“Content is king.” It was true when Bill Gates said it in 1996, and it’s even truer today.

How? Content drives the traffic that improves Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) rankings. 

See, good B2B content is more than keyword stuffing or providing entertaining, useful material. It’s about a targeted strategy to meet all the metrics your company sets.

To get a better idea of what that means, think about a food recipe.

• It includes a list of ingredients, steps, the method, and duration.
• In the same way, your content has to fulfill all the requirements for conversions.

Those requirements make up more than your content — they come together to form a content marketing strategy. This is more important than you might realize. Without a strategy, you can’t be sure where your content will show up on search engines.

Even if your content ranks, there’s no guarantee it’ll rank high enough to get you the conversions you want. So, here’s a list of strategies to make your B2B content marketing rank higher on Google and other search engines. Use these and you can make sure your content gets in front of as many interested people as possible.

Strategic Way To Make Your B2B Content Marketing Rank Higher On Google (And Get You More Conversions) #1: Review KPIs

What Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have your organization been tracking lately? Can you find a relationship between these KPIs and the Return on Investment (ROI) you get for your content?

A good KPI will be:

• Actionable — You can change content to improve results. A non-actionable KPI is like a bridge to nowhere — useless.
• Directional — Measures improvement.
• Practical — Mixes well with other processes.
• Quantitative — Represented in numbers and statistics.

Determine KPIs using the SMART model:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

Imagine you own a bakery that ships banana bread all over the country. You’d want to keep track of the cost of ingredients and labor versus the profits you make on sales. 

You might also keep up with the cost of gasoline versus the amount you charge for shipping. Relevant KPIs enable intelligent decisions to increase revenue and maximize advertising impact.

Appropriate KPIs for Content Marketing:

• Organic Traffic — How many hits result from search engines. This measures how effective your SEO has been.
• Number of Leads — How many leads your copy generates, according to particular market channels.
• Cost Per Click — How much it costs you every time a user clicks on a paid advertisement for your site
• Conversion Rate. — The percentage of traffic that engages with your CTA, whether it’s a sale, a mailing list, or a link.
• Bounce Rate — Percentage of people who come to your site but don’t navigate the rest of the links. These people are making contact with your copy, but they’re not feeling engaged. 
• Backlinks — Sites that link to your site to create more traffic. Backlinks contribute to your SEO strategy. Buying backlinks doesn’t work — Google is too smart for that.

There are many other KPIs, but you can use software to track them all. Good software has an interactive, customizable dashboard so you can run quick comparisons.

Strategic Way To Make Your B2B Content Marketing Rank Higher On Google (And Get You More Conversions) #2: Attribute Your Revenue

Revenue attribution determines your ROI. It’s a process that draws the connection between marketing efforts and sales. In some ways, it can be a more effective way to test ROI than your conversion rate.

It tracks specific actions along the marketing funnel. There are several types of revenue attribution models:

• Linear attribution — The simplest to track, but also the least useful. Each touchpoint along the marketing funnel has equal weight.
• Time-decay attribution — More credit given to touchpoints that occur closer to the time you reach a conversion.
• U-shaped attribution — Named for the U-shape a chart of this model would show. The first and last touchpoints get the most credit. Everything else gets an even distribution.
• W-shaped attribution — First and last touchpoints get priority, with a bump in the middle with more credit for the midpoint.

There’s also full point attribution — revenue attributed according to the following scale.

22.5 percent credit allocated for each point:

• First touch — The first interaction with your brand
• Lead generation touch — The point at which the content becomes a viable lead.
• Opportunity creation — When they become sales-ready.
• Close touch — The final touchpoint, when the sale gets made.

The final 10 percent gets distributed among all the points between.

Here are some high-converting B2B copywriting strategies you should try.

Strategic Way To Make Your B2B Content Marketing Rank Higher On Google (And Get You More Conversions) #3: Take A Multi-Channel Approach

Customer interactions benefit from a multi-channel approach. Common channels include:

• Email — This is still the most effective means of communicating with your audience. Relevant, informative emails keep you in mind and remind readers how you solve problems.
• Chat — Many home pages include pop-up chat windows where operatives offer to answer questions.
• Text messages (SMS) — Some people almost live on their phones. Their preferred method of communication is text. Be sure to ask permission first before texting new leads.
• IVR voice self-service — Interactive Voice Response. Users navigate a phone tree before getting directed to the proper channel. Good for saving time, but also very frustrating for customers.
• Social media — Many users prefer to comment on a brand’s social media page with questions and feedback. They might find Twitter is better to engage customer service than traditional methods.
• Live agents — Contact centers use all methods of communication, not only call center employees. Sometimes, people want the personal touch of a real conversation.

Businesses have become more and more channel-agnostic. This means there’s a communication trail to make it easier when customers contact you. 

Multi-channel marketing is essential when generating leads. Personalize your voice and strategy based on which forum you’re using. Social media will be less formal than email, but still, keep it professional.

