Want to increase your business-to-business (B2B) client’s marketing return on investment (ROI)? You need to get them to focus on content marketing. According to data from Chief Marketer, 62% of B2B marketers say that content marketing is the channel that produces leads with the highest ROI. If you want to make the most of your client’s ad dollars, here are some content marketing tactics to take advantage of ASAP.

B2B Content Marketing Tactics

Choose the Best Formats

The first, and one of the most important, B2B content marketing tactics is choosing proven formats. When most people think of content marketing, blogs come to mind. Blogs are a fantastic content marketing channel, but they’re not the only one out there. According to Semrush, there are plenty of proven formats for B2B marketers to choose from, including:

Blogs: “Marketers who prioritize business blogging efforts are 13x more likely to see positive ROI,” says Semrush. They’re an excellent content marketing format because they’re easily accessible by the public, contribute to your client’s search results and easily educate your client’s target audience.
Research Studies: If you’re going to work with or make a purchase from a business, you’d prefer them to be an industry leader/thought leader, right? One way to make your client stand out as one to consumers is to publish original research studies. Semrush says that this content helps brands stand out from the competition and get other people in the industry talking about your client’s brand. Not sure what to do the next study on? Try answering a common industry question with data or giving new insights into an industry trend.
White Papers: “79% of B2B buyers list white papers as the material they were most likely to share with colleagues,” says Semrush.
Videos: Videos provide a more engaging way to spread your client’s message and industry insights. And you can share videos easily across social media, on your client’s website and more.

Promote Your Client’s Content

Of course, the next step in the chain of content marketing tactics is to promote your client’s content. But how? Chief Marketer highly recommends taking advantage of the reach of social media. According to Chief Marketer, 27% of B2B marketers say that social media posts are the most effective content for moving prospects through the sales funnel. The most effective social media channels for B2B businesses are:

LinkedIn: 91%
YouTube: 24%
Facebook: 22%
Instagram: 16%
Twitter: 11%

Of course, the top social media platform completely depends on your client’s target audience. To find out your client’s, check out their target audience’s profile on AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel. There, you’ll see what percentage of the audience is active on which social media platforms.

Create Content for Different Phases of the Buying Cycle

B2B sales don’t often get made as quickly as their business-to-consumer counterparts. According to Chief Marketer, B2B marketers say that typical sales take this long to close:

3–6 months: 31% of B2B marketers agree
1–3 months: 28%
6 months to 1 year: 22%

Only 13% of marketers say that sales take less than a month to close, typically.

So, one of the B2B content marketing strategies your client should put info effect with this in mind is making sure that there is content available for every stage of the buying cycle. There should be content marketing for the awareness, consideration, trial period (if applicable) and purchase. Then you need content that will continue to educate them as customers to keep them coming back for more.

Don’t leave your client’s current and potential customers hungry for more educational content. Make sure everyone can learn from your client’s content marketing, no matter which part of the buying cycle they’re in.

Photo by Malte Helmhold