How to Build a Revenue-Driven B2B Content Strategy in 5 Steps

Mainly because the B2B buyer's journey is longer, involves multiple stakeholders, and requires more information to support the final purchasing decision. The market is also more competitive, prone to budget restrictions and higher costs.

A B2B content strategy needs to focus on building long-term customer relationships, gently guiding prospects through each stage of the customer journey.

The consumption of B2B content has been shown to drive purchases. But, before you start brainstorming content ideas, you need to have a strategy in place.

A good content strategy can help marketing teams increase revenue by:

• Creating brand awareness.

• Generating traffic and leads.

• Educating prospects about their products or services.

• Convincing decision-makers.

Having a clear content marketing strategy is vital to make sure the content you create matches your overall business goals, resonates with your target audience, and, ultimately, brings in revenue.

In this guide, we walk you through how to create a profit-driven B2B content strategy from start to finish.

Highlights:

• To get more eyes on your content and engage with B2B buyers across various platforms, use a range of distribution channels like social media, email, SEO, and paid advertising.

• Keep following up and refining your content marketing strategy based on data-driven insights, audience feedback, and industry trends to make sure it holds up.

• Try out different content formats, like blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, and videos, to engage different audience groups and cater to diverse learning preferences.

Eager to learn more? Let's dive into it!

Why every B2B company should have a content strategy

Content can be used at different stages of the customer journey to attract, engage, and convert leads into customers.

By creating high-quality content, your blog can become a direct channel to your target audience. Giving you a chance to build trust by answering their questions, and at the same time, educate them about your product or service, slowly guiding them towards a purchase.

Content marketing will also help you build thought leadership and position your company as an authority in your industry. Whether it's through your social media channels or your company blog.

Other benefits of a B2B content strategy?

• Encourage loyalty and repeat business: Nurture relationships with existing customers by giving them ongoing support, tips, and updates through your content. 

• Make customers recognize you: Stand out from the competitors with engaging content, the answers to real customer queries and a clear brand voice.

• Convince decision makers with facts: Give stakeholders the information they need to make informed purchasing decisions through case studies, for example.

With that said, if you haven't already made content a part of your B2B marketing strategy, it's about time.

But if you don't have a content strategy yet and don't know where to start, no worries. We got you here. Let's break down how you create a successful B2B content strategy step by step.

5 steps to creating a revenue-focused content strategy for B2B

No content strategy is the same like no company is the same. Your content marketing strategy will vary depending on factors like your business goals, resources, and industry.

In this guide, we're focusing on how to create a revenue-driven content strategy, helping you maximize your marketing ROI.

There are five key pillars to every successful content strategy, and none of them should be overlooked:

1. Target audience and persona

2. Goal setting

3. Content creation

4. Distribution

5. Analysis

Now, let's go through every step in detail. This is what you need to get started with your B2B content strategy.

1. Define your target audience and create personas

The first step is to really get to know your target audience and create buyer personas. 

Start by gathering customer data, for example, from your CRM system, website analytics, or customer surveys. If you don't have access to customer data – define the problem your product or service can solve. Then, consider who is most likely to encounter this problem and be motivated to seek out a solution. That's your target audience.

Make sure to define key target audience demographics, like:

• Industry: Identify the industries or sectors your company serves.

• Company size: Determine the size of companies you want to target. Are they small, mid-sized, or large businesses?

• Geographic location: Consider the geographical regions or markets where your target audience is located.

• Job roles and titles: Identify decision-makers, influencers, and stakeholders within your target companies.

When that's done, you are going to explore your customer's challenges and pain points. This means figuring out the specific problems they encounter that your products or services can help solve.

Understanding your target audience's pain points is important for developing content that speaks to their needs.

Once your target audience is figured out, it's time to create buyer personas:

• Based on the information you have gathered, develop fictional characters of your ideal customers, also known as buyer personas.

• Give your personas names and specify their roles within their organization. Include age, gender, education level, and any other relevant demographics.

• Outline the professional goals they aim to achieve and the challenges they encounter in their role, as well as identify their primary pain points, frustrations, and what motivates them to seek solutions.

• Determine where they go for information related to their industry or job role (for example, industry publications, online forums or social media).

