How B2B companies benefit from blog marketing?

Many B2B companies create little reach with their content and no measurable success. Classic B2B companies can also quickly generate concrete leads. The magic is in the steps before and after content production.

Before writing an article, many B2B companies do not think about what they want to achieve with it. They hope for "awareness". This often results in non-focused articles without a product reference that do not result in specific inquiries. Why? A general text provides information superficially, but hardly convinces the reader of the competencies or products of the company.

The term "awareness" is rarely defined and the actual benefits are mostly questionable. Many B2B companies spend a lot of money to attract attention - and often do the opposite. Because people in the B2B environment, in particular, may perceive “brand building” and “awareness” measures without specific information as annoying advertisements that bring them no added value. In the worst case, companies can even create a negative branding effect.

B2B marketing can only create sustainable brands if it internalizes specific information such as product quality and added value, innovation leadership, performance, cost-benefit ratio and service level. In this way, they develop trust in the company. In this way, they are automatically and permanently enthusiastic about the brand.

Blog articles should trigger concrete reactions from customers

Even articles with specific product references often do not lead to the desired result. Why is that? Typically, the product manager gives the marketing department a product sheet. An article is created on this basis. Questions such as "Who are we?", "Which products / services are there?" And "What exactly can they do?" Are answered.

This spelling from a product or company perspective often omits which customer problems the product solves and what added value it offers. The interested party is forced to invest a lot of effort to find out whether the product is actually relevant for them.

Even if B2B companies present solutions in the article, they do not always specify and quantify them. Typical example: "With product xy you get faster" says little - the customer doesn't get up for one percent more speed. For 90 percent, on the other hand, he pounds on the company's door until it is opened.

If readers don't know which of their problems is being resolved and why they should be reading the article, they stop - and are gone. This problem is exacerbated by mobile use. What does not immediately arouse the user's interest to a great extent is hardly noticed due to the very low attention spans and the high potential for distraction.

Conversion rates of up to 5 percent

To arouse interest, B2B companies should take the perspective of the customer. To do this, they must highlight the benefits of the products that solve customers' pain points. These then become a hanger for blog articles that achieve conversion rates of up to five percent.

However, this procedure not only increases the amount of leads generated - it also increases the lead quality. Because if the customer understands the added value that he can achieve with a product, this already generates a real product and purchase interest. In this way, sales can go straight into the sales process with him - unlike, for example, when downloading a general white paper.

A pleasant side effect: In addition to a general "awareness" text, such an article creates real and sustainable branding. Because the customer links the now learned added value with the company name.

Call to actions generate more inquiries

Text that is attractive to customers does not automatically generate many inquiries. Even if B2B companies have managed to convince them with their content and spark real interest, it can happen that the customer never contacts them.

The reason: he is not actively asked for the next step or it is too complicated. Especially in the case of mobile use, the case “Hmm, I'll get back to you later” often happens - which then (almost) never happens. Every blog article should therefore contain meaningful next steps such as contacting, downloads and references to other relevant articles as "call to action" within the text flow in an intuitive manner.

Social media promises maximum reach within specific B2B target groups

But even if B2B companies have created a well-made blog article, it will not generate any requests without reach. Companies often lack the know-how to make themselves heard on digital channels. They often have only the helpless hope that good content is somehow paving its way - which is usually not fulfilled.

Via social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Xing) companies quickly reach a reach of several thousand visitors from very specific target groups. To do this, they can use Sponsored Posts to advertise their content in a target group-specific manner, publish it in groups, have posts systematically shared by employees, create automated LinkedIn messages, include it in newsletters and much more.

Conclusion

Basically, it is very simple: Before content production, B2B companies should think about how they generate real interest with the content and offer relevant added value. And after content production, a systematic process promises a high reach within the relevant target groups.