Content marketing is part art, part science. You’re dealing with budgets, data, decision-makers, internal processes, and so much more. Oftentimes it feels like you’re running at full speed just to keep the wheels on. For all that effort, you want the best results possible. But, the truth is, if you’re not focusing your attention on the right things, you won’t win the way you want to. Luckily, we know firsthand that there are one, two, and even ten things you can do to improve your marketing ASAP. You just need the nudge to do them. That’s why we’re here to share our team’s best B2B content marketing tips to make your work easier—and more effective. 

Best of all, every single tip we’re outlining today is something we’ve personally done—and helped our clients do—to improve our marketing operation. (You can even read about how we turned these tips into a 160% increase in bookings for our agency.) Since we know they worked for us, we hope they’ll do the same for you. 

10 B2B Content Marketing Tips to Grow

These tips are both strategic and tactical, with varying degrees of effort, but we guarantee that these adjustments will drastically improve your day-to-day life and your long-term results. 

1) Stop creating content—until you know your brand story. 

This sounds like a crazy statement, but we’re serious. We’ve seen too many brands waste too much time on piecemeal content that doesn’t reflect their brand or support their strategy. Quantity does not equal quality, and the more time you waste churning out ineffective content, the more you’re going to dig yourself into a hole. A successful marketing operation is built on a strong brand, so you need to identify the key components of your brand (aka your brand story) before you can create compelling content that connects with your audience and turns them into customers. 

Your brand story is the best source of content you have.

What does a fully articulated brand story look like?

• Brand Heart: You need to identify your heart (aka purpose, vision, mission, and values) to know what stories you should be telling to draw people to your brand. 
• Messaging: To properly express who you are, communicate what you do, and tell your story consistently, you need a strong messaging framework that includes your tagline, value prop, and main story pillars. 
• Visual Identity: You can’t compete or create strong content marketing without a visual identity that reflects who you are, as well as the guidelines to help your team apply it. 

If you haven’t articulated your brand before, use our free brand strategy toolkit to do it, and see our guide to brainstorm strong brand stories that reach the right people.  

2) Re-examine what you’re measuring. 

“If you aren’t measuring success or analyzing results, then what’s the point of putting it out there?
—Elise Mastio, Column Five Senior Strategist

A good content marketing strategy includes documented goals and clear metrics to measure them. When brands aren’t measuring (at all) or aren’t measuring the right things, there is no way to gauge success or strategize how to improve. 

“All goals need a plan. There are no marketing wishes; only marketing strategies.” 
—Elizabeth Spurbeck, Column Five Senior Producer (Interactive Team)

Of course, good measurement starts with setting goals that are actually measurable. We are all about the OKR method (objectives and key results) to guide your goal-setting, track your progress, and tweak as you go. If you haven’t experimented with this before, see our guide to setting measurable goals and find out exactly which metrics you should be tracking. 

That said, it’s easy to gravitate toward vanity metrics that look good in a report, but think critically about what type of data provides the most useful insights. 

For example, here at Column Five, we had enjoyed a full year of record-breaking traffic leading up to our big site redesign in 2021. While that felt good to report on each month, what ultimately matters is the quality of our traffic. After we redesigned our site and removed a batch of irrelevant and outdated content, our traffic disappointingly dipped. But you know what else plummeted? Our bounce rate. Although we’re now getting much less traffic, we’re actually retaining more people. Had we only focused on traffic as our success metric we would have missed the real data story: that our fresh content strategy is clearly working, and we are attracting the right kind of people. 

(See our guide to find the stories in your data if you need to brush up on your data interpretation skills.) 

3) Optimize your production process. 

No matter how many article ideas you have or campaigns you want to run, if you don’t have the process and infrastructure to get sh*t done, you just can’t be effective. (This is probably the #1 issue we see our clients facing, whether due to resource issues or good old internal silo-ing.)

To help things run as smoothly as possible, there are a few simple steps to take. 

• Assign the right team roles and responsibilities. See our guide to build a kickass content team to provide accountability and clarity for your team—and ensure nothing slips through the cracks. 
• Use the right tools to cut down on time. Assess your tech stack and look for ways to combine, consolidate, or upgrade tools and subscriptions. You can also take a look at these 100+ tools to make content marketing easier. 
• Conduct postmortems. After you complete a project, have a meeting to talk through any challenges or speedbumps. This helps your team identify pain points, problem-solve together, and smooth out processes to save time, energy, and frustration. Even if you aren’t regularly hitting roadblocks, it’s always helpful to re-examine the way you work. Just because you’ve always done something one way doesn’t mean it’s the best. 

To jumpstart this process, see our guide to master content creation.

4) Ask your audience what they’re struggling with. 

It’s easy to get so excited about an idea you’d love to produce that you forget to consider whether or not your audience wants it. (All content marketers are guilty of this.) 

“The bar is getting ever higher for work that is truly interesting and valuable to people outside your company. Creating this requires a fundamental shift to empathize with your audience first, not your brand agenda.”
—Ross Crooks, Column Five Cofounder

Remember that good content is content that is interesting, relevant, and useful to your audience. Understanding their needs, wants, and challenges is crucial if you want to brainstorm good ideas that will actually grab their attention. 

You should have a clear understanding of your target audience. (If you don’t, use our free template to document your personas.) But there are a few low-lift ways to create more attention-grabbing content. 

• Conduct simple social media polls. Ask them what type of challenges they’re struggling with, what types of content they find most helpful, etc. This tactic is an all-around win. It lets you engage directly with your audience, get their feedback, and use it to generate a fresh batch of ideas. 
• Write an emotional headline. If you understand your audience’s needs/wants, you can infuse that language into things like headlines or social captions. Are they busy and stressed? Words like “easy,” “simple,” or “quick” will entice them to click. (BTW, we like Coschedule’s headline analyzer tool to punch up headlines.) Do you want to stand out? A provocative headline could grab attention.
• Don’t just brainstorm; vet your ideas. This seems simple, but it’s such an often overlooked step in the creative process. As you plan your content, think about how you can maximize the value. That may mean expanding on the topic (e.g., The Ultimate Guide to Brand Strategy), narrowing in on a specific angle (e.g., 7 Infographic Design Styles to Try Right Now), or adding your own expertise (e.g., The 5 Biggest Mistakes We See SaaS Marketers Make). 

Also, don’t forget that you are dealing with real people. One of the biggest mistakes we see in B2B marketing is talking to people like they’re business representatives and not everyday human beings. 

“Business decision makers are people too. They like cool stuff, good storytelling, unique experiences, and good design.”
—Katie Raney, Column Five Design Team Lead

Ultimately, your best bet is to lead with empathy. As long as you put your audience first, your content will always be more successful. For more tips and inspiration, see how these brands put empathetic content marketing into action. 

5) Update your old content. 

If you’re undergoing a massive marketing makeover (and starting a fresh content marketing strategy), net new content does not always need to be your first focus. In fact, oftentimes you can get even better results by cleaning up your current content archive. There are multiple reasons why this is a great idea. 

• Algorithms favor fresh, rich content. By updating, consolidating, refreshing, and re-promoting your existing content, you can give your SEO a major boost and hold strong to the keywords you rank for and reoptimize for new keywords. (Find out how we used this strategy to help Blend increase their traffic 183%.) 
• It gives your audience more to chew on. When you do attract new people with net new content, they will have a great library of your existing content (all fresh and current) to deep dive into. 
• It takes less work. By reworking what you have, you can get twice the results for half of the work.

We have personally found massive success with this strategy, getting our top 10 most valuable keywords to rank on page 1, among hundreds of other terms. Best of all, this strategy ensures that our thought leadership stays current and aligned to our current brand strategy. (If you haven’t done a reoptimization campaign before, see Hubspot’s guide to do it the right way.)

Fun fact: This very article was originally published five years ago. What you’re reading now is a massively updated version with even more links and resources that we have spent the last few years creating. 

6) Repurpose your content. 

It takes time and money to create content, so you should maximize the impact (and lifespan) of every piece you create. 

Beyond updating your content archive, there are so many ways to give a second life to content by reusing, remixing, and repurposing in different ways across different channels. This is the easiest way to create a steady stream of content to keep your audience interested and engaged. 

What does that look like?

• Break an infographic into a series of visualizations for your next ebook. 
• Publish quotes, data points, or excerpts on social.
• Consolidate an older article into a Twitter tip thread.
• Reuse illustrations in blogs, ebooks, and content. 

For more tips to do this, find out how to repurpose your infographics and data visualizations. 

7) Move quickly. 

While you shouldn’t waste time on content that isn’t tied to your brand and content strategy, you also shouldn’t let perfectly good ideas wither on the vine. (We can’t tell you how many times we’ve seen this happen in the organizations we work with.) 

Remember: The key to a successful marketing operation is creating a steady stream of quality content. Updating your existing content or reusing older content is one way to fill your feed, but you definitely do need to produce net new content on a steady schedule. The problem is that many brands struggle to do this consistently. 

“The hardest part when you first start content marketing is striking a balance between planning and doing. You need to establish a publishing rhythm and measure results so you can learn what does and doesn’t work.”
–Jason Lankow, Column Five Cofounder

The problem is usually something to do with a lack of decision-making or an inefficient production process (see point 3). But the ability to move quickly in content creation is a huge competitive advantage. 

“There’s nothing worse than seeing your great idea—done by someone else.”
—Katy French, Column Five Content Marketing Director

Whether that’s joining a timely conversation, participating in a trend, or responding to current events, the more flexible you can be in your storytelling, the more you’ll stand out. Unfortunately, when you’re too busy overthinking a concept, waiting for approvals, or going round and round in endless revisions, you fall behind. (FYI, sometimes doing something late is worse than not doing it all.)

“Listen to your experts (internal, agency, or otherwise) if they tell you that this ‘trendy’ thing you want to try is actually already tired. Appeal to people and be fun, but please don’t hop on a meme 3 months too late.”
—Keisha Hester, Column Five Marketing Manager

To keep the machine moving, use our free editorial calendar template for scheduling and planning. You should also pre-plan for the unexpected, especially when it comes to current events. In fact, we recommend creating a general system or rubric to help your content team understand when and how to respond to various trending things. For example, we ask ourselves the following questions before we hop in: 

• Is this relevant to our Brand Heart? We only think our participation is valuable if it aligns to our brand’s beliefs or areas of expertise. 
• Do we understand what’s really happening? You may want to jump in immediately, but sometimes you need more information before making a call. 
• Are we being honest? We never want to virtue signal or be performative. 
• Can we add value? Our brand always wants to be proactive vs. responsive, so doing things like sharing resources or helpful information feels more productive and worthwhile. 

Check out our additional tips to newsjack without being a jackass. 

9) Choose the right format—not the “cool” format. 

Marketing moves fast, as do content creation tools. Now, you have more options to share your story than ever, from ebooks, to interactives, to videos. These are all storytelling tools, and they all offer a different experience to your audience. That’s why you need to know which tools are right to tell your story to your audience. Depending on the channel, use-case, or general preference, people may want different types of content in different types of formats. That’s why it’s so important to choose the right format for your story.  

We’ve been guilty of this ourselves. For example, we once spent a (very large) number of hours on a slick interactive ebook that gave us very little ROI. It wasn’t because the content wasn’t valuable, or because the creative was bad. It was because, frankly, the format was not right for the story. Our ebook was meant to be a helpful resource for someone to bookmark, share with a team, or reference over and over. The robust interactive was beautiful, but the information was a bit more buried than it would be in a straightforward PDF ebook. Ultimately, we decided to translate the interactive’s content into a static PDF ebook, and it has been downloaded many more times than the interactive was viewed. 

If you’re not sure what types of formats you should be utilizing, see our breakdown of different formats and when to use them. 

10) Experiment with new things. 

Content marketing is a crowded space. Innovation and originality play a huge part in successful content. But like lemmings, it seems many brands are playing a game of “follow the leader.” One video goes viral, every other brand makes a copycat. One infographic does well, a brand wants five more on the same theme. It feels more comfortable to play it safe, but that also keeps you stagnated.

We know taking risks is scary, but it’s the only way to figure out how you can improve. That doesn’t mean you have to hop on every trend or sink a quarter of your year’s budget into one fancy new piece of content. But small, intentional risks are well worth it. Whether it’s mixing up your CTA style (we’ve experimented with a variety of visual CTAs) or exploring a new format, creative experimentation keeps you on your toes—and keeps you competitive. Even if you fail, there’s always a lesson somewhere.

“The only thing more powerful than ‘why?’ is ‘why not?’ Knowing what works by looking at the past is great, but great content practices always leave room for risk and experimentation.”
— Asher Rumack, Column Five Director of Growth

One helpful way to get inspired is to use our free competitive audit template to get insight into what your competition is doing, how you compare, and how you can outshine them. 

Last Tip: Get the Right Help 

From strategy to steady publishing, you might need some support to guide your content marketing operation. There are plenty of agencies out there, but it’s important that you cultivate a healthy, creative, and collaborative relationship with whomever you choose. 

• See our tips to find an agency with your expertise.  (Check out our content strategy FAQs if you want to start your search with us.) 
• Find out how to work effectively together once you sign the contract.

Above all, the best way to improve your marketing operation is to stay educated about the best branding and marketing practices. Check out our library of free resources, subscribe to our newsletter, and encourage your team to share what they’re learning. (We have an #inspiration slack channel where we share anything and everything.) The more you talk and share ideas, the more good ideas you’ll have. 

If you’re a growth-stage SaaS company, you know it’s the wild west out here. It’s a smaller customer pool, with more competition, and a ton of roadblocks along the path to purchase. How do you succeed? By working intelligently, focusing on measurable progress, and taking expert advice. (Hi, we’re the experts.) Having helped hundreds of brands over the last decade, we’ve seen the most common problems and pitfalls that SaaS marketers struggle with—and we know how to navigate them.

So today, we’re sharing our best down-and-dirty tips to help you get your marketing in shape, along with helpful resources, templates, and toolkits to make it a whole lot easier.

