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CONTENT MARKETING

PRACTICES GUIDE

Modern Marketing PartnersContent Marketing

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Content marketing is a hot topic! In fact, 91% of B2B Marketers

are using content marketing1. So what is it? We define content

marketing as the creation and distribution of educational and/or

compelling content in multiple formats to attract and/or

retain customers.

This guide will take you through the content marketing process.

Planning; deciding what type of content marketing works best for

your company and a content schedule. Implementation; including

tips on how to write blogs, case studies, and white papers, and how

to distribute your content. And finally, measurement; metrics to use

to determine if your content marketing is effective.

PLANNINGThe quality of a content plan can support both the effectiveness

and efficiency of your content marketing initiative. Begin your

planning by determining the mission of your content marketing

initiatives and stick to it. Then, you can move on to determining

what kind you will use. On average, B2B marketers use a total of

12 content marketing tactics found in the graph below1. The graph

below depicts the most popular B2B content marketing tactics.

A GUIDE TO MODERN B2B CONTENT MARKETING

B2B CONTENTMARKETING USAGE (BY TYPE)

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But how do you know which tactic to choose? In B2B companies,

buyers of products and services want the question “can you fix

my problem?” answered. The bulk of a buyer’s selection criteria

and process is aimed at determining whether a prospective firm

can solve their problem. Do they understand my issues? Have you

solved similar problems in the past? Does the specific team have

the necessary skills and experience2? Blogs, case studies, and white

papers as part of your content marketing plan can help answer

these questions. For B2B companies, blogs, case studies, and white

papers are content marketing gold.

A blog is defined as a website containing articles, referred to as

“blog posts” or “blogs”, that highlight subject matter expertise,

industry news, or any relevant information to the audience

you are targeting.

You can use a blog to demonstrate you understand your buyer’s

issues by creating content that is relevant to their needs. Your blog

can include how to’s, tips, etc. pertaining to your buyer’s issues.

Blogging is not appropriate for companies who can not make the

time commitment or engage with their buyers, or for company’s

who are in highly regulated industries.

Case studies are 1-2 page documents that combine the first-person

authority of a testimonial with the narrative structure of a real-life

story3. They typically follow a 3-step format; business challenge,

solution, results.

Case studies can show you have solved similar problems in the

past, which builds credibility and trust with B2B buyers. Not

to mention the fact that opinions from other people are more

compelling then your words. More than 8 out of 10 people say

that opinions and recommendations from people they don’t know

indicate brand quality and influence what they buy4.

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White papers are authoritative reports or guides that help readers

understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision that are

typically used in government and B2B marketing5.

White papers should be used for B2B companies that are selling

new, complex, or expensive products or services. New products

are not easy to research. Therefore, your piece of white paper can

be a resource for those conducting research. Also, a white paper

can explain a complex offering, such as computer hardware or

enterprise software6. White papers can demonstrate your expertise/

skills on a particular subject matter.

Ninety (90) percent of marketers say that content marketing is

going to be extremely important to them in 2013. However, only 38

percent actually have a strategy in place7. How often should you be

publishing content? When? And Where? There is no silver bullet here;

frequency, timing, and mediums are a function of your audience

and your business. However, an understanding of those factors can

help you develop your content calendar.

Content can be organized in a variety of ways. First, you can

develop a medium-specific calendar. In other words, develop an

individual calendar for each delivery vehicle; i.e blogging, case

studies, or white papers. Based on your needs develop a weekly/

monthly/yearly content schedule for each delivery vehicle. This

makes the production process run more smoothly! Another method

is to plan around specific keywords/content topics.

Understanding your audience is foundational to every content

marketing plan. Therefore, it is also useful to create a content

calendar based on each particular audience you are targeting. Map

out the content topic, schedule, and medium for each

audience segment.

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All of these types of content calendars can be combined to form

one master calendar to give the overall scope of your content

marketing plan.

Finally, throughout your content planning process, consider

that all content can be repurposed over a variety of mediums.

For example, that glossy capabilities print brochure or catalog

should be leveraged across all electronic mediums for maximum

exposure! Place a thumbnail on your website homepage that links

to a registration page for immediate download.

IMPLEMENTATIONYour content marketing efforts should definitely be focused

on quality over quantity. Following are tips and best practices

for three of the most popular types of content: blogging, case

studies, and whitepapers.

BLOGGING

• Keep blogs between 250-1000 words

• Provide unique, original, and useful content

• Each blog post should focus on one topic for clarity and

ease of reading

• Optimize images for SEO in 3 ways; image file name, image

title, and image alt tag (use keywords!)

• Use tags and categories to help users locate blog content

(tags are also indexed by search engines)

• Set up an RSS Feed. An RSS feed is a plug-in that allows

your readers/visitors to sign up to be emailed when you

publish a new blog

• Set up resources links/a blog roll on your blog. They benefit

SEO and act as a valuable resource to your readers to find

relevant content

• Utilize bold face and H1 header tags to build SEO

• Every blog should have a call-to-action

• Brand your blog – custom design should extend your visual

identity and reflect company goals and vision

• Add social sharing features such as the Facebook Like

button, the Twitter Retweet button, the Google+ button, and

the LinkedIn share button.

