A few years ago, content marketing was simple. Just start a blog. As long as you had content, you were good to go. But times have changed, states Neil Patel in a recent blog post for the Content Marketing Institute. Content marketing requires more than just 200-word entries cobbled together with article spinners.
“We’re getting better at content marketing. But as optimistic as this evolution is, we still need to make progress. Specifically, we need to revisit the idea of a blog. And not just any blog, but the B2B blog,” says Patel, co-founder of digital marketing consulting firms Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics. “B2B blogs are notoriously difficult. They often run aground within weeks of launching. The articles are generally written in a boring way. Most of the time, they simply don’t work.”
Patel offers these tips for developing a top-tier B2B blog:
Create a detailed buyer persona.
An amazing blog starts with dedicated readers. Determine the exact group you’re targeting and deliver. The narrower the better.
Create a content segmentation grid.
Develop a grid that identifies your various persona segments, along with the lead topic and opportunities that will help them to become qualified prospects. This grid helps you zero in on your select audience and gives you a closer look at what types of content you’ll need to produce.
Develop a comprehensive list of article topics. If you’ve done your job right in detailing your narrowed target persona, you should be able to generate a list of hundreds of topics that will meet the audience member exactly where he or she is. Don’t create content merely to repeat all the stuff that’s already on the Internet. Go beyond what’s expected in terms of the breadth, depth and scope of topics. A topic alone is not good enough for a great piece of content. A topic must have a solution – meeting the user’s intent.
Invest in a good writer.
You’ll only have great content by having a great content writer. Find someone whose exclusive task is to develop content. Whatever your industry, your writer should have relevant experience. Ensure that they have the proper tools. Content writers should have access to designers, developers and whatever other resources would be useful. And compensate properly. If you view this individual as a key member or leader of your marketing team, it becomes easier to understand and justify the right compensation level.
Solicit excellent contributors.
Bring in industry-recognized contributors. Don’t make the mistake of wanting to keep everything in-house. Imagine the power of a B2B blog that could attract the most brilliant minds in the industry.
Developing a high-quality B2B blog that draws industry experts as contributors and thousands of regular readers requires a significant allocation of money and people. “This isn’t easy, but it is effective. Prepare to buckle down and give it all you’ve got. You’ll be rewarded for your pains,” says Patel.
Author
Get our newsletter and digital focus reports
Stay current on learning and development trends, best practices, research, new products and technologies, case studies and much more.