20 Tips to Improve Your SaaS Marketing

Whether you’re starting fresh or correcting course, we hope you find these tips helpful. (And if you have any of your own to share, please do!)

1) Create goals you can ACTUALLY measure.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, only 40% of B2B marketers have a documented content strategy. We know that SaaS marketers (whose bosses are more focused on the product than brand) are often flying without a strategy. But without a plan, you’re only going to waste everyone’s time and resources. To figure out if what you’re doing is actually working, use our guide to set measurable goals, track your progress, and adjust as needed, and download our B2B marketing strategy toolkit to craft a strategy that will help you reach your goals.

2) Creep on your competition’s content.

If you want to outshine your competitors, you need to know how they’re crushing it—and how they’re dropping the ball. Conduct a simple competitor content audit to dive deep into their content and spot opportunities to outshine them with your own brand storytelling.

3) Find the messaging gaps in your own content. (Trust us, they’re there.)

To create a seamless buyer experience, you need to say the right things at the right time. But how do you know what people need to hear? See our guide to map your customer journey, identify key messaging for each stage, and tailor your content accordingly.

4) Collaborate with sales to create a seamless brand experience.

If sales and marketing aren’t aligned, you can’t deliver the experience your customer needs and wants. (Fun fact: Only 60% of B2B marketers say they provide a consistent experience across their buyer journey.) To get on the same page, find out how to bridge marketing and sales in your buyer journey and create sales content that empowers your team to close the deal.

5) Focus on brand, not product.

In SaaS marketing, everyone is worried about product development, but it’s your brand that will ultimately help you stand out from your competition. Use our brand strategy toolkit to build your brand and tell your brand story in every piece of content.

6) Identify your brand values—and share them.

B2B consumers are emotional people, and they want to feel connected to the brands they buy from. Use our free workbook to identify your brand heart (aka purpose, vision, mission, and values), then create content to share these beliefs with your audience.

7) Nail your basics: Search, Email, Social.

When you’re creating a fresh marketing strategy, focus on Search, Email, and Social first. These are the core channels that will help you reach the right people, build strong relationships, and move people along the path to purchase over time. If you’re not sure who you’re trying to reach (or where they are), see our guides to find your target audience and create a distribution plan that helps them find your content.

8) Focus on the social channels that matter.

You don’t have to be everywhere or try to keep up with everyone. Only focus on where your audience is—and where you’re getting the most return. If you’re not sure what that is, see our guide choose the right social channels for your brand.

9) Tell your brand story at every touchpoint.

Your brand story is your biggest differentiator, so infuse it into every part of your marketing. From blog content, to social posts, to CTAs, tell the story of who you are, what you care about, and why your audience should care. For inspiration, use these 10 tips to tell a compelling brand story.

10) Maximize every piece of content.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, 60% of B2B marketers have been asked to do more with the same resources. Luckily, you can get more mileage from your content if you remix, repurpose, and reuse. Turn that infographic into an Instagram story. Create a series of articles from that ebook. There are a million ways to get creative. For more tips to do that, find out how to put a divisible content strategy to use.

11) Create brand content that is actually on brand.

A consistent visual identity is a key part of your brand story, so make sure every piece of content you create accurately reflects who you are. You should have a complete brand identity, as well as brand guidelines, but it is especially helpful to create a simple checklist to vet every piece before it goes out the door.

12) Give buyers the info they need, then sit back.

B2B buying is changing. Buyers want less handholding, more information, and the option to complete their purchase online. Your job is to give them the information they need, in its most optimized presentation, to help them make their own choices. Find out more about how B2B buying is changing and how you can adapt.

13) Remember that B2B buyers are PEOPLE.

Although there are usually more stakeholders in a B2B buying decision, they aren’t all faceless corporate drones. Your buyers are people with feelings, so think about what makes them tick. Look for ways to speak to their needs, problems, and wants with an empathetic approach. See our tips to tap into empathy and turn it into great content.

14) Know the 5 types of B2B content—and use them all.

Every content strategy should include a mix of:

• Brand content (about your brand specifically—who you are, what you do, etc.)
• Editorial content (thought leadership, expertise, etc.)
• Talent content (for potential employees and current employees)
• Product content (sales/informational content)
• Performance content (tactical content in support of KPIs)

Make sure you have all types of content represented in your editorial calendar, and find out more about how each content type serves your brand goals.

15) Curate the perfect mix of content for your unique audience.

A good content mix is like a beautiful meal; it feeds you a little bit of everything you need to feel nourished and satisfied. In B2B, there are all sorts of ways to do this, from dense thought leadership to fun polls. To find out what you should be feeding your audience, see our guide to create the perfect mix of content.

16) Use different formats to tell your brand story effectively.

What types of content is your audience used to seeing? What do they like to engage with? What formats can deliver your message most effectively? These are important questions that should be considered during the brainstorming phase—not just when you’re handing a content brief off to your designer.

17) Only choose the metrics that matter.

You can only manage what you measure, but if what you’re measuring isn’t really that insightful, it won’t help you make meaningful improvements to your content strategy. (This is a big problem with vanity metrics that look great but mean very little.) To make sure you’re only focusing on numbers that will move the needle, see our guide to choose the right metrics for your content strategy.

18) Calculate ROI the right way.

ROI is one of the most frustrating parts of SaaS marketing, especially if you don’t know exactly how to calculate it. Get the clarity you need with our guide to determine ROI the easy way.

19) Don’t make content for you. Make it for your audience.

If you want people to connect with your content, you need to provide value in some way. Whether it inspires, educates, or entertains, ask these questions to vet your ideas and ensure they are meaningful and relevant to your audience.

20) Choose the right agency with the right expertise.

An agency can be a great support to guide your brand strategy or bring your content strategy to life. But one of the biggest challenges that tech marketers face is not being able to find a partner who can speak to their audience. See our guide to find a B2B agency with the right expertise to help you achieve your goals. And if you want to start your search with us, find out what it’s like to work with us on a content strategy—or reach out. We’d be happy to help you apply these tips (and a whole lot more) to get the marketing results you want.

If you want to create successful SaaS marketing, you need to focus on one thing: providing value to your audience. Talk about the things they care about, deliver the information they want, and do it in a way that feels natural and authentic to your brand. (It’s a fairly simple formula but one that many brands seem to struggle with—usually because their content is focused on the brand, not the audience.) 

But how do you ensure your brand is providing value? Start by using content to educate your audience. No matter who your audience is, or what your service is, I can guarantee that what they need and want is information that helps them learn, grow, and improve in some way.

When your brand provides that information, you’re providing a much-needed service and positioning yourself as a trusted resource in the process. It’s a true win-win. Also, as this type of content is usually a customer’s first introduction to your brand, it is one of the best ways to start (and nurture) your relationship. 

84% of B2B customers would buy from a supplier that they had a great relationship with—even if the terms of business were less preferential. 

—2022 Sana B2B Buyer Report

How to Educate Customers Through SaaS Marketing

“Education” can take many forms, from practical how-tos to expert deep dives. If you want to incorporate more educational content into your marketing strategy, here are five ways to do it and deliver great value to your audience.

1) Help them solve a problem.

If you want to create a connection with your audience, show them that you understand their challenges and, most importantly, are committed to helping them overcome them by giving them the information they need to do so. 

Not only does this help you showcase your expertise but you get to provide a helpful service to your audience—something they will appreciate,  remember, and hopefully return to you for. 

Tips to do it:

• Create personas. To get familiar with your clients’ pain points, talk to them. Follow our guide to create personas, and use this information to influence your content brainstorms. 
• Use empathy. Once you have a handle on their pain points, put yourself in their shoes and think of the type of content that they would love to have to help them navigate their unique challenges. For inspiration, see how these brands have put empathetic content marketing into action.
• Choose the right format. Educational content can come in all sorts of forms, including articles, guides, toolkits, templates, etc. Make sure to choose the best format for your content. 

Example: To help our audience navigate their content marketing challenges, we’ve offered our insights on how to fix the biggest content marketing challenges, how to find the right audience, and how to build a content strategy from scratch. 

2) Educate customers through the lessons you’ve learned.

People respect industry leaders who can speak authoritatively on the issues they face, especially when their authority comes from firsthand experience. 

In addition to helping people solve their problems, you can also educate them by sharing the lessons you’ve learned while navigating your own struggles (which are likely theirs too). When you’re open, honest, and transparent, your brand becomes much more human—and people are more likely to feel a connection if you can commiserate over the same struggles. 

Note: “Thought leadership” is a term that gets tossed around a lot in SaaS marketing, and so it has been cheapened, but the original idea behind it is to showcase your experience, share the lessons you’ve learned, and prove that you know your stuff.

“The lessons we remember are the lessons we learn the hard way.”

—Seth Godin

Even if you don’t think you are the world’s foremost expert, you probably still know more than your customers and thus are in a good position to educate them.

Tips to do it:

• Share your wins. If you tried something new and it worked, turn it into a helpful case study or share your best tips to help others do the same.
• Be honest about your failures. You only fail if you don’t learn from your mistakes. If you’ve experienced a challenge, be honest about what you went through and what you took away. (Bonus points if you can help others avoid the same mistakes.)
• Dig into your own data. You’d be surprised by how many interesting insights live in your spreadsheets. If you can dig into your data and find unique stories, you can create content that provides valuable information to your audience–and your industry. 

Example: We’ve written about the worst mistakes we’ve made, our successful experiments, and the biggest lessons we’ve learned in our first decade in business.

3) Help people get to know you.

As people move through the customer journey, they want to learn all sorts of information–not only about what you do but who you are and what makes you different. In this sense, telling your brand story is educating your customer. It’s also the single most effective way to differentiate yourself from your competitors. 

Sure, there’s a company with more website visitors than you have. Sure, they may have more e-books than you do. And, sure, they may have more speaking gigs too. But what they don’t have is your exact experience, perspective, personality, values, client service style, or goals.

The more you do this, the more you’ll naturally attract people who have similar perspectives or philosophies (who are more likely to convert).  

Tips to do it:

• Share your Brand Heart. Identify your purpose, vision, mission, and values, and turn that into content that speaks to who you are and what you believe. 
• Create a strong brand identity. The way you look, speak, and act is an essential part of your brand story. Make sure your content reflects that (and create a brand style guide to ensure it does). 
• Showcase your culture. Whether it’s an employee spotlight or a behind-the-scenes peek on social media, find out how to turn your culture into engaging content. 

Example: At Column Five, we produce informative content for our clients, but we also create content to showcase our company’s values and personal passions, such as our People for Periods interactive to help destigmatize menstruation. 

4) Teach them a practical skill.

Thought leadership is an important element in SaaS marketing, but sometimes brands get a little too esoteric, musing in long blog posts or philosophizing on a podcast. That knowledge is valuable, but if it isn’t immediately applicable to your audience’s life, it can take a backseat.

Your audience needs someone to cut through the crap and deliver simple, understandable, and easy-to-follow tips to complete a task, tackle a problem, or do something new. Tips, tutorials, how-to guides, and hacks are a great way to educate, but remember that brevity and practicality is key. 

Tips to do it:

• Create microcontent. You can easily share practical tips and tricks by breaking them up into small, bite-size pieces of microcontent for social. (Sharing snippets is also a great way to promote larger pieces of content.)
• Make it visual. Infographics are a super helpful and effective way to deliver tutorials, tips, or hacks. 

Example: We created this infographic on how to optimize your blog for publishing to help promo an e-book on content distribution.

5) Learn together.

You are an expert in your industry. You know your stuff. But you’re also eager to expand your knowledge to give your audience the best information possible at all times. Demonstrating that you are also an active student shows your audience that you aren’t just resting on your laurels. It helps them learn new things, too.

Tips to do it:

• Host a Q&A. If there are industry leaders or peers that are doing great work, pick their brain in a formal or informal interview. A Q&A via Facebook Live or Zoom is a great way to connect with peers and create evergreen content for your audience to consume. 
• Interview experts. There are experts both inside and outside of your company walls whose knowledge can be invaluable for you and your audience. You can formally interview them, ask for tips, or turn a conversation into an interesting article. (See more tips to turn your own team into content creators.) 

Example: We recently chatted with TBWA/Chiat/Day’s John Hickman about the keys to success in B2B.

How to Master SaaS Marketing

Whether you’re trying to entertain, inspire, or educate customers through your content, remember that value is everything. As you build your content strategy, think of your audience’s pain points, vet your ideas, and look for new ways to deliver the content they want through the most effective channels. (For more tips to do this, check out our Ultimate Guide to B2B Strategy.)

And, of course, if you’re struggling to do any of that on your own, consider bringing in some expert help. See our tips to find an agency with the right expertise, or find out what it’s like to work with us on a content strategy. We’d love to help you educate your audience at every stage along the path to purchase. 

B2B marketing isn’t easy, and in the tech world, it’s increasingly challenging. From crowded marketplaces to internal misalignment, content marketers are facing a range of issues that affect their day-to-day work. This is increasingly clear in the Content Marketing Institute’s 2022 Technology Content Marketing report, which explores the state of tech marketing in everything from strategy and content creation to distribution and metrics. Above all, the report highlights the biggest challenges tech marketers are facing—and, boy, do they sound familiar. Having helped B2B brands of all sizes over the last decade, we are more than familiar with these challenges. Fortunately, we also know how to tackle them.

How to Tackle the Top 5 Challenges in Technology Marketing 

According to the Content Marketing Institute, the top 5 biggest challenges tech marketers face include: 

• Creating content that appeals to multi-level roles within the target audience 
• Accessing subject matter experts to create content 
• Internal communication between teams/silos 
• Creating valuable content instead of sales-oriented content 
• Differentiating products/services from the competition

If these sound familiar to you, don’t worry. It just means that 1) You aren’t alone. 2) You’re in the right place. Here, we’ll break down these challenges and give you our best tips, tools, and resources to tackle them effectively. 

