B2B Marketing – How do you prove you know what you’re talking about?

A large part of B2B marketing and sales is proving that you know what you’re talking about.  You can only sell something once somebody has accepted that you have the knowledge and expertise to meet their needs. And finding opportunities to do this can be a challenge.

Traditional methods, using advertising, cold calling or direct mail have their place – but how much opportunity do you really get to make a convincing case, assuming somebody even opens your letter or agrees to take your call?

‘OK, I’ve taken your call, you’ve got 30 seconds to impress me, starting NOW!’ 

There are some really gifted sales people who can take on this challenge and be successful on a regular basis. I’m not one of them, and nor are most people.  And even the most effective sales people will expect to get a 90%+ rejection rate.

Is there a better way? I believe there is.

By publishing the right kind of content you have the opportunity to get the attention of your target customers and prove to them how much you know, over and over again. If you do a really good job there’s every chance that they that will be contacting you, rather than the other way around.

We all need help

The first thing to appreciate is that everyone in business is looking for help. We want to find better ways of doing things, ways to overcome problems and we want information that will help us achieve better business results.

Pretty much any B2B business will be providing something that meets at least one of these needs. Successful content marketing or inbound marketing is always built on understanding exactly what sort of help your customers are looking for.

Much of the traditional sales and marketing approach is based around telling people what you sell. In content marketing you are aiming to create content about the challenges your target customers face. This way you are continually reinforcing the impression that you understand how the world looks through your customers’ eyes and that you have the expertise, knowledge or products that will really make a difference.

Earning attention

The basic truth is that people care about their problems and challenges much more than they care about what you sell. If your marketing effort is focused on promoting what you sell, then getting your customers’ attention and interest will always be a problem. Focus on their problems and challenges and getting attention will be easier.

Easier, of course, doesn’t mean easy. But successful B2B marketing means hard work however you go about it.  With content marketing the work goes into refining your understanding of the people you want to sell to, tuning into their thoughts, anxieties and ambitions. It also goes into working out how to create top quality content that hits that ‘sweet spot’ where their issues meet your expertise, and does it in a way that they’re going to take notice of and remember.

SEO and social media

Effective content marketing needs effort in other areas too. You have to improve your understanding of how your target customers search for things on the internet and optimise your content accordingly. You have to understand how to use social media platforms to build engagement and raise awareness of your competence without resorting to crass sales messages.

LinkedIn and, increasingly, Google+ discussion groups can be another great opportunity for building your credibility.  It’s not just about using these platforms as a way to promote your own content. Contributing to discussion threads should be part of your content strategy. But you can only do this productively if you have a clear picture of the expertise and values you want to get across and who you want to reach.

It isn’t a question of jumping onto as many discussions as you can just to get your name out there, it’s about picking the right discussions. What sort of conversations are your target customers likely to be following? Where can you add an intelligent, original and helpful comment that progressively reinforces your credibility?

This might sound like a lot of effort, and it is. Anyone who tells you that content marketing is easy either doesn’t understand it or is trying to pull the wool over your eyes. But given the choice of a prospective customer who has accepted that I know what I’m doing and is primarily concerned about how much it would cost, and somebody who has just agreed to take a cold call, I know who I’d rather be talking to.

content marketing

 

Richard Hussey, RSH Copywriting

Copywriter, blogger and content marketing specialist

Take the stress out of B2B Marketing. Call me on 01823 674167 or email richard@rshcopywriting.co.uk.gridhosted.co.uk

 

main image:Creative Commons License Very Quiet via Compfight

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