When you think of blogging, you may envision Donald Trump’s micro-blog tweets. Or technology futurist writers. Or mommy bloggers who write about potty training wars and the struggle to find cute boy clothes.
There’s a blog niche for every topic you can think of – everything that anyone could possibly care about. From sports to parenting to cryptocurrency and beyond.
Many large B2C brands have blogs, like Bullseye View (Target), Swagbucks, Nordstrom’s lifestyle blog, or Best Buy’s blog with content for techies and gamers. They’re full of fun stories about behind-the-scenes glimpses of your favorite brand. And loaded with tips about clothing and fashion, finding the perfect survey side hustle, or knowing when it’s time to get a new TV. It’s a great way to strengthen your relationship with customers. You’re delivering valuable information to them, and injecting them into their everyday lives.
B2B (Business to Business) blogs can do the same. Effective B2B blogs can connect you with potential new customers. A B2B blog is the perfect chance to introduce your business and boast about your successes.
Through B2B blog articles, you can showcase your expertise and provide valuable information to them. Whether they’re looking up a quick fact (i.e. “What are Zoomers?“) or narrowing down a list of prospective vendors, web searchers are discovering your company and its branding.
But how do you start a B2B blog? And what should you write about? Let’s dive in now.
What is a B2B blog?
A B2B blog is a blog website (or a page on your existing business website) where your company can post high-quality articles and other content that existing and potential customers would find valuable.
B2B blog content is not personal or confessional in nature (i.e. mommy bloggers). It is informational and helps businesses solve business challenges they are facing.
Some examples of B2B blog content that your target audience could find valuable include: case studies, white papers, studies, graphs, charts, infographics, industry news, or analyses of legislative changes and what they mean for your industry.
What is the purpose of a B2B blog?
The main purpose of a B2B blog is to help you attract quality leads. A B2B blog is a form of inbound marketing: creating helpful, authoritative content tailored to the needs of potential customers.
A B2B blog should also increase awareness for your brand and position your brand as a leader in its domain. Increased visibility of your brand increases your brand’s credibility in the eye of your potential customers. (Brands people have “never heard of” don’t fare as well as brands people have heard of.)
A B2B blog can also be part of your overall digital marketing strategy. It’s a reliable and scalable way to build your presence online. Write about high-value keywords that are relevant to your business, and your business’ overall search engine rankings will improve.
Why do I need a B2B blog?
Here are a handful of key reasons why your business needs a B2B blog:
- A B2B blog will bring more leads to your site, and these leads will be much higher in quality because they understand the value your business brings.
- A B2B blog builds awareness for your brand. People do business with people they’ve “heard of” before.
- A B2B blog provides tremendous SEO (search engine optimization) benefits. Business blogging provides a lot of natural real estate for you to write about high-value keywords that are related to your business. As you start to rank (in Google Search and on other search engines) for these keywords, your search rankings and site traffic will improve.
- A B2B blog positions you as a thought leader and expert in your space. There are many perks that come with being considered an industry expert – an increase in leads and referrals, mentions in other blog posts and news articles (free press), and invites to speak at seminars and conferences.
What makes a good B2B blog?
A good B2B blog provides valuable information (with high search volume) to prospective customers.
Here are some tips for writing an especially helpful or popular B2B blog article:
- Use a listicle. (i.e. “10 Can’t Miss Conferences for Market Research Companies.”) This type of format is effective because they are easily skimmed and contain an element of FOMO. And listicles work well for social sharing.
- Be disruptive. Helpful (yet boring) titles like “5 Ways to Improve Deliverability Rates on Your Next Email Campaign” are not catchy. A title like “5 Best Ways to Get Flagged as Spam” will grab someone’s attention.
- Publish a guest post. Reach out to another thought leader in your space and ask them to write an article. Or you could ask them a few questions in an email and publish their responses in a Q&A style article. The Q&A method might work better since you’re not asking someone to put time into writing an article. However, many experts welcome the opportunity to publish guest posts as part of their content marketing strategy.
- Publish industry research, findings, or studies. This is highly helpful. Let people know how they can cite you as a source and ask them to link to your page. Or you can publish a teaser or first page of a marketing report and ask for their email in order to download the study in full.
In addition to writing effective blog posts about the right topics, don’t forget the other big details. You need a CTA (call-to-action) button on your page for readers to “convert”. Converting could mean requesting a demo, signing up for a free trial, or downloading a newsletter.
You should also have prominent social sharing buttons – and don’t be afraid to directly ask for the share.
How do you write a B2B article?
When writing an article, think about your prospective customer. The information should be helpful, interesting, and highly skimmable. Content that is interesting and easily scanned is likely to be shared with other people, like bosses and coworkers.
Using sub-headers (H2’s), bulleted lists, charts and graphs, and figures (statistics) are all helpful ways to make articles easier to skim and more interesting to read.
Putting thought into creating an interesting title and tying your article to current events in popular culture are also effective spins.
How can I find a content writer for my B2B blog?
So you’re sold on the idea of standing up a B2B blog. But who’s going to come up with the content strategy and write your first blog post? And every other post thereafter?
Here are some ways to find B2B blog writers:
- Existing employees. Even if you don’t have a specific marketing team, you may have skilled writers on your staff interested and able to contribute some blog articles.
- Reach out to other guest bloggers. Read other B2B blogs that you like and are trying to emulate. Contact these authors and ask them to write for your site.
- Invite existing customers to contribute an article. They may welcome the opportunity for exposure and SEO backlinks.
- Hire writers on freelance sites like Fiverr or Upwork. (The rates are cheap but it can be hit or miss and does not always work for more complex topics.)
- Reach out to an agency that specializes in B2B marketing.
- Post a call for thought leaders and B2B writers to “share their expertise” in a feature on your blog. You can do this in a business related online forum or LinkedIn.