Problem 1: Creating content that appeals to multi-level roles within the target audience. 

If you don’t understand who your target audience is, what they care about, or how to make content that is relevant to them, your content won’t succeed. Of course, considering that the average B2B purchase requires multiple stakeholders (according to Gartner research, it can include up to 20), you need to know how to tailor your messaging to multiple audiences. 

The fix: Fortunately, the more strategically you approach content creation, the easier it is to create content that makes an impact. 

• Create personas. These will help you understand your audience’s unique needs, wants, challenges, desires, etc. With this clarity, you can craft content that speaks directly to different roles within the same organization. Start with our free template to create personas, and try these tips to find your target audience. 
• Think in campaigns. A good marketing campaign tells a cohesive story, but it provides different entry points into that story, tailored for each specific audience. When trying to reach different groups, think of their unique needs/interests, and find an emotional hook that speaks to those needs. Different content may take different forms, too. Your higher-level thought leadership for C-level decision-makers may do well in an industry publication, while a free e-book on your website may be the perfect resource for mid-level decision-makers. Use our free campaign template to brainstorm campaign ideas across touchpoints.
• Nail your messaging. Regardless of who you’re speaking to, telling a consistent story is crucial. Find out how to create brand messaging that resonates and reinforces your brand story. 

You should also strive for a healthy content mix to create a seamless path to purchase. Find out what 5 types of B2B content you should be creating. 

Problem 2: Accessing subject matter experts to create content. 

62% of technology marketers say their organization outsources at least one content marketing activity.
—Content Marketing Institute

Tech can be highly specialized, so you need content creators that can speak confidently and authoritatively on a subject matter. But those voices are not always easy to find. (And, in fact, we find that sometimes the loudest voices in marketing have the least interesting things to say.) 

Still, you need experts to help you create the rich, valuable content your audience deserves. 

The fix: Luckily, there are many ways to tap into the expertise inside and outside your company’s walls. 

• Turn your team into content creators. Who knows about your field more than the people actually working in it? Go straight to the source by tapping the people in your company to generate interesting content. You can also pair a writer with these experts to help expand their ideas, shape a narrative, and turn it into a compelling piece. Luckily, things like Q&As, guest columns, or team roundups are relatively low-lift ways to generate a steady stream of content. 
• Reach out to experts in your field. Interviews are one of the best ways to share knowledge, gather insights, and expand your reach. Outside of your company, turn to industry peers and experts to conduct an interesting and relevant interview. This can be a formal interview or a casual conversation (either format is easier than ever, thanks to tools like Zoom). 
• Use an agency. A good content agency has a talented network of creators across many fields. If you’re on the hunt, see our 5 tips to outsource tech marketing.

Note: If you do end up using an agency, follow these tips to make your collaboration go as smoothly as possible. 

Problem 3: Internal communication between teams/silos. 

Behind-the-scenes frictions are often one of the biggest problems in a marketing operation that is struggling. (It’s why, along with strategy and technology, your organizational structure is so crucial to a mature marketing organization.) 

The fix: When teams become disjointed, it’s time to focus on clarity and alignment.

• Know your goals. We find that a lack of clarity around goals is usually the root of all misalignment, miscommunication, and frustration. If people aren’t on the same page, aren’t clear on who owns what, or aren’t on board with what you’re trying to achieve, your efforts are doomed. Find out how to document your goals to keep everyone aligned.
• Share and tell. To really collaborate effectively, colleagues need to understand each other’s work and feel invested in it. If it doesn’t feel like you’re on the same team, or you can’t see how one department’s work influences another, you need more open lines of communication. Regular meetings to share your wins and in-progress work can go a long way toward breaking down walls.

Note: Understanding the way different people on your team think and communicate can also go a long way toward creating healthy team dynamics. Find out about the different types of creative thinkers and how to work best with each. 

Problem 4: Creating valuable content instead of sales-oriented content. 

We sure do know about this one. This is the cardinal sin of content marketing, and yet it is the most common thing we see in the wild. Marketers are so focused on what they want to say about their brand they forget to think about what their audience actually wants and needs to hear. Again, content marketing is meant to start a conversation, so you shouldn’t be selling off the bat. 

The fix: Ultimately, you need to have a clear understanding about what marketing’s role is—and how you are going to do it for your particular audience. 

• Understand the difference between marketing and sales. No, really. In too many organizations, sales bleeds into marketing and muddles the message. Understand what the true function of marketing is, then can you learn to bridge marketing and sales in your buyer’s journey. 
• Use empathy. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes and you will be able to connect with them much more effectively. The secret to doing that? Employ empathy. Think about their fears, worries, frustrations, desires, hopes, and dreams—then create content that speaks to these points. If you’re not sure what empathetic content marketing looks like, here are 15 brands that do it well. 
• Vet your ideas. To ensure your audience will actually care about your content, you need to do more than brainstorm ideas—you need to carefully analyze each idea to decide whether or not it will provide value. To do that, ask these 5 questions every time you come up with a new idea, and try these tips to create value-centric content. 

See more tips to create interesting and engaging B2B content. 

Problem 5: Differentiating products/services from the competition.

60% of technology marketers said they stand out by differentiating their content.
—Content Marketing Institute

As the marketplace becomes more crowded, differentiation becomes increasingly challenging. (In fact, in these conditions, your product/service matters much less than your actual brand.) But with so many brands focused on keeping up with the Joneses, everyone is looking like a copy…of a copy…of a copy. This is why so much B2B marketing is, frankly, terrible. But it’s also why you have a huge opportunity to steal the spotlight. 

The fix: If you want to stand out in the crowd, start with a critical eye. 

• Do a content audit. Before you even build a content strategy, we always recommend doing a content audit of your brand’s content, as well as your competitors’ content. This helps you spot your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities to zig where they zag. Start with our step-by-step guide to conduct a content audit.
• Create a strong brand identity. The way you look and speak has a huge effect on how your brand is perceived, and it will help you stand out from the crowd. For example, if your whole industry uses blue branding, you’ll turn heads with purple. If your competitors are dry and pretentious, adopting a down-to-earth voice will help people feel more connected to you. Good content marketing is about building a relationship with your audience over time. The stronger your brand identity (and the more consistent you are), the more you will build a community. See our tips to find your brand voice and personality, build a visual identity, and create a style guide that makes it easy to keep your content on-brand. 

Ultimately, remember that brand-building is the key to longevity. To make that a priority, find out how to build a brand team that will grow your business. 

The Secret to Tech Marketing Success: Strong Strategy

No matter your product or service, if you want to be a successful tech marketer, you need a strategy-led organization. With a clear and focused plan, you can create measurable results, increase your impact, and work more effectively at every level. To make sure your team is on the right track, use our free content strategy toolkit to build the right strategy for your brand. And if you need a little outside help, feel free to start your hunt with us. Find out what it’s like to work with us on a content strategy, or reach out directly. We’d love to help you find and keep your audience. 

Pearson provides world-class educational tools, content, products, and services to help people adapt to our changing world, navigate its challenges and opportunities, and make progress in their lives.

Pearson needed to increase product awareness and lead generation for four key audiences: higher education faculty, women in STEM, STEM teachers, and parents of college students.

Each of the four campaigns centered around a core piece of creative (one promoted video, as well as three promoted e-books). We tailored each asset for the specific target audience, helping to generate interest around Pearson’s unique products and services.

To make sure these campaigns were as effective as possible, we took a two-pronged approach to our distribution strategy. 1) Identify which creative content was most effective. 2) Identify which channels were most effective for distributing that content.

The key to success was strategic, aggressive testing. Fortunately, Pearson understood the value of this approach and let us build in time and budget for a testing phase to collect valuable data and optimize our strategy accordingly. With these insights, we could ensure the budget we invested would give them the best ROI.

To do this, we first tested to identify the main audience to target across all campaigns, then segmented further to identify specific audiences for each campaign.

Once we had established the audiences, we tested creative messaging to see which ad variation earned the most conversions (specifically ebook downloads) across Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and native ad placements. We also staggered the campaigns over the course of 6 months. This allowed us to use the insights gained from each campaign to inform the next, helping to continuously improve our results.

To track our results, we presented weekly reports to Pearson outlining insights from each campaign. This transparency helped us work with Pearson effectively—and helped their teams learn from each other’s campaigns.

Thanks to this strategic approach, we were able to help Pearson reach the right customers across the web, earning:

• 615,745 views for the awareness campaign
• 840 total ebook downloads

Above all, working with a collaborative partner who understood the value of time and intentional testing was the true secret to success.

Ultimately, all content marketers want the same thing: to create compelling content that converts. Unfortunately, many marketers often confuse quantity with quality, churning out piece after piece that gets lackluster results. They look at content marketing as a numbers game, thinking they just need to produce a massive volume of content and surely something will stick. When their content doesn’t work, they blame the design, the timing, the distribution strategy—basically everything but the core problem. (Trust me, as the cofounder of a content marketing agency with a decade of experience, I’ve seen this happen over and over again.) However, when it comes to marketing your brand, there is one simple truth: If a piece of content fails, it’s because it did not speak to its audience.

At its core, successful content marketing is about engaging with people through content—not talking at them or selling to them. If your content isn’t made with your audience’s unique needs or interests in mind, you won’t be able to engage with them in any sort of genuine way. You won’t move them down the path to purchase. You won’t even grab their attention for more than a second.

Luckily, there is one way to ensure your content is meaningful, relevant, and effective: Use empathy.

What Is Empathy?

According to Merriam-Webster, empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. As Dr. Brené Brown notes, empathy is “feeling with people.”

In the context of content marketing, feeling with people is about understanding your audience’s needs, putting yourself in their shoes to understand the challenges they face, and creating content that speaks to those unique issues.

The #1 thing that contributes to content marketing success is the value it provides.

“Yeah, but isn’t content marketing about educating others?” Sure—if it’s educating them about the things they need and want to know.

Empathy is not talking about yourself, your services, your pricing, and how great you are. It is not newsjacking in a desperate attempt to create relevance. (Does a SaaS company that operates in the financial service industry need to be commenting on what Kanye West is up to? Probably not.) Empathy in content marketing is simply about putting your audience’s needs first.

This doesn’t mean you can’t ever ask your audience to sign up for a newsletter or download an e-book. It just means you should prioritize compelling content that attracts them to you so that you can offer those goods and move them along the buyer journey.

Why Should You Use Empathy In Your Content Marketing?

Leading with empathy helps you create far superior content that is more meaningful, memorable, and effective.

• Empathetic content grabs people’s attention. Empathy helps you meet your audience where they’re at. A catchy headline that speaks to someone’s immediate challenges is much more effective than a sales-y listicle about all of the reasons they “need” your product.
• Empathetic content strengthens your relationship with your audience. When you can clearly communicate that you understand your audience’s struggle and have the expertise to help solve their problem, your audience will see that you really care, which makes them more eager to form a relationship with you. And if you can create content that helps reduce your audience’s pain and frustration, your brand will automatically become the hero.
• Empathetic content improves ROI. No one wants to waste time, money, or energy on content that doesn’t move the needle. Building your content strategy around empathy ensures that the content you do make speaks to your audience, makes a bigger impact, and makes them more likely to convert.

But what does empathy look like in your day-to-day practice? We’ll break it down for you.

How to Employ Empathy In Your Marketing

When you’re marketing your brand, there are three simple steps to ensure you’re coming up with empathetic marketing ideas that will connect with the right people.

1) Develop marketing personas.

A friend recently said to me, “When you’re thinking about content, consider the hell that your clients are trying to escape from and the heaven that you want to deliver them to.” While this might be a dramatic statement, it certainly works for content marketing, especially when your goal is lead generation or increasing sales.

Of course, to understand your clients’ hell, and what will appeal to them, you need to know exactly who they are. Creating customer personas (also known as “psychographic mapping”) is the first step to really understanding your audience.

When you know your audience’s specific pain points, wants, and needs, you have much better insight to fuel your content brainstorms later on.

How to do it: Start with our free guide and template to create your own marketing personas. Having direct conversations with existing customers will ensure you get the most accurate perspective, but accessing any available research about your target audience (e.g., surveys, research, reports) can also provide helpful insight.

To pursue empathetic content marketing, make this your mantra: Sell less, listen more.

2) Brainstorm around your personas’ pain points. 

During brainstorms, content marketers often ask, “What kind of content will help me sell more?” That’s the wrong way to look at things. Instead, you should ask, “What kind of content will provide so much value to readers that it will attract customers?”

According to the Content Marketing Institute’s 2022 B2B Content Marketing report, 87% of the most successful marketers prioritize their audience’s needs over their organization’s message.

To start your brainstorm the right way, do a brain dump of the general topics, issues, or ideas that you know your audience will be interested in. You will refine specific ideas later, but this is the time to identify the core subjects that will attract their attention. (Note: Pain points are good to hone in on because they are usually the things people have the strongest emotional reaction to.)

How to do it: One great way to get inside your audience’s mind is to do a little online research about what people are searching for or talking about. For example, AnswerThePublic is a handy tool that shows you all of the questions people are asking about a particular topic. These questions can be great content themselves (e.g., The Ultimate Guide to _______) or help you hone in on relevant subjects within your expertise.

You might also look around to see what other people in your industry are saying about a topic, then take a better or opposing stance. (A strong stance is a great way to pique your audience’s interest.)

3) Add even more value.

It’s easy to get excited about a cool idea, but if you can’t justify how or why your target audience will really be interested in it, it won’t help you achieve your goals.

So, once you’ve brainstormed your general ideas, you need to take it a step further to refine and vet your best ideas through your personas. (Note: This is the most important step of any brainstorm—and especially crucial to tap into the underlying empathy you want your content to convey.)

Whether your content is educational, inspirational, or entertaining, the more your ideas provide unique value to your audience, the better your content will be.

How to do it: Identify your best ideas, then go through them one by one to identify what pain point, need, or want they speak to. You may find some ideas don’t hold water, but you may also be able to refine your ideas to make them more interesting and specific. (We’ve often seen a so-so idea become a killer story by tweaking the angle slightly.) If you’re struggling to refine your ideas, ask these questions to make them more impactful.

