Every company wants to be a thought leader in its field, but it can be challenging to determine where to invest your time and resources. 2021 was a year that brought many challenges for businesses. However, it also provided many opportunities for increasing sales and business growth, especially for those who decided to shift their content strategy.
79% of B2B marketers had a content marketing strategy in 2021, and with the ongoing pandemic, approximately 70% of them stated that they had to make significant or moderate adjustments to their strategy. Of those who made the necessary changes, 80% felt as if the changes were effective, with 86% saying that the changes would likely stay in effect for the foreseeable future.
So, what does that mean for your 2022 content strategy?
How important is content going into 2022?
In the past, many businesses have prioritized growth over the quality of their content. This has led to a lot of mediocre content that cannot generate the intended results. However, to keep up with the demand for high-quality content, there needs to be a shift in how companies think about content.
To ensure that your company can meet the demands of potential and current customers, it’s essential to have a thoughtful 2022 content strategy.
Brands must understand that creating B2B lead generation content requires a different approach. Approximately 77% of B2B customer revenue comes from your existing customers, which means your current customers are your most valuable assets.
While studies show that 50% of B2B buyers consume more content than before the pandemic, 79% state that they receive irrelevant content. To ensure that you’re providing your customers with the most relevant content, it’s essential to have a clear direction when it comes to your 2022 content strategy. This way, you can ensure that you’re providing your customers with the information and resources they need to make the right decisions for their businesses.
How to plan your 2022 content strategy in 6 steps
As the economy continues to recover, B2B companies are looking for ways to reach their target audience better. But with so many different channels out there, how do you know where to focus your efforts? To ensure that your current and future customers receive the highest-quality content, it’s essential to have a clear direction for your company’s 2022 content strategy.
Here are six steps to help you plan out your 2022 content strategy and win more leads while you’re at it:
1. Identify your ideal target audience
When it comes to creating content, your ideal target audience is the first thing you should identify. By targeting a specific audience, you can create more focused content that is likely to generate a higher return on investment. For example, if you’re trying to reach millennial women, you might focus on creating content geared towards female entrepreneurs.
You’ll also want to be sure you take the time to break up your larger audience into smaller subgroups. This will help you identify the unique challenges these subgroups face so that you can create content specifically tailored to their needs.
2. Research your competitors
With your audience identified and segmented, the next thing to do is research your competitors. Conducting a competition analysis can tell you quite a bit about your competitors and what is and isn’t working for them when it comes to their content marketing strategies.
When conducting your competitor research, you’ll want to look into:
- What types of content are they creating?
- What is the format?
- Where are they publishing their content?
- What is their call to action?
- How are they measuring the success of their content?
- What are the results that they’re generating?
- How can you improve upon what they’re doing?
- Are they meeting the needs of their audience?
- What are they doing well/What are they doing poorly?
Once you know what’s working for them and what isn’t, then you can begin making the necessary adjustments to ensure that you’re providing your customers with the same type of high-quality content that they’re receiving from your competitors.
3. Outline your content strategy goals
With an idea of where you need to begin, you need to take the time to map out your goals for your 2022 content strategy. You’ll first want to outline the goals you want to accomplish with your content marketing efforts. This will help ensure that you define your goals in an actionable and measurable way.
4. Create multi-layered content
The next thing you’ll want to do is identify the types of content you’ll be creating. It’s essential to have a clear understanding of the different types of content that you’ll be producing, so you can narrow down your focus and begin creating the highest-quality content possible. The more layers of content you have, the more opportunities you’re going to have to generate leads and build a long-term relationship with your customers.
5. Track and measure your content results
With your content created and distributed, you’ll want to make sure you take the time to track and measure the results that your content is generating. The more you can track, the more you’ll be able to adjust your strategy to meet the needs of your audience. This way, you’ll be able to quickly identify what’s working and what isn’t, so you can make the necessary adjustments to ensure that you’re providing your customers with the best possible experience.
Here are some metrics I recommend tracking to understand whether or not the content assets you develop are actually moving the needle:
- Growth in organic traffic to blog and targeted assets.
- Growth in paid traffic to blog and targeted assets.
- For paid, know the CPL and CPA.
- Visit to lead %.
- Lead to customer %.
- Top performing content pieces based on time-on-site and engagement.
- Pipeline opportunities and lead velocity.
- Close rate for leads who come through from the content and are nurtured.
- Revenue.
Ensure your content strategy is up to par
Many different things go into creating a successful content strategy. But if you follow the steps outlined above, you’ll be able to ensure that your 2022 content strategy is up to par with your customers’ expectations and is generating the results you’re looking for.
Finally, know that there isn’t just one way to yield a positive ROI with content marketing. What’s most important is to ensure that you are developing a good marketing road map that keeps the buyer’s journey top of mind. Doing so will make it so you are developing content that actually speaks to pain points and the true interests of engaging with prospective clients.
