Everyone has an idea of how to do agile marketing. You might find the topic too complex to understand.

Many marketers are not familiar with the terms, tools and tactics of the framework. Newcomers usually have the biggest disadvantage, as they are not yet part of dedicated Agile teams.

Recent studies have shown that only half of all marketers use Agile. A lack of knowledge is often the biggest obstacle to adopting Agile.

What is agile marketing and why is it important for our industry?

Discover your own path towards agility, because it is not just a trendy word. Agile is fundamentally a better way to work for all marketers.

Image source: AgileBusiness.org

Takeaways from

• 
  Agile Marketing is a quick and responsive form of marketing that leads to greater success.
  
• 
  Agile Marketing is based on key principles rather than rigid practices.
  
• 
  Hybrid frameworks are best for agile marketing.
  
• 
  Agile Marketing can't fix broken marketing campaigns, but it will make you a better marketer if you start with a solid foundation.
  

What is Agile Marketing?

Agile is a method where you concentrate on high-value tasks and take small, quick actions to gather data that will help you decide how to proceed. Agile was created by software developers at the turn-of-the millennium.

It's an easy way to get more done with less effort. It sounds great, doesn't?

A fundamental change in your work style can be accompanied by a drastic transformation. Let's delve a bit deeper.

Agile Marketing Myths

Agile marketing is often misunderstood.

The waterfall method of management is a favorite among old-school marketers and businesspeople. This method involves planning out the entire year.

These people may view Agile as not strategizing and changing direction at random. Agile is not.

• Failure to plan
• Just speed up
• Just Scrum

Source Image: Marketoonist.com

Agile does not just rely on a few brilliant ideas or newsjacking to succeed.

Oreo, for example, made a clever decision by responding to the Super Bowl XLVII power outage with a cheeky Tweet.

Many of the 108,7 million viewers immediately rushed to their phones to see what was happening. Many people were amused by Oreo's take on the situation.

It was awesome, and agile (lowercase A), but not Agile (capital A).

This Oreo tweet could have been produced by an Agile team. A traditional team with a moment of inspiration might have produced the Oreo tweet.

What is the difference between Agile Marketing and traditional marketing?

Principles Over Practices

Agile marketing is characterized by major changes in processes, workflows, and operations. Agile teams adhere to guidelines rather than rigidly following a set of rules.

Agile marketing teams are able to release campaigns, marketing content and other outputs quickly, as a standard practice. They do not react only in an emergency. They will be able to make changes more easily than in a Big Bang campaign.

Marketers who were forward-looking updated the Agile values to create a Marketing manifesto which includes:

1. Focus on the customer and business outcomes rather than activity and outputs
2. Delivering value early and often is more important than striving for perfection
3. Data-driven learning and experimentation is preferred to opinions or traditions
4. Collaboration without hierarchy and silos
5. Overcoming change over sticking with a plan

Agile working methods are based on these principles.

You don't have to create diagrams or charts with hundreds and hundreds of columns and rows. Bring the right people together to discuss solutions.

You don't want to ignore the importance of activity, outputs and plans, as well as effective traditions or well-founded opinion. When it comes down to it, however, you will default to the bolded guidelines.

What is Agile Marketing Manifesto and how can you apply it in other ways? Watch the video to learn more.

No Prescriptive Practices

The Manifesto then goes on to list a dozen Agile Principles. It might be tempting to turn these principles into rules and ruin what makes Agile great.

Remember that nowhere in this document is it stated, "Thou must sprint for two weeks" or "Thou must stand up every day for 15 minutes."

To bring these principles into reality, practitioners have created practices such as Scrum-based Sprints and daily Standup Meetings. But they are not the only option. Agile software development doesn't require a copycat approach.

Agile can be done in many ways, so create your own. Agile is based on key values and principles.

What framework should you use?

This flexibility is a great asset for teams that are looking to adopt an Agile approach. It also means that you will have to invest more time in learning the options available.

What is the best Agile marketing framework? It's likely that you won't use a single framework, but a combination of several.

This article will give you an overview of two common frameworks and some tips on how to blend them together successfully.

Kanban

Kanban is about flow. The system continuously delivers value to the customer by creating focus and visibility.

