B2B Lead Generation

B2B Blog Strategy for Lead Generation (Turn Your Blog Content into Clients)

Carter Edsall
by Carter Edsall / February 17, 2020

Carter Edsall is the founder of Brand Theory, a growth agency that helps businesses eliminate the guesswork from online marketing. Through a career spanning nearly 3 decades, he’s launched and marketed projects for household names like Nissan, Disney and Four Seasons — but remains passionate about helping small businesses scale profitably and predictably. He lives for food, wine, the outdoors and spending time with his family in beautiful Marin County, CA.

A B2B blog has one purpose: to drive new business. If you’re not doing it right, guess what? You’re wasting time and money. The better your blogging strategy, the more visitors you'll attract and convert. Here’s how…

 

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of B2B blog strategy, it's critical to understand exactly why you should be blogging regularly and how blogging drives traffic to your website.

 

It’s simple:

Every time you create a blog post, you’re adding a new page to your website. That means it can be “indexed” by Google and other search engines — and show up in organic (free) search results.

 

Frequent posting sends a signal to Google that your website is active, which means they’ll check in more often for new content.

 

Here’s where it gets fun:

Your blog content should align with whatever your target audience might be searching for online. What are their most common questions? That's what your content should address.

 

Are the wheels turning? Great.

 

This is the key to your B2B content marketing strategy.

 

Now, ready to turn your blogging efforts into leads? Let’s dive in…

 

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B2B Blogging Best Practices

  1. Choose specific topics
  2. Define your buyer personas
  3. Write for quality over quantity
  4. Publish consistently
  5. Consider article length
  6. Use Topic Clusters
  7. Link to your website and other posts
  8. Break it up for easy reading
  9. Write engaging titles
  10. Add calls-to-action
  11. Promote your articles

 

How the Best B2B Marketing Blogs Generate Leads


With these best practices as part of your B2B content marketing strategy, you’ll drive more traffic to your website and convert more of those visitors into leads.

 

Most importantly, you’ll see what content is really resonating with your audience.

 

Produce more of what they want and you’ll start to build momentum — and a steady flow of qualified leads.

 

 

1. Choose specific topics

Generalized knowledge gets buried in search results. Worse, it attracts broad audiences that translate into bad leads. Zero in on your target customer with content that addresses their specific challenges and questions. They need actionable advice that speaks directly to their needs.

 

Not only will you attract more targeted visitors to your website, Google and other search engines prefer web pages that answer specific questions.

 

 

2. Define your buyer personas

Buyer personas are detailed profiles of your ideal customers. The ones who were made for your products and services. The ones you wish you could clone over and over again.

 

Your B2B blog content should speak directly to them.

 

Create a formal document that defines the key attributes of your personas. What are their job titles and roles? Who do they report to? How do they measure success? Where do they turn for information online?

 

Keep your personas top of mind with every new blog post. Tailor your content to meet their needs and they’ll have a more relevant, personalized experience.

 

This builds trust and helps to move them to the next step in their buyer journey. 

 

Check out HubSpot’s free Make My Persona tool for an easy way to create yours.

 

 

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Business blogging reports confirm that those actively producing blog content generate more leads. According to Fundera, 76% of B2B marketers generate leads through blogging, while those who don’t blog are missing out on 67% more leads.

 


3. Write for quality over quantity

Marketers who blog generate 67% more leads than marketers who don't. But those generating quality leads aren’t simply cranking out low-quality posts.

 

One truly helpful article that brings value to your target audience will generate more quality leads than 10 mediocre articles that miss the mark.

 

And, while the length of your content is important, it’s the quality and value it brings to your readers that matters most. A well-written 500-word post that solves a specific problem will outperform a meandering 2,000-word fluff piece every time. 

 

Yet, longer, in-depth articles are often the way to go. We'll talk about the importance of long-form content a bit later in this post.

 

 

4. Publish consistently

57% of B2B marketers struggle with posting content consistently. The truth is, it takes time and a lot of effort improve your search engine rankings — and that’s critical to lead generation for your B2B blog.

 

If you’re only posting once in a while, it’s just not going to move the needle.

 

According to HubSpot, companies that published 16 or more blog posts per month received 3.5 times the traffic of companies that blogged less than four times a month.

 

Having a hard time coming up with B2B content ideas?

 

Try keyword research to find out what your target audience is searching for online.

 

Refer to your buyer personas for insight.

 

Ask your sales team what questions prospects and customers ask most often.

 

Subscribe to your competitors’ blogs to see what they’re up to. 

 

Once you start generating content ideas, you’ll need to organize and get on a schedule. One of our favorite project management tools for blogs is Trello.

 

 

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A Backlinko study of 1 million Google search results found that longer content tends to rank higher.

 

 

5. Consider article length

As mentioned before, quantity doesn't trump quality. However, long-form content typically offers more value because it's jam-packed with lots of research and statistics and offers extensive, in-depth information about a particular topic.

