Since it’s not as fresh as some peers, marketers may wonder whether LinkedIn can still bring a worthwhile ROI. However, like other marketing tools, what you get from the site greatly depends on what you put into it.

Consider the following questions to determine whether you’re taking full advantage of how LinkedIn content can boost your B2B marketing.

Key takeaways:

• Though LinkedIn is business-focused, your content on the medium needs to have personality and help you build a community.
• LinkedIn is ideal for establishing credibility and linking to your content and website.
• Remember to appeal visually with scroll-stopping images and attention-grabbing videos.
• You can also use LinkedIn to test and refine your ideas and gain audience feedback.

Dig deeper: SEO guide to optimizing your LinkedIn profile for more connections, better leads

Are you focusing on community?

Though the site is for professionals, your LinkedIn page shouldn’t be all business. Like your other marketing efforts, infuse your personal and company pages with personality. 

No one wants to partner with a faceless, bland company. As one marketing expert said, you should create “high-five content.” 

Ask yourself before you post a comment, article or video: Will this put a smile on someone’s face or get an emphatic head nod? 

Concern for community and social responsibility is at the forefront of purchasing, partnering and investing decisions. Don’t be afraid to warm hearts or show where you stand on social issues. 

Above all, people are looking to solve problems. Discuss them in a way that shows you empathize with your core audience’s challenges. 

Even a simple meme or GIF can communicate, “Hey, I know what you’re going through.” When your target audience starts thinking about who can help them solve that problem, you’ll be one of the first names that come to mind.

Is your content consistent and visual?

You’re not the only one out there trying to capture attention on LinkedIn. Our own research on how often you should post shows that consistent effort is necessary to attract eyes and ears.

Use scroll-stopping visuals that make readers pause an extra second on your posts. A picture is still worth a thousand words, so embrace visualizations and infographics. 

You can also start to build a connection with ideal prospects by making your company come to life with images and videos of your team. Show what they do for similar clients in your target market. 

Testimonials and brief case studies are other power tools. These endorsements make your company feel like a teammate that others want in their corner, too.

Most importantly, use tech tools to maintain a consistent schedule for posting. Sporadic messaging does little to establish your professionalism, while regular posts position you as an authority and an active organization that gets things done.

Are you targeting the right audience?

Other social media platforms may have a more extensive reach overall, but LinkedIn is uniquely positioned to help you tailor your message to better-qualified leads. 

Master using the Campaign Manager to understand how your content performs with different groups. You may learn that you’re focusing on the wrong audience or lack a genuine focus on the right groups.

As you study your results, determine why you’re getting your current level of engagement and how to concentrate on high-quality leads.

Are you establishing credibility with thought leadership?

Content marketing has better long-term results than straight advertising because it builds credibility. As companies look for more suitable ways of solving challenges, valuable content makes you a name they trust and a thought leader.

Those likes and comments on LinkedIn offer an easy way to show that other people approve of you. Such responses are public social proof that’s harder to demonstrate on your own website. 

Design information that teaches your prospects and motivates engagement, whether a like, comment or click. Of course, you want to get people to your site, so always link back to the content on your web pages to boost your SEO.

You become even more trustworthy when your team members post valuable articles and make insightful comments. Your ideal prospects will see you as an organization of skilled professionals that they can trust.

Are you experimenting with and improving your content?

Remember, your goal shouldn’t be to go viral. You should laser-focus on your niche to build an engaged fanbase.

When you experiment, expect to make a few missteps. Social media provides the optimal method for testing smaller posts and ideas to finding out what hits.

The key point is to be active on the platform. Set specific goals, create an actionable plan, implement your ideas, measure the ROI, refine your strategy and repeat.

Are you taking steps to use Linkedin as a catalyst for your B2B marketing?

LinkedIn shouldn’t be the only aspect of your B2B marketing, but you shouldn’t neglect it either. As you devise or refine your LinkedIn marketing strategy, determine how you can incorporate these suggestions into your plan of attack.

The post 6 tips for optimizing LinkedIn content for B2B marketing appeared first on MarTech.

“I think we’re entering a very disruptive phase for creativity for designers, illustrators, video producers and writers,” said Paul Roetzer, CEO of Marketing AI Institute, at the recent MarTech Conference. “I think AI came for knowledge work and creative work way faster than we were prepared for as an industry, and I think that 2023 is going to be a very hard year for a lot of people to grasp what is really possible now and what that means to organizations and writers and content teams.” 

Why we care. Advances in generative AI will likely affect content creation across the marketing profession, at brands and agencies alike. This means smaller organizations can in-house tasks they might have previously depended on agencies to execute. However, new generative AI technology will also be helpful to agencies, making content production more efficient and allowing them to better serve their clients.

