If you feel like your company struggles to generate content you’re not alone. In fact, only 42% of B2B marketers believe they are effective at making content. Luckily there are simple steps you can take to not only make great content, but thought leadership content.
Respond To Industry News
Translating industry news into actionable insights for your potential customers is a great way to position your company as a though leader. This shows that your company is up-to-date on news and events and has the forward thinking to anticipate what might happen next. Eventually you can position your company’s blog as a go-to destination for industry news. If there isn’t currently a great source for reliable industry news in your niche then your company can even become that source.
See how you can level up your B2B marketing strategy with online media mentions here.
Provide Resources To Your Audience
Everybody likes free things. Marketing and sales people included. People especially like free things that make their lives easier. Ebooks, infographics, white papers, and how-to guides are B2B content marketing examples that can foster thought leadership through helping solve problems for prospective customers. Need help narrowing down your resource options? According to Convince and Convert, ebooks and white papers are the most requested B2B content type.
Generate Custom Research
No matter what niche you are in, your customer pool represents a unique subset of the market. Tapping into this pool to create unique research is a great way to set your content apart from the competition and finding ways to integrate this approach is easier than you think. First think about all current customer digital touch points. Then identify which touch points would be ideal to capture additional information. It is as easy as adding a survey link at the bottom of a sales confirmation email or in a company newsletter.
Once you have gathered your customers opinions on the state of the industry, upcoming trends, or industry challenges, you can reformat the content into helpful resources to supplement your content marketing machine.
Next Steps For Thought Leadership Content
Like any part of your marketing strategy, make a plan and execute. Decide which content options make sense for your business and then make actionable goals and barometers for success.