Creating content for any industry can be tricky. But, creating engaging content for niche B2B industries can seem impossible. Because niche industries are so specific, a more strategic approach is needed to captivate your audience. In this article, we’re going to go through a few of the common challenges that niche B2B industries face, and how to create engaging content that is sure to entice your audience.
Understanding Niche B2B Industry Challenges
Before we jump right into the examples of content, let’s go over the challenges of creating engaging content for niche B2B industries.
Limited Audience Size
Typically, niche B2B industries have smaller target audiences compared to broader markets. This means that your content will have to resonate with a specialized audience, making it a little harder than normal. However, this also means there may be less competition for certain niches, keywords, and content which you can use to your advantage.
Technical Complexity
Many B2B companies, especially software as a service or SaaS, have complicated products. This means that they might not be easily understood by the average person. Communicating these complexities in a clear and engaging way is essential when it comes to content marketing.
Long Sales Cycles
B2B sales cycles are often longer and more complex than B2C sales cycles. This especially reigns true when you are considering niche industries. Because of this, your content needs to cater to various stages of your sales cycle, from awareness to consideration and decision-making. When it comes to niche industries, you need to ensure your content prioritizes education.
Industry-Specific Jargon
Oftentimes niche B2B industries have their own terminology and jargon that they use. While this can provide a sense of community among industry professionals, it can also be confusing and offputting to those outside of the industry. Instead, ensure that your content is easily readable, whether they are familiar with the industry or not.
Types of Engaging Content For Niche B2B Industries
Now that you’re familiar with some of the challenges that niche B2B industries face, let’s move on to some of the best types of content that you should be creating.
Educational Content
One of the most important things to consider when creating engaging content for niche B2B industries is that your content is educational. Create content that educates your audience about industry trends, best practices, and offers solutions to their pain points. This could include how-to guides, video series, case studies, whitepapers, or blog articles. Use your content to demonstrate your expertise and provide value to potential customers.
Video Content
Video content is a great opportunity for niche B2B industries. This is because it can diversify the types of content that you put out, appealing to different learning preferences. Video content can be in the form of a YouTube Series, landing page videos, or even webinars. As for the actual content, the options are endless. You can produce product demonstrations, tutorials, interviews, and industry insights. For example, we have produced many short use case videos to help prospects and even current customers come up with different ways to use our software. As I mentioned earlier, software can be tricky to use. So, offering video content can be a great way to simplify it.
User-Generated Content
User-generated content refers to any type of content that is created by your current customers rather than by your company itself. This could be social media posts, reviews, testimonials, videos, blog posts, and more. User-generated content adds authenticity and credibility to your brand, while increasing community engagement. One of the best ways to collect user-generated content is to send out an email to your current customers asking for a review on your review platform of choice. You can even incentivize them to leave a review in exchange for a gift card. Then, you can turn positive reviews into social posts.
Interactive Content
Interactive content encourages your prospects to participate, increasing engagement levels. Consider incorporating quizzes, polls, assessments, and calculators relevant to your industry. For example, a software company could create an interactive ROI calculator to demonstrate the potential value of their product. This can help your prospects visualize the value your company will bring to the table, over you just stating it on your landing page.
Gated Content & eBooks
Gated content refers to premium content like eBooks, whitepapers, or video content that is hidden behind a form. Your prospect must provide their contact information to access the gated content. This can help your company capture leads and grow your email list, while providing valuable resources for your audience. Additionally, gated content also can help you qualify leads, as users who are willing to provide their contact information are often more interested in what your company has to offer.
Collaborating with Complimentary Software
Complementing your content strategy with collaborative efforts like guest blogging or co-creating content with complementary software providers can be a great way to get in front of a larger audience. Partnering with other companies or experts in your industry allows you to leverage their expertise, expand your reach, and provide added value to your audience. For example, appearing as a guest on a podcast with a software provider whose tools complement your own can showcase the combined value. And, give you a unique opportunity to reach a large audience that is relevant.
Behind-the-Scenes
As a B2B company without a storefront, it can be tricky to build a trustworthy relationship with your audience. Offer a glimpse behind the curtain of your business operations to humanize your brand and build a connection with your audience. Share stories about your team, office culture, product development process, or charitable events. Authentic behind-the-scenes content helps to build trust and loyalty while showing the faces behind your company.
Community Engagement
B2B companies often struggle to communicate with their audiences. Try to create online communities, forums, or social media groups where your users can connect, share insights, and seek advice. Actively participate in these communities by answering questions, contributing to discussions, and addressing any concerns. By doing this, you can see how your users are doing with your product, and get ideas for new blogs or help resources.
Content Repurposing
Try to repurpose existing content into different formats to maximize its reach and effectiveness. If you have a piece of content that performs well, try to get the most out of it that you can. For example, if you have a blog post that continuously performs well, turn it into an infographic, video, or webinar. This allows you to cater to different audience preferences and extend the lifespan of your content. And, if it continuously performs well, you know that people are interested in what you have to say.
How to Know If Your Content is Reaching the Right Audience
As a B2B company, your sales cycle is likely pretty long. Because of this, it can be difficult to know if your marketing efforts are attracting the right audience. With the help of Visitor Queue, you can discover what companies visit your website, how they got there, the pages they viewed, and for how long. This can help you see if your marketing strategies are attracting the right kind of visitors to your website. Set up conversions to see what companies are taking certain actions on your website. Additionally, we also provide employee contact information for each company that includes email addresses, phone numbers, and a link to their personal LinkedIn page for you to follow up. Start your 14-day free trial of Visitor Queue today and learn more about your website traffic.
Final Words
Creating engaging content for B2B niche industries is not easy. With a smaller audience than other industries, it can be difficult to attract and retain the right kind of audience. But, by incorporating these strategies into your content marketing strategy, you can further enhance engagement and establish a strong presence within your industry. Try to experiment with different tactics and measure your results to continually refine your approach. As always, if you have any questions about using Visitor Queue to help better understand your website visitors, do not hesitate to reach out.
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