It was 1996 when Bill Gates framed the phrase “content is king“, which would soon become one of the favorite quotes of all marketing specialists. Now, more than 25 years after what the founder of Microsoft said, we all can agree: he had foreseen this a long time ago and B2B content marketing is now central to every company.

Content has now become the daily bread of the marketing strategies of companies all over the world. And what has happened in recent years, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns, has further accelerated the need for companies to create their own content, always new content to improve business performance.

What is content marketing?

Through content marketing the aim is to identify techniques that allow a company to create content that promotes its brand. If well executed, content marketing will increase:

  • Website traffic
  • Customer engagement
  • Conversions and leads
  • Visibility in the media
  • Competitive advantage
  • Brand Awareness

COVID-19, B2B content marketing strategies

As underlined by the latest 2022 “B2B Content Marketing Survey” report carried out by the “Content Marketing Institute”, “MarketingProfs” and “On24“, the years 2020 and 2021 have created new needs. One of the requirements of the new normal, was to adapt the content strategies during and also after the pandemic. In addition, many companies, which had never needed an authentic content strategy, have been forced to develop one from scratch to acquire new customers and face the new market challenges.

Many organizations, especially the largest ones, found help in external marketing and communication agencies, while others have preferred to create small internal teams, usually composed of 2-5 people, for the creation of such a content strategy and finally to promote the company and related products and services.

Content marketing, how to promote your services

But how to promote your business? Among the most common practices we note the shift towards webinars and digital events, which for a long time have taken the place of events and fairs in presence. The purpose of these virtual events, the main trend of the 2020-2021 period, is twofold: to create brand awareness and at the same time educate its audience by highlighting best practices and case studies. Since such initiatives are now part of the new normal, these e-vents will continue to play their important role in the coming years as well. For this it is necessary to gear up and beeing prepared in the best way possible.

The law of supply and demand is clear: with the growth of the public on the digital landscape, competition on the virtual stage has also increased accordingly. Hence the need for companies to find new forms of content to differentiate themselves from their competitors. On the one hand, there is more use of social media, on the other hand, the rediscovery of more classic means such as email marketing.

Email and content marketing of 2022, trends and challenges

Each marketing strategy passes through data analysis and big data. Here are some interesting numbers. According to the aforementioned 2022 report, 90% of companies today measure the performance of their content through KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), while 83% use specific analytical tools to manage and monitor their content marketing activities, including Email-Marketing.

Especially for the use of emails really interesting data emerges compared to previous years: 75% of companies confirm the use of software for the automation of the sending of newsletters, whether they are use their own contact lists or profiled databases purchased from third-party companies. One of these companies is Bancomail, which has been providing this type of lists for over 20 years by now.

B2B content management, what future awaits us

The current trend appears even to be growing. If we consider that, the biggest challenge we face for B2B Content Management in the future, will be the creation of engaging content for all the different members of the target audience. Not an easy challenge because different perspectives have to be combined. First of all in terms of content. The company has to be promote with an effective message. But secondly, the challenge is to win the audience on an emotional level. Furthermore there is the questions of creating contact lists inhouse, or, more quickly, buying a well-segmented list by category or geographic profiling what can be the best solution to establish yourself on the digital stage. Having an already well-segmented and ready-to-use audience is a competitive advantage that should not be underestimated for the promotion of your business or events.

In any case and whatever path is chosen, one thing is certain: with the pandemic and the difficulties that followed, the winning approach is to innovate in a more creative and more dedicated way than before. The evolution of marketing is just that…constant change and improvement, just like the human evolution. And it will always be like this, because if content is king, innovation and creativity are certainly queens.