Executive Summary
In this guide, we explore a powerful content marketing strategy designed to help your B2B business stand out from the competition and drive success. Through a combination of content creation, using articles, videos, podcasts and live streaming, I will show you how to implement and effective exposure and distribution strategy using Social 444. You'll learn how to reach your total addressable market and engage prospects in a world where traditional marketing tactics are no longer effective.
Table of Contents
- Planning Digital Content: The Changing Landscape of B2B Marketing
- Content Creation: Catering to Every Preference
- Content Distribution: Introducing Social 444
- Establishing a Content Library
- Crafting Adverts for Maximum Impact
- Rebranding Images for Enhanced Recognition
- Making the Most of Your Marketing Automation Platform
- FAQs
- Takeaways
- Conclusion: Taking Action and Embracing Success
1. Planning Digital Content: The Changing Landscape of B2B Marketing
As technology has evolved, so too has the way we consume information. Gone are the days when cold calling and mailshots were effective. Today, 83% of research is done digitally by prospects before they even consider talking to you. This means that it's crucial to create engaging content that reaches prospects during their research phase.
One of the critical aspects of all marketing is to be 100% clear who you are speaking to. Right now you're probably thinking, "what is this guy talking about, of course we know who we're talking to!" Well. believe it or not, most businesses spend tens or hundreds of thousands on marketing technology and strategies that were designed for consumer markets and then apply them to B2B. That's why your marketing never seems to get off the ground.
Planning digital content means you are going to be self-critical of the content you need to communicate your message to your prospects. But before that, you must agree who and where your prospects are located. As an example, let's say your prospects equate to 10,000 businesses throughout the UK and we'll call this your total addressable market or TAM. Research says that approximately 1% to 15% of your TAM are looking to start their buying journey each week. 10,000 companies, means 100-1500 prospective companies. Our intention and expectation is to help you corral as many of the 1%-15% to engage with your business as possible.
No matter when a company starts looking, they will all require a similar collection of digital content upon which to evaluate you and your product offering. Therefore, you do not need to waste time writing weekly blogs. As an aside, businesses don't write weblogs or blogs as they are commonly called. Consumer related sites writte blogs. You as a business to business organisation writes articles for the purpose of communicating relevant information to your audience that will help them make a decision to buy from you. You're not selling protien shakes, Keto recipes or keeping a travel blog.
The two recommended strategies are:
- Purchase or use your TAM database to email them when you have a new article or when you are broadcasting a new show
- Upload your TAM database to LinkedIn and post banner adverts to promote your overall content strategy and to encourage your TAM to follow your company page.
2. Content Creation: Catering to Every Preference
The key to successful content marketing is providing a variety of options for prospects to consume for the simple reason you do not know what type of content your prospect wants to consume. At a certain time of day it may suit them to listen to a podcast, at another they may prefer to PDF downloaded to their tablet or perhaps watch soemthing on their laptop with or without the speakers on. None of us know what prospectds want in advance as they are the same as you and me.
Planning digital content must include the following:
- Articles - Primary content: Min 4,500 words, web content and PDFs
- Podcasts - Regular shows, minimum 30mins
- B2B videos - Vary in length, Product Demos, Case Studies, Training, Interviews
- Live streaming - Regular shows, 10+ repetitive segments and 30+ multple choice segments
The live streams are broadcast on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube which dramatically increase your exposure. I recommend thew live show is repurposed as a podcast.
3. Content Distribution: Introducing Social 444
One of the main problems arises from businesses cut-and-pasting an article URL to social media in an attempt to promote the business and obtain exposure. LinkedIn will not allow a high frequency of repetitive posts of the same article, therefore this approach is not very successful and typically ceases after the articles have all been posted.
B2Bs must not foget about repetition. Prospects are bombarded with advertising messages every day, in the thousands. In 1997 it took ten attempts to get a prospect to notice your business. However, only one in three message got through due to a multitude of reasons, gone to lunch, on holiday, etc.
Fast forward twenty five years to 2023. It now takes thirty attempts and one in four get through, you can include spam filters and much more distractions than twenty five years ago. To sum this up, you need repetition and 120 visuals to achieve a prospect seeing thirty of them before they get to recognise your business, and you cannot repeat too frequently otherwise LinkIn will throttle your content.
The solution is Social 444, a set-and-forget social media content distribution strategy designed to grow your business without huge investments in sales and marketing departments.
Social 444 is implemented by creating 120 adverts in various formats such as graphics, short videos, motion graphics, and memes, which serve to help you visualise your overall tone-of-voice being projected. You are creating adverts to promote your content. Yes, you are going to create as many adverts as you want, to promote your critical 'primary' 4,500+ word content/articles. As you can see, advert repetition gets you noticed and you decide what you want them to read.
