3 Ways B2B marketers can stay digitally connected through content

There’s no doubt that when B2B marketers use social media correctly, they can be great facilitators in staying connected with prospects and customers through content.

In fact, in today’s digital landscape, people are consuming more information online than ever before due to the current Pandemic. Facebook alone has seen more than a 50% increase in usage in recent weeks.

However, in a world where no work day is the same from day to day, B2B marketers are being presented with a new challenge of generating value-driven content that resonates with their audiences.

In our fourth episode of “The Globalization of Social Media” an Oktopost discussion series, Howard Sewell, President of Spear Marketing Group and one of the “50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management” sits down with Colin Day, Oktopost’s Managing Director of EMEA. Together, they unveil current trends emerging in the B2B marketing industry due to COVID19 and best practices to tighten B2B content strategies.

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In today’s times, the value of information being distributed by B2B marketers is proving to be powerful in keeping audiences connected to the brand.

Empathy has been key to staying connected. However, while circumstances are not expected to change any time soon, businesses must keep moving forward. Yes, the work day has changed.

B2B marketers must shift their approaches to match the times. But, there will come a time when the B2B marketing world will need to cross the bell-curve of empathy and get back to business as usual.

A few takeaways from Howard Sewell:

Invest in the Corporate Blog

People are looking for ways to feel more connected. Taking the approach of informing your audience is going to be a key factor in shaping your business outcomes. The corporate blog holds so much potential to do this. It can be used as a central platform in your social media strategy to keep people connected.

For many brands, blogs are simply a PR vehicle, and because of this, they have become an extremely underutilized part of social media strategy.

With the disruption of messaging taking place, now is the time to invest in value-driven, informative content for your corporate blog. Social audiences are looking for value, so the content of the blog can consist of:

• Practical advice and tips from team experts
• Successful pivots and approaches during this time
• Tactics and ideas for empowering WFH teams
• Strategy sharing and recommended content

Writing about the above topics help people feel more connected in an extremely isolated environment. Basic actions like linking the content back to the company website, making recommendations on the next relevant read and working on SEO, brands can keep their audience engaged and feeling more connected.

Double Down on Inbound

With remote working having become the new norm, there have been implications on integrated marketing strategies.

For example, let’s look at live events, field events, and ABM/target account marketing strategies.

All of these approaches have seen an increase in practice over the last year.  At the onset of COVID19, these types of campaigns have been hit hard due to direct mail being a no-go.

It was a best practice to send thank you cards or even company swag to new customers. However, with everything now moving into a digital direction for the foreseeable future, marketers are unable to know where their prospects and customers are located. Are they sitting in the office? At home? And if they are at home, is it even appropriate for a brand to ask for their personal mailing address? It seems intrusive.

With these tactics now obsolete, doubling down on inbound is key. Focus B2B marketing efforts on paid social content syndication and ensure your brand has a stellar online presence.

Create On-Demand Content

The workday has changed. Daily schedules are up in the air. And no work day is the same. People are finding on-demand content much easier to consume at their leisure between home-schooling the kids and walking the dog.

One increasing trend being seen across the B2B marketing industry is on-demand content.  For example podcasts, like the ones Oktopost has hosted with Chris Skinner, Kyle Hegarty or Scott Vaughan, are great examples of on-demand content.

In addition, webinars, YouTube videos, and digital panels all make for powerful watch-any-time content. Each conversation can easily be turned into a blog post, an infographic, or other various forms of repurposed content, and naturally, audiences can tune in at any time, any place, or anywhere.

Producing on-demand content is cost-effective and smart because content does not have a shelf life. Since, at this moment, there is no concept of day and time, making content that resonates with people and is easily available across social media when it is convenient for them takes away the risk of your audience missing your messaging.