Bad news: Consumers might not be interested in spending their hard earned money on your products unless you engage with them. According to a CMI report, 71% of B2B companies say that the main focus of their content marketing efforts is generating engagement. Unlike B2C brands, many B2B brands struggle to generate quality engagement from their content. This post will talk about some effective ways to generate more engagement for your B2B content.
Image Source - CMI
But unlike B2C brands, many B2B brands struggle to generate quality engagement from their content. This post will talk about some effective ways to generate more engagement to your B2B content.
1. Email Marketing
Email marketing is an undisputed king of B2B content, as it has the potential to generate tons of engagement for B2B companies. You can boost engagement by sending different emails at different stages of your email marketing campaign. However, if you sending the same email template over and over might not prove as helpful.
You need to make sure to send a welcome email when a new user subscribes to your services. To further boost your engagement rate, ensure that you send weekly curated email content to your subscribers. Via your email content, you can also share new updates or announcements with your subscribers.
The screenshot given below is from the founder of Kissmetrics and CrazyEgg. They make sure to send a weekly email on various topics to engage with their subscribers.
You can use tools like FeedOtter to automate your emails for maximum benefit. FeedOtter’s various types of pre-created email templates allow you to easily and efficiently customize your email content
It also enables B2B companies to nurture their leads and generate more revenue and sales. It offers various types of pre-created email templates, which allows you to customize your email content.
2. Collaborate with Influencers
Generally speaking, influencers help B2B brands generate a higher engagement rate because influencers are authority figures. They are also experts in creating content optimized for high engagement. Customers might not willingly spend their money on your services unless they know how well they work. Potential customers often look for an assurance that your services or products are worth investing in.
Enter influencers from your industry, AKA trusted people you can hire to to review and give feedback about your products or services to the public. You can also invite the most influential people from your industry for an expert interview with you. However, make sure that you find experts who are genuine, authentic, and relevant to your industry or campaign.
Case in point: LinkedIn. LinkedIn collaborated with many industry experts and asked them to talk about the business solutions… provided by LinkedIn. Social media and digital experts came together and created a resource, “The Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to LinkedIn.” Each chapter in this engaging guide talked about the experience of each expert after using specific LinkedIn solutions. Later in the guide, influencers also responded to audience questions.
Image Source - LinkedIn
Let’s look at another example from Microsoft, a leading technology industry. The company collaborated with famous adventure photographers from National Geographic. The “Make What’s Next” B2B influencer campaign was unique in that the objective was motivating women to work in STEM disciplines.
Microsoft launched the campaign on the eve of International Women’s Day 2017. They posted 30 photographs on five of National Geographic’s Instagram channels. Collectively, the photos managed to gain more than 3.5 million likes in a single day. And through this campaign, Microsoft managed to reach 91 million people.
Image Source - Instagram
3. Humanize Your Brand
Regardless of whether you have a B2C brand or B2B brand, you sell your services or products to people. So, it’s important that you connect with your potential customers on a personal level
The most effective way to engage with your prospects is to humanize your brand and to create a story around it. Share interesting stories with your potential customers helps build connections on a personal level and enables you to humanize your brand. This tactic also helps to increase your engagement rate with your audience.
Storytelling could include sharing stories from people involved in creating or producing your products or services. You can use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and/or LinkedIn to share these narratives. However, you need to ensure that these behind-the-scene stories are real and authentic to generate the desired engagement.
For example, Intel is a very popular B2B brand that uses social platforms to share motivating behind-the-scene stories with their prospects. In the post below, the company shared a photo of Intel’s founders and also shared some fun facts about them. Fun posts like this are a great way to generate a higher engagement rate.
Image Source - Instagram
4. Leverage Live Videos
Live videos are a fun and engaging way to learn about what a B2B company does. Not only that, but they also provide an excellent opportunity for brands to directly engage with their audience. According to one study, about 80% of people actually chose to watch live videos rather than read a brand’s blog or social media post. You can start leveraging live videos to share your brand’s value and vibe with your desired audience. Interestingly, live videos get 10X more comments and are watched 3X more than pre-recorded videos.
Take SAP, an enterprise software company, for instance. They team up with top managers to create content optimized for high engagement. SAP also organizes events throughout the year where industry professionals came to share their valuable opinions.
SAPPHIRE is one such event that nearly 20K and 100K people can attend in person and virtually, respectively. The company managed to reach 100K people via Facebook Live videos. During the live session, the professional experts engaged with the audience and answered their questions.
Image Source - socialbusinessengine.com
5. Share Industry News and Updates
The saying, “we wake up dumber than we went to bed,” stands true in the case of B2B brands. Almost every other day, some technological developments and new research breakthroughs happen in B2B industries. So, it’s important that you share recent updates and news with your audience
To do so, you can leverage the most suitable social media platforms. It might help you generate more engagement with your audience, as they are interested in your brand and its development.
For instance, Accenture recently shared their achievements from 2018. And they also shared their commitments and goals for the coming years on Facebook. The post managed to receive over 370 engagements.
Image Source - Facebook
The same update was shared on Accenture’s LinkedIn account as well. And the post managed to gain more than 500 engagements.
Image Source - LinkedIn
Final Thoughts
Engaging content might lead to an increase in both brand awareness and sales. And eventually, it will also have an impact on your search engine rankings. Regardless of whether you have a B2C or B2B company, it’s important to generate a high engagement rate and interact with your audiences. For B2B content, you can use live videos or collaborate with influencers to create interesting content to drive more engagement. You can also leverage social media platforms to share brand stories, industry updates, and exciting news with your audience. This will help you attract audience attention and increase your engagement rate
Do you know any other effective strategies to drive more engagement through B2B content? If so, then please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.