Visibility

Visibility is achieved through the well-known Kanban Board, which has vertical columns representing stages of work. These stages can be as simple as "To Do", "Doing", and "Done".

Consider the example below: Consider the following example:

Image source: AgileSherpas.com

A team's progress can be shown on a board. You can then decide where to focus your efforts.

Focus

Work in Progress Limits can be used to create focus. These WIP ceilings limit the number of items that can be at a certain stage (e.g. only five things on our sample board in "Content Review")

What is the key benefit of Agile Marketing with Kanban for focusing?

Humans are not good at multitasking, no matter what you hear. If you only have one thing in progress (contrary to popular belief), everything is done faster.

Kanban is more than a board with WIP limits. But these are enough to get you going. As you become more proficient in using the framework, you will be able to incorporate additional practices.

Image Source: MarketingInsiderGroup.com

Scrum

Scrum is more focused on incremental delivery than Kanban, which focuses on continuous flow.

Sprints

Scrum relies on short sprints or bursts focused work to eliminate distractions and focus on high-value tasks. The system achieves this by using timeboxing, rather than imposing hard limits on the work in progress.

The team must decide for each sprint how much it can achieve from its prioritized list of tasks (or backlog). The sprint is when the team commits to finishing the tasks within the next couple of weeks.

The team should focus on these items only until the sprint has ended, which will result in a high-quality piece of work.

Image source: MarketingProfs.com

Meetings

Meetings are the main way that the team manages Scrum. Agile marketing meetings: What are they?

• Sprint planning: Outline the upcoming work, and commit as a group to complete it.
• Daily Standup: Each morning, assess everyone's progress, identify what is holding you back and determine how to support each other.
• Sprint Review: Show and tell or demo to people outside your team what you have accomplished during the sprint.
• Sprint Retrospective : Review the process you have followed over the last few weeks to identify any areas that need improvement.

Scrum requires that meetings be short, otherwise your team will lose agility.

Roles

Scrum has roles that are very clearly defined within the process.

• Scrum Master: Owns process, including facilitation of meetings and managing interpersonal relations within the team
• Product Owner: Concentrates on one team and ensures that the group does the right work at the correct time
• Team members: work together to achieve mutual success without hierarchy

Scrum demands that you know how a sprint of a few weeks will look. If you cannot plan your workflow so far in advance, use Kanban or a hybrid format.

Hybrid Alternatives

What is an Agile hybrid marketing strategy? Find a simple recipe to mix Scrum, Kanban and other strategies.

Scrum is a more prescriptive approach, which can be comforting for teams who have never used Agile before. Kanban, on the other hand is more adaptive. You can start by visualizing what you are doing now and move forward from there.

Time has proven that most marketers use a hybrid approach of some sort. Marketers are twice as likely as Scrum users to adopt a hybrid strategy.

Image source: AgileSherpas.com

Don't be scared to experiment with sprints that have a board inside and a limit on the amount of work in progress. Use Kanban, and include regular review meetings.

Kanban is unlikely to work well without the regular 15-minute retrospectives and check-ins that Scrum requires.

You can experiment with the models and create your own hybrid. Watch this video for more information on how to blend the models.

How do you get started with Agile Marketing?

It can be overwhelming to move to Agile marketing, especially if your department is not a CMO who has the authority to reformulate the entire process. What is your Agile entry point?

Three easy steps will help you create the perfect hybrid model.

1. Create a backlog. A backlog is a list of tasks that are strictly ranked. It is used by you (or your team), to determine the next most important work. Update it frequently; otherwise you may end up working on non-productive assignments.
2. Visualize your work. In other words, create a Kanban Board. If you are using the board for yourself, then start by creating columns with "To Do", "Doing", and "Done". If you are using it as a team, think about the phases of work and the handoffs required to complete tasks.
3. Set WIP limits. Limit how much work you can do at any given time. It is usually best to limit WIPs per person to two. It's important to force people to focus on their current projects and stop working on new ones.

Plan regular touchpoints for evaluation and improvement of your process. What's on the Agile Marketing Meeting Timeline?

Teams should schedule a standup meeting every day around the Kanban board. Every two weeks, hold brief retrospective sessions.

