I’m just going to say it: B2B content marketing sucks.
I understand. I really do. It’s tough to blog about small niches that nobody cares about. It’s hard to sell to tight-fisted businesses. It’s tough to write about stuff that only four people on the planet understand.
But does it have to be this way? No. It does not.
What I’ve observed is that many B2B content marketers are in a rut. They cling to old practices, refusing to let them die, perpetuating the plague of boredom.
Here are some top signs that your B2B content marketing is doomed to die a slow, painful death:
1. You’re not sure why you’re doing content marketing
When I work with B2B companies on their content marketing, I sometimes ask them, “Why are you doing content marketing?”
I usually get blank stares or muttered clichés.
If you want it to be effective, your content marketing has to be tied into the core marketing efforts of the company as a whole. Before you can expect to nail B2B content marketing successfully, you need to know why you’re doing it. If you don’t know why you’re doing it, you won’t know how to do it.
What are your goals in content marketing? Lead generation? Sales? Define it. Write it down, and then roll out a content marketing plan that supports those goals.
