B2B Marketing: SEO And Google Ads Don’t Work Without Content Marketing

Why use content marketing? Because it works! Especially for B2B businesses. Advertising is less credible. If you are not selling hot cakes, work on your content, communicate with your audience through digital channels.

Table of Contents:

• Tips on how to create a website that converts
• Content promotion tactics
• How to turn negative reviews into positive ones and attract new leads
• Which tools to use to track and measure website traffic and conversions

Google ads is a way to get traffic to your site faster. It’s a good tool to attract customers in the beginning. But (!) in addition to being expensive, the effectiveness of ads is lower. People think organic search results give answers that are more relevant, and are thus more likely to click on them. They often scroll down the ads to find organic results. And I do the same. Moreover, if users are running an ad blocker extension, they may be unable to see some of your ads. If you're not selling something like hotcakes, work on your content marketing strategy.

HOW TO CREATE A WEBSITE THAT CONVERTS

1. Craft key marketing messages and triggers, designing compelling website header and headings for a homepage.

Again, the right visualization + the right title = half the success. A headline should capture user’s attention. Usually the visitor decides whether to scroll down the site in the first 2-3 seconds. Thus, the right headline going in tandem with an engaging picture will convince your prospect that your company meets his needs. The right website design and visualization should give a quick answer to the questions like who you are, what you offer and for whom, what benefits and value you deliver to your customers.

2. Work out carefully the website architecture and navigation. Your site should be user-friendly. A few tips for B2B brands.

• Design a simple and user-friendly website menu. I recommend using a drop-down menu for large sites since it lets users quickly access your site’s content.
• Focus visitor’s attention on your key points. Your key content elements should be visible and easily accessible from anywhere on your website. Adhere to the golden rule of three clicks, where the most important pages should not be located further than 3 clicks.
• Pages that are great-to-have: news, case-studies, customer reviews, useful information and tips. Add a corporate blog. In order to gain prospect’s trust and credibility look like an expert in your field.
• Create internal links by linking pages on your site. Internal links help users easily access information that you find notable to mention.
• Organize your website structure and design in a way to encourage users to take an action. Place leads catchers across your website. Built trust with your audience with tripwires. This will increase website conversion rate.

3. Write content according to website structure

Website content structure and content itself should offer value and the right solution to pain points of your prospects. Highlight your key marketing messages. Read more about content writing techniques here >>>

4. Keep your website updated

Regularly update your content. This will help you build a positive brand reputation.

5. Avoid aggressive advertising style, write for people and in plain language

Website content should be unique, expert, trustworthy, and valuable. Make sure your texts are easy to read and understand. Keep things short and simple. When writing, avoid aggressive advertising style like “hurry up and buy now”. It no longer works. Offer value and build relationships with intended audience.

6. Create a lead magnet

This is a marketing technique for capturing the contact details of prospects. This is your free offer. You need to offer something unique, relevant, and of high value free to your audience. It can be a training webinar, a book, checklist, and so on. Or this can be a product demo, free trial or free consultation. When done right, you will get quality leads for further communication. I call this tool a lead catcher. Use pop up, banner, highlighted message or video to display your lead-magnets.

7. Place tripwires in your funnel

This is an offer that entices your prospects to make a small purchase to get them to make larger purchases.

8. Catch your prospect’s attention with CTAs that convert

Work out your call-to-actions carefully, using words that provoke emotion or enthusiasm. Conduct an A/B testing of CTA types and designs in order to learn which ones work best for you.

9. Add feedback forms or product request forms

Feedback form will help you analyze and improve the user journey on your website. For example, Hotjar app will help you generate in-the-moment feedback forms for free. This is a button that sits at the edge of a page.

10. Add blog to site

According to experts, blog helps companies get 55% more website visitors. This is a great way to drive traffic to your site and improve customer relationships.

11. How to improve SEO and build semantic core for a website

• There are both free and paid tools to create a list of keywords. You can use Keyword Planner, Google Analytics, Google Search Console for free to identify the most frequent search terms on your website and on sites of your competitors. You can additionally use AI tools like INK app to find keywords.
• Optimize your website by adding meta tags. Use quality descriptions and pay special attention to titles.
• Use keywords and their synonyms in website content. Avoid keyword stuffing.

