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The global B2B ecommerce market is valued at $12 trillion, and this number is expected to grow by 17% in 2021. And today, more than 90% of B2B marketers use content marketing to reach, nurture and convert prospects.
This is why content marketing still leads as one of the most popular and cost-effective marketing strategies for companies growing in the B2B ecommerce segment. Not only does content increase a brand‘s visibility, but it also educates and persuades prospects to take actions. The good news, it’s not too late to get started. Here’s a shortlist of steps you can take.
1. Invest in video content marketing
Around 87% of marketers are using video as a marketing tool. People prefer watching videos as compared to reading text. Video is a growing trend, and content marketers should not ignore this.
Video content marketing involves creating and distributing videos to drive profitable actions. Every video should have a story to tell. Hence, start by identifying the needs of your target audiences and select the characters of your story. Make sure your video resonates with your brand values.
Your video story should be created, keeping in mind any one of three goals that are awareness, consideration and decision. Include the top elements in your video apart from characters, such as conflict, resolution, quest, pain points and triumph.
Videos can assist your content marketing in a variety of ways, such as:
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Product reviews.
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Event videos.
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Commercials.
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Explainer videos.
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Testimonials.
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Tutorials.
Related: How to Easily Create Valuable, Meaningful Video Content
2. Optimize for question keywords
Question keywords are an excellent way to optimize your content because it educates the prospects and presents you as a trusted brand in the eyes of the buyers. Since the answers are displayed as answer boxes, people value businesses that are returned by Google as featured snippets.
You can find relevant question keywords using tools such as SEMrush, Ubersuggest and Answer The Public. Here are some ways that B2B companies can optimize for question keywords:
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Create FAQ pages that answer the most commonly asked questions of the customers.
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Follow a question-answer pattern for content creation.
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Use relevant question Schema to prepare your content.
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Improve the readability of your content. Opt for a Flesh-Kincaid score of above 70.
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Offer unique, informative, and comprehensive content.
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Add proper product markups to display relevant product information directly on the search results.
Related: How Using Microdata Can Improve Your Website SEO
3. Leverage the power of linkable assets
PR and content marketing are two sides of the same coin. When your PR and content-marketing teamwork is in sync, they help to improve the overall organic visibility of your website resulting in more traffic and conversions.
For example, a content-marketing team can create linkable assets and contact journalists and bloggers with that specific resource. The key to this is doing something that is timely and relevant right now as to what is happening in the media. Here are some examples of linkable assets:
Related: How To Maximize the Number of Linkable Assets on Your Website [chap 5]
4. Focus on remarketing
Remarketing is a content strategy to target prospects who have earlier visited your website. Retargeting helps to:
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Generate more repeat visitors.
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Improve your branding.
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Convert prospects in every stage of the buyer journey.
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Increase the flow of leads.
Users who have viewed your content before having higher chances of conversion. Hence, it is the best tactic to maximize the reach of your content.
Depending on user behavior, a fresh piece of content is sent to influence the buying decision. It can be in the form of email, a PPC ad or a sponsored social media post. Both text and video content formats can be used for remarketing.
Related: The Essentials You Need to Know to Set up an Effective Remarketing Campaign
5. Partner with influencers
A recommendation from an influencer is a kind of word-of-mouth marketing that increases user trust in your business. The key here is to identify niche influencers who have a strong influence on your target audience.
There are several types of content techniques you can use for influencer marketing, such as preparing guest posts content to publish them on the influencer blog. You can also co-create content with an influencer and publish it on your business blog.
You can collaborate with both micro or macro influencers by finding them on platforms such as Traackr or Upfluence.
Related: 6 Essential Influencer-Marketing Truths Every E-Commerce Brand Should Know
Around 94% of successful content marketers always measure their content performance. Anything that is not measured cannot be optimized. Hence, make it a point to measure the ROI of your content promotion efforts.
Here are some of the top metrics for tracking your content marketing investment:
Effective content marketing lets you build the user’s trust in your business. People look forward to doing business with a company that is reliable. B2B content marketing requires a more planned approach than B2C content marketing because the buying cycle of B2B audiences is longer.
Lastly, make sure to list your goals, identify the needs of the audience, create quality content and measure the effectiveness of your content at every level of the customer journey. Use the above strategies to take your B2B ecommerce content marketing efforts to the next level.