Inbound activities that add weight to your B2B marketing strategy

In the words of Arjun Basu (of Squishy, Waiting for the Man, and 140-characters Twitter short stories fame); " Without strategy, content is just stuff, and the world has enough stuff." When you draw up your B2B content marketing plan you need to ensure that you have a strategy that helps distinguish your 'stuff' from the rest of the clutter on the internet. This is where inbound marketing strategies can make a difference. There is a reason why more and more business leaders and marketers are incorporating these strategies in their integrated marketing plans. Inbound strategies help you approach the question of B2B content marketing in a methodical and cost-effective manner, aiding businesses in achieving their business goals and generating high quality leads.

Using inbound tactics to grow your business

Inbound tactics can help your business gain credibility and generate new leads. Here are some useful tactics that you can use right away:

a) Creating content that is unique and varied

From white papers to technical presentations, you can use the net to create a storehouse of content. The objective should be to attract an audience with interesting content and then direct them to your website. The content can include blogs, web pages, graphics, images, video presentations, slide presentations, and press releases. The various content pieces should direct traffic to the website and the website design should be optimized for search. Create a website with many topical pages centered around the solutions and products your company provides. Such targeted pages do well on search with some SEO help. Updating these various content archives will help drive both new and repeat traffic to the site.

b) Use authentic research to optimize content

Keyword research can help a lot in making your content marketing successful. There is no use in creating content that grabs no eyeballs and is not useful in driving traffic. Keyword research can help in optimizing content and targeting it towards the right demographic. This keyword research needs to be authentic and you may need to spend some time on it, but in the end the results will be worth it. Once your keyword research is complete, the next step is to weave the keywords in the Meta data in your website design. Use keywords in the page titles as well so visitors can know what the site is all about at the very first glance. If you are using a blog, do not forget to add categories and tags to the post.

c) Select your target audience and promote your content

Choose marketing strategies that are built around your content, and make sure to pitch to the right audience. Digital marketing tools, social media campaigns and e-mail campaigns are de rigueur but you can also use lead forms on landing pages to convert web visitors to leads. For this, the web design and content on the landing page needs to be top notch so that the visitor is willing to give their contact details in exchange for access to the site.