Ask any B2B marketer about their top content marketing challenges, and they’ll likely say, “finding the time and resources to get it done”.
This problem can be even harder if you have a small, in-house marketing team – or if you’re a marketing department of one.
But even though you have a small team, you’re likely under pressure to produce more and more content. According to the 2015 B2B Content Marketing: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North Americas report, 70% of B2B marketers are creating more content than they were last year – with 42% publishing daily or multiple times per week.
A big reason for this increase is buyer demand. Research has shown that B2B buyers review multiple pieces of content before making a purchase. Meanwhile, a Demand Gen Report survey found that 61% of B2B buyers select vendors who deliver the right mix of content at the right time. This means that you need content that aligns with your buyers’ needs throughout every stage of the sales cycle.
But how can you possibly keep up?
Here are five things that will help your small team win at content marketing:
1. Develop a content marketing strategy.
If you’re doing the bulk of your company’s marketing, your time is precious. You can’t waste time on campaigns that won’t lead to business.
Creating a content marketing strategy is a lot of work up front, but it will save you loads of time, money and headaches down the road. A strategy is vital if you want to align your content with your customers’ needs and your business goals. Research from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs found that marketers who document their content marketing strategies are more effective than those who don’t have a documented strategy.
2. Create an editorial calendar.
When you work with an editorial calendar, you won’t need to sit in front of your computer late at night wondering what to post on your blog tomorrow. An editorial calendar keeps you on track by outlining all the content you will create in the next month or quarter. It also makes it easier to manage your workflow and collaborate with your team.
3. Repurpose your content.
Repurposing your content is a great way to get your message in front of a wider audience, attract leads from different channels and improve your SEO. It also allows you to publish new content quickly – which is a plus if you’re strapped for time and resources.
However, repurposing content doesn’t mean copying and pasting your latest blog post into other channels. If you do this, Google might tag it as duplicate content. Plus, your audience may not find it relevant. For example, if you repost a tweet on LinkedIn, your connections might not understand your hashtags.
You must refresh your content to make it relevant for each channel. For example, here are 21 ways to share and repurpose your case studies.
4. Measure your results.
Research has shown that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Analyzing your content will show you which efforts are bringing you the biggest results.
Here are some key metrics to measure:
- Email open and click-through rates
- Number of high-quality website visitors
- Time on site and page views
- Social shares
- Conversion rates (resource downloads, webinar registrations, blog subscribers, etc.)
- How many leads turned into customers
5. Outsource your content development.
You can work 24/7 and still not get everything done. Plus, with so many daily interruptions, it’s hard to block out time to write a white paper. Outsourcing your content development will save your sanity, free up your weekends and allow you to focus on the big marketing picture.
Outsourcing your content development can also bring you better results – especially if you outsource to acquire a skill that’s not available in-house. For example, your product team may have amazing technical knowledge, but can they write blog posts that engage your target audience? You might benefit from working with a freelance copywriter who can translate their technical knowledge into compelling content.
You don’t need a huge marketing team to succeed with content marketing.
When you apply these tips, you can get your message in front of a wider audience, attract more leads and win more customers.
3 Ways to Apply This Information Now
- Download the Content Repurposing Worksheet to plan how you will promote y our content across different channels.
- Read 10 Steps to an Effective B2B Content Marketing Strategy to learn how to create a content strategy that brings you results.
- Click to share this article on LinkedIn. Sharing quality content increases your visibility and credibility with your existing contacts, creating conversations and potentially new business.