Creative work at agencies. “In-house and on the agency side, marketers are already leveraging AI to help them do what they’re good at,” said Stephen Marcinuk, co-founder and head of operations for Intelligent Relations, a low-cost tool that uses AI to help companies craft news pitches and carry out other public relations functions.

“For creative content — ads, blocks of text on a website, sales emails, things of that nature — AI is good at getting from zero to something 80-to-90 percent there,” said Marcinuk. “A real pain point for creative marketers is to stare at a blank piece of paper.”

Generative AI chatbots can produce a number of creative options in short order that humans can then choose from, edit and finalize. For instance, it could provide five different versions of copy for a specific ad, or a number of potential headlines for a blog post.

Upskilling. “Some people say AI will just help get rid of the tedium and so creatives can do interesting work,” said Marcinuk. “I think that’s naïve, personally. Some real jobs will be lost in the next two-to-three years. There will need to be upskilling across the marketing industry to learn how to use this technology and do jobs better.”

At agencies, this means having more marketers focused on strategic thinking and client relations management, as well as brand positioning, testing and analytics.

Augmented intelligence. Adding AI to graphics and other creative tools, as Adobe has done with its new Firefly offering, helps people complete work with tools they weren’t trained to use.

“The tool itself has the intelligence to help you,” said Marcinuk. “That’s what you’re seeing with Firefly and different ad tools. You don’t know how to write great ad copy? Well, what do you want to say? It will help you say it in the right way.”

Generative AI models connect users with outside data sets that can bring a higher level of competence to writing and other creative tasks. This way, agencies can pitch new clients quicker without having to research an entirely new industry.

The AI can also improve language proficiency for non-native speakers. Therefore, it can be a leveler for non-native English speakers who want to break into English-language advertising, Marcinuk said.

In-housing. As generative AI tools evolve, smaller organizations might be able to manage tasks they’d traditionally outsource to agencies.

The Intelligent Relations platform does this by using AI models that generate appropriate news pitches while also finding news organizations and reporters likely to be interested in the pitch. And it offers these tools as a subscription, starting at $95 per month.

Managing your AI. Organizations of all sizes will be forced to take another look at their budget and staffing. While AI capabilities improve, it will be important for marketers at all levels to manage their AI tool much like employees.

“It will still be important to have humans in the loop for approval [of content],” said Marcinuk. “It’s the same as managing a person — communicate the standard and help employees hit the standard. Same with ChatGPT. You’ll have to say ‘no that’s not good enough, make it less verbose.’ You’ll still have to manage your AI for the foreseeable future.”

Dig deeper: New AI-powered product releases

The post Why ChatGPT may be a blessing and a curse for agencies appeared first on MarTech.

Here’s how to develop the best recommendation strategy for your site, content and audience. Most off-the-shelf content recommendation engines will not have all the capabilities discussed here, but knowing what’s possible will help you find the best solution for your business. 

What is content recommendation? 

Content recommendation systems suggest additional content to visitors based on what they will likely be interested in. For example:

• YouTube and Netflix use content recommendations to suggest additional videos and TV shows to their users based on their viewing history.
• Spotify finds patterns in musical tastes and recommends similar songs.
• My daughter says TikTok is amazingly good at finding relevant content for her. 

The goal in all these cases is to keep the visitor engaged with yet another compelling piece of content on your platform. But this raises two critical questions: 

• How does the system know what to recommend? 
• What is the context of the recommendation? 

How content recommendation works

Content recommendation relies on data analysis to accurately predict what content a user is likely to engage with. In general, it collects data on user behavior, such as what pages they’ve visited, what they’ve clicked on and how much time they’ve spent on each page. It can then generate different kinds of recommendations, including: 

• Popular articles on the site right now. 
• Popular articles in a specific category.
• Popular articles by a specific author.
• Articles read by visitors who read the current article. 
• Articles that visitors with similar browsing histories have read.
• Popular articles for people with a specific job title. 
• Articles read by people who are like the reader. 
• Articles read by people in a specific geographic area.  

Each option might have a different use for various content or on distinct areas of your website. You’ll notice that some of them (like “most popular on the site right now”) rely on simple analytics, while others (“people like you like these articles”) are based on look-a-like modeling. 

Drive-bys vs. regulars 

If your site is like most, a lot of visitors read one article and then leave. Getting some of those “drive-bys” to stay for one more page view can make a huge difference in your site traffic. Good content recommendation is one way to address that issue. 

The trouble is that you don’t know as much about the drive-bys. They have no history on your site, so it’s harder to do look-a-like modeling. But there are some options. 

• You can use third-party cookie/audience data for however long that is still available. 
• You can use data from the HTTP header, such as geolocation or referrer. 
• You can rely on general site statistics from your other readers. 