12. Your website should be responsive

Your site should be easy to view on a mobile device, otherwise you're losing visitors.

13. Build high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites

Backlinks are a major ranking factor for most search engines. The more backlinks your website has, the higher reputation you’ll have in eyes of Google. But there is a nuance. These should be backlinks from authoritative domains relevant to your business.

CONTENT PROMOTION TACTICS

To build expertise, authority and trust, promote your website and blog content using external online resources. Publish your content on authoritative platforms and sites related to your industry, including:

• Social media (post in industry and business groups organically and use targeted ads). Find my practical tips on B2B social media marketing in here >>>
• Industry and business blogs and forums
• Newsletters (via e-mail, watsapp and other messengers)

Email marketing automation system will help you personalize campaigns for each subscriber. One of the most popular platforms is MailChimp. You can use its marketing library to learn more digital marketing tactics. But I don’t recommend this software if you’re limited in a budget. There is no email or live chat support available for free plan. Besides, MailChimp has strict policies regarding cold outreach. Luckily, there are dozens of other dedicated emailing platforms. For example, for large corporate businesses, HubSpot Marketing Hub with various marketing features will be a good choice. In addition, I recommend subscribing to their blog which is great for digital marketing purposes.

• Digital media. You can find media that aloe you publish your news and articles for free. This is kind of content seeding. Seeding is a marketing tactic, by which you create and distribute content across the web to attract your target audience.
• Collaborate with industry associations and conference organizers. You will be able to use their customer base for your email newsletters, as well as post your news and articles on their social media and other digital platforms.
• Collaborate with your partners and customers. Ask your partners and customers for a link. Post your news on their websites.
• Use every opportunity to nominate your business for an Award. Whether you win or not, you will get a backlink from an authoritative website and enhance your reputation as an expert in the eyes of your prospects. Moreover, Google loves different ranking platforms and brings them to the top of search results.
• Business catalogs. Submit information about your company and your products to industry and business catalogs. This also refers to content seeding.
• Retargeting/Remarketing. Looking for a way to bring website visitors back to your site?  Focus on remarketing tactic: show ads to people who have visited your website.

How to turn negative reviews into positive ones and attract new leads

Found negative user reviews about your company on product review sites?

Don't be discouraged, don't ignore or deny it. Be sure to explain why things were bad before and what has changed for the better now. I was able to turn a website with negative reviews of a product into a lead source this way. The same works for negative feedback on social networks. Negative reviews can be converted into leads if you provide a good explanation.

TRACK YOUR CONTENT PERFORMANCE WITH WEB ANALYTICS TOOLS

Data Analysis is essential as it helps businesses understand their customers better and follow a data-driven content marketing strategy.

• Google Analytics is considered a must-have website and content analytics tool for any business. You can integrate it with other digital tools to make better marketing decisions. Based on analytics data, you will be able to enter the right changes to your content strategy and find out what type of content and which digital channels are performing best.
• Hotjar analytics tool provides additional useful features to track audience behavior. You’ll get recordings of customer sessions and heat maps showing where your users are spending most of the time (for paid plans). You will see how each visitor interacts with your site and at what step your prospect falls off. Additionally, with Hotjar you can install survey and feedback widget on your site for free.
• Facebook and other social media offer their own analytics tools helping analyze your prospects’ behavior.
• If you’re using HubSpot marketing automation platform, you can track your content performance (on your website, social media and email) with its Marketing Analytics tool.

Google Tag Manager will help you add other analytics tools to your website without IT help. This is a great free tool for marketers since it speeds up many processes. All you need is to get installed Google Tag Manager on your website. Just follow Google guide to set up it yourself.

(!) Almost everything I wrote about can be done for free or with a tight budget. Your goal is to seed the content on the web. Content is what allows you to build valuable relationships with your target audience. After a while you will definitely get more traffic and more quality leads.

Read more about B2B Content Marketing: Tips On How To Promote Website Using Content >>>

Find practical tips on: 

• How to drive organic traffic on a tight budget
• How to make your website more visible on Google
• Ways to make your website stand out
• Content types for B2B websites
• Corporate blog as a part of SEO strategy
• Where to craft a content plan