How can you plan your content marketing initiatives? What types of content are most effective for B2B companies? And importantly, how can you actually measure the result of your content marketing? A Guide to Modern B2B Content Marketing from Modern Marketing Partners will answer those questions and take you through the content marketing process; including planning, implementation, and measurement. Download at http://www.modernmarketingpartners.com/Download-Whitepaper-Guide-To-Modern-B2B-Content-Marketing.cfm

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CONTENT
MARKETING
PRACTICES GUIDE

2. Modern Marketing Partners
Content Marketing
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Content marketing is a hot topic! In fact, 91% of B2B Marketers
are using content marketing1
. So what is it? We define content
marketing as the creation and distribution of educational and/or
compelling content in multiple formats to attract and/or
retain customers.
This guide will take you through the content marketing process.
Planning; deciding what type of content marketing works best for
your company and a content schedule. Implementation; including
tips on how to write blogs, case studies, and white papers, and how
to distribute your content. And finally, measurement; metrics to use
to determine if your content marketing is effective.
PLANNING
The quality of a content plan can support both the effectiveness
and efficiency of your content marketing initiative. Begin your
planning by determining the mission of your content marketing
initiatives and stick to it. Then, you can move on to determining
what kind you will use. On average, B2B marketers use a total of
12 content marketing tactics found in the graph below1
. The graph
below depicts the most popular B2B content marketing tactics.
A GUIDE TO MODERN B2B
CONTENT MARKETING
B2B CONTENTMARKETING USAGE
(BY TYPE)

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Content Marketing
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But how do you know which tactic to choose? In B2B companies,
buyers of products and services want the question “can you fix
my problem?” answered. The bulk of a buyer’s selection criteria
and process is aimed at determining whether a prospective firm
can solve their problem. Do they understand my issues? Have you
solved similar problems in the past? Does the specific team have
the necessary skills and experience2
? Blogs, case studies, and white
papers as part of your content marketing plan can help answer
these questions. For B2B companies, blogs, case studies, and white
papers are content marketing gold.
A blog is defined as a website containing articles, referred to as
“blog posts” or “blogs”, that highlight subject matter expertise,
industry news, or any relevant information to the audience
you are targeting.
You can use a blog to demonstrate you understand your buyer’s
issues by creating content that is relevant to their needs. Your blog
can include how to’s, tips, etc. pertaining to your buyer’s issues.
Blogging is not appropriate for companies who can not make the
time commitment or engage with their buyers, or for company’s
who are in highly regulated industries.
Case studies are 1-2 page documents that combine the first-person
authority of a testimonial with the narrative structure of a real-life
story3
. They typically follow a 3-step format; business challenge,
solution, results.
Case studies can show you have solved similar problems in the
past, which builds credibility and trust with B2B buyers. Not
to mention the fact that opinions from other people are more
compelling then your words. More than 8 out of 10 people say
that opinions and recommendations from people they don’t know
indicate brand quality and influence what they buy4
.

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White papers are authoritative reports or guides that help readers
understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision that are
typically used in government and B2B marketing5
.
White papers should be used for B2B companies that are selling
new, complex, or expensive products or services. New products
are not easy to research. Therefore, your piece of white paper can
be a resource for those conducting research. Also, a white paper
can explain a complex offering, such as computer hardware or
enterprise software6
. White papers can demonstrate your expertise/
skills on a particular subject matter.
Ninety (90) percent of marketers say that content marketing is
going to be extremely important to them in 2013. However, only 38
percent actually have a strategy in place7
. How often should you be
publishing content? When? And Where? There is no silver bullet here;
frequency, timing, and mediums are a function of your audience
and your business. However, an understanding of those factors can
help you develop your content calendar.
Content can be organized in a variety of ways. First, you can
develop a medium-specific calendar. In other words, develop an
individual calendar for each delivery vehicle; i.e blogging, case
studies, or white papers. Based on your needs develop a weekly/
monthly/yearly content schedule for each delivery vehicle. This
makes the production process run more smoothly! Another method
is to plan around specific keywords/content topics.
Understanding your audience is foundational to every content
marketing plan. Therefore, it is also useful to create a content
calendar based on each particular audience you are targeting. Map
out the content topic, schedule, and medium for each
audience segment.

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All of these types of content calendars can be combined to form
one master calendar to give the overall scope of your content
marketing plan.
Finally, throughout your content planning process, consider
that all content can be repurposed over a variety of mediums.
For example, that glossy capabilities print brochure or catalog
should be leveraged across all electronic mediums for maximum
exposure! Place a thumbnail on your website homepage that links
to a registration page for immediate download.
IMPLEMENTATION
Your content marketing efforts should definitely be focused
on quality over quantity. Following are tips and best practices
for three of the most popular types of content: blogging, case
studies, and whitepapers.
BLOGGING
• Keep blogs between 250-1000 words
• Provide unique, original, and useful content
• Each blog post should focus on one topic for clarity and
ease of reading
• Optimize images for SEO in 3 ways; image file name, image
title, and image alt tag (use keywords!)
• Use tags and categories to help users locate blog content
(tags are also indexed by search engines)
• Set up an RSS Feed. An RSS feed is a plug-in that allows
your readers/visitors to sign up to be emailed when you
publish a new blog
• Set up resources links/a blog roll on your blog. They benefit
SEO and act as a valuable resource to your readers to find
relevant content
• Utilize bold face and H1 header tags to build SEO
• Every blog should have a call-to-action
• Brand your blog – custom design should extend your visual
identity and reflect company goals and vision
• Add social sharing features such as the Facebook Like
button, the Twitter Retweet button, the Google+ button, and
the LinkedIn share button.

