I have seen so many B2B companies struggle with building an online presence.
You might be churning out good content consistently but the results tell a different story. You are mostly missing obvious opportunities that could have had a much bigger impact on your business.
This is mostly associated with common content mistakes you are making. The truth is, these mistakes can easily be avoided.
B2B businesses that use strategized content marketing to regain access to buyers in the early stages of the purchasing process are doing well.
However, If your business is still figuring it out, I am going to share the most common mistakes you should avoid when content marketing.
1. YOU HAVE THE WRONG APPROACH TO SOCIAL MEDIA.
B2B marketers should understand that social media is a platform to connect and share knowledge. Most of them treat social media like a direct response channel which is a huge mistake.
Have a clear plan to share important facts about your business that can solve their problems.
Adjust your tactics as you go and keep everything evergreen and consistent.
2. YOU DON’T HAVE A CONTENT STRATEGY
I always tell my clients that if you fail to plan you plan to fail. So the biggest mistake you can make as a B2B business is not have a content strategy.
You never go rogue or “just wing it” when it comes to your sales and finances. This should also apply to your content marketing.
Start by creating a monthly content calendar that is based on your highest ranking keywords, and customer needs. Also, consider the different stages of your customer journey and create consistent content.
3. YOU ARE USING TOO MUCH JARGON.
Another mistake that B2B businesses make is using technical jargon.
These are words that show they are knowledgeable in their field.
While it is good to establish that you are an authority in your field, it might affect how your audience interacts with your content because they can hardly understand you.
You should make content that resonates with your audience and to know your audience, you need to research their persona. Use simple language your audience can understand.
4. YOUR CONTENT FOCUSES MORE ON YOUR BUSINESS.
So far, the biggest mistake I have seen B2B businesses make is constantly pitching instead of engaging with your audience.
People are more concerned about the value you are providing and the problems you are solving these days.
Of course, you need to sell your product and services, but not always because you will not be appealing to your audience.
Use the 80/20 rule where you share 80% of engaging content and 20% of you selling yourself.
If you are a delivery company for example, if you’re saying phrases like “Our service is the best on the market in the country,” instead of “our service helps you deliver goods on time with low delivery charges,” you’re making a big B2B marketing mistake.
When you are making that content, think about how your audience benefits.
5. YOU DON’T HAVE A RESPONSIVE DESIGN.
User Experience UX is very crucial. Another mistake B2B businesses make is not making your site responsive. Responsive design from different devices is important because your audience can access your content easily.
Most people use mobile phones to access information so your website should be optimized to work on different screens on mobile devices, tablets, and desktops.
Failure to this, people will leave your website so fast without getting to know your services or products. You can also use thumb-friendly buttons and hamburger menus, to help provide a better mobile experience.
6. YOU DON’T TEST YOUR CAMPAIGNS.
Another mistake is not regularly analyzing your campaigns. If you are putting out Ads and you don’t go back to check what is working and what is not, you are failing your business.
If you want to build an effective marketing campaign and to grow your online presence, analytics are key to growth.
The more you revise your campaigns, the better you will get at creating them and you will gain insight into which variation drives the best results.
Here are examples of areas of your marketing efforts you should test:
- Keyword variations
- Landing pages
- Button colors
- Call-to-action verbiage
- Social media post types
- Email subject lines
- And so much more!
7. YOU DON’T USE CALL TO ACTIONS {CTA}
So many B2B companies ignore using calls to action CTA.
What is the point of talking to your audience if you are not giving direction or prompting them to do something? CTA’s prompt your audience to take the next step in the buying process.
You may never know where a lead could come from so practice using a call to action on your website, on social media posts, and ads.
Avoid using generic CTA like “Click Here,” try a descriptive CTA, like “Download your free guide.”
8. YOU ARE NOT USING SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION.
Many B2B businesses also make the mistake of not implementing search engine optimization in growing their online presence. SEO will help you rank higher in search results.
Without this, you will have very little traffic to your website when people are searching for your products and services.
93% of all online experiences start with a search in search engines so if you do not ensure you have a presence in search engines, you are missing out on opportunities to capture leads for your business.
You can optimize your website for search engines by using relevant keywords to your business in your pages, title tags, and meta descriptions. Also, as I said above, improve your site’s loading time.
9. YOU DON’T TRACK YOUR METRICS.
B2B businesses also make mistakes of not tracking important performance metrics. You have already invested a lot of time and money so it will be wise if you monitored your performance to see hat is working and what is not.
Check the campaigns that are reaching the right leads and replicate the same strategies to other campaigns. The same applies to strategies that are not working, eliminate them.
Use tools like Google Analytics to track your performance. Look at metrics that are relevant to your business goals.
10. YOU ARE IGNORING MOBILE MARKETING.
Mobile marketing is very big right now. As a B2B business, strive to produce mobile content and video content to successfully reach buyers and moving them along your customer journey.
Reach out to influencers related to your brand to increase your brand awareness reach and eventually generate some leads.
CONCLUSION
At Becor Designs, we can help you revamp your B2B marketing strategy to avoid these common mistakes.
Get a FREE CONSULTATION HERE to learn more about how we can help your business online.