How B2B Marketers Can Create a Blog that Drives Leads

If you’re a B2B company and aren’t blogging on the reg yet, what in the world are you waiting for? While your competitors are blogging to generate new leads, you’re going to become a victim of falling behind. But I get it – you’re busy – and in charge of everything from strategic planning, running the day to day, your social media, answering to the sales department and having to prove marketing’s ROI to the boss-man. But if a blog is done correctly, it can be a powerful lead-generating tool, SEO booster and all-over knockout way to prove your organization’s expertise and knowledge.

Build the case for investment.

Getting buy-in from the top is important and won’t happen if you just tell them, “We need a blog and we need to invest time and energy into it.” Without their support, it’s going to feel like you’re the blog army of one – lacking support in your fight to create great posts. Show them a few proven facts about blogging. Try these statistics:

15 blog posts per month lead to 1,200 new leads on average per month. (source)
Blogs on company websites result in 55% more visitors (more visitors offer more chances to turn them into leads…).
B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who don’t.
68% of consumers spend time reading content from a brand they are interested in. (The CMA) (Shouldn’t you be one of those brands?)

Ok, so you’re ready to jump into blogging. Where do you start?

Who do you want to read your blog? Is it Company X’s CEO or Company Y’s IT guy – knowing your buyers is the most important thing. You can write blogs posts all day long about how great your company is – but are they posts that are going to add value to your targets’ daily lives or offer them the info they are looking for to make an informed purchase? Having a blog just to have a blog is pointless. It needs to offer value, revolve around keywords your customers are searching for and help to build trust with your brand. Here are some tips:

First, figure out which buyer persona(s) you are targeting. Do you have more than one target or more than one industry you’re going after? Figure out your sales goals and which types of leads you’re trying to target. You’ll have to write to each one separately.
Know their biggest challenges and what advice you can offer to make their lives easier. Have a brainstorming session with your sales team – what questions do they get asked the most, what problems do you offer solutions to, what solution is each buyer persona most interested in, are there any underlying reasons why they might not buy your product or service? Split these topics up by buyer persona and make a list of these topics and related keywords that you’ll aim to incorporate into the blog. Don’t forget – it needs to offer them value.
Create an editorial calendar – you can do this in Excel – include the due date, topic, keywords and author.

This ensures you are writing to capture prospective customers and drive them to your website. (And if you have a good inbound strategy set up – you’ll be able to capture those visitors and turn them into leads.)

Don’t be afraid to ask…

Ok, so the department heads are ok with you creating a blog; but whether you’re a marketing department of one or a dozen – you most likely aren’t experts on everything your company offers. Enlist the help of the rest of the company. Send an email to those whose help you’re going to enlist, explaining the benefits of a blog and your organization’s strategy. Send them the topics and keywords to help them come up with posts that stay aligned with your blog strategy.

Each blog should have a call to action for the next step you want your lead to take – a couple examples could be to sign up for your newsletter, download a checklist of tips related to the product or service you sell, visit your work samples page or to sign up for blog alerts.

Then get to blogging regularly and driving leads to your website!

Want more info on blogging, like blog length, strategy goals you should create and Top 5 Best practices to increase visits?