You have many more options with your regular visitors. In addition to everything you can do with the drive-bys, you can make predictions based on their unique browsing history, for example: 

• Show content similar to the content they have already viewed (in the same category, by the same author, with the same tags or keywords, etc.) 
• Compare their browsing history with those with similar browsing history and show the most popular articles among that larger group. 
• If you have demographic data on your regulars (i.e., job title), you can show the most popular articles for people with that job title. 

Multiple audiences

Many sites have two or more distinct audiences: free users vs. paid users, or B2B vs. B2C prospects. If that’s the case for your site, keeping them separate ensures you make the most relevant content recommendations. 

Here’s why. Consider a site about medications with content for consumers and doctors. You want to segregate those stats to recommend doctor content for doctors and consumer content for consumers. 

How to classify content 

The magic behind content recommendation relies on classifying content to match your and the reader’s goals. Content can be classified in several different ways, such as: 

• Words in the title. 
• Keywords or tags. 
• Word density in the article. 
• Categories. 
• Author. 
• Long vs. short articles. 

How the content is classified might affect your use case. For example, if your site has long articles and excerpts, you might not want to recommend long articles to people who prefer to read excerpts. 

Types of content recommendation algorithms 

There are various types of AI-based content recommendation algorithms that you can use to improve your website. Here are some of the most common ones. 

Collaborative filtering recommends content based on the behavior and preferences of similar users. It analyzes the historical behavior of users and recommends content that users with similar preferences have interacted with.

Content-based filtering recommends content similar to the user’s previously consumed content. It analyzes the content of the page the user is currently viewing and recommends similar content based on keywords, tags and other relevant information.

Hybrid recommendation combines collaborative filtering and content-based filtering to provide more accurate and diverse recommendations. It considers both user preferences and the characteristics of the content being viewed to make better recommendations.

Popularity-based filtering recommends content based on the popularity of the content. It recommends the most popular content viewed, shared or interacted with by many users. Combining popularity-based filtering with other types – for example, this content is most popular among people with this job title – is a very powerful tool. 

Knowledge-based filtering recommends content based on user profiles and preferences. It relies on user data and feedback to provide recommendations that match the user’s interests, such as previous purchases, ratings and reviews. 

Reinforcement learning recommends content based on the user’s actions and feedback. It learns from user interactions and feedback to improve its recommendations over time. 

Dig deeper: The ROI of recommendation engines for marketing

Choosing a content recommendation engine

As mentioned above, it’s unlikely that any given vendor can provide all of these options. Think about how you want to deploy content recommendations on your site, given your audience, your content and the range of possible options and decide which methods are most likely to work for your unique situation. Take that list to potential vendors and try to find the best match. 

Be sure to put the reader first 

One of the challenges in creating a successful content recommendation strategy is to ensure you’re putting the reader’s goals first. It’s too easy to fall into the trap of thinking about what you want the reader to do to promote your business model.

Instead, put yourself in the reader’s shoes and design your content recommendation strategy around what will help the reader find the content they want to find. That will be the best for your business in the long run. Addressing the reader’s needs will increase engagement, which is the primary goal. 

The post How to increase website engagement with content recommendations appeared first on MarTech.

The challenge in writing about content marketing experts is they’ve likely already written it and written it better. The people in this group have authored enough important and influential business books to stock a library. They write and produce content, they talk about it at conferences and they know where it’s going and why.

If you want your content to connect, these are the people who can tell you how. Without further adieu, we present in alphabetical order, MarTech’s content marketing experts to follow.

Scott Abel 

Scott is content strategy evangelist for Heretto and his nickname is “The Content Wrangler.” That’s also the name of his LinkedIn networking group for content professionals, which has more than 15,000 members. He’s co-author of “Intelligent Content: A Primer” and “The Language of Content Strategy” and creator of the Content Strategy Series of books from XML Press. Brand Quarterly Magazine ranked Scott as one of the 50 most influential marketing thought leaders.

• Website: The Content Wrangler 
• LinkedIn: ScottAbel (19K followers)
• Twitter: @scottabel (19K followers)

Michael Brenner 

Michael is CEO and founder of Marketing Insider Group. He’s author of two bestselling books,  “The Content Formula” and “Mean People Suck,” named one of the Best Inspirational Books of 2019 by by Inc Magazine. The MarTech contributor has been recognized as a Top Business Speaker by Huffington Post and a Top CMO Influencer by Forbes.

• Website: Marketing Insider Group
• LinkedIn: MichaelBrenner (32K followers)
• Twitter: @BrennerMichael (110K followers)

Ann Handley 

Ann may be biggest voice and influencer in content marketing. She’s chief content officer for Marketing Profs, the marketing training and education company with more than 600,000 subscribers. She is author of the best-selling books “Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content” and “Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business” (co-authored with C.C. Chapman).

