How the Shift in B2B Industries is Changing Content Marketing Strategy

When brand trust is at the lowest level for some time, it’s not hard to understand why B2B content marketing is searching for a deeper way to connect with their audience.

Nowadays B2B buyers have a lot of options to learn about possible solutions to their needs. There is plenty of high quality content online and as a result buyers are much more careful in making a decision.

The role of B2B content marketing is to capture interest from potential customers and ensure the strategy employed is as effective to your business as providing value to prospective buyers. Simply publishing articles with no clear strategy will likely lead to poor results overall.

Before you start with your content creation, it is important to understand how the B2B buyer has changed and how to adapt your strategy accordingly.

Bigger Buying Teams

B2B buying committees are increasing in size. Studies are revealing that buying committees have become even larger having on average 6 to 10 decision makers. Right now it’s still a sensible option to create content for decision makers from different departments that usually have separate needs to be met. In the case that buying committees continue growing, a more wide-reaching strategy might be better suited. Forming a connection with decision makers is essential to get the green light in a deal.

Millennial Generation

Millennials are slowly entering the trenches of B2B buying committees and as studies show, they purchase based on what the seller represents, rather than the product.

Industry research show that the new generation is more interested in company values and social responsibility than specific product features. Therefore, creating generic content that highlights your product and its features, without touching on the vision and principles of your company, might not be enough today.

Balancing Marketing and Sales

Especially in B2B, purchasers will delay the prospect of meeting your sales team as late as possible in the buying journey.

A great salesperson could very well convince a target company to become a customer. However, when buyers avoid sales teams until after they have done their own research, content marketing starts to play a bigger role in the your sales funnel.

To achieve success in the current business environment, it’s critical that B2B marketing becomes flexible and channel-agnostic. You have to be comprehensive in your approach and willing to adopt new content channels. Otherwise, you’re asking your customers and prospects to tune out your brand altogether.