Sit down with your morning coffee or tea and go over your board. Every two weeks, create a list with new improvements that you would like to implement.

What are the limitations of agile marketing?

Agile marketing can be a powerful tool that improves many aspects of an organization's operation. Marketers become better and stay longer. They build better relationships with sales, and create campaigns that encourage strong customer connections.

There are some things that Agile marketing simply cannot do.

Agile Won't Fix Broken Marketing

Agile marketing will not turn poor marketers into great ones.

Agile will bring out the best of marketers who are capable, but it will also highlight their flaws if they refuse to adopt the basics of marketing.

Agile won't solve all your marketing issues. Marketing is not effective if outdated and out-of-sync.

What will your Agile marketing require to be successful? Prior to implementing Agile, you should reinforce the cornerstones for effective marketing.

• Focus on the customer: Instead of talking about yourself, start solving problems for your customers. Your audience is not interested in anything else.
• Data-enabled : If we want to stay in our jobs, we need to know what works. Invest in tools that track the behavior of your customers and prospects across their entire buying journey.
• Content-driven marketing: The foundation of successful marketing is effective content marketing. To stay connected with your customers, you need to be able to create outstanding content.
• Persona-powered. You don't have to spend months creating perfect personas or a pristine map of the customer journey. To create content that addresses real issues for your audience, you need to have at least a basic understanding of these two pieces.
• Choose carefully which channels you want to use: Your audience doesn't watch every channel on the planet, so it's not necessary for you to do so. You will not be able to cover all areas.

If you are using Agile marketing, then follow these best practices. Agile marketing will not allow you to do anything more than spin the hamster wheel.

Agile Will Not Tell You How to Market

What can Agile Marketing teach you about Marketing? The method can only improve the skills and foundation you already possess.

Multiple people have asked me for a level detail in Agile marketing case studies which I find disturbing. These Agile enthusiasts are interested in the specifics of successful Agile campaigns.

Case studies are not useful if you demand that much detail. Case studies that are overly detailed can lead to teams becoming paint-by numbers.

Marketing teams must be artists who experiment and adapt. They cannot just copy or plug-and play. Even if the strategy is executed perfectly, it will not teach you anything.

The case studies don't tell us what to do, they are not tailored to our situation and time.

Don't use Agile marketing as a paint-by numbers approach. It won't be pretty.

Agile marketing is about learning from mistakes, improving, and mastering the craft. It is equal parts art and science, and it opens up the door to your best.

What is your first step in Agile marketing?

When you are a beginner, starting a new project can be frustrating and tedious. What is a marketing strategy that allows you to start off on the right footing?

You can get a helping pro to help you quickly find your way and reduce errors. Speak to a Marketing Insider Group specialist to create a marketing plan that is tailored to your needs.

The parameters of what makes an online resource "authoritative", are constantly changing. Google considers a number of factors when deciding which sources are worth including on its SERPs. Google's developers admit that the online content changes constantly. "We continuously measure and evaluate the quality of our system to ensure we achieve the right balance between information relevance and authority."

The traditional digital marketing techniques are now obsolete due to this never-ending process of refinement. The traditional digital marketing tactics are no longer effective in attracting customers.

Marketing assets that are more sophisticated and stand out from their competitors is what they need. Only an expert in the industry can create this kind of content.

Need for Industry Experts

Since the days of patent medicines hucksters and print ads touting health benefits of smoking cigarettes, consumers have been the targets of unreliable content marketing. They're now more likely to come across it online. Consumers are aware that much of what they see online is of questionable quality, whether it's a reckless statement in a blog or a misleading statistic in a press announcement.

Content of high quality is a key component to any successful marketing campaign. Today's buyers want marketing messages that they can trust. Marketers need to go beyond their promotional skills in order to create content that builds trust. To create powerful, informed, and up-to date marketing assets, they must rely on experts in the industry.

Marketers can produce accurate and impactful messages when they collaborate with experts in the industry. Customers (potential and existing) learn a lot from such content. Your business becomes more visible as an expert in your field.

You can cultivate the reputation of your brand with your audience in two ways. Expert-informed content in marketing reinforces the perception that your brand is an authority in your industry. It increases your credibility by proving that you are a real source for solutions to customers' problems, which in turn encourages consumers to trust your brand.