• Understand their role in the buying process, their decision criteria, and the factors influencing their decisions.

Example of a Buyer Persona

Tip: It's good to validate your personas by gathering feedback from customer support, your sales team or directly from customers. Then, make adjustments based on the new insights to make sure each persona accurately represents your target audience.

This first step can take a while, but is well worth it. Think of it like you're building a foundation for what's to come. As much as 79 % of marketers claim that the most important factor for their success is having a good understanding of their target audience.

When you have your target audience and personas in place, it's time to start thinking about the goals with your content strategy.

2. Set revenue-focused content goals

Before you start defining your content goals, you should have a good understanding of your company's overall business goals. Then, you can start thinking about how your content strategy can drive revenue to align with those goals.

Identify areas where content can increase revenue. Like lead generation, lead nurturing, conversion optimization, upselling, or customer retention. Your content goals can be to increase organic traffic, conversion rates, or qualified leads, for example.

Setting SMART goals is always a good idea:

• Make sure your content goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound).

• Instead of a vague goal like 'increase revenue', set a SMART goal like 'increase monthly sales qualified leads (SQLs) by 10% in the next quarter'.

However, setting goals is not enough. You also need to decide on how to measure them. In this case, you should choose revenue-related metrics, like:

Conversion rates: Measure the percentage of leads that convert into paying customers.

Customer lifetime value (CLV): Track the revenue generated from a customer over their entire relationship with your company.

Average revenue per user (ARPU): Calculate the average revenue generated by each customer or user.

Return on investment (ROI): Evaluate the financial return on your content marketing investment compared to the revenue generated.

For B2B companies specifically, it's important to focus on qualified leads over traffic when setting goals. Instead of solely focusing on increasing website traffic, prioritize metrics related to lead generation and conversions, such as sign-ups, email subscriptions, or demo requests.

By concentrating on sign-ups and conversions, you can better assess the impact of your content on revenue generation and customer acquisition.

When you have your content goals and metrics, it's time to create content that aligns with them. This means focusing on content types, topics, and distribution channels that will help you reach your goals.

3. Create relevant content

Content creation is the main part of the content strategy. This is where you decide what type of content to create and what topics to cover. What content you create will vary depending on your goals. 

If your goal, for example, is to increase brand awareness on LinkedIn, you might want to create posts, videos, and articles for that platform. 

On the other hand, if your goal is to generate leads from your website, a white paper that prospects can download in exchange for their email addresses might be a better idea. If your goal is to increase organic traffic, you need to do keyword research and create an SEO strategy as well. 

So, before starting to even think about content creation, make sure you know your goals. 

When it comes to what type of content to create, there's a wide range to choose from. Creating an industry report can build thought leadership; email marketing can bring you leads; infographics are good for generating genuine backlinks, and how-to blog posts can help educate your audience. 

Answer real customer questions

If you have done a good target audience analysis (like we discussed previously) you will be well informed on the most common questions, concerns, and pain points of your target audience.

Make sure you create content that answers these questions directly, giving readers practical insights and solutions. By addressing real customer questions, you build authority and credibility in your industry while giving genuine value to your audience.

Do a content audit

If you already have content, on your company blog for example, start with a content audit to see what you miss. 

Evaluate the performance of your existing content using metrics like engagement, traffic, and conversion rates. Figure out if there are any content gaps, things that don't match up, or info that's out of date that you need to fix. 

Tip: Repurpose content into different formats like blog posts, webinars, industry reports, landing pages or even podcasts to extend its lifespan. Repurposing successful content allows you to maximize its impact while minimizing the resources required for content creation.

Create content for every stage in the customer journey

Keep in mind that you should create content that suits each stage of the customer journey:

• Stage 1: Awareness

• Stage 2: Consideration

• Stage 3: Decision

Start with educational content that answers the initial questions prospects might have in the awareness stage. 

In the consideration stage, go for more detailed content like case studies, product demonstrations, or guides that show off the benefits and features of your product or service. 

Lastly, at the decision stage, provide persuasive content like reviews, comparison guides, or testimonials to help potential customers make informed buying decisions.

