Lovestruck: Why We’ve Fallen in Love with B2B Content Marketing

Once upon a time, in a land of rainbows, butterflies, and evil content overload, a gripping love story is unfolding. But this love affair isn’t what you’d expect — it’s no “Romeo and Juliet” or “Sleepless in Seattle.” Rather, it’s an unlikely courtship with a bond sealed by three little words: Business-to-Business. That’s right. We’ve said. The secret’s out. For the last decade, we’ve been head-over-heels in love with B2B content marketing. We know what you’re thinking. B2B can’t hold a candle to B2C. B2B is boring. B2B lacks sex appeal. But you don’t know B2B like we do—she’s a knockout and a showstopper. via GIPHY What’s so darn attractive about B2B content marketing? Let us remind you of all there is to fall in love with.

We’ve Fallen in Love With B2B Content Marketing Because ...

… It Forms Genuine (Love) Connections

Audiences are made up of people with specific needs and interests. Part of the challenge — and the thrill — is creating a B2B content marketing strategy that addresses those needs and interests to make our audience fall in love. via GIPHY “I love the ever-present challenge of speaking to our audience on topics they genuinely care about and in a way that really connects with them. Seeing big results really pays off all of the audience research and thought behind the content,” Elizabeth Williams, a longtime account managers, says. And speaking of the real people we’re trying to woo with our content, those people are why Influencer Marketing Strategist Jack Fitzpatrick is enamored B2B content marketing. “I love B2B content marketing because it is a constant reminder that businesses are made up of actual people,” he says. “When crafting an influencer marketing or social media campaign, we are creating content for people. Small businesses, large corporations, and every business in between, started with people having a vision and striving to reach it. That’s a powerful concept to me.” [bctt tweet="I love B2B content marketing because it is a constant reminder that businesses are made up of actual people. - @fitzJackrick" username="toprank"]

… It Nurtures Buyers

Nothing is more rewarding than hearing those three little words from prospects and turning them into loyal companions thanks to our data-informed content strategies. Just take it from our Associate Director of Search & Analytics Tiffani Allen. “What I love most about B2B content marketing is the journey,” she says. “It’s rarely transactional, but instead focuses on providing the right information at the right time. It’s almost like solving a puzzle. You have to analyze the prospect’s journey – not only through your own properties but in the digital sphere at large.” [bctt tweet="What I love most about #B2B #contentmarketing is the journey ... It's like solving a puzzle. - @Tiffani_Allen" username="toprank"]

… It Combines Analysis With Creativity

Fresh out of graduating high school, I was confronted with the same question most graduates face: “What do you want to do with your life?” After courting professions like biology, psychology, economics, and several others, I struggled to find exactly what I was looking for. No occupation seemed to fulfill my need for a creative outlet and exercise my analytical mind. Until I found marketing. B2B content marketing allows you to be both analytical and creative. Through analysis, you can uncover powerful content opportunities that produce desired results. And through creativity, you can make sure those content opportunities are executed in a way that excites and entertains audiences. via GIPHY This targeted, thoughtful approach is what helps keep the job interesting and drive such substantial results. Debbie Friez, Influencer Marketing Strategist, agrees. “B2B marketing is targeted, so you can really look at how to move specific audiences to awareness of our client and buy from our client,” she says. “With my job specifically, I am able to work with influencers who may not have millions of followers, but are highly-regarded in their industry.” [bctt tweet="#B2Bmarketing is targeted, so you can really look at how to move specific audiences to awareness of our client and buy from our client. - @dfriez" username="toprank"]

… It Presents Constant Learning Opportunities

Some of the best dates are where you and your partner experience new things together. And in B2B content marketing, every day can be a new experience, writing about fresh, emerging topics with varying levels of complexity. That is especially true for those of us that do content marketing for large enterprises or a content marketing agency Our own creative content genius and Senior Content Marketing Manager Joshua Nite says: “I love the opportunity to learn new things. We have clients in finance, cloud-based software, IoT, healthcare... when we work on content with them, I get to learn about it all. It's endlessly fascinating.” [bctt tweet="We have clients in finance, cloud-based software, IoT, healthcare... when we work on content with them, I get to learn about it all. It's endlessly fascinating. - @NiteWrites on what he loves about B2B #contentmarketing." username="toprank"]

… It Solves Problems

(Great) B2B content marketing isn’t just putting a message out there for the sake of it. It’s about solving a real, tangible problem for your ideal customers. That’s why Account Manager Jane Bartel is so enchanted. “One of my favorite things about (good) B2B content marketing is that it's so focused on adding value for the audience,” she says. “More than in the B2C space, B2B content marketers are asking themselves, ‘is the content I'm producing going to help the person consuming it solve a problem?’”

3 B2B Content Marketing Programs We Fell In Love With

TopRank and B2B content marketing is a match made in heaven, and the evidence of our love is in the work we create. The below campaigns gave our team plenty of reasons to fall madly in love with B2B content marketing and we believe they’ll provide plenty of inspiration for you as well.

Prophix: AI in Finance

Interactive. Multimedia. Triple-digit increases. What’s not to love? Several of our team members, including Josh and Elizabeth, are quite fond of our recent content campaigns for Prophix (including our AI in Finance interactive eBook) the most for the reasons listed above and more. “We created something absolutely unique, with the audio plus the interactive interface plus our computer personality, Penny. I love that it's so original and, quite frankly, cool, and I'm proud of the results it's getting, too!” Josh said. Elizabeth adds, “I have just LOVED working on our last few campaigns with Prophix. I love the partnership we have developed where we can bounce ideas off each other, get super creative with our concepts, and test multimedia formats and interactive content.” Read the full case study to get a look behind the scenes at how our interactive content drove triple-digit results for Prophix.

SAP Purpose: Helping the World Run Better

Today, business is more about doing “good” than being “good.” In fact, purpose-driven businesses that strive to leave the world in a better state than they found it in have more loyal customers and also feel a stronger emotional connection to the brand. Our team fell in love with sharing inspirational stories from purpose-driven businesses, NGO’s, nonprofits, and thought leaders for SAP this year through their SAP Purpose campaign. “Sharing the stories of these Forward Thinkers making a difference in our world inspired our team along with the members of SAP’s audience. Seeing these leaders converge on one project sharing their passions and pursuits was so powerful!” says Jack.

Hyper-Targeted Content Strategies

With continued opportunities to refine and make improvements, Jane Bartel loves our ongoing B2B content strategy programs for clients like DivvyHQ, LinkedIn, and more. “The project I'm most in love with at the moment: Planning and building a collection of resources for one particular segment of a client's audience. It's targeted, valuable, and makes great use of new and existing content,” Jane points out. A specific favorite among the team is the seo-driven B2B content program we’ve been working on in partnership with Antea Group USA, a leading EHS and sustainability consulting firm, for the past three years. We’ve made a consistent commitment to each other, and results we love are in the air. From 2017 to 2018, total blog traffic has grown a whopping 149%, and organic blog traffic has grown 183%. One of the pieces we're absolutely gaga over is this piece featuring hot EHS tips from a Demogorgon.

Plenty of Love to Go Around

B2B content marketing is the perfect partner. Our relationship has a solid foundation and we continue to grow together, instead of apart. It affords us the opportunity to learn. It nurtures our buyers. It helps us connect with target audiences. It solves important problems. What’s not to love? We aren’t the only ones who love everything B2B marketing. For more inspiration, make sure to follow these B2B marketing influencers.

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