• Website: AnnHandley
• LinkedIn: AnnHandley (460K followers)
• Twitter: @AnnHandley (458K followers)
• Instagram: @AnnHandley (27.6K followers)

A. Lee Judge 

Lee is the co-founder and CMO of Content Monsta, a content marketing agency focusing on creating multimedia business content such as videos, podcasts and virtual events. He has more than 25 years B2B marketing experience and is a leading LinkedIn video creator, Forbes Agency Council member and am in-demand event speaker. 

• Website: ALeeJudge
• LinkedIn: ALeeJudge (20K followers)
• Twitter: @ALeeJudge (11.6K followers)

Julia McCoy 

Julia is president of Content at Scale, as well as business content strategist at Content Hacker. She is the author of “The Content Writer’s Handbook,” “Practical Content Strategy and Marketing” and “Create Content Without Burnout: How Entrepreneurs Can Position Their Voice and Brand in the World Without Overload, Frustration or Burnout.” She hosts The Content Transformation Podcast and is a frequent contributor to Search Engine Land.

• Website: ContentHacker
• LinkedIn: JuliaEMcCoy 20K followers
• Twitter: @JuliaEMcCoy 20.5K followers

Aaron Orendorff 

Aaron is the head of marketing at Recart and founder of IconiContent. Previously, he was VP of marketing at Common Thread Collective, editor in chief of Shopify Plus and global deputy editor at Intuit QuickBooks. A member of the Forbes Communication Council, his work has appeared in  The New York Times, Mashable, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, Lifehacker, Inc., Success Magazine and the Content Marketing Institute.

• Website: IconiContent
• LinkedIn: AaronOrendorff (25K followers)
• Twitter: @AaronOrendorff (34K followers)

Joe Pulizzi 

A serial entrepreneur, Joe’s startups include the content entrepreneur event Creator Economy Expo (CEX) and the Content Marketing Institute. He’s the author of seven books including “Content Inc.” and “Epic Content Marketing,” which was named a Must-Read Business Book by Fortune Magazine. As if that wasn’t enough, Joe hosts two weekly podcasts, Content Inc. and This Old Marketing with Robert Rose. His foundation, The Orange Effect, delivers speech therapy and technology services to over 350 children in 35 states.

• Website: JoePulizzi.com
• LinkedIn: JoePulizzi (251K followers)
• Twitter: @JoePulizzi (152K followers)

Robert Rose 

Robert is founder and chief troublemaker for The Content Advisory, and the chief strategy advisor with the Content Marketing Institute. He’s the author of several books, including “Killing Marketing,” “Experiences: The Seventh Era of Marketing” and “Managing Content Marketing”. He’s a regular speaker at major conferences and co-hosts the podcast This Old Marketing with Joe Pulizzi.

• Website: RobertRose.net
• LinkedIn: RobRose (28K followers)
• Twitter: @Robert_Rose (52K followers)

Mark Schaefer 

Mark studied under Peter Drucker and has advanced degrees in marketing and organizational development. He is a faculty member of the graduate studies program at Rutgers University. He has written 10 books including “The Content Code,” “Marketing Rebellion,” “Belonging to the Brand” and “Return on Influence,” the first book ever written on influence marketing. Host of the podcast The Marketing Companion, Mark is also a columnist for The Harvard Business Review, and Entrepreneur Magazine.

• LinkedIn: MarkWSchaefer (30K followers)
• Twitter: @MarkWSchaefer (170K followers)
• Blog: BusinessesGrow

More MarTech experts to follow:

• Marketing operations
• AI and marketing
• Email marketing
• B2B marketing
• Content marketing

The post MarTech’s content marketing experts to follow appeared first on MarTech.

At the core of all good marketing is a great conversation. Yet, too much of the marketing we see today talks at people. That’s not a conversation.

Marketing is not advertising. Advertising can be a part of a marketing strategy, but it is just that, a part. And too many ads talk at people. Marketing today is about engagement. It’s about generating great content and offering solutions that start a conversation and keep it going. 

The most important element of the marketing equation is not the tool or the channel. It is the audience and how that audience engages with the messaging. The tools are just what you use to facilitate that engagement. Let’s go over the fundamentals in this article.

Who are you talking to?

Too many marketers fail to accurately answer this question before engaging in any marketing endeavor. 

Starting your marketing campaign without sufficiently defining the target audience is a recipe for wasted time and money. It happens less today than in the past, thanks to the readily available data we can pull from platforms like Google Analytics. 

Marketing data paints a picture

Most marketing efforts generate a lot of actionable data. But even before an organization engages in those efforts, relevant and useful data can still be found if they know where to look. 

Platforms like Semrush and Ahrefs, for example, will show you the following:

• What keywords are users entering to find your website and the sites of your competitors?
• How are they accessing information from those sites in terms of device and platform used?
• Where are they in the world?
• What are the demographics?

Google Analytics also offers a wealth of data that can tell you a lot about how your audience interacts with content, from acquisition channels to time on page and bounce rate. All these metrics are useful when getting familiar with your audience’s needs and behavioral patterns, but is it enough to really know your audience? My answer is no.

