“Content” seems to be so trendy these days, doesn’t it? The word itself is gaining all sorts of traction in the digital space as consultants and companies put more emphasis than we’ve seen in a long time on creating smart and useful resources. Heck, we’ve never really seen this level of emphasis before, but with the ability to access endless amounts of information living right at our fingertips, it’s no surprise content has become so popular.

As is most often the case, a concept becomes popular because there’s enough value in it to catch on in a big way. The foundation of producing useful content, creating documents and videos and images that share ideas and expertise, is a strong one—the more you share, the more you help others satisfy their needs and/or achieve their goals, and when you help others they will generally help you in return. In the business world, that help usually takes the form of referrals or purchases, the Holy Grails of business.

Now, if you connect that basis for content creation to your marketing goals, you can probably see just how well marketing and content fit together, and quite noticeably in the B2B sector. Your customers need information and value throughout the buying cycle, plain and simple, and if you can provide those things to them—especially when they’re trying to make important decisions that will greatly impact their productivity, ability to achieve their goals, and their budgets—you’ll see some pretty nice returns.

Without getting too wordy, here are a few key reasons content marketing is so important to the B2B sector:

1. Large sums of money on the line. Let’s face it, the average consumer purchase costs fairly little compared to the money spent on a business-to-business product purchase. Granted, we can all say that buying a home is a pricey endeavor, but that isn’t an average purchase; interestingly, though, the process of buying a house resembles that of a business-to-business purchase in that a person or family will want to view multiple houses, learn as much as they can about the homes themselves and the neighborhoods they’re in, and consider a wide range of short- and long-term factors in making a final decision. Why? Because a house is a major investment. And just as a house is a major investment, so are most B2B products, which means providing as much information as you can about your product, its applications, and the various impacts it could have on your customers’ business and their customers’ lives is an imperative piece of the marketing process.
2. Greater, more complex problems to solve. In the world of B2B, as a vendor you’re not only working to solve the problems of your customers, but you’re also working to solve the problems of their customers, as well. Add to that the fact that B2B product solutions are usually put in place to help businesses accomplish multiple nuanced goals and you’ve got a pretty complex set of considerations to address. How can you best address those considerations? Content, of course. Good, well-planned content. If you don’t offer those resources that answer initial prospect questions and give them fodder to continue narrowing their field of buying scope, you’re missing opportunities to capture attention, build trust, and, ultimately, make sales.
3. Extended buying cycle that lasts pasts the initial sale. The B2B buying cycle is a long one, full of stops and starts halted and fueled by changing needs, goals, and budgets. Because of this stop-and-start aspect of B2B sales, it should be part of your marketing process to offer up content that helps customers get back on the buying train and stay on it. Again, answering their questions, showing them the various applications your product has, and demonstrating what goals your product can help them achieve outright—all throughout the buying cycle—will keep customer eyes on you. None of this ends after the sale is made, though. A customer loss for a B2B vendor is a much bigger loss than one in the B2C world, so focus a certain amount of your content creation and marketing efforts on retaining the customers you have; you want them around for the long haul, so give them reason to stay with you.

How else do you see content marketing impacting the B2B sector? As a B2B company, is producing useful, quality content already part of your marketing program? If so, how has it affected your marketing efforts? Share with us in the comments!

Tags: content marketing, content marketing for B2B