your content that is produced so you build a true picture of what is working.
How to Publish
You may want to think about how you will publish content on your website. Do you have your own website content management system? If not, installing WordPress for free and hosting it on your own server is relatively straightforward (good search engine optimization content providers can help with this) and has some excellent SEO tools for increased content optimization too. There are also numerous social media plugins available that allow the sharing and liking of content for your target audience.
Social media websites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook offer brands, both B2B and B2C an opportunity to engage with their target audience like never before, and at the heart of that engagement is superlative content.