AI is also a factor

Artificial intelligence has made it more important than ever to have high-quality marketing content that is expert-led. ChatGPT allows anyone to create content that appears authoritative, even when it is not backed by anything of substance.

AI is an effective learning tool. However, its strength does not lie in creative thinking, original ideas, or concept generation. It reformats information using existing sources, often without determining whether or not they are reliable.

The consumers are entitled to question whether the content that they view is truly backed up by authoritative sources, or if it was thrown together by an algorithm. AI is becoming a more powerful business tool, and it's important for experts to produce marketing content that is informed.

How to partner with industry experts

Businesses of all sizes have multiple ways to tap into the expertise and insights of experts. To establish partnerships that will allow for the creation of targeted, compelling content that resonates well with consumers, each CMO and marketing department must determine the best options that are available to them. Consider these options.

Hire experts to work with you

Hiring an expert in the field is the best way to harness their power. It is easy to gain instant credibility when you have a professional on your team. It shows that your brand is committed to providing quality products, and using informed marketing techniques to promote them.

Nom Nom shows how this concept is applicable to all types of businesses. Pet food and health brand Nom Nom uses a nutrition first approach to animal wellbeing. The brand maintains an in-house research team, veterinarians and veterinary nutritionalists.

Nom Nom has an advantage over its competitors by having pet health experts in-house. It allows Nom Nom to keep up with the latest developments and research in the pet-health industry. Nom Nom can also advocate for both the brand and pet health.

Experts on staff can also improve products continuously. An expert on staff allows companies to modify and improve a brand over time, rather than hire someone just for one project or formulation. It doesn't matter if the product is sports cars, dog food or something else.

In terms of marketing, it is easier to create trustworthy messages when you can tell your consumers that there are always experts on hand. By having easy access to industry experts, marketers can fact-check every piece of content and keep up to date with the latest data.

Collaboration with Experts

There are many ways to gain access to their expertise, even if hiring them full-time is not in your budget. You can also engage in joint marketing efforts.

Influencer marketing is a common example. Influencer marketing is a common example. While it's often seen as brands working together with social media stars, many times the major influencers themselves are experts in their fields.

A recent example of this was during the marketing of Amazon Prime Video's streaming series "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power". The marketing team worked with dozens influencers within the online Tolkien Community with millions of followers collectively.

Studio flew in these experts for private screenings and gave them access red carpet events. They also associated the leaders of fandom with the series as its premiere approached. The marketing team won the TPEC Award for "Outstanding New Drama Campaign" after the initiative proved so successful.

Visit the experts' hangouts

It's not always possible to expect that exceptional people in your field will work with you and enhance the authority of your content. You may need to take your message directly to the people you want to reach. This usually takes the form getting your name mentioned in an industry magazine, journal, or other publication where leaders of the industry gather to share their news and opinions.

By adding your content to the mix via digital PR (such as guest posts or similar collaborations with reputable industry publications), you can associate yourself with experts within your field. You gain instant credibility.

You need to have your own informed and concrete opinions in order to make this work. You might, as a remote-work SaaS platform for example, be published on a site such as TechTarget in order to share the latest on asynchronous workflows. It's a great way to provide value to the reader, while also getting you in touch with influential people within your field.

Use industry experts to enhance your marketing messages

Experts will be the future of digital marketing, a world where trust is decreasing. Working with an expert in your industry will give you a level of credibility and authority that is unique for your brand. Your messages are more credible, and you can keep your products and services up to date with industry standards and research.

If you're planning to use content marketing, ensure that your efforts are based on expertise. This could be achieved by hiring a subject matter expert, working with them or indirectly partnering with them through digital PR. The upfront investment is worth it in a world of white noise.

Are you looking for a way to make your products more appealing and build meaningful relationships with your partners? You might find that B2B content is the ticket to success. You just need to create helpful, interesting content for your audience to read, listen to, or watch.

You can also show off your services or products while your audience enjoys your content. Not only are you selling products, but also building relationships with customers.