Nothing compares to real human data, and it is available if you look for it. One thing that drives Adele Revella, founder of the Buyer Persona Institute, completely nuts is when people develop so-called buyer personas, having never spoken to an actual buyer.

While tools like Semrush, Ahrefs and others can offer a mountain of useful data, as our CEO always says, “don’t trust the tools!” Check your data. More than that, Revella says, “check your customers.”

Buyer personas are who you’re talking to

Whether you side with Revella and believe that buyer personas should be real people or you believe, as others do, that they can be fictional representations of actual customers, you need to build them based on as much truth as possible.

Revella describes this process using what she calls the “5 rings of buying insight,” which are:

• Priority initiative insight: Hearing real buyers describe the “trigger moment” when your buyers knew they needed to spend money on a problem.
• Success factors insight: These are not the benefits you offer but the prioritized benefits they share with you.
• Perceived barriers: This is where the buyers tell you why they did not select certain products or vendors, including yours. 
• Decision criteria: These are the reasons they decided to buy or the value they saw in the product or service features. 
• Buyer’s journey: This is the process they use to make a buying decision. Where did they gather information? Who helped them? How long did it take? 

Revella recommends a series of phone, online video or in-person interviews with a select group of customers to gather these five insights. Interviews are preferred over surveys because they are conversational and give access to the more nuanced elements of their buying behaviors. Make sure you can record these for future reference. 

You would essentially use those five insights as your questions in those interviews. All that data is gold for developing your editorial calendar, understanding what your potential clients are looking for and supporting your sales team.

These are also prime topics of your marketing conversation. Let me explain.

The connected consumer

Today’s customers prefer to feel like they know the company they’re buying from. Especially the younger generations. They want to feel a connection to the companies they give money to. 

For example, in my interview with Sarah Weise, author of “Instabrain: The New Rules for Marketing to Generation Z,” she talks about how Gen Z expects personalization in marketing. They rely more on influencers, people they know and the creators of the content they like to find the information they need when making a purchase. 

This generation is also incredibly loyal once they feel they have a meaningful connection with a brand. I think this is also starting to be true for other generations, but not quite as pronounced. Either way, building that connection is critical to the marketing conversation. 

Dig deeper: Why we care about loyalty marketing

Marketing: Become human

“Content is king.” You’ve surely heard this a few thousand times. Still, it is true, probably more so than ever. Of course, anyone can create content. Machines can create content, sometimes not half-bad content.

A vast ocean of content is out there, and more is coming every day. So, how can you create content that allows you to stand out while creating more opportunities to connect with your buyers? 

Study your audience, learn their needs and create content that meets those needs. This is your secret weapon and will give you a competitive edge. 

No matter which marketing channel you use, your content must resonate with potential customers — otherwise, they won’t notice it. And each piece of your content, whether an ad, a newsletter or a social media post, must provide real value and be genuinely interesting for your audience. 

I would argue that you simply cannot create this kind of content with only a fictional persona based on dry numbers from a marketing dashboard. You must speak to humans. Moreover, you must speak to them in a human voice in your marketing efforts.

Good marketing requires truth and authenticity

Don’t confuse this approach with the fake friendliness many brands embrace today. Those fake marketing efforts take on a new level of cringe-worthiness. And today’s consumers are not buying it anymore. They are aware that brands are out there for their money. 

Today’s savvy buyers will part with their money if they feel they’ll get something valuable in return. And this is the point of a marketing conversation: convincing your customers that buying from you is a good thing… for them. How do you do this? 

Be honest. Be aware of their needs and provide them with the information they need. Do it in a respectful and meaningful way. Be useful. Be real. Create a community around your brand and be a part of this community.

It might sound simple, but doing this well is quite difficult. It may require you to review your priorities and processes completely. And some parts I mentioned above are almost impossible to translate into the language of dashboards and ROI charts. People buy from people.

Once you start to communicate directly with your customers and better understand them, you may find that your messaging will evolve into something better. Of course, the tools can help. One of which, surprisingly, is…

AI and the future of marketing

Many marketers are discussing the impact of generative AI on content marketing, SEO and more. It’s already happening. AI is being used for marketing by two-thirds of B2B organizations, according to Forrester. 

Everyone is talking about ChatGPT. If you’ve used it, you know that it is very much a chat feature. You ask it a question or give it a command, and it answers you. 

This is already impacting how search works, and that impact will continue to grow in the near future. Googling something is already a matter of “ask and answer.” You are having a conversation with a machine. 

With AI and other marketing technology, this will get easier and easier. To prepare for that, you need to know what questions your buyers will ask. For example:

• Your buyers will use AI-powered chat features on your website and others to get the information they need to lead them to a purchase. You can gain a mountain of useful data from your buyers’ questions. 
• AI will power advertising efforts to serve the buyers’ needs better. But be careful with this and ensure you don’t rely blindly on automated ad features. 
• AI will generate content based on your buyers’ exact questions.

