B2B Marketing Content Your Clients Should be Using

BY Rachel Cagle
Featured image for “B2B Marketing Content Your Clients Should be Using”

If your B2B client has been producing content marketing, GOOD! You’ve both hopped on a good trend. According to Netline Corporation’s 2022 State of B2B Content Consumption & Demand Report, the demand for B2B content marketing has increased by 33% since 2019. That percentage translates to 4.6 million total leads. Within the next year, the consumption of B2B content will directly drive investments. Producing content is a great start, but is your client’s content the type their target customers are looking for?

B2B Content Marketing Assets Your Clients Should be Using

According to Netline, “eBooks, historically, are the most popular content format (by registration volume) regardless of profession, industry, job function, etc.” However, just because a B2B content marketing format was interacted with the most doesn’t mean it’s the most effective at driving sales. So, Netline conducted research that compared content consumption to consumers’ buying windows. The results show that the content most likely to be accompanied by immediate buying decisions are:

  • White Papers
  • Survey Reports
  • Tools
  • Research Reports
  • Analyst Reports
  • On-​Demand Webinars
  • Live Webcasts

An aspect all of these B2B content marketing formats have in common is that they’re rich in information. When consumers download a white paper or register for a webinar, they know they’ll be dedicating time to absorb the featured information. That’s why content such as newsletters, book summaries and cheat sheets are ones less likely to accompany immediate buying decisions. Where consumers want to invest their money, they’ll first invest their time in research.

Breakdown of Content per Purchase Intent Window

  • Most likely to accompany a 0–3 month purchasing decision: 
    • White Papers: 8.8%
    • Articles: 8.3%
    • On-​Demand Webinars: 7.6%
  • 3–6 month buying decision: 
    • Live Webcast: 12.4%
    • On-​Demand Webinar: 10%
    • Article: 9.7%
  • 6–12 month purchasing decision: 
    • On-​Demand Webinar: 20.3%
    • Live Webcast: 18.6%
    • Guide: 17.6%
  • More than a year until a purchasing decision is made: 
    • Tips & Tricks Guide: 75%
    • Cheat Sheet: 71.7%
    • Reports or Research Reports: 71.3%

So, based on this data, if your client hasn’t been investing in on-​demand webinars, they should start ASAP.

You can also check out your client’s target audience’s profile on AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel to learn more about their content consumption habits. For example, did you know that Executive Managers are 94% more likely than others to have participated in an online webinar within the last month?

Who Should Your Client’s Target Audience Be?

Obviously, you can’t just produce general B2B content marketing and call it a day. Yes, the content needs to detail your client’s products or services, but how you present that information will vary depending on your client’s target audience.

According to Netline, 40% of all B2B content marketing consumption is done by c‑level, manager and director-​level professionals:

  • C‑Level: account for 14.8% of consumption
  • Manager: 13.3%
  • Director: 12.5%

However, there’s one job level that consumes nearly twice as much B2B content marketing than each of these: individual contributors. They account for 25.5% of consumption. And this trend isn’t anything new. Netline says that individual contributors have been the most active consumers for six years in a row.

The key takeaway from the data is that, even though higher-​level professionals make up a large percentage of content consumption, “make sure your content library addresses and appeals to multiple levels of the organization,” says Netline. “Each professional has an opinion of what they and their business need to succeed. Is your content meeting that expectation?”

It’s time to meet with your B2B content marketing clients and review their strategies. If they’ve been focusing on shorter-​form content, it’s time for a change.

Photo by Malte Helmhold


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