Business-​to-​Business (B2B) content consumption increased by 18.8% last year, according to data from NetLine. That brings B2B consumption back up to almost pre-​pandemic levels. And, it’s one of the largest year-​over-​year gains that NetLine has ever observed. Producing this content is critical this year since 33.4% of B2B buyers plan on making purchases within the next year (a 8.8% increase from last year). Here are a few content marketing tips to help your clients make the most of this opportunity.

Content Marketing Tips for Your B2B Clients

Which Content Formats to Use

Content for Immediate Buying Decisions

According to NetLine, there are nine content formats that are more likely to be associated with immediate buying decisions from B2B buyers in 2023:

• Software Trials
• Survey Reports
• Best Practices
• Special Reports
• How-​To Guides
• White Papers
• Executive Briefs
• Live Webinars
• On-​Demand Webinars

Since about a third of the B2B buyers out there are planning on making purchases within the next year, these content formats should definitely be included in the content marketing tips you’ll give your client at your next meeting.

Other Important Content Formats

However, just because the content formats listed above are those desired by immediate buyers doesn’t mean that your client should disregard other content formats. NetLine says that B2B professionals are 10.4% more likely to register for ebooks when they plan on making purchases within the next three months compared to 2021. Overall, these content types saw increases in registration over the last year:

• Guides: Saw a 75.4% increase in registration year over year
• Cheat Sheets: 16.1% 

Webinars

Webinar registrations represent the most significant purchase intent signal, says NetLine. There’s a ton of data that supports the importance of including webinars to your client’s content marketing efforts:

• B2B professionals who register for on-​demand webinars are 50% more likely to make an investment within six months compared to other formats
• B2B professionals who register for live webinars are 107% more likely to make an investment within three months compared to on-​demand webinars
• Users who register for live webinars are 22% more likely to be correlated with a purchase decision within the next three years
• Live webinar signups indicate a user’s proximity to a final purchase decision

So, the next of our content marketing tips is this: Definitely promote the idea of both live and on-​demand webinars to your clients in order to help potential B2B buyers to make it over the finish line.

Which Content Formats Should Your Client Use?

At the end of the day, the content formats that are best for your client are completely dependent on their audience. You can look up what their target audience prefers by looking up the audience’s profile on AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel.

Who Should Your Client be Writing For?

One of the most important content marketing tips out there is to write for your audience. Different members of an organization have different needs, goals and problems to solve. So, if your client wants to target positions that are more likely to be associated with immediate buying decisions, they should be writing to:

• C‑Level Executives
• Contractors
• Executive VPs
• Senior Employees
• SVPs
• Owners

Delays

The last of our content marketing tips is to not get discouraged if content doesn’t produce immediate results. On average, it took B2B professionals 28.7 hours to consume the content they registered for. That’s down from 33.3 hours in 2021, but it still means that you need to give the person time to read and/​or watch the content before expecting them to take action. If they take longer than that, though, you should definitely have your client’s marketing team (or yours) reach out to the registrant with more information.

Photo by Magnet​.me