Quick Takeaways

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  B2B Content Marketing is the process of businesses communicating with each other, usually with detailed content that emphasizes the logic behind the product or service
  
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  Quality content is essential for B2B marketing, as it allows businesses to share their expertise and knowledge with others, while also building trust
  
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  The three top priorities for content marketing are to create engaging content, gain a better understanding about what content is most effective and find better ways to reuse content
  
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  Content marketing strategies for B2B should include different types of content, such as social media posts and newsletters. They also need to include eBooks, articles, case studies, guest posts and white papers
  

B2B content is a powerful marketing tool that can help you stand out in your industry, develop strong relationships and grow.

What is B2B content marketing?

B2B content is a great way for companies to share their knowledge with other businesses. You're having a discussion, but instead you use things like:

• Blog posts
• Social media posts
• Video
• Research Reports
• Ebooks and whitepapers

Image source: Content Marketing Institute

It is important to get the attention of your competitors and to make them want to learn more about what you offer.

B2B content is marketing that focuses on creating and sharing helpful content for other businesses. It is not about directly selling, but building relationships and trust. You can establish yourself as a valuable resource by sharing useful content. You can build stronger relationships with your potential customers, which can ultimately lead to increased sales.

Understanding B2B Content Marketing

It's essential to fully understand B2B content-marketing by understanding how it differs. B2B stands for "business-to-business", while B2C stands for "business-to-consumer". Businesses talk to each other in B2B content. B2C content marketers talk directly to their customers.

Image source: MarTech Alliance

The audience and type of content are the main differences between B2B content marketing and B2C. B2B content tends to be more detailed, and it focuses more on the logic behind the product or service. It's all about helping businesses improve or solve their problems.

B2C content, on the other hand is more focused on the benefits and improvements that the product or service can bring to the customer. It is usually more personal and emotional.

The role of content in B2B marketing

B2B marketing is centered around high-quality content. Businesses use content to share their expertise and knowledge with others, as well as build trust. It would be difficult for businesses to build relationships and connect without content.

There are four main components that make an effective B2B marketing strategy:

1. Target Market. The first step to any marketing strategy is to identify your target market. This is often the case in B2B marketing. It means that you need to understand other businesses' needs and challenges.
2. What you are selling is A product or service offering. You could sell a physical or digital product or service. It's important to ensure that it is something other businesses will need and value.
3. Value Proposition The unique value that your product or service provides. This is what sets you apart from your competition. This is often done in B2B marketing by showing how your service or product can save other businesses time, money, or improve operations.
4. Sales and marketing strategy. This describes how you will reach out to your target market to convince them to purchase your product or services. This includes things like SEO, email marketing, content marketing and social media marketing.

Top Priorities & Unique Challenges for B2B Content Marketing

B2B marketing is unique because it does not always have to be in front of the customers' eyes. You can see thousands of products from different brands and companies in the supermarket.

On TV, there are ads every few minutes and almost every page in a magazine. Signs in restaurants serve as glowing billboards that attract customers.

B2B businesses may post ads in magazines for their target audience or on billboards, but they don't have the same options as physical spaces.

Everyone in the Bay Area is aware of this Box billboard. I'm certain they gained a lot of customers with this investment.

Content marketing is a great way to leverage the digital space in B2B. According to the Content Marketing Institute, B2B marketers have identified three top priorities for content marketing:

• Creating more engaging content (72%)
• Understanding what content works (65%)
• Repurposing content in better ways (57%)

Visual storytelling is the future of content, and I've talked about it a lot. It is therefore no surprise that marketers are prioritizing visual content, ranking fourth (51%). Illustrations and photographs also saw the largest jump in B2B marketing tactics, going from 69% to 76%.

Content marketing challenges for B2B marketers include measuring the effectiveness of content (57%) as well as producing consistent content (57%).

Other interesting statistics from the report

• Search engine marketing is the most popular paid advertising tool used by B2B marketers to promote and distribute content. It has also been voted as the most effective promotional tactic.
• Lead generation is a top priority for B2B marketing organizations. Sales (84%) and nurturing leads (78%) are also important.
• The three most important metrics that organizations use are: sales lead quality (87%), higher conversion rates (82%), and sales.

Types of B2B content

You want to use a variety content types in your B2B marketing strategy.

