4 Key Reasons Your B2B Startup Needs Content Marketing

by Janice Allen
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You’ve probably heard this phrase ad nauseum: “No one has ever been fired for buying something from IBM.” It speaks to one of the biggest challenges for most startups: gaining the trust that comes with having an established, recognized brand.

If this describes you, content marketing can help. In fact, companies that prioritize it generate three times as many leads and see 30% higher growth than those who don’t.

If you’re not convinced that content marketing is for you, here are four reasons why it’s important for businesses of all sizes, especially startups.

Related: Here’s How To Improve Your Company’s Content Marketing

B2B buying habits have changed

B2B buyers now demand a buying experience that minimizes their direct interaction with brands and maximizes their reliance on digital channels for information.

A recent study of Gartner found that B2B customers spend about 5% of their total purchase time interacting with a supplier, with the majority devoted to independent research.

New buying behavior is beneficial to established brands because of their brand awareness and perceived authority. Still, startups can compete by producing high-quality, relevant content. Studies show that 47% of B2B buyers say thought leadership has led them to discover and buy from a company that is not among the established leaders of a specific niche.

To ensure your content reflects your buyers’ needs and journey:

  • Survey existing customers. Try to understand their unique journey and the dynamics of their procurement team.
  • Download insights from the sales team. Collect and document insights from the sales force from interactions with prospects on a regular basis.
  • Perform an audit. Check your existing content, research and knowledge bases.
  • Get third-party validation. Use credible third-party research specific to your niche.
  • Tailor the content to the audience. Develop detailed buyer characters and map your content with their journey.

Content only works if it appeals to your customer. To help you, always start with voice-of-customer data to drive content strategy and messaging. Their feedback should drive everything, with industry research and empirical evidence supporting.

Related: Content Marketing Quick Start Guide: 3 Things Your B2B Startup Should Publish First

Analytics makes it possible to better understand your target customer

Today, analytics tools enable companies to learn more about their target customer than ever before. Still, data analytics needs content to generate value.

The more than 100 data points that Google Analytics tracks offer nothing if you cannot attract an audience to your website. All those social media stats? They are also meaningless without posts that drive impressions and engagement.

Content facilitates a learning process that enables your startup to survive and win. The more you produce, the more you learn about your target audience and what motivates them to take profitable action. This is important for any business, but especially for startups.

Getting the best insights from your content:

  • Set up a regular publishing schedule. Have a consistent cadence for publishing your various content offerings (e.g. weekly blog posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays).
  • Make content cohesive. Refer to and promote your content offerings.
  • Learn and apply. Update your content strategy regularly with insights gained.

This last bullet is the most important and surprisingly gets the least attention. If you capture analytics but never apply them, what’s the point? So set up weekly team meetings that evaluate the performance of the content and focus on improvement.

Related: Why Your Startup Content Marketing Strategy Isn’t Working

B2B buyers leverage large and diverse teams

As technology-based products and services become more commonplace, B2B buyers increasingly use large and diverse teams to make a decision.

Purchasing groups tend to:

While these characteristics favor established brands, startups can gain more exposure. How? By developing thought leadership that captures attention, demonstrates authority and makes procurement teams smarter.

To increase the likelihood that your content will resonate with diverse groups:

  • Develop different functional decision makers. Develop content that caters to the specific interests of different decision makers, such as content focused on business value for executives and technical design for software engineers.
  • Develop content for the full funnel. Produce a balanced mix of content that focuses on each stage of the buying journey (i.e. awareness, consideration, decision).
  • Focus on different learning styles. Diversify the format of your content offerings to suit the learning styles and preferences of your procurement team (e.g. audio, video, graphic, written).
  • Improve your visibility. Make your content available where your procurement teams go for information.

The above activities depend on factors specific to your business and niche, including your buyer’s product awareness and sophistication. Your buyer, and what drives them to convert, should drive everything you do.

Related: 5 Tips to Start a Content Marketing Program Faster (And With Fewer Resources)

Startups build recognized brands – fast

Brand recognition is an inherent weakness for most startups. Still, that doesn’t mean they can’t quickly become a recognized name for their niche — with content marketing as their rocket fuel.

The fintech company Mint famous adopted a content marketing strategy that contributed to its rapid success. Before ever launching a product, it started a successful blog for its target customer and built an email list of 20,000 subscribers. It took them just three years to be acquired by Intuit for $170 million.

Building brand awareness is most important in the startup phase and content marketing is the most cost-effective tool to speed up the process.

To accelerate your brand building, leverage content marketing that can be scaled:

  • Make use of external sales outlets. Leverage channels that maximize your reach and authority (e.g. byline articles in credible publications, speaking engagements, guest podcast appearances).
  • Involve influencers. Leverage influencers to promote your brand and content (e.g. guest blog post, guest podcast appearances).
  • Collaborate with partners. Collaborate with existing customers and/or partners to develop and promote content (e.g. case studies, co-branded white papers).
  • Gate content intentionally. Balance untagged and gated content to drive brand awareness and leads.

The exact content strategy you choose depends (again) on your buyer. But you also need to consider your internal strengths. If you’re a charismatic founder who naturally shines on stage, a keynote speech or video interview can deliver the highest ROI.

In short: Invest in a content marketing strategy

All signs point to one big takeaway.

Content marketing is a reliable (and much-needed) tool for convincing customers to take a chance on you.

So give it a shot. Show the world why you’re better than all the job-saving IBMs out there.

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