One thing we know for certain is that 2023 is already gearing up to be a wild, fast-paced year for content marketers ready to go all in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To create a high-performing content strategy, your marketing must always consist of a few types to generate interest or engage an audience, such as: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without a solid content marketing strategy, B2B brands miss out on massive ROI potential, opportunities to build authority as a thought leader, and avenues to provide value to prospects and customers alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of that sounds great, but what does it really mean for you and your brand to have a solid content strategy? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Often when brands think about content marketing, they think about the owned content\u2014content the brand creates for itself. But an effective content marketing strategy combines owned, earned, paid, and shared content\u2014all cohesively working toward a common goal. In 2023, every B2B content marketing<\/a> strategy should:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s break down a few of the most important trends we expect to see this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Related reading: <\/strong><\/em>The Ultimate Guide to B2B Content Marketing<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Your audience deserves intelligent, interactive, and personalized content\u2014and they know and expect it. The content you create and share must add value to their lives; it should be content your audience actually wants and needs. It\u2019s also important to be audience-focused in choosing your medium, not just the message of your content. Video and audio content is still hugely popular among consumers. In fact, articles with videos get 84% more traffic<\/a> than those without\u2014and articles with more than three videos generated 55% more backlinks than those with none. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The name of the game for B2B content marketing in 2023 is prioritizing the recipient of your messages. The best way for brands to begin is to understand the why behind the wants, needs, and choices of their customers. Knowing the why helps marketers\u2014and product developers and the whole organization\u2014accomplish the mission of the company more effectively: solve the problem they set out to solve for their customers. When you understand why your customers want to solve this problem\u2014what their goal really is\u2014you can tailor solutions, content, and all forms of engagement with them to their specific pain points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to the video trends and favor for intentional marketing, audiences are also showing a lot of love for \u201csnackable\u201d content. Bite-sized morsels of content that they can like, share, retweet, save, react to, and more. The catch is that\u2014like that bag of chips you can\u2019t keep your hand out of\u2014snackable content always leads to a long-form piece of content, like a blog, article, full-length podcast, or the like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other great forms of snackable content include: <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you really want to boost the effects of a content marketing campaign, then influencer marketing and user-generated content should be at the forefront of your strategy. B2B influencer marketing<\/a> has been on the rise, as is the use of user-generated content. What do they have in common? Consumers trust them. Audiences trust what\u2014and who\u2014they know. In fact, 93% of consumers<\/a> turn to customer reviews and recommendations before making their purchase decisions. Incorporating influencer- and user-generated content into your marketing campaign should be a no-brainer decision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Related Reading: <\/strong>How Your B2B Can Leverage User-Generated Content To Build Credibility<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n AI has been a huge topic lately across the entire marketing and PR industry. Innovative leaders are asking about the pros and cons of AI, how their brand can leverage it, and what AI marketing<\/a> tools they really need to invest in. The answer to these questions isn\u2019t simple, which is why a lot of B2B leaders have avoided true digital transformation and have failed to fully embrace AI to the extent that it can benefit their business. To successfully leverage AI, B2B leaders must use AI tools to solve their consumer\u2019s needs in a unique way while balancing the human- and data-driven elements of marketing communications campaigns. In other words, AI paraphrasing tools<\/a> and other writing tools powered by AI should supplement your content team and marketing efforts in a unique way rather than fully replace them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether \u201cleveraging AI\u201d in your content marketing means developing a learning management system for small business<\/a>, prospects, or new customers to learn the ins and outs of your product or posting your daily educational Reel using user-generated content optimized for post time is entirely up to you. AI isn\u2019t a one-size-fits-all solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When people hear \u201ccontent,\u201d they often associate it specifically with blogging\u2014and blogging is an important part of developing an B2B SEO<\/a> strategy and providing valuable, informative content for your prospects\u2014but too many brands rest on blogging as the center of their marketing strategy, and in 2022\u2014let alone 2023\u2014that is a mistake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Content strategies must go beyond written formats. They must be multi-modal\u2014video and audio components are key to a successful strategy. With many options, marketers should focus on what will be interesting and useful for their prospects\u2014and there are a variety of media that can help with that: <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, however, you don\u2019t want quality to suffer because you\u2019re branching out into something new. Pulling back on a blog or podcast series for a little while to work on something new and awesome won\u2019t destroy your brand. Just make sure you\u2019re getting help in the areas you need to, whether that\u2019s video editing or app-building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the next time you have a great idea for a blog, consider if it may be better served as a contributed article, youtube video, Twitter thread, podcast topic, or an infographic\u2014or mix and match. Improve your blog by inserting videos, infographics, and more into the blog itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Related reading: <\/strong>5 Tips For Crafting The Perfect Case Study<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So the next time you have a great idea for a blog, consider if it may be better served as a contributed article, youtube video, Twitter thread, podcast topic, or an infographic\u2014or mix and match. Improve your blog by inserting videos, infographics, and more into the blog itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It seems like silly advice. Why update old blogs when you can write a new one, right? Well, there are significant benefits to revisiting old content. A concept called information gain is at the root of that statement. Information gain is a method that can be used to optimize what is featured out of data sets. In 2020, Google was noted to be using information gain in its search engine results. With Google\u2019s latest update, it essentially prioritizes not just the best information but different information. So you\u2019ll want to make sure previous content is updated with the most updated information, comprehensive subheadings, and a new perspective annually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
5 Content Marketing Trends for 2023<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Be audience-focused.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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2. Use influencer- and user-generated content. <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. Leverage AI.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
4. Think outside the blog. <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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5. Update existing content. <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n