You can preach best practices left and right, but they don’t mean anything without actual examples to back them up.
So when the team at Kapost sat down to evaluate the best B2B marketing brands for the Kapost 50, we looked closely at the programs, people, and content they had in place to deliver their most effective marketing campaigns.
Even though these 50 companies span just about every industry, size, and audience, they have more in common than you might think.
Here are the ten things these 50 B2B brands did to earn top marketing marks–and what we can learn from their example.
1. Blogging Still Matters
You’ve seen the stats: corporate blogging is a powerful weapon for marketers. Regular blogging supports SEO, drives significantly more traffic to your website, and serves as consistent fodder for social, email, and paid channels. But more than anything, it give you a chance to help your prospects and customers be more successful, and to test what topics resonate with your prospects and buyers.
Learn by Example
2. Build a Content Hub, and They Will Come
One of the biggest challenges with content is that, well, there’s a lot of it out there–and it can be incredibly hard to find what you’re looking for. To solve this problem inside an organization (for example, when sales can’t find that product sheet or eBook to send to a prospect), marketers have turned to internal content repositories. But that only solves the internal chaos.
Your prospects and customers need to access the right content to help them answer their questions–and content hubs are the way to do it. Whether it’s called a “resource page” or “knowledge center,” B2B companies depend on public content hubs to make content discovery easy for their buyers, which is turn, provides ample opportunities for prospects to convert from unknown visitor to lead to MQL.
Content hubs are content gold mines, and the Kapost 50 winners are helping prospects dig.
RELATED CONTENT: A Webinar with Microsoft, BrightTALK, and Kapost on the Power of Content Hubs
Learn by Example
3. Video Dominates
The power of video content has been researched and documented, and B2B marketers are getting even better at taking advantage of this engaging content type. Video is both visually and audibly stimulating, which connects us to the content and sparks more emotion. Also, they’re easy to digest in this world of content overload.
Learn by Example
- Cisco – Business Trends | Fast IT
- Hootsuite – Game of Social Thrones
- HubSpot – How to Write a Great Blog Post Title
4. Make It Personal
If personalization and targeting aren’t part of your B2B marketing strategy, it’s time to take a hard look at yourself in the mirror and…
Actually, forget the mirror. Turn around and take a look at your buyer. Today’s content consumers are increasingly savvy, and they have a lot of options when it comes to divvying out their time and attention. Also, with more companies becoming scarily sophisticated in serving up relevant content, buyers expect to be presented with personalized content. The brands that have become buyer-centric vs. product-centric are winning over their buyers faster and keeping them around longer.
Learn by Example
- Netskope – Content for Every Stage
- Salesforce – Mutliple Personas, Multiple Blogs
- Spiceworks – Personalized Content Journeys
5. Go Interactive
Interactive content is sweeping marketing–and B2B is no exception. There’s good reason for it: interactive content generates 2X more conversions than passive content. Getting people to engage with your content with tools such as quizzes, calculators, or content hubs is a great way to spark action. And if your content delivers, you’ll get those 2X conversions this type of content promises.
Learn by Example
- Dun & Bradstreet – Quiz: What’s Your Lead Development Aptitude?
- Microsoft Dynamics – Building a World-Class Sales Organization
- SnapApp – What’s My Interactive Content Roadmap?
6. Get Integrated across Teams
Doing integrated marketing is no simple task, but when teams, channels, and technologies align—that’s when the marketing magic happens. Delivering a consistent customer experience is one of the top priorities for today’s B2B marketers, but it can’t happen without alignment.
A common thread throughout the Kapost 50 is the ability to plan and execute across teams. Why? Because integrated marketing supports consistency across channels, which leads to higher conversion rates and revenue. Don’t believe me? Check out these stats on managing the customer experience.
Learn by Example
- Commvault – An Integrated Strategy
- Rockwell Automation – Aligning the Enterprise
- ProCore – Amplifying the Message
7. Invest in the Right Technology
Marketers work in lots of different tools, but there are a few core technologies that Kapost 50 winners utilize. Among the most common are a CMS (like WordPress), CRM (like Salesforce), marketing automation platform (like Marketo), and marketing content platform (like Kapost). Each of these tools supports the planning, creation, distribution, and analysis of the content that drives B2B marketing.
But, like an integrated marketing team, each of these technologies must work together to deliver results.
Learn by Example
- Datavail – Process and Efficiency
- Brady Corporation – Keep Technology Agile
- Wiley – Marketing Automation + Marketing Content Platform
8. Reuse and Repurpose Content
One of the most obvious marketing lessons from the Kapost 50 is the efficient use of marketing content. Some people call it slicing up the turkey. It’s also referred to as the content pillar approach. Whatever the name, the concept is clear: create content that can be broken into many different pieces and distributed across channels to drive conversions at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
This approach not only supports efficiency but also consistency, and is an efficient way to repurpose content that attracts the right people to your brand and delivers them through the funnel.
Learn by Example
- Five9 – Efficient Reuse and Outstanding Results
- HubSpot – One Report, Many Assets
- LinkedIn – Big Rock Content
9. Conduct Original Research
Original research is an incredible asset, and the Kapost 50 B2B marketers know how to get the most out it. By surveying your audience, or using third-party vendors who do it for a living, you can simultaneously gain insight into your buyers and deliver benchmarks, statistics, and data that can support their business needs.
For example, if you survey your target audience about their biggest pain points, you can use that information to guide content or programs that help support those challenges. Also, once you have new data, you can create reports, infographics, SlideShares, blog posts, videos…you name it.
Learn by Example
- SolidFire – 2015 State of Storage Automation Report
- Intermedia – 2015 Insider Risk Report
- Shred-It – 2015 State of the Industry Report: Information and Data Security
10. Creatively Incorporate the Product and Customer Stories
Even the most buyer-centric marketers have their eyes on revenue. To deliver a true business impact through marketing content and strategies, you need to know how the highest level topics relate to your company’s products or services–and you need to help your buyers make that connection quickly. By incorporating customer stories into your content and mapping out thoughtful experiences that tie best practices to your product, you’ll be able to get your buyers from A to B to Closed Deal in no time.
Learn by Example
- Square – Square Stories
- Phunware – tvOS Is Out. Now What?
- Lenovo – Users Happen
These aren’t the only ten things B2B marketers are doing right. To read more Kapost 50 stories, check out the interactive page–and prepare to be inspired.