Tuesday 20 December, 2011 at 3:39 pm / 0 comment

B2B Content Strategy

When it comes to B2B marketing and content strategy, the keyword is conversion. A robust content strategy needs to deal with everything that leads up to that point and beyond.

by Dave Dabbah, Marketing Team, Ephox

That may sound difficult. More than just the marketing side of your sales cycle, B2B content strategy has to account for all the different stages of the sales cycle: from lead generation to persuasion to conversion and everything in between.

Therefore, it’s crucial that the information provided on your website is accurate, useful and easily scanned. To understand how to develop a content strategy for B2B, it helps to think through the customer process.

First, the customer finds your website, whether through search or referral. Then, they’ll quickly scan the landing page, deciding whether to invest more time on your site. If you’re successful, they’ll click over to your content pages. If their interest is maintained, they may sign up for a mailing list or register interest. Finally, after some time for consideration, they’ll make a purchase.

Now as you can see, that’s a lot of steps, and there are many places to lose your customer along the way. However, if you concentrate on these four elements, the rest will fall into place:

1. The Landing Page – the point of entry is crucial. Take as much care with this as you would about the packaging of any product. Communicate the most compelling information about your company in a brief, clear fashion.
2. Navigation – try to construct your content so you do all the thinking for your potential customer. Clearly signpost key content, and build in relevant links to keep them on your site.
3. Make Contact Information Obvious – Make it as easy as possible for your customers to register interest. By this point, you’ve got them hook, line and sinker, and you don’t want to lose them because your fishing rod breaks.
4. Keep Relevant – Remind customers about your company even after they’ve signed off your web page. Send regular communications that educate potential customers and persuade them to come take another look.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you can ignore the marketing side of the equation. You can have the most perfect website in the world, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t attract customers. But make sure you’re attracting customers in a way that gives you the best outcome: sales.