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Business-to-business (B2B) marketing requires ongoing nurturing and consistent interactions with your target audience. On average, it takes at least 54 distinct touchpoints to transition a business prospect to a marketing qualified lead (MQL).
To win more leads and grow your business, you need a dynamic B2B content marketing funnel that speaks to prospective clients’ pain points.
A B2B content funnel is your catalyst for capturing, nurturing, and converting leads. Here’s everything you need to know.
What Is the B2B Content Marketing Funnel?
The B2B content marketing funnel is a structured approach for creating and distributing business-focused marketing content.
The goal is to align your content distribution strategy with the buyer’s journey. Doing so ensures that your marketing efforts resonate with potential customers at every stage and move them seamlessly from awareness to purchase.
B2B content marketing involves connecting with and nurturing leads by delivering valuable content. This content can take many forms, including:
- Blogs
- White papers
- Case studies
- Webinars
Unlike the B2B sales funnel, which focuses on closing deals, the content marketing funnel nurtures leads by educating, engaging, and building trust.
Key Advantages of the B2B Content Marketing Funnel
A B2B content funnel will help your business accomplish the following critical objectives:
- Attract Organic Traffic: High-quality content optimized for search engines enables you to reach a wider audience
- Establish Brand Awareness and Authority: Thought leadership content positions your business as a trusted industry expert
- Support the Sales Team: Engaging content nurtures leads and gives your sales team more opportunities to close deals
- Enhance Customer Retention: Post-purchase content fosters loyalty and encourages repeat business
When building or restructuring your funnel, it’s important to consider your target audience’s unique needs. The funnel must be shaped around their aims and preferences and focus on delivering valuable, informative content.
With the right approach and tools, you can generate a large volume of high-quality leads while keeping your marketing budget intact.
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A rock-solid B2B content marketing funnel will keep the leads flowing and preserve your marketing budget. Watch our on-demand webinar and learn how to 10X your leads with a holistic marketing strategy.
Effective Content Strategies for Each Funnel Stage
Here’s a look at impactful strategies for each stage of your B2B content marketing funnel.
Top of the Funnel (ToFu)
The top of the funnel is all about raising awareness and generating buzz about your brand. That means having a great B2B content strategy on top social media platforms where B2B prospects are most active.
According to Statista, 78% of global B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content. Roughly 56% use Facebook for B2B content distribution, and 29% use Instagram.
Blog posts and explainer videos are great content options that can help raise awareness of your brand. You can share links to these resources on social media to maximize the reach of your content.
Employee advocacy is a great way to expand your content reach even further. Encourage your team members to share branded content with their networks. When prospective clients see your team members posting content on their social pages, it can improve engagement levels and boost your credibility.
Content marketing automation tools make it even easier for your team members to post and share branded content. If you want your advocacy program to thrive, give your employees the tools they need to make posting fun.
Once you get your program up and running, make sure to track metrics relevant to the awareness stage, such as:
- Website traffic
- Social media engagement
- Click-through rates (CTR)
Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t, and adjust as needed to keep your funnel efficient and productive.
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Social media is a powerful top-of-the-funnel tool and can boost your B2B content marketing ROI, especially with the right tools. Download our e-book and learn how to maximize your social ROI with corporate posting tools from Clearview Social.
Middle of the Funnel (MoFu)
At this stage, potential buyers are weighing their options. Target them with content that highlights product benefits and further enhances your credibility. White papers, e-books, product demos, and case studies are great B2B content marketing examples for boosting your credibility.
Employee advocacy can also be valuable during this stage of the funnel. Clearview Social’s social media analytics tool makes it easy to track the ideal metrics to guide your MoFu outreach efforts. You can use the agile platform to measure the impact of your team’s advocacy efforts.
Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu)
At the purchase stage, prospects are ready to make a decision. Use your content to reinforce trust and provide the final nudge needed to convert leads to customers.
Here are some content strategies to help you close deals:
- Deliver personalized emails that offer incentives
- Provide social proof like case studies
- Help buyers understand why your solution is the best fit
The metrics you need to watch at this stage include conversion rates and time spent on pricing or product pages.
Post-Purchase
The content journey doesn’t end at checkout. In the B2B space, the post-purchase phase is the time to promote loyalty and explore upselling opportunities. Here are some effective content strategies to deploy at the end of your funnel:
- Provide onboarding guides and support to maximize the value of the purchase
- Keep customers engaged with webinars
- Encourage ongoing interaction
Tracking customer retention rates and engagement with loyalty-stage content will offer a valuable glimpse into the efficiency of your post-purchase efforts.
Drive More Conversions with Clearview Social
Ready to build a better B2B content marketing funnel? Clearview Social and our suite of employee advocacy solutions can transform your entire workforce into a powerful collective voice for your brand.
Explore our blog for more insights on content marketing and employee advocacy.
Tap Into the Power of Employee Advocacy With Clearview Social
Clearview Social provides user-friendly tools and actionable insights to empower your employees as brand advocates. Book a demo and learn how Clearview Social can optimize your B2B content marketing funnel with employee advocacy.