By Joshua Nite

B2B content marketing is no longer restricted to white papers and case studies. It can’t be. B2B buyers — otherwise known as humans like the rest of us — demand more variety, more creativity, and more relevance than the old reliable formats can offer.

Your buyers are hungry for great content. Don’t serve them white-bread-and-mayo sandwiches. Create a loaded buffet of exciting, relevant, helpful content for their entire journey.

Here are the best content types for each stage of the marketing funnel.

Awareness stage: Appetizers

In the first stage, the buyer might not realize they’re even on a journey. You can’t jump right into selling. You have to whet their appetite before they attend your content feast.

Stick with eye-catching, creative but practical content at this stage, using formats like:

• Infographics with meaningful statistics
• Videos that highlight your brand’s values & expertise
• Thought leadership blogs and podcasts
• Social media posts building and engaging with a community

Remember, this stage is about possibility. You want to show people there’s a better way of doing something, introduce your brand as an empathetic expert, and make them hungry to learn more.

Consideration stage: Salad and garlic bread

Now your buyer knows that they have a solvable problem. Thanks to your excellent thought leadership appetizers, they also know that your brand is a source of valuable experience and advice. 

Now you can offer them some fresh textures and flavors to keep them engaged and get them ready for the main course.

Keep up your drumbeat of useful, practical content, but you can stir in a few more types:

• Ebooks that showcase original research and influencer insights

• Interactive content to provide novelty, creativity and value

• Webinars that aim to help buyers be better at their jobs
• Customer stories that focus on customer success, not just your brand’s role in it

This stage is about proof — proof that your brand knows its stuff, is here to help, and has helped others in the past.

Decision stage: Main course

Your buyer is seated at your table with their napkin tucked into their collar, ready for an entree. Now is the time to bring your solution to the forefront. At this stage, you can be overt about what makes your company the best one to solve this particular problem. 

Make your lower funnel content thrilling and filling with these content types:

• Case studies that show how, specifically, your solution helped solve your clients’ problems (these can be in article, eBook, blog or video format)

• Demo videos that make it clear how your solution works

• Social proof like a compilation of customer reviews or a roundup of social media posts from satisfied customers
• One-sheets that highlight features …read more

  Source:: Top Rank Blog

        

  

  Author: Aaron