Strategic Way To Make Your B2B Content Marketing Rank Higher On Google (And Get You More Conversions) #4: Generate Leads

Lead generation is the process by which companies find new potential customers. While long-term customers are essential to your business, fresh leads are also important.

Lead generation depends on:

• Targeting the right customer
• Engaging with your audience
• Advertising

You can get organic leads or buy them. In most cases, leads you generate will work better because they'll know you already. It won’t be more spam in their inbox. A good lead will want to hear from you. They won’t feel bothered.

The best kinds of leads are:

• Market Qualified Leads (MQLs) — Someone fills out a contact form or otherwise contacts your company showing interest. They aren’t ready to buy anything yet, but they want more information.
• Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) — These people are already familiar with your products and are ready to buy. They’ve been “warmed up” a little more compared to MQLs.
• Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) — They’ve done a free trial or have used your product before, and they’re ready to buy it or subscribe to it for real.
• Service Qualified Leads — Existing customers who want upgrades. For example, Hulu subscribers who want to upgrade to the ad-free version.
• Conversion Qualified Leads (CQL) — They’ve answered your Call to Action (CTA) and converted.

Here are B2B copywriting strategies that can help drive more MQLs and SQLs.

Strategic Way To Make Your B2B Content Marketing Rank Higher On Google (And Get You More Conversions) #5: Craft Better Buyer Personas

Customer journey (or experience) mapping shows the path from initial interest to a sale. 

Journey mapping doesn’t stop with the conversion. It includes follow-up with customer service and any future purchases the user makes. 

Customer lifetime value (CLV) determines the total amount of business from a customer. It examines the relationship between a buyer persona and your company.

You can find the CLV by multiplying three variables:

1. Average value of purchases
2. Number of times bought per year
3. Average length of customer relationship (in years)

Customer experience can be especially frustrating for B2B customers. Most companies are already 50 percent of the way down the marketing funnel before they even talk to a sales rep. 

A content-actionable persona will tell you what the buyer needs, wants, and should have. It’s not about what you want them to do. It’s supposed to be about their problems, pain points, and the solutions you have to offer them.

Pains and Gains

What are the customer’s pain points? What kind of relief or value do you have to offer?

Elements of Value:

• Life-changing — Hope, motivation, belonging.
• Emotional — Nostalgia, wellness, fun.
• Functional — Makes money, saves time, organizes, reduces risk.

A B2B buyer persona differs because you appeal to a committee of people, not individuals. 

Elements of B2B Buyer Personas

Good buyer personas will include topics related to individual roles and group goals. It’s more than a checklist — it’s a way of looking at things. Here are some important elements to consider:

• Drivers and Motivators — Who, what, when, where, and why they’re interested in your business and what it has to offer.
• Behaviors — Where do they research? What captures their attention?
• Problems and Fears — What is the hardest part of their job? 
• Obstacles and Influences — Where are they “stuck” on the customer journey? How can you help them move along to the next phase?
• Keywords and Language — What language or terminology do they use? Which words will they be using with search engines and giving special attention?

Strategic Way To Make Your B2B Content Marketing Rank Higher On Google (And Get You More Conversions) #6: Audit Your Content

A content audit reviews your marketing material through qualitative and quantitative analysis. Quantitative analysis involves numbers, while qualitative is less tangible and involves more words.

Quality content should have:

• Accuracy
• Relevance
• Engagement
• Findability
• Conversion

Weed out the bits that don’t contribute to these criteria. Also, be on the lookout for redundancies and duplicate content. Sometimes departments work on their own and come up with the same content twice.

Other times, content can be out of date or unnecessary. Your content should match the customer journey with diversity to help them decide.

Sometimes, the wrong content does more harm than no content at all. Keep that in mind when you create and audit content. You might be better off getting rid of something if it doesn’t meet the criteria laid out above.

Learn the copyediting strategies to improve your B2B copywriting here.

Strategic Way To Make Your B2B Content Marketing Rank Higher On Google (And Get You More Conversions) #7: Perform A Content Gap Analysis

A content audit determines what your content has, but a content gap analysis focuses on what it lacks. Examine your buyer personas and see if your content meets all their needs. 

Create content to fill any gaps between what the customer needs to know and what you’ve told them. You need information to support the customer journey from awareness to the decision.

You should have content addressing:

• Awareness 
• What you need
• How it’s obtained
• How you can distribute it
• How it improves the customer’s experience

Anything you don’t support is a gap, and you should create content to fit that need and be part of the customer journey. If you lack content that corresponds to any of these steps, that journey can come to a halt.

Strategic Way To Make Your B2B Content Marketing Rank Higher On Google (And Get You More Conversions) #8: Research Your Competition

Review the content in your industry that other companies provide. This isn't about judging the competition and their products. It's about their content and advertising. 

Look at the channels and forms of content they use. Do they use videos, social media posts, or email? Is there anything they lack that you can fulfill (like direct mail marketing?) How will you differentiate your content from what’s already out there?

For in-depth analysis, check out the content of businesses that share your audience in other industries. 

