Content marketing has become indispensable for B2B companies looking to attract and engage their target audience. But creating compelling B2B content comes with its own set of challenges. In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll explore the common pain points faced by B2B content writers and marketers, along with actionable tips to overcome them.
What is B2B Content Writing?
B2B content writing refers to the creation of informative and persuasive content tailored for a business audience, rather than individual consumers. This includes materials like:
- Blog posts
- Whitepapers
- Ebooks
- Case studies
- Newsletters
- Social media posts
- Website copy
- Videos
The goal is to attract, nurture, and convert B2B buyers by delivering valuable information at each stage of their purchasing journey. B2B content writers need an in-depth understanding of their target industry in order to produce relevant content that speaks to the buyer‘s pain points.
Why Does B2B Content Marketing Matter?
B2B buyers today conduct extensive online research before engaging with sales reps. In fact, 75% of the buying journey occurs digitally, according to SiriusDecisions. This makes content the primary vehicle for building brand awareness, trust, and loyalty with B2B audiences.
Image source: research.marketingscoop.com
Content marketing also provides a better ROI compared to other marketing tactics. Companies that prioritize content see 7x more media coverage and generate over 600% more leads than those who don‘t, per Demand Metric.
Clearly, B2B content and inbound marketing are well worth the investment today. But executing an effective strategy does come with its fair share of challenges.
Top B2B Content Writing Challenges
Based on surveys of hundreds of B2B content marketers and writers, these are the most pressing pain points reported:
1. Producing Engaging Content
Creating content that resonates with and keeps B2B audiences engaged is easier said than done. Unlike consumer content, B2B content can‘t rely on emotions or impulse. Writers must present dry, technical topics in a compelling way through strong narratives and storytelling techniques.
2. Achieving Subject Matter Expertise
B2B buyers expect content that demonstrates insider knowledge and subject matter expertise. Writers without experience in the niche may struggle to produce authoritative content. They must research extensively or partner closely with SMEs.
3. Identifying Relevant Topics
Determining which topics will interest target personas, speak to their pain points, and help move them through the sales funnel is an ongoing challenge. It requires keeping a finger on the market‘s pulse.
4. Measuring Content ROI
While 75% of B2B marketers say they will produce more content this year, 63% still struggle to show its impact and ROI. This makes it tough to justify content budgets. Clear metrics and analytics are needed.
5. Aligning Teams & Processes
Collaboration between writers, designers, strategists, sales, and executives is crucial but difficult. Misalignment on content goals causes roadblocks. Streamlined workflows and integrated teams are essential.
6. Finding Time & Resources
Limited bandwidth is a constraint, with most B2B marketing teams being small and overburdened. Content needs may outpace capacity. Securing buy-in and budget for content requires proving its value.
Solutions to Overcome B2B Content Challenges
Here are some proven ways for B2B brands to tackle these content hurdles:
Challenge: Producing engaging content
Solution: Leverage storytelling techniques like using narratives, metaphors, humor, shock value, rhetorical questions, analogies, and conversational tone. Insert stories and quotes from customers or executives. Use visuals like charts, diagrams, and info-graphics to simplify complex data. Focus on solving a major pain point.
Challenge: Achieving subject expertise
Solution: Partner closely with internal SMEs through content workshops. Maintain one expert point of contact. Immerse the writer in the industry for 1-2 months via research, interviews, and news monitoring. Supplement with secondary research data sources.
Challenge: Identifying relevant topics
Solution: Create detailed buyer personas with insights into goals, challenges, and interests. Conduct surveys and interviews to learn directly from your audience. Study competitors and influencers to spot content gaps. Monitor prospect conversations on social media and industry forums.
Challenge: Measuring content ROI
Solution: Establish KPIs including traffic, leads generated, conversions, read time, shares, backlinks and search rankings. Use tracking URLs, UTM parameters, and analytics to gauge performance. Assess against costs to calculate true ROI.