• What practical knowledge or skill can you deliver? Things like tutorials, tips, hacks, how-tos, etc. can solve problems and help your audience save time, money, or frustration. The more helpful your content is, the more your audience will come to see you as a trusted resource.
• What resources can you create to help them apply this newfound knowledge? Templates, guides, toolkits, maps, calculators—there is all sorts of supplemental content that can be incredibly valuable to your audience. (For example, we’ve designed camping guides for Coachella and walking maps of San Francisco for conferences.)
• What similar paint points have you faced? Sharing your greatest lessons or mistakes can be a great way to humanize your brand, demonstrate empathy, make your audience feel less alone, and provide valuable solutions.
• What escape do they need/want? Your content doesn’t always have to be strict thought leadership. Humorous or entertaining content can be a welcome distraction for your audience (and a great way to grab their attention). For example, when we got fed up with all of the buzzwords and fluff we see in the marketing world, we created the Marketing Gibberish Generator to help social-guru-rockstar-ninjas BS their way through their next marketing meeting.

For more tips, here are 7 ideas to create content that provides true value. And see these 15 examples of empathetic content marketing in action.

How to Keep Connecting with Your Audience

Empathetic content marketing isn’t a one-time task; it’s an ongoing practice. Keep listening, keep reflecting, and keep looking for unique ways to engage with your audience. While your content strategy may change each quarter, keep empathy at the center and you’ll always be working toward the right thing.

That said, there are a few more things to keep in mind as you build your content practice.

• Choose the right format. In content marketing, the medium is just as important as the message. If you’re not sure which format to choose, see our breakdown of content marketing formats to find out what type might work best for your goals.
• Maximize your content. As a marketer, you want to get the most mileage from every piece of content you create. Find out how to use a divisible content strategy to make more content with less work.
• Strengthen your strategy. Make sure you have a clearly documented content strategy that keeps everyone on the same page.
• Measure your success. As much as empathetic content marketing relies on emotion, you want to see tangible evidence that your content is emotionally connecting. Make sure you have the right measurement infrastructure set up, and find how to choose the right metrics from the jump.

Of course, we know this work doesn’t happen overnight. If you’re over-extended or just plain stuck in your marketing, some expert support can help. See our tips to find the right content agency, learn more about what it’s like to work with us on your content strategy, or reach out directly. We’d love to help you give your audience the content they deserve.

So you’re creating a content marketing strategy for B2B lead generation, but you don’t know what type of content you should create. Will it be infographics? Ebooks? Videos? Should you curate a mix, or put all your eggs in one content basket? These are tough questions (and some of the most common we hear from our clients).

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to content marketing. The “right” content depends on your brand’s unique goals, your audience, and other factors. But you do need to understand the variety of content you can make, what each content type is particularly good for, and what it takes to actually produce it. Luckily, you’ve come to the right place.

We know firsthand that the world of content marketing can be overwhelming. In fact, we’ve spent more than a decade navigating this wilderness, making mistakes, and learning exactly how to make content marketing that actually works. 

So, to make your life easier (and save you a decade’s worth of learning), we’ve compiled this thorough breakdown of the different types of B2B lead generation content, as well as tips to make each type work for you. From visual content to thought leadership, it’s everything you need to know to create the best content marketing for your brand. 

But, before we dive in, there are a few things to keep in mind.

What to Know Before You Start Brainstorming

Too many brands dive into B2B content marketing blindly, with a lot of enthusiasm but much less foresight. Soon, they suffer a range of pesky problems. 

• They underestimate the amount of time, money, or infrastructure it takes to create content, leading to an out-of-control scope increase. 
• They push back deadlines endlessly, and thus they don’t publish content with any steady cadence. 
• They spend a lot on content that doesn’t resonate with their audience, so their content is ineffective. 
• They don’t accurately measure how their content performs, so they continue to work blindly. 

After all this, they don’t have much to show for their efforts (except a lot of frustration and a disheartened team). That is why we emphasize the importance of three key things to anyone launching or retooling their marketing operation. 

1) Document your strategy.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, only 40% of marketers have a documented content strategy. If you want to be successful, you need to do a lot of legwork before you schedule your first content brainstorm.

• You need to know your own goals and have them clearly documented.
• You need to know who your audience is, what interests them, and how your brand fits into their story.
• You need a concrete way to measure those goals, quantify your success, and improve with each campaign.
• You need to know what current content is and isn’t working.
• You need a solid distribution plan to help your content reach your audience.

Without these foundational elements, you can’t ensure that your content is aligned to your goals and primed to succeed. If any of your strategy needs work, use our free Content Strategy toolkit to guide you through the process. 

2) Have the right knowledge (or know what you don’t know).

Different content requires different expertise. Whereas an article can be written by one person, something ambitious like a data-heavy interactive requires multiple departments (e.g., web development, design, etc.). Unless you’re working for a huge brand with an in-house creative team at your disposal, it’s likely that your team may have some knowledge gaps that can cause serious problems down the road. (We’ve personally seen too many brands get in over their head and thus produce work that is seriously subpar.)

When you want to demonstrate your expertise and credibility to your audience, creating low-quality work will only damage your brand perception. Thus, it’s important to know what your team is genuinely capable of producing to ensure you can estimate time and cost appropriately, provide the right tools and resources, or bring in the right help (whether that’s a freelancer or agency).

50% of B2B marketers outsource content. 

—Content Marketing Institute 2022 B2B Content Marketing Report

3) Curate the right mix of content.

Content marketing is like a healthy diet. You need to serve a variety of content to keep your audience nourished (aka interested and engaged). This is why measuring your content’s success is so important. The better you can identify what resonates with your audience, the better you can tailor your mix to serve them (and save you unnecessary work). For more on this, find out how to curate the right mix for your strategy.

Now let’s dive into the wonderful world of content you can explore. 

How to Choose the Right Content for B2B Lead Generation

Here, we’ve broken down the different types of content you can use for B2B lead generation, their level of difficulty, and our best tips to help you create them. Naturally, different formats are better suited for certain goals. Thus, your brand’s content mix should be curated based on what you’re trying to achieve.

1) Articles

Good for: 

• SEO
• Establishing expertise
• Building brand awareness
• Expanding reach (via industry publications)
• Building a reputation in your industry

Level of difficulty: Low

Articles are one of the most popular forms of marketing, especially when trying to rank for topics related to your brand. They can be evergreen (e.g., an “ultimate guide” to something), they can be thought leadership, or they can be about trending topics.

They are simply a great way to share your expertise, start conversations, offer valuable advice, and discuss just about anything with your audience. They are also less expensive, take less time to produce, and require fewer stakeholders than a larger, more elaborate piece of content. And because they require less oversight, you can create a higher volume to see what gains traction.

Whether you’re publishing on your own blog or contributing to a publication, articles can be the meat-and-potatoes of your brand’s marketing mix. 

Tips to create good articles: 

• Do SEO the right way. Start by choosing the right keywords.
• Join the conversation. Writing about trending topics is a great way to join the conversation, but first you should understand how to newsjack without being a jackass. 
• Choose relevant topics. Ask yourself these 5 questions to make sure your article idea will resonate with your audience. 

Even if you don’t have a ton of “writers” on your team, there are plenty of people who can brainstorm good ideas or provide great material. Consider interviewing experts on your team for thought leadership, turning your team’s best tips into a helpful roundup, or publishing a Q&A with interesting people in your company or industry. (Learn more about how to turn your team into content creators.)

90% of B2B marketers short articles/posts for content marketing purposes.

—Content Marketing Institute 2022 B2B Content Marketing Report

2) Case studies.

Good for: 

• Deep funnel 
• Demonstrating results

Level of difficulty: Low

Case studies are a popular sales tool, allowing you to demonstrate your value, showcase your work, and (ideally) convince people to buy from you. Of course, not all case studies are created equal. The best case studies pique the reader’s interest, keep them engaged, and leave them inspired/ready to take action. 

Tips to make good case studies:

• Tell a good story. Craft a strong narrative that infuses your brand into your customer’s story (communicating what you do/your value), and demonstrate that via results. 
• Make it relatable. Your product/service solves a specific problem. Show real-world results that are relatable to your audience.  
• Templatize your case studies so that you can easily create them. However, don’t make them feel completely generic or copy/paste. Create a flexible template that allows you to tell each story in an impactful way (think words/visuals). 
• Keep them in one place. Make sure your team knows where they live and how to access them.

Find out more about how to create sales content to support your team.

Example: Instead of just curating a bunch of images of our work, we take an intentional approach to our case studies, telling the story of the client’s need, our creative approach, and the results we achieved together. 

3) Data Storytelling

Good for: 

• Communicating insights
• Thought leadership
• Building credibility

Level of difficulty: Medium (depending on how data literate you are)

In a world where there is so much information is suspect, people are desperate for sources of truth they can actually trust. (The same goes for journalists who are always looking for newsworthy content.) This is where data storytelling really shines.

By telling stories around data, finding stories in data, and sharing these insights with your audience and industry, you can provide a valuable service, create unique and engaging content, and build a strong and reliable reputation. Best of all, telling stories based on your own data can give you a competitive edge, helping you raise your profile and truly stand out.

Note: Understanding how to find the stories in your data will help you improve your marketing machine as well. The better you can understand what your data is telling you, the easier it is to extract helpful insights and make better decisions based on those insights.

Tips to create good data storytelling: 

• Use reliable data sources. Try these 100+ free data sources, or look at your internal data sources. 
• Find the story. Look for ways to put data storytelling to work at every level of your organization, whether it’s marketing content, internal reports, or sales presentations. You can start with our guide to dig into your data and find the unique and interesting stories within.
• Design your data the right way. Find out how to correctly choose and design the right visualization for your data.
• Reach out to publications. Data-based insights can be especially compelling for publications. Use our tips to reach out to publications and collaborate on content.

Find out more about why data storytelling is marketing gold.

Example: Incapsula surveyed 300 companies about their SAAS site availability, then turned that research into an animated infographic that offered readers a state-of-the-industry look at the issue. This type of data storytelling is the perfect way to speak to a niche audience and provide a new perspective.

4) Ebooks & Guides

Good for: 

• Thought leadership
• Tutorials
• Exploring a topic in greater detail
• Building an audience

Level of difficulty: Medium (requires copywriting, subject matter expert, and design)

Ebooks and guides are one of the most popular lead-generating tools because they provide so much value to an audience. Whether someone is looking for a step-by-step tutorial or wants a deep dive into a specific subject, ebooks are a great way to give your audience that much-needed information. Also, because ebooks are often rich and/or data-heavy content, people spend more time engaging with the content. The more time they spend, the more they will view your brand as a trusted resource they can turn to again and again.  

That said, ebooks do require more time to create (both in gathering content and designing it), but they have a great shelflife, especially if they cover evergreen topics. (Guides we’ve written years ago are still some of our most popular content.) 

Note: There is a debate about whether you should gate ebooks or not. Ultimately, it depends on your marketing strategy. In general, for top-funnel topics where a larger, less-qualified audience is likely to be interested, we recommend you ungate the asset and keep your “contact us” or “request a demo” CTAs visible for when the reader is ready. (This also allows you to lead to deeper-funnel content.)

If you’re using ebooks for deep-funnel content (“How to XYZ”), it’s worth gating because you can presume it’s a higher-quality lead.

Tips to create good ebooks: 

• Work smarter. See our step-by-step guide to create an ebook from start to finish. To optimize the creation process, use these 100+ tools and resources to create good ebooks. 
• Prioritize design. Even if you’re not writing about the most sexy topic (here’s looking at you, B2B tech companies), there are plenty of ways to make your ebook designs more exciting. 

If you’re stuck on inspiration, see how these brands have created excellent ebooks to engage their audiences. 

Example: Our How to Create a Brand Strategy guide is one of the most successful pieces of content we’ve ever created. Not only did this rich content help us rank on page 1 of Google (for the keyword “brand strategy”) but the accompanying toolkit provides a practical tool to help our audience put our guide to work. 

5) Email Content

Good for: 

• Newsletters, thought leadership, drip campaigns
• Relationship-building/nurturing
• Distributing fresh content

Level of difficulty: Low

Emails are one of the best ways to build and grow your relationships with your audience. By keeping a steady stream of useful content in their inbox, you can stay top of mind, be a helpful resource, and keep the conversation going. Best of all, it allows for deep segmentation, ensuring you’re targeting people with the most relevant content. 

Tips to create good email content:

• Nail your subject line. See Hubspot’s handy guide to craft copy that makes people click.
• Be succinct. Nobody wants to read an email the length of a tax law book. 
• Add visuals. Visuals are a great way to break up text, capture attention, and keep people engaged. 

For more, see Mailchimp’s best tips to make the most of email campaigns. 

6) Infographics

Good for:  

• Communicating information quickly and efficiently
• Sharing data
• Breaking down a process or steps
• Building brand awareness (via shareability)

Level of difficulty: Low to medium (requires copy and design)

We earned our stripes in the world of infographics (heck, we even wrote a book about them), so we know how powerful this type of content can be. Why are infographics so useful? Because they are inherently visual, letting you communicate information quickly and efficiently. They are also are highly shareable, helping you extend your reach across social platforms. (Media publications love to publish infographics as well, which is a great way to reach your target audience.)

Best of all, they are very versatile. Whether you’re sharing highlights from a new report, providing a visual tutorial, or showcasing product features, infographics are a handy tool to help tell your story in a compelling and attention-grabbing way at every stage of the buyer journey.

Note: Whatever you do, don’t gate them!

Tips to create good infographics:

• Build a narrative. Use credible data sources, and find out how to structure your infographic as an interesting story.
• Make them visual. Infographics must include a visual element. Learn the difference between data visualization, information design, and infographic design to understand how different formats can help you tell your story more effectively. You can also try these different infographic design styles for visual variety. If you’re not sure what design style you want to try, get inspired by these great examples of infographic marketing. 
• Follow best practices to create quality infographics at scale. Start with our step-by-step guide to streamline your infographic creation process. 
• Distribute them effectively. Find out how to optimize your infographics to get the most traffic. 