Imagine you’re a major bakery selling banana bread to smaller bakeries. You don’t have to stop at researching content for other major baked goods distributors. You may also want to address non-bakery-related content for small business owners.

Some creativity and outside-of-the-box thinking can go a long way with this strategy. Look at every possible angle and consider how any business compares with yours.

Strategic Way To Make Your B2B Content Marketing Rank Higher On Google (And Get You More Conversions) #9: Integrate Content Marketing With Other Marketing

Don’t keep your content marketing separated from your other marketing campaigns. When departments don’t work together, it creates silos. You want everything to connect so it works without a hitch.

Define your:

• Content goals
• Audiences
• Key message
• Strategies

Make sure they're consistent across all departments. Use a content marketing framework.

Consider all the work you’ve done in the previous steps. Integrate the knowledge from your buyer personas, content audit, and content gap analysis.

Remember, your work is meaningless if you don’t improve your marketing strategy and apply it.

Strategic Way To Make Your B2B Content Marketing Rank Higher On Google (And Get You More Conversions) #10: Create New Content

Develop an editorial plan to create new content. Assemble all your resources to make content creation as smooth as possible.

• Themes
• Goals
• Formats
• Authors
• Reviewers
• Published Dates
• Experts
• Distribution channels
• Merchandising

Try existing formulas for reliable content or develop your own for something unique.

Content diversity helps you engage with prospects and existing customers alike. 

Some content types you may want to add to your site:

• E-books — Free e-books are a great way to generate interest and collect information to use in outreach. These tend to be more casual and design-heavy.
• White papers — More academic than e-books. They present a problem and propose a solution, or solutions, for the issue. White papers are much more systematic and specific than previous material.
• Courses — One of the best things about the internet today is all the free and valuable information. Interactive multimedia content in the form of a course establishes you as an industry authority.
• Email subscriptions — A series of emails targeted towards the company’s interests. It could relate to a central theme, or it could address many topics in their industry.
• Original Research — Polls, surveys, and empirical research to contribute new information to the field.

Strategic Way To Make Your B2B Content Marketing Rank Higher On Google (And Get You More Conversions) #11: Write A Value Proposition

A value proposition is a clear statement about the benefits of using your product or service.

It’s not a slogan, a description, or plain, unqualified information. It shows how your company provides value to their company and why. 

To create a value proposition, you need to do the following things:

1. Identify a market segment. Don’t be too generalized.
2. Define the value experience your company offers with its solutions. Good, bad, tall, short, whichever you can describe.
3. Identify pain points and connect them with the benefits your company provides. 
4. Show how your company differs from other market offerings.
5. Prove your assertions with evidence, statistics, research, and persuasive arguments.

You may have to try out a few value propositions before you land on the right one. Don’t get discouraged and keep at it. A good value proposition can communicate the most important parts of your business to your audience.

Strategic Way To Make Your B2B Content Marketing Rank Higher On Google (And Get You More Conversions) #12: Iterate

Don’t be complacent with your copy. Keep up with the times and change them when needed. Use split testing and market research to know which content drives conversions. 

Writing and maintaining the excellent copy that hits all the high points you set out to meet isn’t a one-time thing. It’s a process. It’s a lifestyle choice. It’s a commitment to meeting your customer’s needs better than any other company and showing them how you do it.

Getting too comfortable can lead to stagnation. That can put you and your business in a hole that’s hard to dig yourself out of. Make sure you’re always pushing your copy and content forward to avoid that situation.

What It All Means To You

Good content drives conversions. The more engaging it is, the better (higher) it’ll rank on Google. It’s not enough to entertain and inform readers — some elements are essential to effective content.

KPIs provide the metrics to show whether your content drives the results you need. Good KPIs are actionable, specific, and measurable. 

Examples include clickthrough rates, conversion rates, and bounce rates. When you can match the material to the revenue it creates, you know what to get rid of and increase.

Revenue attribution assigns value to advertising along the marketing funnel. Some models emphasize the bottom of the funnel, while others involve the top or have equal weight. 

Thanks to all the media available today, companies have to take a multi-channel approach to customer engagement. 

It’s not enough to have email or telephone capability. Use integrated, channel-agnostic pathways from the top of the funnel to the bottom.

Reaching Out to Customers

Lead generation continues to be a major goal for content creation. Qualified leads result from a targeted audience that’s already warmed up to begin the journey toward a sale.

You won’t be sure how to sell unless you have an accurate picture of your customers. Maintain and update buyer personas to tailor your content. 

Don’t use it as a checklist for features to include. Make it a dynamic, responsive document. Show the drives and motivations of the company you’re trying to reach.

Take a good, long look at what your content already covers. See what’s working for your brand and what isn’t. You might have out-of-date content or duplicated efforts. Do an audit to keep track of the whole picture your marketing creates.

You know what’s as important as knowing what you have? Knowing what you don’t have. Check out the content that other companies in your industry produce. Seek out other industries with the same audience and learn from their examples.

Holistic, comprehensive content writing includes all these elements. So, don’t take any shortcuts. Get started today to improve SERP rankings and drive phenomenal conversion rates.

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