When the content is created, it's time to distribute it through channels where your target audience can easily find it.

4. Distribute your content where your target audience is

Choosing the right distribution channels is one of the most underrated steps in content marketing.

It's not enough to create great content – you also need to get it out to your customers.

To choose the right distribution channels, you need to really understand the demographics, preferences, behaviors, and online habits of your target audience.

Identify which social media platforms, websites, forums, or online communities they visit to consume and engage with content.

You should consider a mix of owned, earned, and paid media channels to maximize your reach and engagement, for example:

Social media: Share your content on social media platforms where your audience is active, like LinkedIn, X, Facebook, or Instagram. Make sure to tailor your content to fit the format and tone of each platform.

Search engines: Optimize your content for search engines to improve its visibility. Use relevant keywords to help your content rank higher in the search engine results and attract organic traffic.

Email marketing: Use email marketing to distribute your content directly to your audience's inbox. Segment your email list based on demographics, interests, or past interactions to send targeted content that resonates with each segment.

Online communities: Engage with industry-related online communities, forums, and groups where your target audience participates. Answer questions, share insights, and contribute to discussions while subtly promoting your content.

Paid advertising: Use paid advertising channels such as pay-per-click (PPC) ads, sponsored content, or social media ads to increase your content's reach. Target your ads based on demographics, online behavior, and interests to make sure that they reach the right audience segments.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, 90% of B2B marketers use social media when distributing content (organically), and 79% use blogs. A majority (84%) claim that LinkedIn is the social media platform that delivers the best value.

When the content has been distributed through chosen platforms, you need to give it some time to perform before you dive into the final step – analyzing.

5. Analyze and refine your content

Your content strategy should include how and when to analyze and update content.

When you should start following up and updating your content depends on the content type. For SEO-optimized content, it's good to give it a few months before you start to change things up. While paid advertising, for example, usually will deliver results in a shorter time span.

Deciding on metrics and goals for follow-up is an important part of this step. Set specific, measurable goals for each piece of content or content campaign.

The five most frequently used metrics to measure content performance are:

• Conversions 73%

• Email engagement 71%

• Website traffic 71%

• Website engagement 69%

• Social media analytics 65%

You can use tools like Google Analytics, HubSpot, or Hotjar to collect data on content performance. 

Identify high-performing content that is driving the desired outcomes and areas where improvements are needed. Pay attention to patterns and trends in the data to understand what your audience like and don't.

Evaluate your content's strengths and weaknesses by considering its relevance, quality, engagement, and alignment with your audience's preferences. Identify the parts of your content that are working well and contributing to its success, as well as the areas that need improvement.

Tip: Collect feedback from your audience through surveys, polls, comments, or direct interactions to understand how they view your content. Listen to their feedback, suggestions, and criticisms to identify opportunities for improving your content.

When you have gathered the data, you can start to optimize your content. Update and improve underperforming content by addressing issues like outdated information, poor formatting, or low engagement.

Optimize keywords, headlines, and calls-to-action to improve search visibility, click-through rates, and conversions, based on your goals.

Lastly, keep monitoring the impact of your improvements over time and adjust your content marketing efforts accordingly to drive better results.

The key is to never stop following up, analyze, and refine.

What's the difference between a B2B and a B2C content strategy?

Your B2B content strategy should aim to establish thought leadership, showcase industry expertise, and build long-term relationships with potential and existing customers. A B2C content strategy, on the other hand, has a bigger emphasis on emotional appeal, aiming to resonate with individual consumers and drive immediate action.

B2B buyers often take their time researching and evaluating their options before making a purchase. So, it's important to prioritize informative messaging and educational content, like whitepapers, case studies, and in-depth industry reports, that demonstrate your expertise and provide value to potential customers.

Conclusion

Developing a profit-driven B2B content strategy is not just about creating engaging content – it's about aligning every piece of content with specific revenue objectives. 

By understanding your target audience, setting measurable goals, and continuously analyzing and refining your content based on data-driven insights, you can drive more revenue for your B2B business.

The bottom line is: Content can and should be a vital part of your digital marketing strategy.

Want to know more about driving profit with B2B content? Check out this webinar on how to use B2B content marketing to power your business!