The importance of content marketing can’t be ignored—it is pivotal for all companies, especially middle-market companies. It empowers education and engagement and helps build strong business relationships. Publishing high-quality content is also key for enhancing and maintaining brand awareness. If content is not a priority in your digital marketing strategy, what’s holding you back?
Are you in need of fresh ideas to boost your marketing ROI? B2B content marketing is hands down the best investment your business can make in its digital marketing endeavors. It is the core of any successful digital marketing strategy. Content marketing can help improve SEO and social media marketing with relevant and engaging targeted content. If you want to create long-term, evergreen marketing ROI for years to come, this article is for you.
Let’s begin with an overview of content marketing, what it is, and what it’s not.
Content Marketing Defined: Present and Future
Content marketing has numerous benefits that can help businesses establish their authority and stand out from competition. Blogging is one of the most effective SEO strategies in content marketing, and B2B business owners and marketers should know how and why to start it.
Blogging offers a strategic approach that can include various media, such as text, images, videos, infographics, podcasts, and live streams, to engage and inform the target audience. The main goal of B2B blogging is to offer valuable information and insights that create connections with existing and potential customers, and it involves inbound marketing with on- and off-page SEO to increase website or online store rankings and active engagement on social media. Organic social media content, such as bonus content, giveaways, polls, surveys, and invite referral programs, can also be used to engage followers and strengthen relationships. Content marketing is not typically used for direct promotion or push marketing, and it should be viewed as a medium-to-long-term investment rather than a quick-fix solution. Despite this, content complements advertising by raising brand awareness and improving SEO and rankings on search engine results pages.
The table below summarizes the differences between content marketing and advertising.
| What Content Marketing Is | What It Is Not |
| Strategic approach | Direct promotion or push marketing |
| Utilizes various digital mediums | Quick-fix solution |
| Provision of relevant, valuable information | Solely focused on immediate conversions |
| Engagement and connection with the target | The only marketing strategy you should employ |
| Inbound (pull) marketing | Potential for immediate results |
| Improvement of SEO and website/store rankings | Independent of audience interests and needs |
| Building of trust resulting in lasting relationships | Limited to one-time campaigns |
| Complementary marketing method | Neglectful of other marketing avenues |
Despite the importance of content marketing, it’s not the only strategy you’ll ever need, nor should it be. We’ll compare other approaches to content for digital marketing shortly. But first, how does AI (artificial intelligence) fit in with your content creation initiatives?
The Evolving Role of AI and Online Content
AI is useful for supplementing human writing but cannot replace people-generated text—yet. That’s according to Julia McCoy, President of Content at Scale and Coach at Content Hacker. But why can’t AI chatbots replace people? It’s because high-quality, unique content created by real people continues to stand out against mass-produced, shallow, non-original, tone-deaf, often inaccurate content created by bots. [1]
For now, AI is a useful tool that helps human writers work smarter and faster.
Content Marketing vs Other Promotional Methods
It’s no secret that quality content offers unparalleled engagement, reach, and value compared to other promotional methods. One-off ads will never establish connections, educate, and foster trust like quality content does. In fact, the general rule of thumb is that a display ad needs to be seen seven times before people begin to recall it. However, both components, and more intentional advertising like search ads, can help make up thehttps://boldentity.com/digital-marketing-strategy-essentials/essentials of a winning digital marketing strategy for mid-market companies.
Also, let’s not forget that your content is hosted on your website and always accessible. Much of it will be relevant in years to come. If it becomes outdated, a little tweaking can often repurpose or recharge its relevance and provide a small boost to your SEO efforts.
- Paid Search Ads (Pay-Per-Click)
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising needs a consistent budget, time, and careful management. Although the potential benefits are immediate, the advantages disappear (like all advertising) once they stop running. That makes paid search a temporary solution for generating visibility and traffic to your website.
Your online material complements paid search by providing relevant, informative content that naturally boosts your website’s ranking. It helps fill up the top of Google search results with your website. Content also enhances user experience and boosts organic search visibility, offering long-term benefits beyond paid campaigns.
- Social Media Ads
Social media ads, like paid search above, need ongoing investment and supervision. However, the value ceases as soon as your budget runs dry. Thus, using social media channels for paid ads is effective for short-term campaigns but often provides little lasting impact unlike content. And, unlike search ads and content marketing/SEO these ads are intrusive and not being served to people specifically looking for your company or its offerings.
Never underestimate the importance of content marketing to complement your social media ad initiatives. Sharing valuable content helps nurture audience relationships, establish authority, and maintain engagement between ad campaigns.
- Email Marketing
B2B email marketing has a place in many mid-market company campaigns for targeting existing customers. But to succeed, correspondence must be personalized, highly relevant, and include clear calls to action. You can also use email to offer eBooks and white papers, or other freebies. On the downside, these digital campaigns can be hit-and-miss when they land in an individual’s inbox. Those not actively seeking your products or services may see your stream of email marketing as spam and unsubscribe.
Quality content supports your email efforts with insightful, relevant material. Carefully thought-out email updates educate the reader, enhance credibility, and keep your brand top-of-mind when subscribers actively seek solutions. And, including links to your content marketing helps make it shareable by your recipients bringing in brand new prospects.
