A Marketers in Demand company
over filling glass of water in hand

The Lesson? Quality Always Trumps Quantity

Jacob Brain

Author

“Do less” may be racking up the popularity points in modern design and self-care, but the opposite motto has crept into digital marketing for B2B.

We see this specifically in the content marketing industry.

Every day, consumers are bombarded by more blogs, ads, infographics, and social media posts.

This robust content dumping makes sense considering that the content marketing industry is worth roughly $400 billion and slated to grow another  $269 billion or so by 2024. The pen is mightier than the sword, and marketers are wielding it with fierce abandon.

Bottom line: B2B marketers often act like the way to win is through creating more content than your competitors.

That’s just simply not true.

Too much all the time.

We get it. Creating content and distributing it at warp speed seems to have its advantages.

Writing multiple how-to or thought leadership blog posts every day and populating all your social media channels with shallow but punchy posts can get your attention. You look like you’re up to something good.

These posts can mean a broad audience, high traffic on your website, and a few legitimate leads if you’re lucky. While these are definite wins, the true value of this engagement doesn’t come to affect your bottom line for an often-missed reason.

Harping on the obvious here, but people want to find true value once you’ve reeled them in. If there’s no substance or insight in your content, your audience won’t stick around. We’ll touch more on this later.

It’s also fair to say that the early-stage SEO taught us to “spray and pray.” The reality is that strategy does work for SEO strategies some of the time. But even this is changing with Google algorithm updates and a focus on EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.) Hint: those qualities take time to craft and create.

Also, this content strategy won’t impact the bottom line because getting people to your site isn’t what gets you; customers – standing out in the industry is how you do that. Cheap content created at scale won’t provide real growth, only a false sense of accomplishment.

This can be easy to misunderstand. There definitely is a place for scale, but the B2B marketing world has become a mess of worthless content as everyone tries to be Gary V creating 100 pieces of content every day.

We can’t all be Gary V. Why? It looks pretty tempting.

Creating a lot of content is expensive as you have to write it, edit it, publish it in different places, promote it, organize it, etc. And outsourcing content creation can mean you miss important elements like direct SME input and brand voice.

We’re now back to missing a unique perspective and value.

So, we’ve seen how and why digital marketing for B2B has internalized this “do more” mentality.

It’s time to cleanse and take advantage of the status quo. There’s an opportunity amid this overload.

Seize the Content

Take all that time and money you’ve spent on “spraying and praying” and use it differently. Focus on creating truly valuable content and getting that out instead.

Stop trying to look like you are doing a lot by creating a lot of stuff, and turn to create a few genuinely great pieces. That will make you stand out and make a difference to the bottom line.

Hone in on the quality of your content.

The natural question here is: How to create value and make people care?

That can be seemingly complicated. But here are the steps to take to embody this new mindset.

Start with creating content from a specific point of view.

In other words, don’t say what everybody else is saying or thinking.

Tap into what your audience has not heard before or at least freshly spin a ubiquitous idea. This can be especially effective with digital marketing for B2B. Many businesses in the B2B sector have niche interests and pain points.

Leverage that!

For example, MSPs, you can make a complete troubleshooting guide on your industry’s most pervasive problems.

Next, make sure your content leads them somewhere worth going.

Lead them to water, not the wilderness. Don’t take them to Walmart if they were expecting Whole Foods.

Your audience wants to have a question answered and feel like their time was well spent.

They should be saying, “yes, these people get it!” or even better, “I’ve not thought of that before,” and even better, “I need to change because of what I just read.”

This can also mean saying something that many may disagree with or that you may not feel completely comfortable saying.

Either way, you want to show your audience that you not only see things the way they are, but you can also see (and guide) them towards a different and better way.

Finally, get your buyer personas and industry leaders to invest in your content.

It is a truth that should be universally acknowledged that not everyone has to like you. Many B2B marketers measure success by the number of shares or likes on social media.

It’s not about how many (or at least not all about). It’s about who is engaging. Your buyer persona or core audience should be interested; they can tell everyone, including new customers and industry leaders.

So, find ways to target them. Look for where they consume content: social media, specific blogs, or news sites.

Email marketing can also be a great way to reach this specific audience.

All of this stems from the idea that word of mouth is potent in digital marketing for B2B.

You capture the attention of those that matter, and your content will start hitting in the way you would like.

Want Help with Creating Content in Digital Marketing for B2B?

The lesson?

Do less for more. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s true. Start by evaluating what you are producing and ask yourself if each piece is essential. Can you consolidate or pare down your content ideas? Will fewer blogs make as big of an impact as more? Likely not. Quality always trumps quantity when it comes to effective content marketing. So, before adding one more blog post, infographic, or social media update to your editorial calendar, take a step back and assess whether that content is necessary.

The way to win in today’s digital age is not through creating more content than your competitors. It’s through creating better content. That’s where we come in.

At New North, we’ve partnered with many B2B businesses for content marketing because we understand what it takes to create great content that stands out from the noise and drives results.

 Reach out today to learn more about our services and how we can help you create content that wins the hearts and minds of your target audience.

Thoughts here were inspired and informed by Christopher Lochhead and Lochhead on Marketing.

You might also like...

Looking for something and want to bet the farm that big data analytics is the right ticket? Think again. Let’s take a step into reason before jumping into the big expense of big data….
Do you know how much profit is bleeding out of your company? Use our retention calculator to find out how a real retention campaign can change your bottom line….
The main cause of most marketing flops is not budget, and it’s not the tactical strategy. It’s something that most businesses don’t even think about….
Scroll to Top