Multiply your B2B content marketing campaign’s effectiveness with these 3 simple tips

You planned this campaign for months and thought you had a great idea that would blow away your clients. But here you are [cricket sound], no one’s returning the call and you’re looking at some dismal numbers. You are mortified and wonder if you could have done anything better. Fret not, you are not alone.

In more than a decade that we’ve been in business, we’ve been fortunate to be approached by many marketers, and many, many of them are facing the same uphill battle – trying to stand out. Amidst today’s environment of constant noise bombardment, attempting to make your brand stand out is just about as easy as maintaining shareholder confidence in the middle of a scandal.

Without getting into the laundry list of reasons why your campaign didn’t reach its goals, here are some insights that might help you move the needle right now and in the future.

 1. Know Your Audience More Than They Know Themselves

Do you really know what makes your audience tick? Are they SaaS startups racing to become the next unicorn? Are they the Team Leads looking to adopt the newest technology for their team? Or are they middle management peeps sandwiched between high demands and limited resources?

Research and analyze your audience behaviors, pain points and preferences. Gone are the days of generic, one-size-fits-all messaging and instead opt for precise targeting. Craft buyer personas to represent your customers. Give them names, faces, and backstories. Picture them sitting at their desk, battling the same challenges you’re there to solve. What makes them pick up the phone and call you for help? 

Once you have a clear understanding of your audience, tailor your marketing messages and campaigns to resonate with them on a deep level. Talk to them in their language – Are they technically inclined? Are they a sophisticated lot? Or are they young, casual and adventurous? Recently, a “Gen Z Bible” went viral on Tik Tok. Why? Because it made centuries old stories relatable.

2. Find out where your audience hangs out and “stalk” them (with your content)

You may know exactly WHO your audience is, but do you know WHERE they are? The answer is – everywhere. And that’s where you need to be as well. One frequent shortcoming of any campaign is to over-dedicate your time and resources to a single vehicle e.g. making a shiny brand video but neglecting the rest of the customer journey.

Just like the omnichannel trend happening in the broader B2B marketing sphere, your content and messaging should follow your audience onto different platforms, whether they are online or offline, at work or at home with their family – in other words, “stalk” them with your content. Do you know where your audience likes to hang out? Expand your content portfolio into email newsletters, blog posts, podcasts and social media like LinkedIn posts to increase the number of touchpoints.

Adapting your content to different channels is hard but with the right approach it may not necessarily need to cost you a bomb. With AI tools like ChatGPT, you can train the AI model to recognise your brand voice and have it produce content regularly for you. We have trained an AI model to sound like us, there’s no reason you can’t do it too.

But perhaps the most important benefit of a multi-channel strategy is resilience. In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, relying on a single channel is like putting all your eggs in one basket. Diversifying your approach will increase your effectiveness.

3. Get Measuring

We need to remember that marketing is as much science as it is art, so with any scientific work, it’s an iterative process that builds on previous knowledge. And that is why we can’t neglect the metrics. I know… you hate the idea that you chose a career to stay away from calculations and somehow you still have to fall back on numbers. The truth is numbers are the marketer’s secret weapon and eloquently articulating those numbers in front of your management will help catapult your career.

Do you know what your brand is known for online? Do you know where your traffic is coming from? Do you know what content your viewers engaged with and what didn’t get as much traction as you hoped?

If something seems to do well consistently, give it a little more attention and figure out exactly what is working – could it be a certain offering that no other competitor has? Does it appeal to a segment that might have been neglected? It might be worth expanding your efforts and taking over that segment entirely.

Or on the other hand, are you having great traffic but low conversion rates? Perhaps you have great “Top of the Funnel” (ToFu) messaging but your “Middle of the Funnel” (MoFu) needs to be relooked to increase conversion.

Your metrics on one campaign gives you great insight into what you do in the next. Remember that your campaign is only truly lost if you don’t learn anything from it and  ignoring the feedback is a sure-fire way to repeat the same results.

BONUS: Get Emotional

No, just kidding. There’s no need to get this dramatic about your campaign results, but if you could inject the drama “into” your next campaign, it could be what you need to move the needle.

You thought B2B marketing needs to be all about facts and logic, and that emotions work only for consumers. The truth is business decision-makers are just as much human beings and they want to feel a human connection with whoever they are working with. Show them what your business aspires to be, what values you believe in, how you see yourself in the world and even the difficulties you face as you help your clients. Emotional Damage! 

Even as B2B loyalty reaches its lowest point, clients are still looking for connections and relationships that meet their psychological needs. No, there’s no need to produce a tear-jerker à la Thai-ad, simply be authentic and show your social side, chances are people will want to connect with you. Just like the intro meme, emotional content tends to travel by itself because it reveals our humanity.

Did any of these tips work for you? Do shout out to us as well so we know we have made an impact.