- Influencer/Sponsorship Marketing
Influencer marketing targets passive audiences by collaborating with third-party content creators. Influencer support and promotion is great for boosting visibility to a specific type of audience but needs careful management. Also, influencer association can potentially impact your brand by tying it to the influencer’s reputation.
Quality content and influencer promotion work together to create consistent messaging. With the right approach, you get to engage with new audiences on a platform you might otherwise struggle to reach.
- Website Update/Refresh
Website updates are necessary every few years to keep your online presence fresh and company looking modern. The SEO and Google rankings impact of a site overhaul will vary, depending on the implementation. Effective updates improve your website’s visibility, while improper changes can have the reverse effect and hurt your rankings. Choose your partner carefully when it comes to updating a website to maintain and grow your online presence.
Well-presented content enhances website updates by providing visitors with fresh, relevant material. Quality content and proper format improve user experiences, engage viewers, and signal search engines for better SEO performance. It also shows prospective customers that you are active on your website and up-to-date on the latest industry news and trends.
Your Content Marketing Strategy: A Path to Success
In conclusion, each of these five marketing strategies has strengths and limitations. While they all play a significant role, your content strategy serves as the linchpin for success. Thus, high-quality, strategically published content is an indispensable complement to other tactics. It helps create a well-rounded and sustainable overall marketing approach. Content’s evergreen nature means your online presence and brand can benefit for years from a one-time marketing purchase.
Marketing in all its forms is getting more complex and time-consuming. It’s why many middle-market B2B companies partner with a professional agency. Agency experts help educate or support your teams in all or part of their digital campaigns.
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Bold Entity’s Repurposed Content Strategies Unlock New Horizons
Discover how Bold Entity extends the reach of middle-market companies like yours by skillfully repurposing your existing company content. We transform blogs into captivating videos, infographics, social media posts, and more, to hit new audiences with the same content and drive additional lead capture. Get in touch to see how we can amplify your digital marketing strategies today.
Contact Bold Entity and Elevate Your B2B Content Marketing Game
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The Importance of Content According to Research
To end this piece, here are some recent statistics to highlight the importance of content marketing right now and what to expect in the future. These facts and stats underscore content’s essential role in shaping modern digital strategies, specifically for mid-market B2B companies.
A Demand Gen report found that 70% of customers prefer learning about companies through content rather than traditional ads. [2]
Over 90% of B2B and 86% of B2C marketers use content in their marketing campaigns. [3]
Adblocking software on desktop computers is rising. It’s now on course to reach an all-time high as more users reject online ad targeting. [4]
In a 2022 B2B content marketing study, 69% of respondents said website engagement gave them the best understanding of performance. [5]
According to a 2019 B2B survey, around 90% of successful content marketers prioritize educating their audience over promoting their company’s sales message. [6]
A ContentWriters study found that 60% of respondents publish content weekly. And 89% claimed content generated higher-quality leads than other marketing means. [7]
The respondents of a 2022 Venngage marketing survey said that 91-100% of their published content now contained visual elements. [8]
Most B2B marketers publish new content, such as blog posts and videos, weekly. [9]
New blogging statistics found that writing a B2B blog of 1000+ words now takes at least four hours. That’s because the content must be greater to fight harder for eyeballs now than when there were fewer rivals online. Plus, higher-quality content needs more thought and accuracy to stand out. [10]
This table shows how blog writing times have increased since 2014.
Source:https://www.orbitmedia.com/ Orbit Media
The importance of content writing is that it attracts, engages, and converts visitors to customers. But why are B2B blog posts taking much longer to write each year? It’s due to the increasing complexity, deeper research, and visually engaging elements needed to compete for SEO and hold prospects’ attention. It’s also why many B2B companies are struggling to keep up doing it alone.
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Bold Entity’s B2B Content Strategy and Development Solutions
Are you a mid-market company looking to elevate your marketing efforts but finding it difficult to find time and allocate resources? Bold Entity’s cutting-edge transformative digital content strategy and development services can help. Let our experienced experts empower your brand’s story and drive fresh engagement and growth to your door.
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In Conclusion
Successful mid-market companies understand why content marketing is important for their business. It attracts visitors, drives engagement, educates and strengthens relationships, and fosters brand awareness. So, quality content remains the linchpin for long-term success in today’s fast-evolving landscape. In contrast, neglecting content risks losing these benefits while wasting valuable time and company resources on strategies that don’t work.
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Resource Links
- https://www.semrush.com/blog/top-content-marketing-trends-semrush-study/
- https://www.demandgenreport.com/
- https://www.demandmetric.com/B2B-B2Ccontent-marketing/
- https://blockthrough.com/blog/2022-adblock-report/
- https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/B2B-content-marketing-study/
- https://contentmarketinginstitute.com2019_B2B_Research/
- https://martechseries.com/ContentWriters-study/
- https://venngage.com/visual-content-marketing-statistics/
- https://backlinko.com/B2Bs-publish-content-weeky/
- https://www.orbitmedia.com/B2B-blog-writing-times/
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