Note: Even if you don’t have a large team, you can still design minimal infographics that make a big impact. 

Example: Free the CIO by Lucidworks shares data insights about the challenges Chief Information Officers face. Whereas this information could be presented in an article, visualizing the data makes the content eye-catching and easier to digest.

7) Interactives

Good for: 

• Engagement
• Self-guided/immersive storytelling
• Data storytelling with a large amount of data
• Increasing time on site

Level of difficulty: High (requires design and web development knowledge)

Interactives are one of the most exciting types of content marketing, as they immerse the viewer in the story completely. Whether it’s a narrative experience (e.g., an interactive slideshow that the viewer is guided through) or an exploratory experience (e.g., a large data visualization that they can filter and explore on their own), interactives are unique because they put the viewer in the driver’s seat.

Interactivity can also be used across the buyer journey, whether you’re looking to entertain, inspire, or educate your audience. They can be fun/lighthearted (e.g., a “What Marketing Superhero Are You?” quiz), a practical tool (e.g., ROI calculator), or a piece of sales collateral (e.g., interactive product demo). No matter the application, they are one of the most exciting forms of visual content. 

Note: You can introduce interactivity into all sorts of content, including annual reports, ebooks, presentations, etc.

Tips to create good interactives: 

• Follow best practices. Find out about the keys to a good interactive. 
• Choose the right idea. Not every idea is right for an interactive. Use these questions to brainstorm (and vet) your ideas. And follow our tips to get the right eyes on your interactives. 
• Make sure you have the right team. Interactives take a high level of knowledge and skill to execute, so you need true pros on the project. 
• Use good design. Interactives can take many shapes and forms, as these 100+ interactive examples prove.

Example: To help small accounting firms better market themselves, Intuit created The 2-Minute Marketing Plan Machine, an interactive that generates a customized marketing plan based on the user’s unique needs. 

8) Video (Motion Graphics, Live-Action, Explainer)

Good for: 

• Video-centric social platforms
• Homepage hero video 
• Tutorials and demos
• Communicating information quickly and effectively 
• Increasing reach/engagement on social

Video is a powerful medium because it combines two modes of processing (our visual and audio channels). This makes it easier for the viewer to consume and synthesize the information presented. (There’s a reason why most people would rather watch a video than read a long pamphlet.)

This makes video an ideal medium for telling a brand story in a short amount of time (e.g., a 60-second explainer video). Best of all, you control the narrative entirely—unlike written content, which can be skimmed, or interactive content, which is user-controlled.

Now that more and more platforms are becoming video-friendly (or video-exclusive), brand video is becoming mandatory. Luckily, the methods of production are becoming more accessible to even non-creators. Whether you want to create a quick TikTok video on your phone, a full-quality live-action video, or a motion graphic (aka animated video), video allows for endless storytelling opportunities. 

Note: Because video does tend to be on the more expensive side, you want to make sure it works for a key part of your buyer journey.

Level of difficulty: Medium to high (depending on the type of video)

Tips to create good videos: 

• Write a strong script. What ends up on screen starts with the word on the page. Follow our best tips to craft a good video script. 
• Find the right partner. Video is one of the most exciting mediums—and one of the easiest to mess up if you don’t know what you’re doing. Sound, color, lighting, and a million other things can affect the final product (and seriously degrade your brand if it’s not done correctly). If you are looking to do a higher-quality production, see our tips to find the right video agency and work with them effectively.
• Get creative. Even if you’re shooting remotely, you can still create high-quality video marketing. Get inspired by how these B2B brands have used clever videos to tell their brand stories.

For more tips on everything from scriptwriting to set etiquette, download our free e-book, the Content Marketer’s Guide to Brand Video.

Example: To promote their new VoiceAI platform, Dialpad released a humorous video that featured robots auditioning to voice the platform. This was a lighthearted way to highlight the new feature and give their audience a laugh—a much better way to start a conversation than a boring sales pitch. 

9) Podcasts

Good for:

• Demonstrating expertise
• Growing a community
• Establishing credibility 

Level of difficulty: Medium (more resources required)

Podcasts have exploded in the last decade, and they are only continuing to grow. Brands can provide a lot of value through this medium—as long as the topics they choose are relevant to their audience. Podcasts that educate, entertain, or inspire (or, miraculously, do all three) are most successful.

However, while you may think producing them is as easy as hitting record on your iPhone, because podcasts are not novel anymore, people expect a level of production quality. That means you need to have the capability to record, edit, and distribute effectively. Most importantly, you need the time and resources to sustain your podcasting schedule (that means choosing topics, booking guests, etc.).

Tips to create a good podcast:

• Be consistent. This is one of the most common mistakes in podcasting. You can’t post whenever you feel like it. You need to establish your cadence up front, whether you’re doing a season at a time or a weekly podcast indefinitely. 
• Keep run time in mind. People are busy. Don’t use it as your personal open mic. Instead, know your topics, do your research, and keep it tight. 
• Know your structure. Is this a scripted narrative podcast, an interview format, a loose conversation? Whatever it is, you will want to stay consistent. 

Get more dos and don’ts of podcasting.

Example: To promo their SAP Leonardo technology, SAP created Searching for Salai, a 9-part sci-fi narrative podcast that combined time travel, history, and mystery into a suspenseful tale. (Who doesn’t love time travel?) It was an unusual and unique way to talk about technology—and it even won the Content Marketing Institute’s 2019 Content Marketing Project of the Year award. 

10) Presentations

Good for: 

• Sharing highlights quickly
• Saving time (for often-repeated pitches)
• Repurposing (into additional content)

Level of difficulty: Low to medium (depending on design requirements)

For a one-off or recurring pitch, a good presentation deck can help communicate key info easily and effectively. Presentations can also be used to delve into juicy thought leadership topics that help your company position itself in the industry (e.g., a hero presentation about the CEO’s vision for the industry).

Best of all, presentations can be repurposed across platforms. You might create a Slideshare deck of highlights, extract a few slides to create an Instagram carousel, or use a chart from your presentation to enhance your latest article.

Tips to create a good presentation:

• Keep it short. It’s a presentation, not a book, so trim it down to only the most compelling content. 
• Tell a story. Your presentation should have a cohesive narrative. If someone is clicking through on their own, can they understand the core story?  
• Add visuals. Visual content helps grab attention and keep viewers engaged. Just make sure to avoid the more common visual content design mistakes. 

See more tips to create an engaging presentation.

11) White Papers & Reports

Good for: 

• Data storytelling
• Industry insights
• Newsworthy content
• Establishing expertise
• Building credibility

Level of difficulty: High (requires a lot of research)

White papers and reports are incredibly valuable marketing content, allowing you to take an authoritative stance on topics (e.g. “State of Beekeeping”). By doing thorough and proper research, and condensing that research into interesting and eye-opening insights, you are doing a tremendous service to your audience, your peers, and your industry. In fact, of all the content marketing you can create, this type of research is often the most desired by journalists and other media outlets in your industry (as previously mentioned, good data is the secret to establishing your credibility). 

You can also get a tremendous amount of mileage out of white papers and reports. For example, you might create an infographic highlighting the most interesting data insights, or elaborate on the findings in a series of articles. Those pieces of content can be used to promote the original piece, creating a perfectly symbiotic content ecosystem. (We call this a divisible content strategy.) Sometimes you can get a year’s worth of conversation from just one report.

Note: You should always gate your whitepapers and reports.

Tips to create a good white paper or report.

• Use accurate, clean data. Enough said. 
• Extract and summarize the most relevant insights. If you’re not sure how to do that, here’s how to find the interesting patterns in your data. 
• Use good design. No one wants to sift through a wall of text. Use imagery and data visualizations to make your report more digestible. 

See more report design and storytelling tips to make sure your content is as engaging as possible.

Example: LinkedIn’s monthly Workforce Report is the perfect example of effective data storytelling. With access to millions of data points, the insights from this monthly report are an invaluable resource to the public, journalists, lawmakers, and more. 

12) Social Media Content

Good for:

• Building brand awareness
• Sharing your employer brand
• Establishing credibility

Level of difficulty: Low

Social media content (also called Microcontent) is a great way to capture attention, engage your audience, and feed them a steady stream of interesting content across social channels. This helps you build a strong relationship with relevant audiences, who will eventually be more receptive to targeted sales pitches and paid media campaigns.

Having a steady social presence is also important to establish credibility. When prospects are doing self-guided research, they will want to see an active account with a good following and solid engagement.

Tips for creating social media content:

• Involve your audience. User-generated content is a great way to engage with people. 
• Create teasers. Use microcontent to promote your larger pieces of cornerstone content (ebooks, reports, infographics, etc.) across channels. 
• Share your culture. Showing people the people behind your brand is a great way to create more human connections. Get inspired by these ideas to show off your culture on social media. 
• Measure the success of your social content. See our guide to choose the right metrics for your social media marketing. 

For more tips, download our free guide to maximize your publishing with microcontent. 

Example: Dropbox publishes a range of social media content, from tips, to customer spotlights, to culture marketing. This steady stream of bite-size content keeps the brand front of mind.

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13) Webinars and Online Courses

Good for:

• Engagement
• Thought leadership

Level of difficulty: Medium

If you want to engage with a more committed audience, webinars and online courses are a great way to do it. By diving into a specific subject, you attract an audience with a clear need that you can uniquely serve. (If charging is appropriate, these courses can also be an additional revenue stream.)

Beyond demonstrating your expertise, these offerings also allow you to interact directly with your audience via Q&As, follow-up conversations, etc. This helps you build a relationship that lasts long after the webinar wraps.

Tips for creating good webinars and courses:

• Repurpose your content. You don’t necessarily have to build a course from scratch. If you’ve published a lot of content on a particular topic, you can probably look at your content as a whole and then break it into individual lessons. 
• Provide supplemental material. Templates, checklists, and other supplemental material gives them something tangible to take away and helps them better apply the lessons you’re teaching. Not only will they appreciate the resource but they will remember the awesome brand that provided it. 
• Build a campaign around your webinar or course. Just as you can repurpose existing content into a course, you can also promote the course by sharing teaser material in the form of infographics, tips, social media content, etc. (Don’t forget to use appropriate social tags.) This is a great way to target different audiences across platforms and expand your reach. 
• Ask for feedback. You want your courses to provide value and serve your audience’s needs. Poll your audience to find out what worked and what didn’t. 

For more tips, see Hubspot’s guide to host a webinar.

Example: Hubspot hosts a variety of webinars with thought leaders across industries, allowing people to access their knowledge from anywhere in the world.

How to Ensure Your B2B Lead Generation Content Makes an Impact

No matter what content you choose to include in your mix, there are a few ways to ensure it resonates with your audience and works the way you want it to. 

• Focus on value. We’ve said it a few times, and we’ll say it a million more. When you’re coming up with ideas, keep your audience’s needs in mind. If you can’t identify why your audience would be interested in the idea, it’s a no-go. 
• Plan ahead. To publish with a consistent cadence, you need to schedule projects and allocate resources ahead of time. (This is yet another benefit of a content strategy.) Use our free template to write a content plan, and find out how to optimize your content creation process to work as effectively as possible. 
• Use a divisible content strategy. The content you create can be used in many ways. If you’re putting the time and energy into content, you want to get the most mileage possible. Find out how a divisible content strategy can help you turn ebooks into infographics and infographics into social content. 
• Apply your brand. Your unique brand identity is what makes you stand out from your competitors. How you look, how you talk, how you interact—it all reflects who you are. To tell a cohesive brand story, make sure every piece of content actually reflects your brand. 

Of course, we know that even the best marketing teams need a little support now and then. If you’re on the hunt for content help, you can start your search here. Find out what to look for in an agency, learn more about what it’s like to work with us on your content strategy, or reach out directly. We’d love to help you create the content you need to reach the audience you want. 

From TikTok videos, to explainer videos, to expert panels on Zoom, it’s clear that marketers are embracing video more than ever. At the same time, viewers want video more than ever before. (In fact, according to Wyzowl research, 73% of people would prefer to watch a short video to learn about a product.) And while there are so many ways for marketers to play within the medium, there is one type of video that is particularly helpful for marketers: Motion graphics.

What Is a Motion Graphic?

Motion graphics? Animation? The terms are often used interchangeably, but if we’re going to get technical, motion graphics is a type of animation. Essentially, it’s the intersection between graphic design and animation. In many cases, the term motion graphic is used in our industry to describe any piece of animated content. Motion graphics help convey a message through moving images, often using data visualization, kinetic text, and geometric shapes.

However, a motion graphic is not limited to just these elements. Various other forms of animation can be utilized to create a motion graphic, such as cel animation, mixed media animation that incorporates photography and live-action footage, and even 3D animation. Combined with voiceover, music composition, and sound design, a motion graphic can elicit a variety of emotions, convey powerful stories, and captivate audiences.

How Do Motion Graphics Help Brands?

Video as a medium is effective because it combines both audio and visual processing, making the message easier for the viewer to process. But motion graphics are particularly powerful for several reasons.

1) They’re a flexible storytelling tool.

Motion graphics give you a range of tools to tell powerful stories. Moody music, powerful voiceover, and stunning visuals can all work together to create a powerful piece of content. Best of all, motion graphics allow you to tell visual stories unconstrained by the limits of live-action video (e.g, actors, location, equipment, etc.). Whatever world you want to see, you can simply animate it—without adding a pyrotechnics budget.  

This is especially helpful when you want to tell emotional stories. Thanks to the phenomenon of emotional contagion, we immediately empathize with and mirror the emotions of the experiences we see depicted on a screen. (This is the same reason why you experience physical fear in a horror movie or joy in a rom-com.) Whether you want to elicit joy or compassion from your viewer, motion graphics are a great way to do it. 

