Content marketing shows up in a variety of places and in a range of media, including everything from blog posts, to articles published on third-party sites, to infographics, to mobile apps, to printed guides, and videos. Regardless of the different media channels employed in B2B content marketing, it’s critical that your website acts as the centerpiece, where content is created and traffic is directed.
In this post, we take a look at why your website must be an effective content marketing platform, along with things you can do to create a website that properly supports your B2B content strategy.
It’s a Central Hub
Your website must be the central hub for all your content marketing efforts. If you send an email newsletter, it should link to your website. Any blogs you post to social media will bring visitors back to the full posting on your website. Any printed materials you share at tradeshows or conferences will list your firm’s website URL for more information. When prospects search for your products and services on search engines, you want your website to come up at the top of the results.
You B2B website is where you want your potential clients to go to learn more about your products and services. Why? For the simple fact that you have 100% control over it. Third party review sites, online directories, video hosting sites, and social media are crucial to your inbound marketing efforts, but ideally, you want to point all visitors to those outside sources back to your website.
Make sure your website is optimized for fast loading times and all outside sources (your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Yelp, and Google+ pages) are clearly linked to your B2B website. Ensure it easy to find your website URL on all these outside sources.
It’s All About the User Experience
If you are pointing visitors from outside sources back to your website, you want to ensure their experience with your website is seamless. Unfortunately, many companies build their websites with content marketing as an afterthought. If you build out your website with future B2B content marketing efforts in mind, you can create a design that is optimized for content marketing. The blog will be easy to find. The resource library with all downloadable material will be clearly visible and only take one click to find. You’ll already have a video library to host all your new videos and will be easy to update when you create more.
When building a website, a little planning for future content marketing goes a long way. By creating the tools in advance, you can choose how you want them all to appear rather than just being stuck with what your website manager can throw together quickly. A well-designed website that is built with certain types of content in mind not only looks great but makes finding content easy for the user.
It’s a Tool for Passive Nurturing
You can’t be available to hold every prospect’s hand throughout the sales process. The good news is that your website is your 24/7 salesperson. Since it hosts the majority of your B2B content marketing pieces, it’s also a passive nurturing tool. It allows your company to share helpful information to guide the visitor down the sales funnel without needing a sales or marketing person available all the time. The flexibility allows a potential client to take their time, learn more about your products or services, see what you offer, and get what they need as they navigate the vendor selection process.
Ensure that your website can host a variety of content marketing materials, including downloads, articles, videos, how-tos, images, and links to social media or review sites. Lay all these pieces out in an intuitive manner and be sure to speak to various stages of the buying cycle. Again, make all the content on your website easy to find. Don’t bury the link to your blog deep in the navigation.
It’s Co-Dependent
Your B2B content marketing strategy is completely co-dependent on your website. Likewise, your website is co-dependent on your content marketing strategy. If they don’t work well together and support each either, neither will be successful in generating leads and converting leads into clients.
