Elevate your content campaigns by engaging with the experts who build and create them
Content marketing has become central to the majority of B2B marketing efforts. Because it generates three times as many leads as traditional marketing, it’s not difficult to see why. And content marketers are sophisticated animals. They ‘get’ your marketing strategy, understand who your target personas are and know how to incorporate your key messaging into your content assets – a good agency should also be able to create and identify those items for you.
Most importantly, a good content marketer will understand your company’s brand, your brand values and your brand voice. They’ll understand audience targeting, how SEO and keywords work – and how to be judicious in applying those keywords. They’ll be able to help a small business act big and breathe life into corporate marketing programmes.
It makes sense then to have your content agency feed the social media beast. It’s much easier for marketing people to work with the actual creators of the content. If your content guys created your assets, they know where to find the hidden gold within and can help create a pipeline of social media content that sells and converts – and makes the most of every asset created. Good content agencies are skilled at slicing and dicing your content assets to find new formats and uses for content and are adept at spotting the hidden value within your content – including elements that you might not have even considered.
Whether you’re working on a campaign made up of various assets – such as an e-book, a webinar and a selection of blogs – or a single piece like a white paper, make sure that you work with your agency to build in your social assets from day one. Better still, get them to make social media promotion an integral part of your content strategy. If you don’t have a content strategy in place, then getting one should be at, or near, the top of your content agency’s to-do list.
Today, the line between old and new media has become blurred. Social media is no longer the powerhouse it once was. It is now it’s a part of ‘the media’ itself. There is still great value in using social media for brand awareness and lead generation, however, even if the days of mass live tweeting at events are over and users are posting less. But you do need to focus.
Make the most out of your social platform choices
Making the most out of your social media investment is essential. For B2B, that means LinkedIn. Facebook is being used a lot less by B2B marketers, X is on a path of slow audience decline and Instagram’s designs on becoming a business platform are yet to be realised. The latest CMI research reveals that 84 per cent of B2B marketing folks believe LinkedIn delivers the best value compared with other social networks.
That doesn’t mean you should put all your eggs in one basket. Social media diversity is a good thing. According to the same research, TikTok almost doubled its number of B2B users in 2023 compared with the previous year. So don’t ignore other channels. Rather, concentrate your efforts to align with your agreed strategy.
We routinely recommend that our clients optimise for LinkedIn first. Our advice extends beyond a mix of content formats, such as articles, videos and explainers. As with any marketing channel, it’s important to establish authority and trust. A good place to start, for example, is your LI profile. A good content writer can ensure that it’s not overselling, that it avoids platitudes or hyperbole. It’s a good idea to get people from across your business to work with your content agency on optimising your use of social media so that process meets all stakeholder objectives – and good practice spreads organically.
Everything you post on social media needs to employ a defined cadence and tone of voice. Your content agency (if they know their way around content) can help you use LinkedIn as a forum that builds thought leadership too. You improve your credibility by delivering content with this aim in mind. And you have a ready-made audience to road-test your ideas for bigger thought leadership content projects.
Extra oomph from an integrated approach
A good content strategy that integrates social media will give extra oomph to your marketing initiatives. This includes having a stream of evergreen content, so you can fall back on a ready supply of social media fodder in quieter periods. In that vein, consider a content audit of your existing assets to find more treasure that you can repurpose for client nurture journeys and demand generation efforts across all channels.
A content marketing agency doesn’t replace social media management, whether that’s delivered by an internal department or an external agency. That role remains valid – especially in overseeing and delivering on your social media strategy, tracking results or engaging with and listening to your audiences. Instead, use your content experts to augment and elevate what you do socially. In a time when budgets are tight, optimisation and focus are everything. A good content marketing agency’s input helps you over the finish line, to fully deliver on your marketing goals.
