B2B Blog Writing

B2B Blog Writing: How to Write Lead Generating Content

If you are a small business owner, you may have wondered why you should bother with B2B blog writing for your company. It can take up valuable man hours, especially if you have a lean team. Does it really create enough value to justify the needed resources to keep it going?
 
In our experience, B2B blog writing has benefited our clients in a number of ways: fresh content improves page rankings in search engine results, and generates more traffic to their website. But the main reason you should allocate time towards blog writing, is that it generates qualified leads that will convert to sales. Here are a few proven tactics to help you write content that will convert your readers.

 

Determine Who You Are Writing For

This may sound like a no-brainer, but many companies jump right into blogging without understanding who they are writing for. Sure, you have a general idea of your target audience, but that isn’t enough. You will end up writing general content that your readers can find on any other blog.
 
You need to focus on custom content that will differentiate your blog and provide something unique to your readers. This is where developing buyer personas come in. Creating buyer personas involves categorizing your target customers into fictional characters based on validated attributes and behavioural patterns.
 
But be aware that building B2B buyer personas are quite different from a B2C approach. Demographics such as age, gender, income level, and marital status are not as important in developing B2B buyer personas. Instead, take into account the person’s profession, the industry he/she is in, position in the company, and whether he/she is a decision maker or can influence the person who has the final say. You must also dive deeper into not only the target’s personal goals, motivations and challenges, but how they tie into the organization they are managing.
 
Use questions like these to guide your personas:

  • What is their company trying to achieve?
  • What problems are they trying to solve?
  • What challenges are they facing within the organization?
  • What market trends are they worried about?
  • How does your product or service fit into all these?

 
So while you are building buyer personas, you are also taking account their place within the organization. Nailing your buyer personas will improve your content strategy and help generate content that will drive better engagement.
 

Write Lead Generating Content That Users Actually Want to Read

 
Don’t simply rely on assumptions when deciding what topics to write about. You may end up with irrelevant blogs that your audience doesn’t care about.
 
So where should you begin? Here are a couple of suggestions:

  • Ask your sales team what questions or concerns often come up with prospects and build blogs around those issues.
  • Interview your current customers on what content they would like to see more of.
  • Read comments on your social media accounts as well as on your competitors’ accounts.
  • Join niche forums where industry professionals are most likely to seek advise from their peers.
  • Check out your competitors’ website and take note of blogs that get the most comments and engagement.

 

Make Sure You Maximize “Searchability” of Your B2B Blogs

 
It’s not enough to choose and include search engine optimized keywords in your blog, it also matters where you place them. Important areas where you should make it a point to include your target keywords are in the following:
 
Title – The first thing your audience and Google will use to evaluate the relevancy of your blog is your headline. If you happen to use long wordy titles, be sure to include is within the first 65 characters.
 
Body – Don’t go overboard with including keywords in your content, otherwise you run the risk of being penalized by Google. This is known as Keyword Stuffing. It was a good idea back in the day but as more and more marketers tried to game the system, Google began regularly updating their algorithms to ensure that only high quality and relevant blogs are shown to users first to maintain exceptional user experience. So how much is too much? Nobody really knows. The best way to write for a targeted keyword is include it wherever is appropriate. Make sure your content is legible and provides the reader with value.
 
Permalink URLs – Include your keywords in the first 3-5 words of the URL.
 
Meta Description – Meta descriptions are HTML features that give short descriptions of webpages. They usually appear at the bottom of your title in the search engine results page (SERP). Don’t miss the opportunity to use your long tail keywords in your meta description along with an engaging copy that will pique the interest of prospects.
 
Subheadings – Try including your keywords in the subheadings of your blog. Not only does this help structure your articles, thereby improving readability, but it also enhances your Google search ranking.
 
Images – Studies show that adding pictures in your posts makes them more engaging and visually appealing. Since search engines cannot identify images, adding alt tags tells Google what the image is all about, and improves the accessibility of your site. Including some keywords in your alt tags can give your B2B blog writing a leg up.
 
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B2B Blog Writing: How to Write Lead Generating Content