Twenty quick and easy B2B content wins

However vital writing B2B content is to your inbound marketing strategy, there are occasions when time is tight, and you could do with a blog that writes itself. Well marketing automation isn’t quite there yet – thank goodness – but here are some ideas for content that are relatively quick to produce, but are still very effective.

1. Talk to your frontline staff in sales and customer service and compile a list of all the questions that customers and prospects have asked over the years. Take the simpler questions that have quick and easy answers and create a “Top ten FAQs” style of post. Then take the more complex questions and write a post answering each one.
2. Talk to your customers about the main issues they face – ask them what their biggest challenges are. Write a post or posts highlighting these challenges and suggesting ways forward. You can also look at challenges they have faced in the past and how they were overcome. Another approach to this would be to send out questions in emails to a hundred or more people – you should end up with at least twenty useful responses to write about.
3. Create a quick “how to” post. This shouldn’t need too much thought or lots of research, just tell people how to do something. You might find talking to your customer support staff useful here as they might have these mini-tutorials already, or, if not, they could probably suggest topics and provide the basics of the how to post.
4. As part of your marketing strategy, you should have identified industry influencers – so look at what they are saying about the industry or an area of business and compile a post based on their current, accumulated wisdom, liberally sprinkled with quotes from them.
5. Take one influencer and what they are saying, and comment on it. Summarise the essence of their view, say whether you agree or disagree, add more to the discussion or talk about the issues from their standpoint. This can also work well if you can find another expert that is suggesting something different to the first – you can then discuss the merits of both approaches.
6. Remember that you are trying to provide useful, helpful, beneficial content? Well, a list of useful resources is always highly valued by readers, Whether those resources are books, websites, software tools, podcasts or videos. Make a list and talk about what they are useful for and also when they would prove useful to your customers/prospects.
7. Likewise, a list of useful people to follow is equally valuable – add some notes and say why you think they are worthwhile and what their area of expertise is.
8. People relate to people, so take a look at your key staff and write a profile – this allows you to demonstrate their expertise and knowledge in a way that isn’t too pushy, and personalises your company, product or service. You could also look at what value they add to a typical customer’s interaction with the product or service. The format of this could be a straight-up post, or it could be an interview with the subject.
9. With the marketing playing field being flattened by the Internet, social channels, competitive pricing and common access to the same resources, buyers are more and more examining the ethos and culture of a supplier when making purchasing decisions. So a brief history of your company can actually be both relevant and effective. Write about why the company is in business, what drove the founders, what the philosophy is behind the company and where the company is going. Make sure to make it interesting, but above all make it inspiring.
10. A quick fun piece of content can be “10 surprising facts about your company” – this allows you to surface little-known positives about your service or product and gives a nice touch of personality to your content.
11. An easy quick content win is an off the cuff bite-sized video – this could be filmed at an event, exhibition or conference. It could be a tour of the premises, an overview of your processes, or a video “how to”. If this is being shared via social, then it doesn’t need to be made with expensive equipment to be effective, in fact, the more authentic it is, the better. (A little tip: although camerawork and lighting don’t have to be perfect – as long as you can see what is going on in the video – audio quality does need to pretty good. There’s nothing worse than muddy audio, distracting noises or not being able to hear what is being said).
12. This time of the year is perfect for doing a review of the year. What’s happened in the industry, or in your marketplace? What have been the big/significant developments?
13. In a similar vein, you could do a quick summary and review of your blog posts or other content with appropriate links.
14. As well as looking back you could also look to the future and talk about what to look forward to next year in terms of the industry, the marketplace, new product or service developments, writing about what direction you think things will go in, what the major issues will be and how your customer’s business strategy and working lives might have to change as a consequence.
15. If you have been creating content for a while, then you have a great resource available to you when you want a quick content win. Just take a piece of your old content and repurpose it.
16. Look at creating a team post – get a person from each area of the business to write a short paragraph or two on how they contribute to overall customer satisfaction and link them together to show how your company works together to meet the needs of the customer.
17. Look at the steps a customer would have to undertake to specify a product or service, or perhaps to identify the product or service that is right for their circumstance and create a checklist or a list of questions that will guide them to the right solution.
18. Industry terms, processes, insider acronyms and jargon can all be confusing to somebody new to the industry or just starting on the buying process. So a piece of content that is essentially a glossary of terms – or a “Top ten terms you need to know” type post can be very effective.
19. In almost every industry or market there are usually myths that arise – commonly held beliefs that simply aren’t true, or have been overtaken by events. Take one of these myths about your product, service or industry and debunk it.
20. If you really can’t think of anything quick to do and don’t have any time – take the easy way out and get someone else to create content for you! Identify a member of your company who could write about a topic they are an expert in, or go outside the company and look at a guest blogger – this could be an influencer, or better still a customer. A customer is a great choice because not only does it reflect well on you that a customer is happy to create content for you, it is also likely to be more authentic, more related to other customer’s or prospect’s experiences. It also does wonders for your relationship with that customer as they are likely to be flattered by your request.