Social Media

LinkedIn is a social media platform that is geared towards B2B businesses who offer professional services or products. However, you shouldn't limit yourself to this platform. Use any social media platform that makes sense.

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Snapchat
• Twitter
• The following are some examples of Pinterest
• Other social media platforms popular in the country where you conduct business

You may be able to use a social media account that your audience has. They can follow you. Your audience may be able to see your posts when they are active after working hours. By creating a profile and a relationship, you'll create a place where people will look to when they need your products or services.

Newsletters

Email is another great B2B channel. You'll want these to be sent during work hours (hopefully, your audience has subscribed with their company email). Newsletters are a great way to promote your blog or case study. They can also be used to announce upcoming webinars or seminars, or serve as mini-articles.

Image source: Yesler

You know that your audience wants to receive the newsletter because they ask for it. You don't need to limit yourself either to one newsletter. You can create different newsletters that address the needs of your audience (weekly or monthly).

You can then be more targeted in your content, and reach a wider audience.

White Papers

Your best content should be white papers. The content must be researched, backed up by credible sources and informative for your target audience. They tend to be between 5 and 10 pages.

You want to be perceived as an expert in your field, as the supplier of the best products on the market or as someone who is highly skilled in a particular service area.

White papers can be shared on social media and via email to help drive traffic to your site. White papers are also great because you can divide them into smaller parts. You can use a portion of your previous work to write a new piece or turn a small snippet into a social media image.

Ebooks

Ebooks, like white papers will be among the best content you can provide. Ebooks are longer, with 10 pages or greater. It will take more time to write, edit, and research these. If you can afford it, you should publish at least two articles per year.

Publishing Ebooks, similar to white papers will establish credibility and expert knowledge in the eyes of your audience. Like a whitepaper, you can also break it into smaller pieces. You can use portions to make a few articles, a couple of white papers, or content for social media.

Articles

You should update your blog every week with new content if you have one. You'll be more likely to have the resources to produce articles more frequently if your company is larger. You should post at least one new article per week.

Promote your articles on social media by using the first paragraph of your article in your newsletter, or a quote as a post introduction (don't forget to include a link). You want your audience to visit your website, and stay there. The more they learn about your business and what it offers, the better.

Guest Posts

Consider guest posting on third-party sites instead of just creating content for your own website. You'll have to do more work to ensure you keep creating content for your website. But it will benefit your business.

When creating a guest blog, do not submit it to just any website. Do some research to find high-quality websites with a large amount of traffic that are somehow related to your business. Guest posting has many benefits, including:

• Expanding your reach beyond your audience
• Getting new visitors from another website
• Promote your content with someone else

Guest posting requires more work because you not only need to choose the right website, but you also need to submit your pitch before writing the article.

Image source: Hubspot

You can also consider answering posts as a source, (such through Help a Reporter Out), or conducting an interview. Interview your CEO, Vice President or another senior executive. By providing useful information you can benefit others who are interested in your services or products.

You also have less work to do because you don't need to worry about writing, researching, or pitching the article. You only need to provide the necessary information.

Case Studies

Case studies are an excellent way to showcase your expertise. You can use it to create content for your website, in proposals or pitches, and across multiple channels.

Case studies are great for proving your abilities, whether you're selling a product to help businesses or providing a specific service.

Here are some of our most amazing case studies! Watch the video below to see B2B case studies in action.

Video Source: Andrew Davis

User Generated Content

Yes, you read it right. UGC is a B2C tactic that can be used by B2B companies to achieve the same, if no more, reach. UGC is more about collaboration than a social media campaign. How can both the brand and the customer win by working together?

Encouragement of consumers to share their personal stories and brand experiences on social media has become a powerful tool for engagement in today's customer-centric model.

UGC doesn't just refer to social sharing. Online reviews, blog posts by brand advocates, videos, testimonials, and charts on websites and forums are all examples of UGC. A Comscore report found that when marketers combine employee-generated or user-generated material with brand content, the engagement rate can increase by up to 28%.

Three Questions to Formulate B2B Content Strategy

Andy Rogerson, founder of Grist, suggests that B2B marketers should ask themselves these questions before committing their content strategy to stone.