Example: One of our most recent motion graphics for Mozilla draws viewers in with a cinematic approach to storytelling, combined with a powerful voiceover that tells the story of who Mozilla is and what they stand for.

2) They’re a passive experience.

According to Wyzowl research, consumers spend around 19 hours per week watching video content. It’s no surprise. We all remember why we were so happy when a substitute teacher put on a video in class; it meant we didn’t have to do anything. Motion graphics are the same. Viewers don’t have to read, explore data, or exert much mental energy. They just have to press play and sit back. (Remember that the majority of consumers would rather watch something than read something.) When you need to deliver a contained message, doing so with motion graphics makes it easier for viewers to consume.

3) They distill information for easy comprehension.

Visual communication is effective because your brain processes visual information almost instantly. (In fact, an MIT study found that you can process visual information in as little as 13 milliseconds.) That’s why many things are easier to understand if you can “see” them. Through visual storytelling, motion graphics help break down complex information, delivering a brand’s message simply and clearly. This is especially useful for:

• Tutorials: Motion graphics are helpful when you need to show someone how to do something. This is why motion graphics are often used for explainer videos.
• Processes: Similar to tutorials, if you want to so how something works, motion graphics are a great way to break it down.
• Data visualization: Data that seems dense and impenetrable can be easily brought to life through visualization in a motion graphic.
• Abstract concepts: Motion graphics are a great tool to clarify, give context, or explain information.

Example: A motion graphic we created for Netflix breaks down data gathered during the year 2020, while also giving viewers a look into the most watched shows and movies from the year.

4) They can be repurposed.

Now that both social and media platforms support video, you can disseminate your motion graphics in many places and in many ways, helping extend the lifecycle of your campaigns. You might break up a video to create a variety of content tailored for different groups. You might add your motion graphic to a presentation or e-book.

This is especially true if your motion graphic covers an evergreen topic. The time you invest in creating a motion graphic will be repaid in a strong piece of communication that can serve you for years. (Learn more about how a divisible content strategy can help you get more mileage out of your motion graphics.)

5) They communicate a lot in a short amount of time.

Most motion graphics are between 30 seconds and 3 minutes long, which is incredibly helpful when you need to make an impact ASAP. (This is especially relevant on social. According to a Facebook study, even watching under 10 seconds of a video can help increase brand awareness and build purchase intent.) By combining audio and visuals, motion graphics make the most of humans’ information-processing abilities, letting you say more with less content. What might be explained in a 1,500-word article can be shown in a minute. A complicated process can be visually explained in 15 seconds. Their inherently visual nature also makes motion graphics useful if you are in an environment where you can’t rely on audio (e.g., a busy trade show floor).

Thus, motion graphics can be used to communicate across a variety of touchpoints, including:

• Traditional ads: Online or television commercials (national or regional).
• Promo videos: Viral videos, case studies, testimonials, product reviews—anything that publicizes your work or brand, whehter editorial or advertorial.
• Explainer videos: Introductions, overviews, processes, tutorials for products, services, or ideas.
• Culture marketing videos: Content to showcase your brand, people, or causes.
• Social videos: Content to engage followers on social—Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, etc. May be educational or pure entertainment. (According to Tubular Insights, 46% of consumers said they’ve made a purchase as a result of watching a brand video on social media.)
• Sales collateral: Company info, product info, or anything that a sales team regularly communicates. (Turning that info into a motion graphic can save time and energy.)

Example: We created this motion graphic for LogicMonitor that dives into the key benefits of its platform.

How to Create Motion Graphics 

While motion graphics are an entertaining medium to experiment with, not all are created equal. There are many elements that go into motion graphics, from scripting and audio to design and animation. If any of these are poorly executed, your final product won’t be as effective. And even if you know what you’re doing, simple oversights or mistakes can cause a major headache, especially if you’re collaborating with others.

We know this firsthand, as we’ve been making motion graphics for over a decade. Luckily, we’ve learned a lot along the way (and probably made every rookie mistake ourselves), so we know what you need to get through the process smoothly. Here, you’ll find our simplified step-by-step guide to get through the basics of motion graphics production.

Motion graphics have a lot of moving pieces, so these are just the core phases that will get you started on understanding the work and time that goes into creating a great animation.  

What to Know Before You Start

To set yourself up for success and keep you and your team on the same page:

• Write a strong creative brief. This should include any and all relevant information to help everyone from your writer to your animator do their job. You can adapt this template as you like.
• Have a distribution plan set up ahead of time. If your promotion team isn’t prepped from the beginning, they will be scrambling to get the views you want. To avoid that, make sure the plan is documented. You can also try these 8 distribution tactics to get more eyes on your motion graphic.
• Get approval. We can’t say it enough (and we’ll remind you throughout this). Make sure to get sign-off at every stage to save everyone’s sanity. We designed this process intentionally so that each step builds on the next. You shouldn’t move on to the next stage until everyone gives the OK

It’s also important to note that there is a lot more to creating a dynamic animated video than what we have laid out here. Things like locking in a creative direction while you’re scripting, the different deliverables within each phase, the way to navigate feedback, etc. are all things that you will need to consider. With that said, let’s get into it.

Phase 1: Write a script that tells a story.

A motion graphic starts with a script. Even though motion graphics are short, usually ranging from 30 seconds to 3 minutes, you still need a script to detail either dialogue or story direction. (BTW, if you’re not sure how long your motion graphic should be, use this helpful guide to figure it out.)

To find your story, ask yourself these questions:

• Who am I trying to re­ach?
• What do I want them to learn? Remember? Do?
• How do I want to make them feel?

As you dive into your script, be aware of word count. It’s tempting to cram as much as possible into your script, but simplicity and clarity are key. Remember, too, that one of the advantages of motion is that it gives you multiple ways to tell your story. Unlike static infographics where you rely on visuals and copy to tell your story, motion graphics give you movement, sound, and other tools that can do some of the heavy lifting.

As you craft your script, consider which parts of your story may be best communicated through the following:

1. Kinetic (or onscreen) text: Text-only storytelling can be great for situations like trade shows where sound isn’t an option. It’s also a smart way to engage people, as they have to pay more attention when they read.
2. Voiceover: In marketing, we talk a lot about finding your brand’s voice. Voiceover is an opportunity to literally do that. VO accompanies on-screen animation, so the two work in tandem. But be wary of over-scripting. Having your voiceover artist read off your sales numbers from last year is a waste when that same information can be quickly and efficiently shown on screen with some animated data visualization.
3. Visuals only: While not as commonly used, you can still create a compelling graphic with no text. (Again, think tradeshows.)

For more writing tips, follow our guide to write a motion graphic script. And make sure to get script approval from any relevant stakeholders before you head into design. (Trust us: There’s nothing more irritating than having to go back to square one once you’re already in the storyboard phase.)

Phase 2: Storyboard while you brainstorm the visual treatment.

Once you have your script, you can start to visualize it during the storyboard phase. This is when you bring together the script and visuals and start to see the final product take shape.

Start your storyboarding sessions with a brainstorm with members from your design and production team. For us, that includes our core video team: producers, art directors, designers, and animators. (You may also include your creative director.)

If you need a little visual inspiration, here are 100 awesome motion graphic examples to geek out on.

Phase 3: Take your storyboards into design.

As with any visual project you create, style and color communicate just as much as the story itself. Even when you’re working with your own brand guidelines, simple design choices can greatly impact the experience.

Once you have an idea of the storyboard with sketches, you can begin translating your storyboards into actual designs. Note: Everything at this stage is used in the final animation stages, so take time to get the details right.

During this stage, write out your visual notes and have your production team (and any other stakeholders) review them before passing them along to the animation team for use in the final cut.

Phase 4: Animate the final designs.

The animation phase is when everything comes together. If you’ve done your job and gotten sign-off on each stage, by the time you start animating, everyone should have a really good idea of what’s to come.

Some things to think about:

• Timing: Pacing can make or break your motion graphic. Too rushed and people won’t “get” what you want to tell them. Too slow and you’ll lose people’s attention. Pace keeps people interested. Consider strategic variations to add excitement.
• Music: Like with all the other elements, music is another layer to drive your narrative. It can set the mood, fill gaps, and affect the tone of the story. The right music can make or break your video, so make sure you’re conveying the right message with the overall tone of your music.
• Sound effects:  Sound design, or the art of adding sound effects, mixing audio, etc. is just as much of a necessity as music composition. The key is to only use what adds value to your project and doesn’t distract from the story you’re trying to tell. (That goes for everything we’ve discussed here.)

If you’ve done your job well, you should have a final result you’re proud of—and have learned a few things along the way.

But if you get stuck at any point, or if your team is having trouble getting things over the finish line, you might consider bringing in some outside reinforcements. See our tips for how to choose a video agency, and find out how to work with the video agency you choose.

Until then, keep learning and practicing. If you’re looking for a next step, take a look at this roundup of tips for making motion graphics to improve your game. And if you have any more questions, we’re always happy to have a chat.

One of the most common challenges that marketers face is producing consistent, quality content at scale. We’ve struggled with this problem ourselves, as have our clients. But here’s one thing we know for sure: No matter what your marketing operation looks like, if there’s a chance to work smarter, not harder, you take it. That’s why we’re excited to share today’s marketing hack to maximize your content.

Whether you’re a scrappy startup or a flourishing Fortune 500, today we’ll walk you through the simple process we use to create large batches of custom-tailored content for multiple campaigns—without wasting more time, money, or energy. 

Divisible Content: The Key to Easy Marketing Campaigns

Content marketing isn’t easy. It takes a lot of work (and, often, people) to create one good piece of content. Unfortunately, many marketers are facing budget cuts across the board, making it harder to do even the minimum.

67% of marketers say they’ve been asked to do more with the same resources.

—2022 Content Marketing Institute’s B2B Content Marketing Report

Good content marketing is all about creating consistent, quality work that tells a cohesive brand story. But without much support, it’s tough to create that steady stream of content. And even when you have the budget, it can be tough to ensure your work tells a consistent story, especially if you’re using freelancers. (In fact, churning out piecemeal content that doesn’t support a larger narrative is one of the most common mistakes we see marketers make.)

Of course, at the end of the day, it’s quality that matters over quantity. So when resources are lacking, you need to be more intentional about getting the most mileage out of every piece of content you create. How do you do that? Try a divisible content strategy.

A divisible content strategy is an approach to content creation in which you create a single cornerstone piece of content, then spin that single asset into multiple pieces of content. (Note: That cornerstone piece of content is usually something meaty, such as a guide or ebook.)

This tactic helps you…

• Increase the volume of content you create. Maintaining a steady publishing cadence is crucial, but what do you do if you don’t have enough content to fill your queue? A divisible content strategy makes it easier to create a batch of content without having to start from scratch.
• Mix up the type of content you create. It’s easy to get stuck on autopilot, generating the same type of content over and over. But your audience is likely spread across different channels, and each channel requires its own type of content. (This is especially true on social media, where native content is becoming the norm as algorithms bury anything that links away from the platform.) From infographics to data visualizations, articles to presentations, a divisible strategy lets you experiment with different formats to maximize your touchpoints and run multiple campaigns.
• Target different audiences. You likely have several different audiences that are interested in your content. By creating multiple pieces to promo your main piece, you can tailor your messaging to engage those different audiences across different platforms—again, without having to create net new content. As all of this teaser content links back to the core piece of content, you can easily increase your reach and build brand awareness.
• Maintain a cohesive brand story. It can be tough to maintain a narrative through-line for all of your content, but to tell your brand story effectively, you need to be consistent in everything from the way you look to the way you talk about your brand. Creating content this way ensures each piece is on brand and on message.

Here, we’ll guide you through our step-by-step process to create divisible content—and keep your editorial calendar full for months.

1) Start with your cornerstone content.

A divisible content strategy works best if you’re starting with a larger, high-value piece of content. There are two ways to approach this: 

• Comb your existing archive. You probably already have a popular evergreen piece on hand. This might include an e-book or things like videos, interactives, or even in-depth interviews.
• Create something new. If you’re starting fresh, think about a topic you can speak about authoritatively, specifically something that provides value to the people you’re trying to reach. (If you’re not sure if it will provide value, here are some helpful questions to ask.)

Ideally, this content will cover a topic in depth. If you’re working with existing content, you may find that you have enough information there, or you might realize you need to fill some gaps. If you’re working from scratch, you’ll want to make sure your main piece of content is comprehensive enough to give you fodder for additional divisible items. 

Example: Let’s look at how one piece of cornerstone content from LinkedIn might get the divisible treatment. Here, we have a great e-book: Data Driven Recruiting: Find Quality Hires Faster with Talent Pool Analytics.

2) Look for stories within that content.

Review your content to see what information might be most relevant to the groups you’ll be targeting in your marketing campaigns. Again, the richer the content, the easier it is to do this. Even if your content is on the lighter side, you can still identify subjects you may expand upon or enhance with additional info.  

Think about what type of info will provide the most value to the people you’re trying to reach. What do they want or need to hear? What subjects are most interesting? What information could make their lives easier? How can you translate it into useful or interesting content? 

Consider:

• Tips
• How tos/tutorials
• Education around a complex process or subject
• Interviews
• Roundups
• Data visualizations

This can all be helpful fodder for marketing campaigns. 

Example: Looking at the TOC of LinkedIn’s e-book, we see chapters that discuss various aspects of recruiting. From “Three steps to being a strategic talent advisor” to “How to research and refine your talent pool,” there’s a lot of great content here. 

3) Simplify the message. 

A good marketing campaign is crafted around a single message. Don’t try to do too much in one divisible piece. If you can’t simplify, you should break it into two pieces. 

(Note: If you’re not sure what you’re trying to say, a brand messaging framework can be especially helpful. Follow our guide to identify your main brand messages.) 

Example: In looking at the intro chapter of the e-book (“What’s the big deal with data driven recruiting?”), we see a clear message: Data empowers recruiters to hire the right people quicker and faster. Thus, a campaign around this story is ideal to promote the LinkedIn Recruiter platform. 

