Content marketing should not only contribute to brand building, it should also generate conversions and leads. To achieve this, the content must satisfy certain wants. What these are and how you can increase conversion rates are explained here.
The significance of content marketing in 2022
Hardly a company today does not consider content marketing as part of their online activities. After all, experience has shown: good and relevant content draws in the target group. According to the Content Marketing Trend Study 2021, more than three-fourths of those B2B companies surveyed within the DACH region last year stated that they want to increase their content marketing budget. And more than two-thirds published new content at least once a week. The companies’ own websites and social media sites are the most popular content marketing channels.
Even if the strength of their brand and their corporate image continue to be the most important strategic goal of B2B companies for their content marketing, the generation of leads and winning over of new customers is quickly making leeway. A total of 84 per cent of companies within the B2B segment strove in 2021 to close deals – two years previously, only 69 per cent (German) used content marketing with the aim to acquire new customers. To generate leads, create occasions for talks and, as a result, acquire new customers, however, the content must satisfy certain requirements.
Requirements for generating leads: relevance, reach and value-added content
Users of a company’s content automatically have contact with the brand. This reinforces awareness and, in the event of helpful or entertaining content, also leads to a more positive image as well as a higher brand relevance. But this only pays off for the company’s added value indirectly. To generate qualified leads by using content marketing, you first need a market analysis to define the target group. For instance, to capture contact data or even to start the sales process, the content must satisfy the following requirements:
- The content produced should offer a certain target group relevant information that grabs attention.
- The content should be based on the three phases of the sales funnel in order to continually provide the right content to potential customers along their customer journey.
- Relevant content is only valuable when it is received by as many people as possible within the target group. It should therefore be advertised, inspire people to share it and be shown where the target group is surfing. In addition to the company website, social and professional networks, blogs or special interest magazines can be considered.
- A high reach alone, however, is not enough. To achieve conversions and generate leads, attractive advertising or links are required. They enable you to place content and guide users to product detail pages or landing pages, where additional content or the newsletter can be advertised to which interested persons have access in exchange for their contact data.
- Regardless of text, pictures or videos: all types of content enable the integration of tracking pixels from Facebook, Outbrain and Google, with the aim to communicate with users in a targeted way via further touchpoints and, subsequently, to reach new target groups. Scatter loss is minimised as a result and the conversion rate maximised.
- Generally speaking, concepts for measuring the success of content marketing activities are essential. After all, if you do not know how your spend relates to leads, you cannot seriously analyse the measures implemented. According to the trend study, only 27 per cent of B2B companies fully leverage such tools.
Best practice from the B2B segment: Arvato boosts leads with concrete solutions
The service provider Arvato provides its target groups with various content pieces, some of which address very specific topics and offer finely adjustable incentives for starting up a dialogue with employees of a company. White papers, blog articles, and talks focus on various problems and challenges when it comes to SAP solutions.
Integrated barriers to generating leads, such as contact forms, are not an issue in this case, as consumers receive concrete help and solutions in turn. At the same time, customers are sorted so that only particularly relevant leads are focused on. This means the content from Arvato is attractive to potential customers in a very concrete way in their research phase of the customer journey and has a positive effect on their future purchasing decision.