1. Why do you create content?

There are few questions more fundamental than this. Many firms are unable to give a coherent response when asked. They may say, "It is what we have always done", "It is part of our marketing mix", "Our competitors do it so we should also" or even, “People would notice if you stopped”.

You may be surprised, but the world doesn't wait for your next content. The world is not waiting for your next piece of content.

The content must reflect the business objectives. It doesn't necessarily mean that you should write about your wonderful products or services, but rather it means defining differentiation or taking the "What do we want our company to be known for?" test. If you are in a competitive environment, where rivals may have more resources at their disposal, it is important to identify your niche and articulate a content strategy that matches.

Prioritizing certain themes or sectors means that you're willing to accept the fact that some areas may be overlooked. That's okay. Clarity is key in a strategy. It will help you to make your offer and your message more clear.

2. Are you (really?) aware of what your customers want?

Knowing what you want is only half the equation. The other half is knowing what your customers want. Asking them questions and watching how they react to the content that you provide will help you determine what works.

It's not enough to list your client's interests. Understanding the challenges your clients face, the changing needs they have throughout the buying cycle, and their circles of influence is key. You also need to know the formats and days they prefer, as well as the content they are looking for.

The Value of B2B thought leadership survey examined the needs and wants of the C-suite in FTSE 350 firms. The results of our Value of B2B Thought Leadership survey may surprise you, such as the preference for text-based articles to videos and other multimedia bells-and-whistles. But the message should not be surprising.

Senior executives are looking for thought leadership to help them stay on top of the latest trends (66%), and also make better informed decisions (60%). Does your content deliver on either? If not, you should rewrite it, recommission it, or rethink.

3. Are you aware of the role that content plays in business development?

There's actually a fundamental question before this one: Do you understand the entire business development process in its entirety? It's important to understand the business development process if you don't already.

It is important to anticipate and answer your audience's most pressing questions. It is likely that they will go elsewhere if crucial links are missing or broken.

Marketing is a way to facilitate a dialog between those who sell and those who buy. Content should, in this context, be an important engagement tool. You can strengthen and shorten the B2B buying journey by getting the story and timing right.

Your content won't do what you expect it to unless you answer these three questions.

7 Secrets for B2B Content marketing Success

Eccolo Media conducted a study that found B2B buyers believe most B2B content to be too long, general, and too full of marketing hype about the B2B offerings, their features, and benefits. What should B2B content marketers do? What is considered effective content?

Lead generation expert Dan Stelter examined 100 B2B tech and software company websites in order to determine what content is missing. Here are seven insights that you can use to boost your content marketing efforts for B2B:

1. Reduce Buyer Pain

Stelter discovered that three-quarters of the companies Stelter examined did not adequately address the pain points of their target audience. Even those that did not have compelling content to convince him the pain points had been adequately addressed.

A survey by Google, Motista, and CEB revealed that B2B clients are more emotionally attached to their vendors than consumers. It's because B2B customers have more at stake with their purchase decisions than consumers.

Consumers can return a product if they are not happy with it for a refund or credit. B2B transactions, however, are different. Due to the high cost of these investments (up to six or seven figures at times), buyers working with B2B companies are required to deal with five to twenty stakeholders and decision makers. If they make a poor buying decision, B2B buyers can lose their credibility, their reputation and their jobs.

You can stand out more from your competitors and connect with and engage your customers by creating content that speaks to their pain points and acts as a strategic advisor.

2. Get rid of the Fear of Loss

The fear of losing something is a powerful motivation to get people to act. This is supported by scientific research. Research suggests that when people perceive something as a loss they are more likely to act to avoid the pain and loss even if the final outcome is the same.

Surprisingly, Stelter found that only three of the 100 companies he studied had discussed this issue on their home page.

To make your content more compelling, consider how you can effectively communicate the pain or loss that your B2B offer can alleviate.

3. Highlight the Features and Benefits

Stelter discovered that most of the websites of companies he has looked at do two things. One, they highlight three to six major features and benefits of their B2B offerings; or two, they mention them briefly without going into detail.