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CASE STUDIES
• Make sure to tell the story from start to finish
• Create a template – a common way to organize a case study
is to sequence through the business challenges, soution, and results
• Don’t be generic, give real numbers! Instead of saying
website traffic tripled, say website traffic increased from
10,000 to 30,000 visits
• Get to the point – keep case studies to about 500 words
• Identify a problem that your audience can relate to
• Make it easy to read; headers, bulleted lists, etc. and use
your audiences language (don’t get too technical!)
• Use compelling headlines
WHITE PAPERS
• Keep your white paper to 6-10 pages. If your white paper is
based on a highly technical subject, keep it under 20
• Avoid jargon/buzzwords, instead write clear and concise
• Use sidebars and call-outs through out the white paper to
keep interest
• Write in the third person
• Do not write overly-promotional
• Typical white paper format: opening summary, introduction,
body, closing summary, company profile, contact information
• When appropriate, provide examples that reinforce an explanation
• Provide sources
Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they will come. Every
piece of content needs to be distributed across a variety of
channels to ensure it reaches your target audience.

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For example, besides distributing blogs through social media like
Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, blog submission sites can help
you increase your reach while building links. The top three blog
submission sites are Technorati, Blog search, and Blog catalog.
There are hundreds of other blog submission sites, find ones that
are trustworthy and relevant to your content.
Also, consider submitting articles and white papers to Ezine,
Articlesbase, Edocr and Yahoo! Voices. Each offer valuable
analytics on how each piece of content is performing; number of
views, keywords performance, click-through-rates, etc and give you
search authority.
Email is a fantastic distribution method for your content.
Because your email list is comprised of people who opted in to
receive information, you can reach a more targeted audience of
people who may actually want consume your content. The more
segmented, the better.
Social media distribution is a given. Know your audience to know
where to reach them. The most common social media sites for
B2B marketers to distribute content are LinkedIn, Twitter, and
Facebook8
.
MEASUREMENT
Measuring your content marketing efforts is critical to determine
if you are meeting objectives. There are so many ways to monitor
your content marketing program. Use the following to get started:
Google Analytics – which web pages are people visiting on a
regular basis?
Google AdWords – what keywords are people searching that
increase the click-through-rate to your site?
Google Alerts – are you setting up alerts on your top keywords to
see if your content shows up high in search results? If you don’t see
your content, what are you seeing from others/your competition?

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YouTube INSIGHT – who is viewing your videos and how often?
What parts are they watching? Does a low search volume mean
the content in the video is not interesting?
Inbound Links – how many people/websites are linking to
your content?
Facebook INSIGHTS – how many new likes do you get each
month? Are your posts shared? How many people are talking
about you and what is the reach for each post?
TweetDeck – for your “mentions” column – are others also
repurposing your twitter content by mentioning your name?
Blog Subscriptions – how many people have registered to receive
updates from your blog?
LinkedIn – how many connections do you have on LinkedIn? How
many people are following your company/are group members?
How often do group members comment on your posts or
generate posts themselves?
Radian6 – what is the “chatter” this month for your brand across
all social platforms? Are you getting generally positive or
negative sentiments?
Downloads – how many people have downloaded a piece of content?
Forwards – how many people have forwarded a piece of content?
(Email service providers can track this)
Email Subscriptions – how many people have signed up to
receive your content via email?
Blog Comments – how often do people make comments on blog
posts? Is there a dialogue occurring?

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Sales – has your content impacted sales?
HootSuite – when you look at an overview of your posts on
Facebook and Twitter for the month, which links are the most
popular and how many “likes” do you get on a daily basis?
Content marketing is a requirement in the modern marketing
world. For B2B companies, blogs, case studies, are effective
tactics. They all can help answer the question, “can you fix my
problem?” Use blogging to demonstrate you understand their
issues, case studies to show you have solved similar problems
in the past, and white papers to show your expertise/skills on
a particular subject matter relevant to your buyers. Throughout
your content creation, ensure you are following best practices
and always measure the results of content marketing initiatives
through your predetermined success metrics. The use of content
marketing will only increase over the next year, so don’t miss out!
Additional Resources
1. 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and
Trends (CMI)
2. Professional Services: How Buyers Buy (Hinge)
3. Content Marketing Playbook 2011 (CMI)
4. Hubspot
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_paper
6. http://www.whitepaperguy.com/white-paper-article-who-
needs-a-white-paper.html
7. Econsultancy
8. 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends (CMI)
Modern Marketing Partners is a full
service marketing and communications
agency specialized in the integration
of traditional marketing and digital
media for breakthrough results. To
request a free Content Marketing
Program Analysis, contact Neil Brown
at 630-868-5061, or visit our website
www.ModernMarketingPartners.com.