3) Choose the right format for each divisible.

To make the most impact with your marketing campaign, you need to deliver the right message at the right time—in the right package. Thus, the format you choose matters. To figure out what form each divisible should take, consider: 

• Channels: Where will you be promoting your campaign? What type of formats are best for those channels? For example, visuals are ideal for Instagram, whereas thought-leadership articles are great for LinkedIn.
• Resources: Are you capable of producing your campaign in-house, or would you need a freelancer or creative agency?
• Content: Some types of stories are best told through particular formats (e.g., data-heavy content is ideal for data visualizations). 

If you’re not sure what might work best, here’s a rundown of different visual formats. 

Example: Knowing their story, channels, and goals, LinkedIn could easily spin their e-book into various divisibles. 

Each of these works as a standalone piece (with its own message and angle), yet they can all promote the larger piece (the e-book) through different channels. Best of all, by strategically planning divisible content in conjunction with e-book creation, they could maximize their creative resources and work more effectively. That’s a win at every point. 

And there you have it. Divisible content is one of the simplest, easiest ways to create targeted content without stressing yourself out. But that’s not the only way to work smarter. 

Get More Marketing Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

There are a ton of things you can do to make your marketing campaigns more successful and, more importantly, easier for you. If you’re looking for more tips and resources….

• Brainstorm even more ideas with these tips to tell great brand stories.
• Learn how to master your content creation to work smarter, not harder. 
• Follow our best practices to run better marketing campaigns. 
• Get inspired by these awesome examples of marketing campaigns. 
• Find out how to measure the success of your campaigns to figure out if what you’re doing is working at all. 

Of course, content marketing is always easier with the right support. See our tips to find a content agency with the right expertise, or find out what it’s like to work with us on a content strategy. You can also hit us up directly. We’d love to help you bring your best marketing ideas to life. 

Marketing campaigns are the cornerstone of a good content strategy. By telling the right stories to the right people, you can easily and effectively grab attention, increase awareness, and cultivate strong relationships for long-term brand success. In short, you can get fantastic results—if you know what you’re doing. 

Unfortunately, not all marketing campaigns work. Whether it’s because of a lack of knowledge or bandwidth, there are plenty of pitfalls that can prevent a campaign from being as successful as it should. We know this because we’ve made just about every mistake in the book. Luckily, we’ve also figured out how to get from brainstorm to full campaign with less stress. With that knowledge, we’ve been able to help brands of all sizes craft effective marketing campaigns across a wide variety of industries. And we can do it for you, too. That’s why we’re going to show you how to craft and launch awesome marketing campaigns that help you achieve your goals.

Before we dive in, though, let’s start with a little background. 

What Are Marketing Campaigns? 

You might hear the word “campaign” and flashback to those Mad Men ad campaigns. They’re somewhat similar, but in an era where engagement marketing is surpassing interruption marketing, marketing campaigns are a more effective way to get your brand’s message across. 

Basically, marketing campaigns are a way to communicate a specific message to targeted, segmented groups—via content. Campaigns can be large or small. They can be crafted around a new product or existing service. But, above all, they are a tactic to communicate your brand in a direct and measured way. 

Why Should You Create Marketing Campaigns?

Good content marketing isn’t about creating content; it’s about creating content that is effective. With marketing campaigns, you can approach content creation strategically, which helps your brand in all sorts of ways.

1. The content you create is more impactful. Cohesive, consistent messaging is crucial to establish credibility, cultivate relationships through content, and create a better brand experience. But one message doesn’t work for everyone. You may be targeting different groups on different channels (or even the same group across different channels), and this requires more strategic messaging. Marketing campaigns help you better tailor your content, ensuring you say the right thing in the right way to nudge people along the buyer’s journey.
2. Content is scalable. Whether you have a huge department or a two-person team, a multi-million dollar budget or a hundred-dollar budget, campaigns are easily scaled to your goals. No content strategy is set in stone, so the flexibility of marketing campaigns lets you expand, simplify, or tweak according to your current needs. Also, because you can start small and see how you do, there is less risk involved.
3. Campaigns give you better ROI. Instead of investing resources in one-off pieces of content, a cohesive campaign delivers a consistent story and, most importantly, gives you valuable insights because campaigns are tied to clear metrics. This lets you quickly see if your campaigns are working or not. Based on the insights gained from your metrics, you can tweak and refine messaging for larger impact with bigger campaigns.
4. You can allocate resources more effectively. Content can eat your budget up quickly, depending on your formats, volume, and publishing frequency. But by working with marketing campaigns, you can streamline your production process. You know exactly what you’re doing and what assets you need, so you can better plan. Also, because marketing campaigns are smaller subsets of your larger strategy, you don’t need as much top-level buy-in as you would for, say, a new brand tagline or messaging strategy. This means you can create content with fewer roadblocks.
5. You can get more mileage from your content. Marketing campaigns give you a bird’s eye view of your content. This can help you spot opportunities to get more mileage from the assets you’re creating. (We call this a divisible content strategy.) For example, one e-book can be turned into a few infographics, blog posts, or social content with little extra effort. These assets can even be repurposed for future campaigns or used to enhance existing content.
   

What Do Marketing Campaigns Look Like?

Marketing campaigns look different for different brands, depending on what they’re meant to achieve. But in general, they’re usually a batch of content under the umbrella of a specific message and story. We break it down in the following way: 

• Your campaign idea: the Big Idea you’re reinforcing
• Messaging pillars: the main messages to deliver
• Content pillars: the specific stories that deliver those messages
• Content executions: the actual pieces of content

Together, the framework looks like this:

The Keys to Good Marketing Campaigns

A good marketing campaign helps you achieve your brand goals. But to ensure that success, your Big Idea needs to hit three specific criteria: 

• Clarity: Strong campaigns have a clear message that supports a specific brand goal. 
• Memorability: You want something that is meaningful and memorable, as this is the key to moving people along the buyer’s journey. 
• Scalability: You want a message that can translate across mediums, whether it’s an Instagram ad, a billboard, or an interactive in-store experience. 
• Value: A good campaign provides value to people in some sort of way, whether it entertains, educates, or inspires. An effective campaign doesn’t simply toe the line of your brand promise or value proposition. Rather, the best campaigns sit in the sweet spot of what people want to hear and your brand wants to say.

Not every marketing campaign has to be a global affair. Even if you’re a small business looking to run a local campaign, you just need to figure out what type of content will help you communicate your brand message most effectively.

How to Craft Marketing Campaigns

So you’re ready to dive into your next campaign, but how do you find the right idea? How do you execute it properly? Here, we’ve compiled our best tips, tools, and resources to guide you through the process step by step. Before you start, download our Marketing Campaign Template, which you can use as you work through these steps. 

Step 1: Start small.

Some brands get excited and want to take on a big, ambitious campaign. It’s tempting, but you risk running a campaign that’s disjointed, especially if you have a bunch of projects happening simultaneously. 

If you’ve never done a campaign before, or if you’re looking to do something new (or dramatically different than what you’ve been doing), we suggest starting small with a simple, strategic campaign (e.g., a Facebook or Instagram campaign). That way you can see what works, what doesn’t, and how you can improve—without blowing your whole budget. (Even a simple A/B test on a Facebook ad can provide major insight about your messaging.)

Step 2: Assess your content strategy.

It’s tempting to dive right into content, but you need to do some legwork first. Good campaigns start with a solid content strategy, wherein you’ve identified and articulated the information you need to succeed. (If you haven’t done this work, follow our Guide to Complete a Content Strategy.

Before you start, make sure you and your stakeholders have a clear and unified understanding of your: 

• Goal: You need to know exactly what you’re trying to achieve (e.g., newsletter subscribers), as every decision you make will be influenced by this larger goal.
• Budget: How much have you allocated? Again, starting small is an economical way to make sure your campaign provides a solid ROI.
• Personas: Who are you trying to reach? What are they interested in? What do they care about? If you don’t know whose attention you’re trying to get, it will be hard to craft a campaign that will actually work. We always recommend crafting marketing personas, which help you segment your targets and identify what they care about.
• Metrics: There’s no point in sinking time, money, and resources into marketing campaigns if you don’t know how to determine whether or not they’re successful. Make sure you identify your measurement approach before you start crafting campaigns. If you’re not sure which metrics to track, here are some of the most common metrics to include in your content strategy.
• Channels: You want your campaigns to get in front of the right eyes, so it’s crucial to know the most effective channels to reach your personas. This will also influence the type of content you create (e.g., video for Instagram or articles for your blog). 

Knowing this information will keep everyone on the same page and provide clarity through any confusion down the road. 

Step 3: Find the right idea.

Many marketing campaigns fail from the beginning, simply because the idea wasn’t quite right. To make sure your idea will hold up: 

• Focus on what people need. Again, it’s all about finding something that is interesting and relevant to people. (Here’s how to make sure your campaigns provide true value.) As you ideate, ask yourself, “How does this serve my personas?”
• Vet your ideas through your personas. If you can’t clearly identify how and why someone will be interested in it, you need to go back to the drawing board.  

For more ways to brainstorm campaign ideas, try these prompts to tell your brand story, and check out these awesome examples of brand storytelling.

Example: The dating app Hinge knows exactly what their people are looking for: love. Thus, if Hinge does its job and delivers on its ultimate promise, people don’t need to use the app anymore. To convey this messaging, they launched their latest campaign around the idea that they’re “The dating app designed to be deleted.” This was a clever angle to capture interest and show that they’re invested in helping people find good relationships. 

Step 4: Identify the right format.

When it comes to marketing campaigns, the medium is just as important as the message. Remember: Just because you want to create a certain type of content doesn’t mean it’s the best fit for your story. 

• Consider your personas. What type of content are they used to consuming? What do they prefer?
• Consider your channels. Some channels may not support the type of content you want to publish, while others may be particularly effective. For example, a stunning photo series is more compelling on Instagram than on Twitter, whereas a 10-part documentary series is ideal for YouTube.
• Make the most of your content. Depending on the format you choose, you can easily turn one asset into multiple assets for promotion on different channels. For example, one e-book can be turned into an infographic, article, and microcontent for social. This is a smart way to recycle, reuse, or repurpose your content to make a lasting impact. (Again, this is why it’s important to think strategically and be intentional about your content plan—before you start creating it.) 

Learn more about how a divisible content strategy can help you get the most mileage from your content, and if you’re not sure what content format might work best for your story, here’s how to figure it out.

Example: We collaborated with the New York State STOP-DWI Foundation’s “Have a Plan” a campaign to stop people from driving under the influence. Our content aimed to inform and empower young people to make the right decisions while emphasizing the seriousness of the issue. Through video and infographics, we made educational content to help people make the right plan before a night of partying.  

Step 5: Set up your infrastructure.

So you have a great campaign idea, and you know your format, but how are you going to get content from rough draft to final file? You may think it’s easy, but content creation challenges are one of the biggest problems marketers face today. This is usually due to a lack of skill, knowledge, or bandwidth, as well as a true understanding of what it takes to produce different types of content. To make sure the process goes smoothly…

• Write a strong creative brief. Follow our Content Brief Template to make sure everyone on your team has the info they need to do the creative work.
• Create a reasonable timeline. You don’t want to cut corners or get held up indefinitely. Craft a timeline that includes built-in approval stages, and make sure all stakeholders have signed off on work before it moves down the production pipeline.
• Assign the right roles. Make sure everyone knows who’s owning what, and who they can turn to with questions.
• Bring in support if you need it. You can always use a freelancer or agency to supplement your content creation if you’re struggling in one area or don’t have the knowledge to produce something more time-intensive. Here’s how to decide if you should use a freelancer, agency, or do it in-house. If you choose the latter, here are the questions to ask to find the right agency.

Remember: Things like video and animation take more time to create than infographics and static content. You don’t want to spend even more time and money fixing them if things go wrong. 

Step 6: Create and iterate.

The actual content creation is one of the most enjoyable (but most challenging) parts of a marketing campaign. To create the best, most effective content possible…

• Apply your brand identity. Make sure it’s written in your brand voice and that the design reflects your visual identity. (If you don’t have a proper brand identity, here’s how to find your brand voice and create a visual identity.)
• Write for the people you’re trying to reach. Avoid buzzwords, use terms they understand, and speak to their knowledge level. (For more writing tips, check out these resources to write great copy.)
• Use tools to work smarter. Whether you’re creating e-books, infographics, or interactives, here are 100+ content creation tools to make crafting campaigns easier.
• Follow best practices for design. Little tricks can make a huge difference in how people view your content. Follow these tips to design better visual content.
• Craft a strong CTA. Don’t be too cheesy or too salesy, but make sure people know what to do after consuming your content.
• Proof for typos. Sloppy mistakes can erode your credibility; don’t send it out the door without a final look.
• Optimize for SEO. Use the right keywords to increase your traffic. Follow our guide to find the right keywords, and make sure to optimize all content for those keywords, including your title, headers, URL, etc.

For more tips and tools to create great content, check out our ultimate guide to content creation.

Step 7: Craft your distribution strategy.

You can’t just hit publish and expect people to find your content. You need to intentionally and strategically distribute it. Thus, one of the most crucial parts of any marketing campaign is the distribution strategy. To make your promotion more effective…

• Determine your hashtag beforehand. Make it something simple and easy to remember.
• Prep your assets. Gather all the assets you’ll need to promote content, including social content, high-res images, copy, ads, etc.  
• Set up your tracking tools. You’ll want to know exactly how your campaign impacted the business, compared with past efforts and other concurrent. marketing activities. For this you’ll need attribution/tracking links, so set them up and test beforehand.
• Run paid promo. Paid social, native ads, influencers, and paid search can be effective ways to funnel people to your campaign content.
• Reach out to publications and influencers. Try these tips to promote content like an agency would.

For more tips to distribute your content effectively, find out how to craft a distribution strategy in 6 steps.