According to the Eccolo media study, the majority of B2B buyers believe that the content today is focused too much on the features and benefits of a service or product. These findings could suggest that B2B marketing content that focuses on benefits and features is not as valuable as some marketers and brands may think.

4. Resolve Conflicts between Stakeholders

Shelter discovered that addressing conflict between stakeholders was a huge missed opportunity. He found that not a single firm he surveyed had discussed or provided solutions for managing these issues.

CEB research shows that most conflicts between stakeholders occur early in the buying journey. B2B content can help B2B buyers to reach consensus.

• Discussing topics and lessons learned that are important to all stakeholders.
• Decision-makers with greater influence on the final purchase will reap more rewards and experience less risk.
• Provide these decision makers with the tools and resources they need to promote your B2B offerings and influence other people within their organizations.

You want to customize your content to address the stakeholder conflicts relevant to B2B buyers. However, you don't want your message to be so personalized that it alienates other stakeholders involved in the decision making process. When that happens, a consensus cannot be reached and no final decision will be made.

5. The Benefits of Underscore to Business and Individual Decision Maker

Stelter found most B2B businesses had a compelling and relevant message about the benefits their B2B offerings to business. The weaker company page only provided generic benefits that their product or services can provide for their target audience’s businesses.

If you want your B2B content to be better, you need to understand your B2B customers and their business benefits. Then, as you develop your content, consider how you can integrate that messaging.

You'll want to highlight the personal benefits of your B2B service or product, as well as its business advantages.

Some B2B marketers have the perception that B2B buying decisions are solely made on logic and reason, as business isn't supposed to be personal. But in reality, personal benefits do play an important role in B2B purchase decisions.

Kapost claims that personal value is twice as important as business value. 71% of B2B customers who perceive personal value in B2B offerings will buy the product or service. B2B buyers willing to pay more for a B2B solution or product that they perceive as having personal value are 68%. Only 8.5% of B2B purchasers who do not see any personal value in a B2B offer will pay more for it.

Image source: Executive Board

6. Document your strategy and communicate progress

CMI's Benchmark Report on B2B Content Marketing reveals that the most successful content marketers are able to differentiate themselves from their peers by doing four things:

1. They know what B2B content is and how to make it successful.
2. Documenting their content marketing strategy is important.
3. The editorial mission is defined and documented.
4. The team regularly discusses their content marketing program and strategy.

Sixty-one percent of the most successful B2B marketers report that their teams meet daily or on a weekly basis to discuss their progress and results in content marketing. More than half of the respondents said that their content marketing meetings were very or extremely helpful in helping them become more effective with B2B marketing.

Only 32% of B2B marketing professionals report that they document their marketing strategies.

The success of content marketing increases when an organization has a documented editorial statement. 48% of B2B marketing experts say that their companies document their editorial missions.

7. Understand the Demand Generation Process

Engagement is the top goal for 82% of respondents in the CMI benchmark study. The following were close behind:

• Sales: 81%
• Lead Generation: 79%
• Customer Retention/Loyalty 74%
• Lead Nurturing : 74%
• Upsell/Cross-Sell: 65%

All of these goals are great, but they also form part of Demand Generation. Lead nurturing is essential for effective demand generation. Carlos Hidalgo is a Startup Advisor, Former CEO of ANNUITAS and Author of The UnAmerican Dream.

"Demand generation is also a marketing and sales practice. Demand generation isn't just about acquiring new customers. To keep existing customers engaged, we need to apply demand generation principles to them. It is important to turn our customers into ambassadors. This is one of the most neglected areas within most organizations, and is where content marketing is crucial."

If B2B organizations are looking to improve their content marketing success, then defining a strategic demand generation plan that will engage, nurture, and convert buyers/customers, will be a great start.

Get Started with B2B Content marketing Today

Content creation seems to be the focus of B2B content marketers these days. To be successful you will need a data-backed marketing strategy, particularly when your bosses are closely monitoring the results.

If you are a leader in marketing, now is the time to take action. It's time to stop throwing content at random and begin understanding your customers and buyers. Content that is tailored to their needs should be created and continually improved. You'll see real magic with your content when you start seeing it.

You're at the right place if you want to increase traffic to your website with weekly blog posts that are consistently published. Check out our weekly content service or book a consultation to learn more.