Challenge: Aligning teams and processes
Solution: Define content production workflows from ideation to distribution. Set clear individual responsibilities. Foster open communication between teams via regular meetings and shared tools. Have sales reps provide feedback on content needs. Secure executive buy-in.
Challenge: Finding time and resources
Solution: Tally costs of outsourcing vs in-house. Leverage AI writing tools to scale output. Repurpose and expand existing content. Demonstrate content‘s revenue impact. Promote content internally first to gain resources. Start small with a pilot content program.
B2B Content Writing Process and Best Practices
To maximize results, adhere to a structured B2B content production and promotion process:
1. Plan: Set content objectives, KPIs, editorial calendar, topics, formats based on buyer journey stages.
2. Produce: Extract key points from SMEs, write drafts, have reviewers edit. Optimize for SEO.
3. Promote: Share across website, emails, social media, ads. Amplify through outreach, influencers, gated offers.
4. Analyze: Track metrics in analytics. Assess performance against goals. Surface insights to guide future content.
Apply these best practices for high-quality B2B content:
- Focused: Closely aligned to a target buyer persona‘s needs
- Educational: Teaches something useful in an easy-to-digest way
- Original: Provides a new angle or viewpoint on an existing topic
- Actionable: Readers can apply insights immediately
- Well-researched: Backed by credible data sources and expert perspectives
- Visually engaging: Text supplemented by relevant images, charts, videos etc.
- Conversational: Uses "you" and "we" to speak directly to the reader
- Skimmable: Information chunked via subheads, bullet points and short paragraphs
Examples of Impactful B2B Content
Here are some stellar examples of B2B content that educate and engage target audiences:
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Ebooks: Slack‘s "A Short Guide to Team Effectiveness" offers research-backed tips for improving teamwork.
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Whitepapers: HubSpot‘s "The Ultimate Guide to Writing and Formatting a White Paper" breaks down the elements of an effective whitepaper with actionable advice.
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Videos: Zendesk‘s humorous video series depicts frustrating customer experiences to highlight their software‘s value.
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Blog posts: Shopify‘s "50 Ways to Make Your First Sale" offers a comprehensive list of tactics for ecommerce merchants.
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Social posts: IBM‘s short LinkedIn posts like "5 Challenges Every CTO Faces" provide digestible tips for tech leaders.
Key Metrics to Track Content Performance
To demonstrate the ROI of B2B content, focus on these quantifiable metrics:
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Traffic: Site visits, pageviews, traffic sources, visitor demographics
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Engagement: Time on page, scroll depth, repeat visits, social shares, downloads, comments, backlinks
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Conversions: Leads generated, sign-ups, sales inquiries, customers acquired
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Sales impact: Marketing influenced pipeline and revenue
Compare this data over time, across channels, and by content types/topics. Look for actionable correlations to inform content planning.
Future of B2B Content Writing
Some emerging trends that will shape B2B content in 2024 and beyond:
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More video: Short, engaging video content from webinars to TikTok-style formats
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Audio adoption: Podcasting and audio content to reach on-the-go audiences
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Conversational interfaces: Chatbots, messaging apps and interactive content
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Community building: User-generated content via reviews, forums and social engagement
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Personalization: Adaptive content tailored to individual users based on their profile and actions
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Localization: Translations and cultural adaptations of content for global markets
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More multimedia: Interactive content combining text, visuals, audio, graphics and animation
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Automation assistance: AI tools to analyze data, suggest content topics and generate rough drafts
Key Takeaways and Recommendations
Producing engaging, high-performing B2B content involves many moving parts. By researching target audiences in-depth, monitoring competitive content, testing content types, documenting performance metrics, and collaborating across teams, B2B brands can steadily enhance their content marketing.
Prioritizing resources for original, high-quality branded content will become ever more critical for cutting through the noise and winning customers‘ attention and trust. With the right strategy, B2B content can accelerate pipeline growth and fuel sustainable business success.
