The industry edge your competition is missing
(or might be using against you)
“PR and content marketing – getting articles in print, online trade sites and industry-specific blogs and resource sites – can significantly boost company sales and awareness with potential customers.”
The approach a consumer-focused company takes when selling directly to their customers is vastly different than for companies selling products, professional services or software solutions to other businesses. Plenty of hoopla has surrounded the ‘digital revolution’ for its ability to directly target consumers. But in reality, it’s B2B and professional services companies that have seen the most effective new opportunities in the digital age to grow sales through digital PR (media coverage & social media), internet tactics & marketing, and SEO (search engine optimization for better customer search results).
But despite the potential, B2B businesses tend to lag behind consumer focused brands in leveraging these new online marketing tactics. The fact is that if your B2B or professional services firm isn’t keeping up in the digital marketing world, chances are there is a competitor out there who is. Digital marketing for B2B firms is quickly shifting from ancillary strategy to a core focus for many companies in this space.
Focused on internet-savvy PR and digital marketing strategies, here are five tactics, tips and advantages specifically for growing B2B and professional services companies through digital PR, SEO and marketing:
1. Online Search Results Drive B2B Sales
B2B products and services are unlike consumer products, which may be available in a wide array of retail outlets and for sale online on dozens, even hundreds of various websites, online catalogs or the big gorilla of retail, Amazon. For B2B, the much more targeted and specialized products they offer are far more likely to be sought out with very specific internet search terms relevant to a product or its function. This makes it both easier and more important for a B2B company to make their website search engine optimization a key marketing goal – specifically, for the keywords, product & service descriptions, and industry ‘lingo’ that will help put their company on a searching customer’s first page of results.
2. SEO rankings depend on well-written content, and active PR & social media
Obviously a great website is at the heart of your digital PR and marketing efforts. I’ll cite the benefits of great copy (writing) throughout the article, and that applies to your website as well. It should also be strategically developed to support all the potential inbound marketing tools and tactics a B2B business can use.
Today’s search engine algorithms reward original, credible content – gone are the days of fooling them with keyword stuffing or website coding tricks. In fact, services like Google actively punish those types of strategies to result in worse rankings. However, creating frequent online content that is well written, while also using organically inserted keywords and product descriptors that your customers will likely be searching for, can be challenging.
Posting up frequent, relevant content requires brainstorming of new yet engaging topics, plus a great writer (not always available in-house) with a dedicated role producing the content on a regular basis. But the payoffs are significant: far higher readership, re-posts, increases in blog and social media followers, establishment of your company as an industry expert and thought-leader, and greater market visibility, credibility, and media/PR awareness (and coverage). All of this is not only THE most effective way to raise your ranking & SEO results, all that customer engagement and valuable content drives actual sales.
3. B2B Public Relations and media coverage has actually gotten easier – if done well
Public relations – landing articles in print, online trade sites and industry-specific blogs and resource sites – can significantly boost company sales and awareness with potential customers and industry influencers. As third-party experts, industry media are key influencers, and remain a valuable asset for proactive B2B companies who recognize the value of an active PR program. But industry magazines, trade-focused websites and online resource forums have been hit with the same cutbacks in staff as the rest of the journalism world. All this while the need for articles and news items continues to grow every day due to the insatiable 24/7 content demands of the internet age.
So, providing expertly written content in the form of pre-produced articles (authored or ghost-written by an internal source at your company) is often enough to get published directly in trade pubs, with the byline linking right back to your business. Plus, well written press releases, expert blog posts, and participating on article discussion boards all serve to increase links back to your website, spurring sales inquiries and raising your SEO results. PR is now inextricably linked to an effective SEO strategy and online brand building. Media coverage not only gets you the benefits of trusted, “free” advertising, it has the added effect of reinforcing and providing re-usable content for all your B2B marketing communications (blog posts, white papers, webinars, social media, etc.)
4. Value-Added Content: Re-use and re-purpose to get even more bang for the buck
As we’ve seen, great content (underpinned by top-notch writing) provides a multiplier effect in generating media coverage, customer leads and SEO results. But unlike consumer brands which constantly need to out-shout competitors by trying constantly to be more flashy, clever and ‘going viral’ to maintain visibility, B2B content can often succeed simply with persistence in hitting on proven key messages that resonate with their core customers. Because of that relatively more consistent focus, it means that previously written information has greater potential to be re-purposed, and will have extended shelf life in industry media appearances. We’ve seen that creating great content requires effort and time – so make sure you get the most from it.
A B2B company article, or problem/solution post, for example, could be used to create a more detailed, downloadable case study white paper. Or, cut down for a quick but informative blog post. Or linked to in a tweet about a new industry report. Most content can be quickly retooled, or revisited months after its original use for a wide variety of different marketing tactics. It just takes a bit of creative editing. This extends and expands your original writing investment and content creation ROI, not to mention the strategic benefits the ‘new’ content will have for SEO results and sales leads
5. Leveraging an integrated B2B approach to digital PR & marketing
Public Relations, digital & social media marketing, and SEO are all more effective if used in conjunction with each other. The key messages your company deploys across your website, email campaigns, blogs and social media are reinforced with media coverage and backlinks. This raises your profile and results in more PR opportunities and media awareness. All of these efforts support and raise your search engine ranking for key search terms. It’s a circle of mutual marketing reinforcement, and the whole (in terms of sales, awareness and ROI) is greater than the sum of the individual strategies. It also allows for more accurate analysis of how well they are performing – use of website and inbound marketing analytics will help you fine tune each program to be even more effective.
By deploying all of these digital tools as an integrated program, B2B companies will reap the most benefits. And importantly, it will help ensure that your business is being consistent with its brand voice, key messages, and will stick with the program for regular content posting. The age-old marketing principles of ‘reach’ and ‘number of impressions’ not only still apply, they are more relevant than ever.
It can be a challenge to keep driving the (truly never ending) efforts to deploy digital content and PR. As a result, many B2B companies are still doing little in this arena. Sometimes it’s due to rapid growth: companies who are expanding quickly and simply can’t manage to stay on top of social media, contacts with the media or researching the latest SEO strategies. Even software or cutting edge tech companies can fall prey – it’s a time and focus issue, not awareness. Other times it’s culture: say, a parts manufacturing company who was established well before the dawn of the internet and is simply slow to recognize the potential in digital PR & marketing. Perhaps they subconsciously resist “overly technical” concepts they don’t fully understand.
Either way, digital content marketing for B2B companies is a must-have strategy for just about every business in every industry. Because it requires a specialized skillset, and the dedication and focus to keep on top of postings, media contacts, and search engine optimization, every company should have a team member (or team) dedicated to the job. Or, have a capable agency partner who sets up and drives the program on your behalf. Whatever the case, if your business dedicates itself to pursuing the unique opportunities the internet and online PR affords to B2B companies you’ll have a great advantage over your competition – or at least you’ll be sure you’re not losing ground (and customers) to someone else.
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