Strategy+Design

Content marketing is critically important for any company that wants to maintain leadership or position for growth, whether by increasing existing market share or by capturing new markets. B2B companies such as SAP, Cisco and Intel do an outstanding job at offering consistently fresh content that not only builds awareness, but also creates connections that generate quality leads for their sales teams.

Content marketing is the link between awareness and lead generation. Without a healthy diet of fresh content, a company’s entire marketing program will never perform at its best.

– Eloqua

Sylvia Jensen, over at Eloqua’s London operations, recently provided an excellent list of common mistakes B2B companies make when creating content. I have flipped Sylvia’s insights into a list of sound advice for any B2B company that is embarking on the challenging task of content marketing.

1. Set clear content goals by starting with a specific content objective.
2. Create content about what you know, not what you sell. Take your eyes off yourself and put them on what your clients are looking for, not what you think they are looking for.
3. Invest in your content. The key is “invest”. If you want your marketing to produce ROI, you have to invest wisely by creating a unique story and then promoting the heck out of it.
4. Create a content marketing editorial calendar but leave room for inspiration and creativity. If it’s not scheduled, it won’t happen.
5. Identify employees who are active content creators, and inspire them to join your effort. If you try to do it all yourself, it will fall short.
6. Promote your content socially. Find out where your customers are hanging out on the social Web and get active in those communities.
7. Find a chief editor internally or hire one. While everyone in a company may be responsible for content, one person needs to be accountable for it.
8. Hire a journalist or a specialty agency to cultivate a content DNA inside your company.

Content marketing is hard work and requires commitment from senior management and dedication from the content creators. If you follow the advice above you will be in a much better position to pull it off successfully.

Have any other content marketing insights or thoughts to share? Let us know below or on Twitter (@SterlingKlor).