Originally published August 16, 2022 , updated on January 16, 2023

The days of push advertising are gone. In the B2B marketing world, clients are often in other countries, and the only way to reach them is through digital marketing. Today, the larger part of business transactions are in the virtual realm. This means you need to partner with a digital content marketing agency that understands the role of content to:

• Develop topic and brand authority
• Build trust with your target audience
• Gain organic search engine visibility
• Generate leads
• Meet the information needs of your target audience
• Reduce the cost of lead generation and sales conversions
• Strengthen brand loyalty
• Establish thought leadership within your industry
• Attract fresh interest.

Why Content Is Important in the Process

To reach these goals, the digital agency delivers optimised information, rather than PR or paid advertising, to reach your target audience.

Push advertising interrupts the buyer. In a world saturated with adverts and companies trying to get attention, busy executives use methods to filter out interruptions. They use ad blockers to prevent advertisement windows and banners from displaying, even in videos. Their email filters block unwanted cold calling, making it difficult to get a foot in the door to explain your offering.

If you want prospective B2B buyers to notice and pay attention, then you have to give them what they want. And that is valuable data or insight to help them make decisions. This is why the digital content marketing agency focuses on information delivery rather than paid advertising and promotions.

With valued subject matter, you get through all the filters and in front of your audience in the search engine results.

It Increases Discoverability

Top search engine placement is the focus of the digital content marketing agency. Why? Because your audience uses search engines to find information, and they rarely scroll past the first page of the search engine results.

Content marketing is important because B2B buyers are not driven by emotions. Instead, they look at the value your company offers. Your prospective clients consider your company’s expertise in what they perceive as important. The agency positions your firm as an expert in your niche and on issues your audience perceives as important to them.

In addition, the return on investment (ROI) drives executive decisions. Short advertising messages are too limited in depth to show the potential ROI. In-depth articles, reports, and blog posts answer questions like:

• Why use your company’s services?
• What do your services entail?
• How do the services solve specific pain points?

B2B outreach makes provision for a longer buyer’s journey. Information delivery enables the digital marketing agency to guide the buyer through the sales funnel towards a final decision. This is possible through white papers, case studies, tutorials, and guides to give the buyer valued information.

Your prospective buyers first research products and services before they engage with your company. The content marketing agency understands their journey and gives them optimised information for every stage of their journey, driving them down the sales funnel and ready to engage before the final decision.

Let’s investigate why content marketing is now more important in B2B engagement than ever before.

The B2B Buyer’s Journey

A changing world means changing buyer behaviour. The recent two-year health crisis and response to it, coupled with the ongoing European conflict and energy crisis, have led to changes in buying patterns.

Many companies had to cut budgets while others now play it safe. They want more assurance, which also means more information. Information delivery prepares the buyer for more direct interaction, almost like a briefing before the sales meeting. Except, it doesn’t sell. It offers value.

Informing Every Stage

According to the results of Demand Gen Report B2B Buyer Study of 2020, B2B buyers now spend more time on research before they opt-in for a service or invest. The report also reveals that the buyer’s cycle is now longer.

Even though the cycle is longer, buyers still need information at every stage of their journey. To make their short list, your firm must give them premium quality subject matter to:

• Solve their problems.
• Address their concerns.
• Clarify complex concepts.

Structuring and delivering information according to their needs makes it easier for your buyers to decide. They expect focused information that shows your firm understands their needs and shows your industry expertise.

An experienced digital content marketing agency focuses your information drive to achieve these goals. With such, they establish your thought leadership and provide the buyers with practical information they can use.

Formats for delivery range from infographics and blog posts to white papers, case studies, podcasts, social media posts, videos, webinars, graphs, and eBooks.

The Role of the Sales Representative

According to the B2B Buying Journey Report, B2B buyers only engage with the sales team when they’re 95% into the buying journey. This means the sales team has a small window of opportunity to influence the buying decision.

Companies that provide the information that prospective buyers want, snatch the deals faster. And this is why well-researched and optimised information is essential in digital outreach today.

The Importance of Relevance

The B2B buyer’s journey isn’t linear. Most times, the prospective buyer engages with the brand through several channels. The customer reviews information, interacts with the brand, returns to information sources, and then meets with the sales team. This makes the buying cycle unpredictable.

So, the digital content marketing agency aligns information delivery with your brand’s PR processes and ensures the personalisation of the information. If the buyer perceives the information as useful, they’re far more likely to invest a larger sum or enter a more significant deal without regretting it.

Your brand needs to generate leads, nurture prospective buyers, show ROI, and build trust. Content marketing is a cost-effective way to improve visibility in search engines, rank keywords, and develop a following for informed prospective buyers. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits.

Benefits of Content Marketing

B2B content marketing is the key to attracting and retaining customers. It can be hard to keep up with the latest trends and best practices in this industry, but it’s well worth the time spent. Read on for more information on the benefits of successful B2B content marketing.