Of course, AI is a tool. Remember, “don’t trust the tools!” Use your brain, insert your culture and personality. Double-check your information and cite trusted sources. And focus on being a go-to resource for your buyers. 

If you treat marketing as an active conversation with give and take and focus on your buyer’s needs, you will see success and develop a devoted fan and customer base who need you just as much as you need them. 

Don’t just take my word for it. Listen to our friend, ChatGPT…

Now, get those conversations started!

The post Going back to basics: Marketing as a conversation appeared first on MarTech.

If you had undeniable evidence that Domain Authority is irrelevant when it comes to the rankability of your organic content, what would you do differently as a marketer? If you could stop focusing on metrics that don’t matter for SEO, imagine how much more of your effort could be put into the one thing that matters: Developing content that ranks.

In this bold presentation DemandJump’s Chief Solution Officer, Ryan Brock, will dare you to evaluate how much stock you put into your website’s Domain Authority and why. 

Register today for “Domain Authority is Dead: Focus on SEO Content That Ranks,” presented by DemandJump.

Click here to view more MarTech webinars.

The post Domain Authority is dead: Focus on SEO content that ranks appeared first on MarTech.

Long-form content, in particular, can turn interest into action. Do it well, and you can generate leads and increase brand awareness. The catch is that long-form content must be worth it to be effective. 

This article will discuss how to use long-form content effectively and where to include it in your content marketing plan to develop stronger B2B relationships.

Key takeaways:

• You can find long-form content in different lengths, formats and contexts.
• The benefits of using long-form content include SEO value, building trust in business relationships and educating the reader.
• You need a strategy to create and implement long-form B2B content effectively.

Defining long-form B2B content

What is long-form content marketing? Marketers tend to throw this term around generously. You can find definitions with varying word counts, but “long” generally refers to written content between 1,200 and 7,500 words. It can be as casual as a how-to guide or company brochure or as in-depth as a case study or industry report.

With substantial content, how and where you use it is as important as the content itself. To reap the benefits, you need to map your content to meet the buyer at each touchpoint along their journey.

Benefits of using long-form content in B2B marketing

What do you get from using long-form content in your marketing strategy? The benefits are vast and calculable.

Gain higher search rankings

If you know anything about content creation, you know the power of search engine optimization. Well-crafted blog content pieces have significant SEO value for several reasons:

• It increases click-through rates and time on your page.
• Google’s algorithms prefer websites rich with content.
• It increases your chances of being a featured snippet from a Google search.
• It betters your opportunity to earn quality backlinks.
• Long-form content allows you to showcase your thought leadership.

Boosting your search rankings is one of the best ways to increase organic traffic and ROI. Who doesn’t want to drive more traffic to their business?

Assert your authority on the topic

Credibility is a brand owner’s dream. Long-form content allows you to detail what you have to offer the industry and how it differs from the competitors. 

This is why choosing content topics carefully is critical to successful content marketing. It is also your opportunity to show client’s how you can help them grow their business.

What do you do best? How can you translate that into well-organized and researched content? Answer these questions, and you will have the foundation for long-form B2B content designed to grow your brand.

Refurbish your hard work into other marketable content

Long-form content that goes into great depth about a subject can morph into other valuable marketing assets. Pull stats to create infographics or quizzes for social media content. You can turn your longest posts into ebooks or courses with minor alterations. 

Best practices for long-form B2B content

You now know the “what” and “why” of long-form content. Next, let’s go over the “how.” 

Consider how you can execute quality content targeting your B2B audience and provide your marketing team with content they can store for future use.

Evaluate your competitors’ content

What are your competitors doing? How can you improve upon it? These are the first questions to ask before committing to a long-form content strategy.

A Google search can show what other businesses say on a topic. Use that information to cultivate a voice for your brand by creating something entirely new or approaching the same topic from a unique perspective. 

Think about every opportunity to show your thought leadership with what you say and how that will help cultivate long-term relationships with new or existing clients.

Start with a plan

How well do you know your target market? With customer data platforms, marketers control data collection and segmentation, creating a database of content marketing gold. 

Once you know who your readers are, you know what they want or need to know. Then you can generate a content creation plan to keep them satiated.

Use formatting techniques to keep the reader interested

What you say and how you say it are equally important. You have the expertise to speak with authority. Now you need the format to keep the buyer interested and help move them to the next stage in your sales pipeline. Consider these techniques as you put together long-form content:

• Create smaller sections, making it easier to skim the content.
• Organize with detailed headings and subheadings.
• Include a content section with hyperlinks to headings for extra-long pieces.
• Use visual aids, such as infographics and charts, to deliver your message in more ways than one.

