Generating Content that Creates Daily Relevancy for Your B2B Brand
Whether populating stories for a company blog, updating the news and events section of a website, or executing a social media strategy – most businesses understand the importance of content generation in today’s marketing mix.
But for many, especially those in the B2B world, it often seems impossible to keep the content funnel full. You don’t have a new product coming out until next year. Trade show season doesn’t start for another three months. There’s a hiring freeze. So there’s nothing to talk about, right? Wrong.
Content generation is about finding (or often creating) relevancy to your brand in everyday stories and events. The biggest mistake B2B brands make is assuming they can’t speak on a topic or event if they’re not directly involved. The only criterion for utilizing a story should be whether or not someone in your organization can provide intelligent insight on the matter. If you manufacturer seat belts, and there is an airbag recall – then you have a right to speak on that topic. If you develop network security software and Walmart gets hacked – share your thoughts on the subject. Both scenarios provide customers with useful information, regardless of their direct correlation to a product.
Even major pop culture events shouldn’t be off the table. Arby’s was trending for days after last year’s Grammys, simply because they noticed a similarity between Pharell’s hat and their own logo. We often need to remind our B2B clients that they are allowed to be creative and fun too.
NASA did a great job this week of educating, entertaining and garnering a ton of attention with their series of “May the Fourth Be with You” posts surrounding national Star Wars Day on May 4th. Although NASA walks a fine line between government agency, consumer brand, and B2B organization – any company in the field of aeronautics could have executed the same tactic.
Don’t forget that your customers are also regular consumers. Their job may place them within a small niche audience, but they live their lives outside of that box. The Holy Grail of B2B content marketing is finding stories that can combine mainstream appeal with relevancy to your industry or product.
Tags: B2B marketing strategy, content marketing, real-time marketing, social media