Better for Lead Generation—Outperforms Paid Search

Although paid search provides superb lead generation and sales conversion opportunities, the results are short-lived. On the other end, content marketing offers long-term results and can do so at a lower cost to the company.

Paid search gets your company on the first page of the search results. But to maintain the position, you must keep paying. The problem is – your competitors follow the same strategy. And the costs add up.

Your digital content marketing agency can deliver consistent quality and useful information. They can do so throughout the buyer’s journey. The best part is that their blog posts, case studies and white papers can attract leads for years. Think of these as building blocks. Each piece of information adds to the traffic flow and trust-building process.

So, what’s the verdict?

Throwing more money towards paid search to get traffic isn’t the best way to spend your marketing budget. Instead, let your digital content marketing agency focus on a longer and more sustainable strategy with information that builds trust and provides answers.

Once your content flow has gained momentum, you’ll see compounding results. Best of all – the upfront costs are lower with the long-term benefits of giving back on the original dollar spent.

Inbound Marketing Costs Less and Generates More Leads Than Outbound Marketing

As reported by Demand Metric, inbound marketing strategies deliver more leads at a lower cost than outbound marketing strategies can deliver. This means a far better ROI. With the inbound approach, your digital content marketing agency delivers what your target audience wants for informed decision-making.

Your prospective buyers search for information through keyword phrases. With optimised information, your pages show up in the top search results. The prospective buyers click on these results by choice. This means they’re already looking for the information that you deliver. You deliver before you promise, and that builds trust.

The secret is to establish contact with prospective buyers on the platforms and through the channels they use. Also, delivering information they want and find useful, presented in their preferred formats and in a voice they appreciate.

Most prospective buyers prefer learning about your company, products, and services through information presented in a format they’re accustomed to. This also explains why long-form articles and posts bring in far more qualified leads than other forms of digital marketing.

A Content Marketing Agency Enables You to Stay Ahead of Competitors

Most B2B brands use content to drive leads and increase customer engagement. Even if you decide not to follow the route, they will. This means your brand loses out on opportunities to generate interest and develop brand strength.

According to a 2020 B2B marketing poll, as published by the Institute of Content Marketing, only 14% of brands don’t use information delivery for developing brand awareness, and only 21% don’t use it to educate their target audience. This means most B2B brands already leverage the power of information.

The same poll shows that 75% of B2B brands build credibility with information delivery. Over 83% of the participants in the poll outsource the strategy development and creation process to a content marketing agency.

Essential for Targeted and Qualified Traffic

Paid search and other forms of promotion drive leads for people who are ready to buy. But in the B2B environment, this means losing out on 95% of the leads. Your buyers interact with your brand over a longer time and in a looped cycle. And you must convince an entire buyer committee to make the purchase or opt-in decision.

Your digital marketing agency understands this process and optimises the content for the right keywords. The creation team focuses on information to answer the questions buyers have at each stage in their journeys.

When the buyer chooses your site from the search results, they have the expectation that you will answer their question. This is when your agency delivers the information in the format your buyer expects.

The agency then leads the buyer through the information journey and a trust relationship develops. As the buyer goes down the sales funnel, they find more specific information.

By the time the buyer comes to the final decision stage, they’re convinced of your expertise and use information to compare brands and services. Your sales team receives a qualified lead, ready to buy.

The information delivery process enables you to nurture leads appropriately. B2B buyers judge the quality of the information as part of their decision-making process. A television advert, paid search, or short promotional material cannot deliver the in-depth information B2B buyers want.

You can achieve these goals through content marketing with videos, infographics, long-form blog posts, social media engagement, podcasts, and more. These are all tied together, leading the buyer to the final decision.

Benefits of Content Marketing in a Nutshell

The world has turned digital, and your prospective buyers are using the tools available to them to find products, services, and companies. In a digital world where information is everything, you compete for visibility in search engines. To do so, you need a strategy that works, and this is where the benefits of content marketing shine:

• Rank for keywords, enabling top search engine placement for phrases that match search intention.
• Deliver useful and desired information at the right stage of the buyer’s journey.
• Establish your brand as a thought leader and industry expert.
• Generate and nurture leads.
• Build trust with your audience.
• Experience compound interest for better ROI.
• Reduce the cost of lead generation.
• Benefit from long-term engagement and return visits.
• Explain your product or service.
• Provide concise answers to core questions.
• Solve the issues that are important to your B2B target audience.

Ready to Partner With a Content Marketing Agency for Success?

Search engines are the gatekeepers of the modern-day marketplace. They give your business instant access to a global audience. This is how your customers find you and how you can grow your business.

You need a digital content marketing agency that understands your goals and can show you the way to reach them with content marketing, lead generation, lead nurturing, and much more. Let’s chat to find out how we can help you reap the most benefits from content marketing.

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