Keep the content informative, fluff-free and flowing easily into each new heading or subheading.

Implementing long-form content into the sales funnel

Remember, just because long-form content works doesn’t mean every piece you create must be over 1,200 words. Instead, a balanced and effective B2B marketing strategy uses an omnichannel and multi-technique lead generation approach.

For example, you can impress clients with a how-to guide during the early stages of interactions. Use a case study or industry report to capture their imagination when demonstrating your field expertise. 

Then, hit them with an interactive piece near the final decision stage, such as a tutorial. Long-form content can improve any marketing and sales funnel.

Long-form content creates long-term success

Clarity and brevity are the hallmarks of B2B marketing. Apply that to long-form content to create pieces with a wealth of reusable information. Remember, longer content is only helpful when the information is valuable. 

By keeping your content informative and diving deep into how a partnership will benefit you both, you can use long-form content to develop relationships with existing and new business clients.

The post A B2B marketer’s guide to long-form content appeared first on MarTech.

Scheduled posts. Marketers can now schedule the specific date and time for posts to run on their organization’s LinkedIn page. The new capability allows users to schedule content within the LinkedIn platform, instead of depending on a third-party marketing or publishing tool.

Posts can be scheduled up to three months in advance, and all scheduled posts can be viewed and managed within the platform.

Live audio-only conversations. LinkedIn Audio Events, another new feature, allows users to host live conversations without video. The host announces the event and LinkedIn users can RSVP ahead of time, all in-platform.

Audio Events are structured informally, with a speaker on the “stage.” Other virtual attendees can raise their hand and be invited to join the stage and speak, if they choose.

LinkedIn already has a LinkedIn Live product for video events, but users need a third-party broadcasting tool to use it. There are no charges for events products, but LinkedIn requires creators and orgs to have 150 or more followers to their Page in order to host an event.

Dig deeper: How to personalize your brand on LinkedIn

Posting new jobs automatically. LinkedIn has also introduced an opt-in to post new job posts automatically on Pages.

If this option is chosen, LinkedIn will share one new job per day as a pre-scheduled post on the organization’s Page.

Following for Pages. Pages used by organizations can now follow other pages, in the way that individual LinkedIn users can follow others.

Why we care. Social media scheduling tools have long been a part of the digital marketer’s stack at larger and more mature organizations. LinkedIn is making it easier to schedule content and post jobs in-platform with a smaller budget and content staff. The new Audio Events give B2B marketers an added opportunity to share industry views and exchange ideas in a more casual way, hitting a middle ground between a written article and a professional video talk.

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4. WriteSonic

WriteSonic is one of the most affordable AI writing tools designed to generate long-form pieces of up to 3,000 words. You can find helpful comments about it on the software review site G2. The kicker is that you can find pretty much the same reviews for each tool on the list, so let’s test WriteSonic on a real task.

How to generate a B2B blog post with WriteSonic

What sets WriteSonic (WS) apart from other tools is that it prompts you to use SEO-ready templates (workflows). It’s suitable for straightforward content like “How to grow avocados at home” but is more limited for B2B pieces, where you must constantly tweak your content or ask AI to rewrite paragraphs on the fly.

That said, I’ll use a template to craft a 3,000-word article.

Step 1: Find your keywords

WriteSonic puts content optimization front and center. First, the tool asks you to specify a topic for the article and automatically puts together a list of relevant keywords. Select those you want to optimize a piece for.

Step 2: Get ideas for a title and generate an outline

The set-up process is similar to other tools, but WriteSonic limits you to choose only one tone of voice for title ideas and content generation. It cannot combine and write in different styles like Jasper or ChatGPT. 

Regarding outlines, WriteSonic offers six options revolving around B2B appointment-setting services. However, I’ll go with my initial outline and see whether it can best human-written content. 

Step 3: Generate a whole piece

WriteSonic did strictly follow my outline and expand on all my given points. Unfortunately, it was too repetitive and created a piece that would be easier to trash rather than edit. Read the text in the red boxes.

That’s not a usable result. But let’s give WriteSonic one more try and see what content quality we’ll get for a simple B2C piece like “How to Pick a Ripe Pineapple.“

Sadly, the tool continued to generate repetitive, slightly paraphrased paragraphs, though they certainly don’t lack sense. If I wrote a piece about pineapples, I could use this text as a rough draft and quickly extract usable ideas.

But let’s admit it, long-form content is not WriteSonic’s strong side. Jasper can do way better.

Although these comments sound like a solid “no-go” for WriteSonic, I recommend you try it for other copywriting tasks like creating social media copy or landing pages.

Pricing

• Try all features for free until you reach 2,500 words.
• Paid plans start at $19/month with 19,000 words and one user.

5. Copy.ai

Copy.ai is a one-stop shop for long-form and sales copywriting. It generates full product descriptions, landing pages and emails. The system remembers your writing style and preferences.