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CASE STUDIES

• Make sure to tell the story from start to finish

• Create a template – a common way to organize a case study

is to sequence through the business challenges, soution, and results

• Don’t be generic, give real numbers! Instead of saying

website traffic tripled, say website traffic increased from

10,000 to 30,000 visits

• Get to the point – keep case studies to about 500 words

• Identify a problem that your audience can relate to

• Make it easy to read; headers, bulleted lists, etc. and use

your audiences language (don’t get too technical!)

• Use compelling headlines

WHITE PAPERS

• Keep your white paper to 6-10 pages. If your white paper is

based on a highly technical subject, keep it under 20

• Avoid jargon/buzzwords, instead write clear and concise

• Use sidebars and call-outs through out the white paper to

keep interest

• Write in the third person

• Do not write overly-promotional

• Typical white paper format: opening summary, introduction,

body, closing summary, company profile, contact information

• When appropriate, provide examples that reinforce an explanation

• Provide sources

Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they will come. Every

piece of content needs to be distributed across a variety of

channels to ensure it reaches your target audience.

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For example, besides distributing blogs through social media like

Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, blog submission sites can help

you increase your reach while building links. The top three blog

submission sites are Technorati, Blog search, and Blog catalog.

There are hundreds of other blog submission sites, find ones that

are trustworthy and relevant to your content.

Also, consider submitting articles and white papers to Ezine,

Articlesbase, Edocr and Yahoo! Voices. Each offer valuable

analytics on how each piece of content is performing; number of

views, keywords performance, click-through-rates, etc and give you

search authority.

Email is a fantastic distribution method for your content.

Because your email list is comprised of people who opted in to

receive information, you can reach a more targeted audience of

people who may actually want consume your content. The more

segmented, the better.

Social media distribution is a given. Know your audience to know

where to reach them. The most common social media sites for

B2B marketers to distribute content are LinkedIn, Twitter, and

Facebook8.

MEASUREMENTMeasuring your content marketing efforts is critical to determine

if you are meeting objectives. There are so many ways to monitor

your content marketing program. Use the following to get started:

Google Analytics – which web pages are people visiting on a

regular basis?

Google AdWords – what keywords are people searching that

increase the click-through-rate to your site?

Google Alerts – are you setting up alerts on your top keywords to

see if your content shows up high in search results? If you don’t see

your content, what are you seeing from others/your competition?

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YouTube INSIGHT – who is viewing your videos and how often?

What parts are they watching? Does a low search volume mean

the content in the video is not interesting?

Inbound Links – how many people/websites are linking to

your content?

Facebook INSIGHTS – how many new likes do you get each

month? Are your posts shared? How many people are talking

about you and what is the reach for each post?

TweetDeck – for your “mentions” column – are others also

repurposing your twitter content by mentioning your name?

Blog Subscriptions – how many people have registered to receive

updates from your blog?

LinkedIn – how many connections do you have on LinkedIn? How

many people are following your company/are group members?

How often do group members comment on your posts or

generate posts themselves?

Radian6 – what is the “chatter” this month for your brand across

all social platforms? Are you getting generally positive or

negative sentiments?

Downloads – how many people have downloaded a piece of content?

Forwards – how many people have forwarded a piece of content?

(Email service providers can track this)

Email Subscriptions – how many people have signed up to

receive your content via email?

Blog Comments – how often do people make comments on blog

posts? Is there a dialogue occurring?

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Sales – has your content impacted sales?

HootSuite – when you look at an overview of your posts on

Facebook and Twitter for the month, which links are the most

popular and how many “likes” do you get on a daily basis?

Content marketing is a requirement in the modern marketing

world. For B2B companies, blogs, case studies, are effective

tactics. They all can help answer the question, “can you fix my

problem?” Use blogging to demonstrate you understand their

issues, case studies to show you have solved similar problems

in the past, and white papers to show your expertise/skills on

a particular subject matter relevant to your buyers. Throughout

your content creation, ensure you are following best practices

and always measure the results of content marketing initiatives

through your predetermined success metrics. The use of content

marketing will only increase over the next year, so don’t miss out!

Additional Resources1. 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and

Trends (CMI)

2. Professional Services: How Buyers Buy (Hinge)

3. Content Marketing Playbook 2011 (CMI)

4. Hubspot

5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_paper

6. http://www.whitepaperguy.com/white-paper-article-who-

needs-a-white-paper.html

7. Econsultancy

8. 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends (CMI)

Modern Marketing Partners is a full service marketing and communications agency specialized in the integration of traditional marketing and digital media for breakthrough results. To request a free Content Marketing Program Analysis, contact Neil Brown at 630-868-5061, or visit our website www.ModernMarketingPartners.com.