Content marketing is one of the most important digital marketing strategies for B2B businesses to be there online and build trust with your potential customers.
However, similar to Inter Milan’s motto launched last year, content marketing is also “Not for Everyone”.
Not every B2B business grasps the essence of content marketing, which requires vision, talents, and patience to make it happen.
In this article, we are going to list down 5 common mistakes for B2B businesses to avoid in their content marketing initiatives.
Mistake 1: Treat content as advertising
This is a common mistake. Many businesses can’t help but keep promoting their own brand, products or services in the content they produce.
Some thought that, by just doing those boring press releases, is content marketing.
Content is not ads, it is also not a self-promoting piece of PR, it is all about creating valuable content which will be useful for your target audience.
Don’t be stingy sharing knowledge or even some “secrets” of your industry. If your intention is self-bragging instead of sharing, forget about content marketing.
Mistake 2: Go for quantity instead of quality
Some businesses, including those online media wannabes, try to cheat the system (especially google) by going mass content production, quantity over quality.
We have seen companies outsource to freelancing writers for say USD$10 per article. Do you prefer to have 100 shallow articles or videos, or 10 solid content out there?
It is important for B2B businesses to opt for content depth so that you gain trust from your potential customers.
Good luck to you if you prefer to go wide without substance, Google will find out one day based on the user behaviour on your website (e.g. time on site, bounce rate).
Mistake 3: Bang on creating that viral content
There are B2B businesses who came to us and ask for influencers, or YouTubers to promote their products or services.
Can you imagine an influencer promoting say a manufacturing product meant for businesses? YouTubers might make sense but are their subscribers your kind of target audience?
If your intention is to bang on creating that viral content for your B2B business, good luck to you!
Viral campaigns might work for B2C brands but evergreen, educational content makes more sense for B2B businesses in the long run.
Mistake 4: Set wrong targets and expect immediate returns
Truth be told, it is difficult to set targets for content marketing, which is like a marathon that can take months or years to harvest.
This is why many B2B businesses prioritize other leads generation strategies for immediate returns in the form of leads or sales.
Here’s a simple idea, the objective of content marketing is to solve problems and build trust with your potential customers, while digital advertising is tasked to acquire leads and new customers.
Anyway, the progress of content marketing efforts can be tracked with growth indicators like your newsletter subscribers, website visits (PV, UU) and social media followers.
Mistake 5: B2B bosses don’t understand content marketing
Things are changing fast now and every business should go digital, even more so after the global pandemic crisis.
It is also time for bosses to understand digital marketing strategies, instead of just relying on your staff to strategize this important aspect of your business.
Content marketing will not work without the consent of the management. It will not work too if you are a traditional B2B business without the right in-house talents.
We are willing to help you with this, but only when you are mentally ready and willing to listen.