Remember: Experimentation Is the Key to Success

Not every marketing campaign may move the needle the way you hope it will; but the more you experiment, the more you’ll learn, and the more effective your campaigns will become over time. Also remember that even if you have a documented content strategy, it isn’t set in stone. A good strategy provides firm direction but is flexible enough to change, based on your campaign results. 

To make sure you’re on the right track, regularly review and refine your strategy on a quarterly basis (or even a campaign basis), depending on what your larger goals are. What matters most is your ability to measure your results and grow as you go. 

That said, sometimes you might hit a wall or feel a little lost. If so, we’re happy to help you crack the marketing campaign code. Find out what it’s like to work with us on a content strategy, or hit us up.

The new year is here, and it’s time to take stock of what you’re doing—and how you can improve. At least that’s what we’ve been working on. Having recently revised our own strategy, we’ve been thinking about what we want to prioritize, what we want to let go of, and how we want to grow in 2023. As part of this process, we’ve made five major content marketing resolutions to keep us on track. 

Since external accountability is a great way to stick to your goals, we thought we’d share these resolutions with you—and offer a few tips to achieve them if you share these resolutions, too.

5 Content Marketing Resolutions to Adopt

In 2023, it’s all about working smarter and getting more done. We know we’re not alone in wanting to improve our content marketing, so we hope what you find here will help you, too.

1) Get healthy.

To get your body healthy, you need to go back to the basics: diet, exercise, sleep. The same goes for your content marketing. As you prepare for a new year, take a look at your overall content strategy to make sure everything is aligned. 

• Refine your personas. If you don’t know who you’re trying to reach, it will be awfully difficult to create the content you need to reach them. See our guide to create stronger personas to make sure the audience you’re targeting is the right audience.
• Strengthen your messaging. Whether you’re launching a new campaign or preparing for a big product launch, it’s crucial to get your messaging right. Try our framework to create the right messaging and turn it into compelling copy.
• Reassess your channels. Creating great content is one thing; getting it in front of the right people is another. See our guide to create the ultimate distribution strategy to make sure you’re maximizing your efforts. 

For more ideas, here are 10 other things you can do to strengthen your content strategy right now. And if you think you need to rebuild your strategy entirely, download our free e-book How to Build a Long-Term Strategy in a Short-Term World. 

Only 40% of B2B marketers have a documented content strategy. Get yours on paper, and you’re already ahead of 60% of marketers!

—Content Marketing Institute 2023 B2B Content Marketing Report

2) Spend wisely. 

Each year gives you the chance to look back at what you spent and determine if it was, in fact, worth it. Content marketing moves quickly, so you need to think about how much you have, where you’re spending it, and how you can increase ROI. 

• Ask for more. Here are 5 ways to get the funds you need.
• Make your content do more. Try the divisible content approach to help your brand create a large batch of content with minimal effort.

Remember: Even if you have a limited budget, you’d be surprised at how much you can do with the right tools. Check out these 100 content marketing resources that can help you work smarter, not harder. 

Only 50% of B2B marketers think their budget will increase in 2023. Utilitze testing to make sure you’re getting the best bang for your buck.

—Content Marketing Institute 2023 B2B Content Marketing Report

3) Do less, but better.

There’s nothing more frustrating than sinking tons of time, energy, and money into a bunch of stuff that doesn’t work. This year, consider doubling down on your most successful efforts. The more you can invest, measure, and tweak, the better your ROI will be. 

• Make sure you’re measuring the right stuff. Find out which metrics to use for your content strategy to determine what’s really working. 
• Focus on value and connection. Even if you create a handful of pieces a year, if they are interesting and relevant to your audience, they’ll make more impact than a hundred fluffy blog posts. For more ways to do this, find out how to use empathy to make better content and how to create BS-free content.
• Use tools to work more effectively. Here are 100+ tools and resources to create content more efficiently.

You can also download our free e-book How to Maximize Publishing with Microcontent for more ideas to make more content that will catch people’s attention. 

4) Try new things. 

No matter how well-oiled your content machine is, it’s easy for your brand publishing to get stale. While it is important to invest in what works, you can and should still build in some room to experiment. Taking a risk can give you some surprising results. 

• Mix up your formats. Some formats are better for certain channels (e.g., photo/video for Instagram vs. articles for LinkedIn). Learn about how content like video, interactives, and infographics can help you tell your story more effectively. You might also want to explore these 5 creative formats. 
• Dive into your data. Data storytelling can be a powerful way to uncover interesting brand stories. Follow our guide to find what interesting content is hiding in your spreadsheets.
• Tell fresh stories. It’s easy to get stuck in a creative rut when it comes to your content marketing. Use these 9 prompts to come up with your next great idea.

Note: Video is an increasingly popular format to experiment with. See our interactive e-book The Content Marketers’ Guide to Storytelling to find out how this format can benefit your brand. 

B2B marketers cite in-person events, virtual events, research reports, ebooks/whitepapers, and articles (under 1,500 woreds) as the top 5 types of content that produced the best results in the last year

—Content Marketing Institute 2023 B2B Content Marketing Report

5) Be more open.  

The key to any good relationship is trust. How do you cultivate that? By being honest and transparent. Whether you’re trying to build relationships with potential customers, potential employees, or industry peers, being an open book is a great way to do that. 

• Share your knowledge. Whether you’re sharing helpful tips or unique insights, sharing information is one of the best ways to help people (and establish yourself as a thought-leader). Consider contributing to an industry publication, creating tutorials, or sharing tips on social media. 
• Take people behind the scenes. People care about who you are and what you care about. Social media is a great way to peel back the curtain and show off your people and your culture. If you need some inspiration, here are 5 prompts to come up with great culture marketing ideas and 10 great culture marketing examples.

Note: Brands that feel uncomfortable about peeling back the curtain often have deeper cultural issues to address. If that’s the case, see our guide to build a strong company culture.

757of B2B marketers say content has helped them cultivate trust and credibility with their audiences. The more transparent you are in your content, the more you’ll attract the right kind of people.

—Content Marketing Institute 2023 B2B Content Marketing Report

How to Keep Your Brand on Top All Year

No matter how strong your content marketing is, another year brings a new batch of challenges. To make sure you’re staying ahead of the curve…

• Stay educated. Check out our newsletter for the best marketing tips and tricks. 
• Optimize your content infrastructure. See our guide to make your production process more efficient. 
• Choose the right partners. If you need some support, follow these tips to find a good content agency.

Of course, we’d love to throw our hat in the ring. Hit us up if you want to chat, find out more about who we are, and take a look at the work we’ve done. 

B2B content doesn’t have to be boring. From infographics to podcasts, there are so many content formats you can use to educate, entertain, inspire, and connect with your audience. But why do so many B2B marketers churn out boring, generic, or totally blah material? Maybe they don’t have the right resources. Maybe they don’t have the right content strategy. Or maybe they don’t have the right ideas. If you fall into any of these categories, don’t worry. We can help you get back on track, starting with some fresh inspiration. Here, you’ll find some of our favorite recent B2B marketing examples that prove just how creative you can be—even in B2B.

10 Unique and Exciting B2B Marketing Examples

The best brands use creativity, variety, and good storytelling to create engaging content that is far beyond the boring B2B ebook. These examples prove how different formats, good design, and valuable content can make your brand stand out at every stage of the buyer journey. 

1) Simple Changes by Bynder (Video)

Why we love it: Absurdly entertaining

How do you use a small budget to pique people’s interest and tell your brand story in under 20 seconds? If you’re Bynder, you grab a dinosaur costume and get creative. This is a great example of smart content that stands out. It’s a simple and entertaining concept, but most importantly, it delivers a simple message: “Don’t get caught up in prehistoric processes.” Bynder invites you to think outside the box and evolve your content creation process, something they prove to be experts at with this video alone. 

Tip: Find out how to create great marketing videos (even if you’re remote), follow our guide to write a strong explainer video script, and download our free e-book, The Content Marketer’s Guide to Brand Video. And if you want more inspiration, see these 15 excellent examples of b2b video.

2) The Comeback of In-Person Events by Splash (Toolkit)

Why we love it: Bright, bold brand identity

Returning to in-person events after the pandemic may seem intimidating, but this delightful toolkit makes it feel exciting. It’s packed with helpful resources to make event planning easier, but it’s really the colorful creative treatment that caught our eye. So much B2B design is “safe,” but Splash follows through on their name and makes a true statement with a playful purple palette that makes you feel like you’re perusing a piece of entertainment. 

Tip: Make your B2B content more memorable with a beautiful brand identity. Find out how to create a strong identity, craft easy-to-use brand guidelines, and use our checklist to make sure all of your content is on-brand.

3) The Art & Science of Content Collaboration by Ceros (Interactive Guide)

Why we love it: A+ design

Ceros is a cloud-based design platform that powers the web’s most exceptional interactive content. It’s no surprise that they use interactivity in their marketing content. ​​Not only is their content great but the presentation is perfect. The visuals have personality, the animation is seamless, and the content is easy to navigate. We’ve consumed plenty of content about the power of great storytelling, but this guide does a great job of telling the brand’s story too, as their personality is present in every portion. It’s the type of resource you want to bookmark and come back to again and again.

Tip: Find out how interactive storytelling can benefit your brand, and try these prompts to brainstorm your interactive ideas. 

4) Searching for Salai by SAP (Podcast)

Why we love it: An experimental approach

This podcast was a unique part of the brand’s plan to market SAP Leonardo (an SAP business unit and software platform focused on putting intelligent technologies like blockchain and IOT to use in businesses). But instead of taking a more traditional approach (e.g., a business podcast that discussed innovations in tech from thought leaders), they decided to try something completely different and produce a 9-episode narrative podcast that combines time travel, mystery, and more. Ultimately, the goal was to reframe the cultural narrative around new technologies (like SAP’s) by using storytelling as a key tool. The project was so successful it earned the Content Marketing Institute’s Best Podcast and Content Marketing Project of the Year in 2019.

Tip: Find out more about how the project came to life, and try these prompts to brainstorm creative ideas for your brand. 

5) VideoAmp (Website) 

Why we love it: Design that differentiates

Every piece of content your brand creates reflects who you are, and your website is one of the most important ways to convey that. At a time when so many B2B websites are completely generic, templatized, and uninteresting, VideoAmp used their website to tell their brand story from the moment you click on it. The sleek design, abstract data-inspired animations, and strong messaging set them apart from competitors and tell you everything you need to know about who they are and why you should work with them.

Tip: To make your website effective, you need to nail your brand messaging. Use our free template to articulate your tagline, value prop, and key stories. This will ensure you’re telling a consistent brand story across all touchpoints, from your website to your Twitter feed. 

6) Divvy (Social Content)

Why we love it: Entertaining AF

Credit card management isn’t always the sexiest or most interesting topic, and you rarely think of a financial company as an entertaining source of content. Then along came Divvy. Their social strategy blends great design and a dash of cheekiness to create compelling social content that will make you LOL. For example, their #ExpenseHorrorStories features anecdotes about the craziest things people have tried to submit as a company expense. Not only are the stories hilarious but it creates a sense of camaraderie and commiseration among Divvy’s customers. This is tough to do in B2B, but they do it masterfully. 

Tip: Microcontent is a great way to engage people on social. Find out how to make microcontent work for you. 

7) Assess Your Customer Service Maturity by Freshworks (Quiz)

Why we love it: Personal, valuable content

Quizzes are the perfect portal to help you build a relationship with a prospective customer. They are particularly effective because they build a personal story around the user, guiding them toward the information they need. This Freshworks quiz helps you understand the state of your customer service operation, providing an overall score, a detailed analysis of your performance, and recommended improvements. Presented in this simple, well-designed package, the quiz provides value and helps users make better decisions to improve their success.

8) The Ultimate Return-to-Work Checklist for Managers, IT Leaders, and Employees by Wrike (Checklist)

Why we love it: Simple but effective

Anytime you make your audience’s lives easier, they will appreciate you. Guides, workbooks, toolkits, and checklists like this are particularly effective. We love Wrike’s simple checklist for two reasons: It’s well-designed, it’s on-brand, and it’s thorough, giving readers all the information they need to keep their workplace safe in the wake of the Pandemic. 

Tip: Things like checklists make great supplemental content if you have a larger piece of content you’re trying to promote (e.g., a longer ebook). Find out how to get more mileage from every piece of content you create with a divisible content strategy. 

9) Pardot ROI Calculator (Tool)

Why we love it: Practical with personality

Tools are super userful, but they can be almost indistinguishable from each other. If your brand is providing valuable content to someone, you want them to know it’s your brand. Pardot does this well. Their ROI calculator is guided by a friendly mascot who adds context for each question. It feels less like a calculator and more like a game, which totally changes the experience. 

Tip: Your brand voice and personality can transform how people experience any piece of content you create, making it both personable and memorable. See our guides to find your brand voice and personality if you’ve been struggling to figure out what they are.  

10) 2020 Sustainability Report by Siemens (Infographic)

Why we love it: Highlights save people time

Your company values are a big part of any B2B brand’s story, so creating content that highlights that is crucial. Siemens does this well with their 2020 sustainability report. To make the insights from the report more easily accessible, they created a simple infographic that details the progress made. By using design to bring the content to life, they’re able to share their highlights without making someone dig through the entire report. (That said, it’s also a great starting point to encourage people to see the full report.)

Tip: Infographics are especially helpful to communicate information at a glance. See our complete guide to creating infographics, which features free templates and tons of tips to make them more effective.

How to Make Better B2B Content

No matter what your product or service is, you can create interesting and engaging content if you have the strategy and infrastructure in place. For more tips to create content that really connects with your audience…

• Strengthen your strategy. See our complete guide to create a content strategy that gets you real results.
• Focus on providing value to your audience. Follow these tips to create engaging B2B content marketing.
• Optimize your process. Find out how to master content creation to make high-quality content consistently.

And if you need to get some extra support, see our tips to find a b2b marketing agency with the right expertise, or find out what it’s like to work with us.