 

There are many high-quality posts that are short and to the point, but if a customer wants additional information, they're likely to go for a more comprehensive blog post, between 1,500 to 2,000 words. Longer posts tend to receive more engagement and help establish you as an authority in your industry.

 



“A B2B blog has one purpose: to drive new business. If you’re not doing it right, guess what? You’re wasting time and money.”
tweet-graphic-1Click to Tweet


 

 

6. Use Topic Clusters

If your blog is going to generate leads, Google needs to show it some love. This is where search engine optimization (SEO) plays a major role in your B2B content marketing strategy.

 

Stay with us, it’s fairly simple…

 

The “key” to ranking highly on Google used to be individual keywords. Simply pepper them throughout your B2B website and customers will find you.

 

Today, Google is much more sophisticated and really knows what web pages are the best sources of information on any given topic.

 

How does it know?

 

In simple terms, it comes down to having clusters of web pages that center around a core topic. That core topic is addressed in a comprehensive, long-form page on your website, called a “pillar page.” Your blog articles are the “cluster” around it. Each one expands on a small section of the pillar page and links back to it.

 

For an even simpler explanation, check out this 90-second video from HubSpot:

 

 

 

 

 

7. Link to your website and other posts

Within your blog articles, you’ll want to guide readers to additional content on your website that may be relevant to their needs.

 

Link to other articles and web pages where appropriate and you’ll create the framework for a more personalized journey, while extending visitors’ time on your site.

 

This internal linking structure is also a great way to optimize blog posts for SEO. As Google “crawls” your website looking for reasons to like it, the internal links show that you’ve got a hierarchy of relevant information on a topic.

 

 

8. Break it up for easy reading

Your audience wants to consume content as quickly as possible. Make your blog articles easy to read!

 

Avoid big blocks of text, long paragraphs, long sentences, tight line spacing — make your content a breeze to scan.

 

Quickly describe the problem you’re going to solve and get your reader engaged. Then, use clear subheads and short sections so they can quickly find what they're looking for.

 

 

9. Write engaging titles

A strong headline is vital to getting people to click through to your blog. You might have the best B2B blog post on the internet, but without a great title, most users won't even give it a chance.

 

The best blog post titles:

 

  • Don’t repeat what’s already out there
  • Offer solutions to a specific problem
  • Describe a specific benefit to your audience
  • Trigger emotion
  • Create a sense of urgency
  • Add an element of intrigue

 

 

Formatting is also important. Keep titles to 60 characters or less so they’re not cut off in Google search results and place important keywords toward the front when possible.

 

Most importantly, refer to your personas. What blog title would grab their attention? What benefits would they get from reading it?

 

For more great title inspiration, head over to the Enchanting Marketing blog by Henneke.

 

 

10. Add calls-to-action

As simple as this one is, it’s the most overlooked. If you’re going to generate leads from your blog, you need a call-to-action (CTA) that guides readers to a conversion path.

 

A conversion path is a series of actions completed by a website visitor that results in a new lead. It starts with a CTA, typically followed by a landing page with a form, a downloadable content resource and a thank-you page.

 

Let’s be clear: “Subscribe to Our Blog” is not a CTA that’s going to generate meaningful leads.

 

Consider why a reader is visiting your blog and what baby step they might be ready to take next. Downloading a checklist that pairs with the article? A more comprehensive guide to the article’s content? An upcoming webinar that promises more in-depth solutions? Offer something so valuable and relevant they’ll gladly exchange their contact information for it.

 

Make your CTA irresistible by describing the benefits of taking action. “Increase Your ROI,” “Close More Deals,” “Improve Your Member Experience.” It takes a little practice, but anything is better than “Click Here.”

 

 

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You’ve put a lot of work into your new article. Don't stop now ... promote!

 

 

11. Promote your article

When done right, it will still take a several months to climb the Google ranks and get an influx of organic traffic. In the meantime, you’ll need to promote your article through a wide range of channels.

 

Email: Build awareness by sharing the article with your current email subscribers.

 

Social Media: Extract engaging facts, statistics and quotes to promote the article widely on social media.

 

Other Content Platforms: Try publishing outside of your B2B company blog. Write articles on other content platforms like Medium and LinkedIn to tap into targeted audiences in your industry.

 

Influencers: Reach out to thought leaders in your industry who have already built loyal audiences that include your buyers. Promoting each other’s content can be a win-win for both parties.

 

 

And there you have it. There's a lot that goes into planning your B2B blog strategy and creating content that your audience will want to consume. With these best practices under your belt, you're now ready to turn your company blog into a B2B lead generation machine.

 

It doesn’t end there. Take the next step to scaling your B2B with a free, no-pressure SmartGrowth Session and a complete 12 month game plan.

 

 

 

 

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