What are the three most important B2B content marketing skills?

According to me: 1. Empathy: Your content should be more than words. It should be a mirror, reflecting your customer's needs, dreams, and challenges. 2. Storytelling: B2B marketing isn't about selling, it's about telling. Crafting a narrative that resonates with your audience is the magical key to unlock their hearts. Remember, facts tell, but stories sell. 3. Data Analysis: In the age of big data, marketing is more science than art. Understanding and interpreting data helps you to decipher market trends, predict customer behaviour, and fine-tune your strategies. Dive deeper into these skills. Understand them, master them, and then watch the magic unfold. Engage, learn, and grow.

To make B2B content marketing work, just remember these three things: Understand Your Audience: Know who you're talking to and what they want. Create Awesome Content: Make stuff that they'll find interesting. Track Your Results: Keep an eye on how well your content is doing and make it even better. These are the keys to success!

There's no question about the type of content you should create; all the necessary data is readily available. The real question is: what conversation do you aim to dominate? Identify the key concerns of your customers and prospects. Strive to provide not just answers but solutions that build trust and prove helpful. If pressed for time, adopt the Jobs to be Done (JTBD) approach. Investigate the search paths for these jobs, offer opinions and advice in various formats, demonstrate real-world applications, and then connect it back to your product. Content marketers who invest in thorough research are poised for success.

Like B2C marketing, B2B marketing also starts with research. Research is the cornerstone of effective B2B content marketing! In the dynamic landscape of business, understanding your target audience, industry trends, and competitors is not just a good practice; it's the key to unlocking strategic success. In B2B, where the stakes are high and relationships are paramount, research empowers you to tailor your approach, anticipate needs, and deliver solutions that truly resonate. It's not just about data; it's about insights that guide your every move. Embrace the power of research in your B2B marketing journey. It's not a one-time task but a continuous exploration that keeps you ahead in the game.

The top 3 important B2B content marketing skills, in my opinion, are the following. 1) Quick-Witted: Knowing what is important, what can be prioritized, and what can wait. 2) Research Savvy: Learning from mistakes and winnings of the competitors and of course keeping up with the industry trends. 3) Time Management & Prioritizing: Knowing where and how to invest your time.

As a content marketer, your message can only get to your audience when it's written. Regardless of the format in which it is conveyed, it must first be written down. So it's not enough to just "think it" you also have to "ink it" Your video scripts, survey questions, interviews, texts, etc will not come to life or get seen if you didn't first of all translate your thoughts into writing. And the more you write, the better you get at writing...

B2B writing is a lost art. It's been replaced by a million homogenized voices of banality. You need to find a way to test and push boundaries. Try it with your own email. Write a subject line that must be opened. Try it on LinkedIn. Write something that people engage with on your feed. Get in the habit of provocation. Learn to understand what people respond to. And follow George Tannenbaum on LinkedIn. He's the best.

There is no B2B writing. You write for people on the other side, as if in a one on one conversation, hoping to answer all of their questions, explain how your company or product helps them solve their problems or needs. It is a tale as old as time - and we often forget we are all just human, and get stuck in these circle jerks of professional jargon. I have opened new and global markets for some of my clients, and I always wrote in simple, easy to understand terms and avoided corpospeak or technobabble. You have to be able to explain you offering, and you have to put everything in user scenarios. People trust stories about real events a lot better than pompous pseudo wank filled with superlatives and power words. Be human.

Only thinking about writing when it comes to B2B content marketing is flawed, because content is no longer blog posts only. It's videos, graphics, webinars, keynotes, and much more. The great thing is that with a repurposing strategy, you don't have to make a choice about the format and can distribute the same message in all the different, relevant channels where your audience hangs out - maintaining messaging and topic consistency and maximizing your content ROI.

Throughout my career, including my time at LinkedIn, I've honed my understanding of what makes content marketing effective. I've come to realize that the single most important factor is the ability to write well. Recognizing the difference between good, okay, and great writing is vital. As a content marketer, it's crucial to know when to apply creativity and when to push harder. Leading a team also involves guiding them towards quality content creation through the right questions. While other aspects of content marketing can be learned on the job, exceptional writing ability is fundamental and irreplaceable. I'd choose a good writer any day over anyone else, as this is the critical piece in content marketing.

Take your measurement game to the next level by embracing advanced attribution modeling. Instead of relying solely on basic metrics like clicks and views, delve into multi-touch attribution models.

This is where you analyse what's effective and what's not. It informs your next move and strategy. It's a stage of pause, reflect, and restrategise.

Forget traditional metrics. They're an echo chamber of a broken business model. Listen for anecdotes. Listen for sellers and employees who eagerly share your content. Listen for customers whose opinions were changed. One good anecdote will tell you more than 100 attribution models.

Measuring the impact of your content is the only way to improve and find greater success through your marketing. The part most people get wrong is whether to focus on hardcore data or to listen to anecdotes and stories from your audience/clients... what would you choose? The answer is to find a blend of both, somewhere in the middle. You need anecdotal evidence to sprout ideas and help you think of new innovations, but the data is there to give you support for those decisions. If you can find the right mix between the two, your content will be evolving and winning you more work in no time!

Measurement is the compass in content marketing, guiding us through the digital landscape. As B2B content marketers, we recognize it's not just about creating content; it's about understanding how that content performs. Track, analyse, and report. Be like data analysts, decoding clues to optimize content. Demonstrating ROI is vital; it's how you prove your value. To excel in measurement, set clear goals and KPIs aligned with the objectives. Content marketing dashboards can be guiding maps. Regular audits and reviews help keep track. But you shouldn't forget the human factor in all our KPIs. Aim to connect, educate, and inspire. It's about building relationships and delivering real value. Cliché, but true.

Do you know the difference between B2B content that resonates and B2B content that falls flat? The key lies in first-hand experience and expertise. AKA providing original insights that go beyond the average, superficial listicles dominating search results or a few low-effort paragraphs churned out by AI tools. No-brainer in theory. Very challenging to put into practice if you don't establish effective workflows that involve your subject matter experts.

In marketing, education is crucial, not just for your client but sometimes even for their customers. It's about transparency and trust. Another thing is budget allocation. It is like a tailored suit; it should fit your business scale. Startups tread carefully, while established firms may have more flexibility. Regardless, focus on channels that yield the best results – it's about being strategic, not splurging. And don't be too afraid to always change, compare, analyse, think and talk about what you are getting and what you could be getting out of your content.

Being a content marketer, you need to bring vision of the CEO to reality. And that means aligning internal department goals into something that's tangible and measurable. Often content marketers approach it as one-size fits all where in reality it's much more complex than that. Be ready to learn a lot of soft skills, lead cross-functional teams, and learn when to negotiate and compromise when it comes to content alignment. (e.g csuite, sales, product, legal, and marketing).

Some other skills and characteristics I believe to be important here are: -creativity -empathy -honesty -clarity It’s crucial that you connect the dots for your audience and share very specific examples or challenges - don’t leave it up to their imagination. Be creative and instead of just listing what your company does, tell your brand’s or product’s story!

I think that content marketers who will be in the frontline need to understand not just the research, write, and analyse method, but also learn about audience development/lead generation, hone their strategic thinking, and be flexible in their approach.