As a side note, if you simply posted your article on your website, there are a number of elements to be aware of; will Google actually index your content and if they do, where will they rank it (no guarantee you'll get on page one). There is no guarantee for any business on earth that says Google has a duty to index and rank your content on their platform, for free! You are the product and Google are serving their content to their customers on their platform. This is why Social 444 is so important, because you are able to communicate your messaging, direct to your TAM
Once your adverts and content are ready, you can consistently promote your content across all social media platforms, using an automation platform such as www.recurpost.com, which enables you to schedule these adverts to be posted four times a day, every day, for up to 18 months.
4. Establishing a Content Library
To ensure a steady flow of content, prepare a library of articles, downloads, podcasts, and videos in advance. Enlist the help of your salespeople to write content that is intended to be customer facing. Salespeople are the individuals who are dirrectly communicating with prospects, they know what is on their minds and know how engaging certain topics are for prospects.
It is important to provide a variety of content, not just idetifiable by the titles, but varied because fo th different personalities who are writing. It's not a problem oif they don't have the experience of an author. This is where your Copywriters come into their own by editing and posihing the article written by the sales teams. In addition, the sales people can provide the copywriter with typical questions your prospects and customers are asking. Irrespective of volume, your copywriter can use ChatGPT to provide a comprehensive answers and explanations.
5. Crafting Adverts for Maximum Impact
When it comes to the adverts, begin by creating three to six Adverts for each piece of content, using a combination of memes, graphics, video clips, and audio ads. This variety ensures that you can reach different segments of your audience and keep them interested in your content.
As I mentioned earlier, creating different content types and styles is necessary because your audience are individuals too. therefore the same needs to apply to your adverts. It's time to be as creative as you want to be. Get everyone involved, there's no such think as a bad advert, especially as you will be monitoring their effectiveness.
6. Rebranding Images for Enhanced Recognition
Most businesses simply pick a stick photo and insert it on the article. This is a wasted opportunity. For images and visuals, first evaluate these platforms - Mid Journey , Adobe Firefly and Microsoft Designer. Make sure to brand your images with your logo and colors, ensuring that your content is recognisable and stands out in a crowded newsfeed. Utilise Open Graph to control the images that appear when your content is shared on social media platforms.
As you can see from the above image I have used a stock image, converted it to black and white as a theme for a number of my article main images and finally placed a green footer on the image, a title and inserted my logo. It doesn't take much but it all adds to your branding and first impression to your prospects.
7. Making the Most of Your Marketing Automation Platform
While marketing automation platforms were all the rage, they can be a valuable part of your overall strategy, remember though, they should primarily serve as a transport mechanism for delivering timely messages to receptive prospects. The key to maximising your investment in these platforms is creating high-quality, engaging content that captures your audience's interest and encourages them to grant you permission to market to them. A word of caution; using marketing automation as a method to capture prospect details does more harm than good. 80-90% of browsers will click away from a form that 'gates' content.
My recommendation is that your content should be ungated allowing unrestricted access to your content to help begin a genuine and meaningful relationship with new prospects.
8. FAQs
Q: What is Social 444?
A: Social 444 is a set-and-forget social media content distribution strategy designed to grow your business by consistently promoting your content across various social media platforms.
Q: How many adverts should I create for each piece of content?
A: Create three to six adverts for each piece of content, using a combination of memes, graphics, video clips, and audio ads. This variety ensures that you can reach different segments of your audience and keep them interested in your content.
Q: How can I make my images stand out on social media?
A: Brand your images with your logo and colors, ensuring that your content is recognisable and stands out in a crowded newsfeed. Utilise Open Graph to control the images that appear when your content is shared on social media platforms.
9. Takeaways
- Create a variety of content types to cater to every preference.
- Use the Social 444 strategy for consistent content distribution.
- Establish a content library and create engaging adverts for maximum impact.
10. Conclusion
In today's digital landscape, creating engaging content and effectively distributing it is essential for B2B success. By following the strategies outlined in this guide, you can leverage content marketing to stand out from the competition and drive success. Whether you decide to implement these strategies yourself or enlist the help of a marketing agency, taking action now can set your business on a path toward greater success.
You must have a clear content strategy in place and as I mentioned earlier, it's not about quantity, just having the right items and then promoting them at scale using Social 444.
If you have recognised similarities in your business as I've mentioned, perhaps there's value in us speaking in the near future.
The author and founder of salesXchange, Nigel Maine is a B2B marketing and sales expert with a proven track record in scaling up growth for Technology, SaaS, and Professional Services organisations. With 30 years hands-on experience and unique approach, Nigel has developed an effective strategy that dramatically increases exposure and profitability for B2B organizations.
