Marketing in today’s complex world of tech marketing is tricky. This is a dynamic field, ebbing and flowing to take full advantage of the overarching online behemoth that is Google (although it’s certainly not the only avenue) and understanding what effective marketing really looks like.
B2B tech companies are up against considerable competition. The burgeoning market means established players and innovative start-ups are all jostling for position. Content marketing is key to being seen in the first place and, crucially, remaining visible. And content isn’t simply words – today’s great content marketers utilise a plethora of avenues, including:
With this in mind, here are 6 essential tips to help maximise your B2B content marketing efforts.
Without wanting to state the obvious, if you don’t know who your audience is, there’s no way you can effectively market to them. Conversely, your customers and potential customers need to know who they’re dealing with.
It’s been found that in the high-tech sector, an average of 6.8 people are involved in a single purchasing decision.
Research what it is that your customers need from a company. What problems do they need to overcome? What solutions are they likely to have tried that don’t work? How do your product/products overcome these problems?
Showcase the answers to this through the real face of your company – AKA personas. Let potential clients know the people behind the products, your expertise and why they should choose your products over your competitors.
Relevant, well-presented content is essential. Gone are the days when you’d simply push out daily blogs to climb up the rankings. Today’s sophisticated search engines evaluate the content you put out, assessing it for quality as well as quantity. Better a couple of top-notch, long-format technical blogs per month rather than a myriad of sound bites that don’t really add value to your brand.
And now that we’ve mentioned brand…
Customers value a strong brand message as it establishes credibility and builds trust. High-level tech requires a strong level of faith in what a customer buys. Does your brand instil this from the outset?
Deep knowledge, commitment to advancement, concise messaging, environmental awareness and responsibilities, valuing your employees… These are all elements that help create a robust brand and help customers see that they can partner with you for the long term.
All content must, without exception, be mobile-friendly. Optimising every aspect of your marketing for the smartphone market is crucial. More searches are made this way versus those carried out on a desktop and video engagement – one of the most effective marketing tools in the tech field – is more likely to happen on a phone.
While email remains an important tool in the B2B market, the mobile response is poised to eclipse this. Every element of your brand marketing portfolio should, therefore, be entirely mobile-centric.
Highly technical products are always best explained using visual prompts. Videos, photos, diagrams, infographics… These all provide excellent ways of easily presenting complex ideas and products.
In addition, they’re much more likely to be shared on social media and therefore increase organic growth. We all learn better using visual aids, whether we know it or not. So tapping into this area of the human psyche is crucial for the technical B2B market.
The key to great content marketing is to understand the integral links between the different parts. Not every piece of content will generate sales, but it might support driving the potential customer down the sales funnel to eventually convert. These marketing efforts have evolved to allow a truly measurable approach, allowing companies to document the pieces of content that play a strategic part in customer engagement.
With 93% of B2B customers wanting companies to educate, as opposed to simply trying to sell their products (according to research published by Forbes), the value of providing true quality to your audience is a key element of growing sales opportunities.
The B2B tech marketplace continues to be a crowded one. Paying attention to your content marketing output is, therefore, essential. If you’re not nurturing it, you can be sure that your competitors are. So don’t get left behind – put as much effort into this as you do into product development itself and in time you truly will reap the rewards.
Karen Dauncey has been working in SEO since 2003. She specialises in helping businesses get found online through Google using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Karen's wealth of SEO knowledge and practical digital marketing experience comes from running her own SEO and Google Ads agency, Blue Cherry Online Marketing since 2008. Karen has optimised over 1000 websites, managed millions of dollars' worth of spend on Google Ads and has a solid understanding of the constantly shifting industry of digital marketing and SEO. This gives her a unique advantage when it comes to being able to recommend the right online marketing strategies for your business.
She is the founder and creator of The SEO School an online SEO Course to help teach business owners how to do their own SEO. She regularly delivers educational programs for both Local, State and Federal Government and was an advisor for the ASBAS Digital Solutions Program. Karen’s passion and commitment to help small business owners get found online is the driving force behind her online school, making SEO advice accessible to all with free resources and online courses.
Karen has attended search engine conferences in London, Stockholm, Adelaide and Sydney, and was also invited to attend a pilot Business Coaching Course at Google’s Head Office. She has a Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK.
She is also the co-owner of the Digital Experts Directory, an online directory for female serviced-based businesses to promote their business (with a great backlink for SEO).
To keep up to date with the latest in SEO, join her Facebook group The SEO School Community or follow her on Facebook
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