Copy.ai has a set of features for blog post creation. It can:

• Generate titles and meta descriptions in seconds.
• Check for duplicate content.
• Generate FAQs and listicles in one click.
• Pick up the tone to match your brand voice.
• Help with search engine optimization.
• Create “cliffhangers” for your copy.

How to generate a blog post with Copy.ai

Copy.ai offers two ways to write a blog post: Freestyle and Blog Post Wizard. The Freestyle mode suggests related ideas for paragraphs or sentences based on the purpose of a piece and its title. After testing this feature, I didn’t see much practical value for long-form content.

Blog Post Wizard mode follows a step-by-step process for generating blog posts. It starts by giving you an idea, follows by writing the outline and creating talking points and ends with an industry-standard article. 

Craft an article with Blog Post Wizard

First, I haven’t seen a tool that would give talking points to an outline before composing a whole piece. Copy.ai has generated surprisingly solid talking points for B2B appointment setting. Check it out.

What’s more, you can generate more talking points for a heading and pick the best ones. Likewise, you can rewrite the output or add/edit a talking point.

Here’s the final draft. 

This is actually good. An uncanned intro, short and on-point paragraphs without awkward or repetitive blocks. Highlighted in green is auto-completed text chosen from four Copy.ai suggestions.

I would use this copy for the rough draft without second-guessing. What’s left for a writer is to piggyback on ideas and bridge the gap with insights, real-life examples and visuals.

What else can you do with Copy.ai for blog post writing?

• Develop a relevant and engaging story about a topic in two sentences.
• Find stronger alternatives to verbs and adjectives, like using a thesaurus.
• Make up relatable analogies for any topic.

Pricing

• Freemium up to 2,000 words/month.
• A 7-day free trial of the Pro plan.
• The Pro plan costs $49/month and comes with unlimited words.

The verdict

All tools have their target audiences, but Jasper and ChatGPT (see part one) beat any competition for blog post writing. They give you full control over composing paragraphs and rewriting, which the other tools do not.

If you are looking for a cheaper alternative, try Copy.ai. As you’ve seen in the samples, it can deliver high-quality results for one-shot articles and comes with engaging features for storytelling. And let’s not forget that Copy.ai offers unlimited words on the Pro plan.

The post Two afforable AI writing assistants in action appeared first on MarTech.

ChatGPT has been taking over every social media feed and news headline since its debut in late 2022. The tool challenges the one trait humans always thought they would have over machines — creativity. 

As marketers explore this generative AI tool without restriction, CMOs must assess its impact along three key functions: content production, ideation and market research.

Assessing ChatGPTs impact on key marketing functions

1. Content production

Vendors have been touting AI’s ability to improve creative productivity by eliminating mundane tasks for years. Still, tools like ChatGPT have raised the bar by creating draft copy and briefs on par with interns or entry-level employees — potentially making their skills redundant. Staff should be sourced and evaluated on the ability to act as editors and supervisors for machine-generated marketing copy and proposals, such as agency creative briefs.

Relieved of first-draft writing tasks, they’ll need the editorial skills to turn generic prose into distinctive expressions of brand voice and business goals while catching anomalies. As basic creative tasks become operationalized, marketing teams can shift resources to more strategic work. 

2. Ideation

ChatGPT and its visual counterparts are powerful tools for creative brainstorming. Creative teams are rapidly developing new skills in “prompt engineering.” learning how to use language in chatbot sessions with ChatGPT to issue prompts. 

This skill will accelerate and broaden the scope of creative concepts that can be generated and tested, challenging traditional branding methodologies by encouraging out-of-the-box thinking that existing guidelines may not anticipate. 

Dig deeper: Does ChatGPT pose an existential threat to marketers?

3. Market research

ChatGPT is skilled at emulating customer personas in hypothetical interviews. While caution is warranted in mistaking its answers for actual field research, it can:

• Clearly refine the design of surveys and focus studies by providing a baseline for testing hypotheses and methodologies.
• Be directed to ask questions from a persona’s viewpoint.
  This may spark insights into key areas of research that are not initially obvious to marketers.

In addition, brands can use ChatGPT to gather and curate competitive information across messaging, product offerings, advertising and reviews (although its model is currently based on information available prior to 2022). But this also means competitors can do the same.

Dig deeper: Three things ChatGPT needs which only you can provide

Top ChatGPT considerations for marketers

Separate from data-related challenges and the possibility of “hallucinations” and wrong answers, CMOs must recognize numerous ethical and brand-related risks when planning for generative AI’s responsible use.

Gartner expects 70% of enterprise CMOs will identify accountability for the ethical use of AI among their top concerns by 2025. Misinformation, bias, copyright and transparency are all serious considerations in the ethical use of ChatGPT in marketing. 

As one example, ChatGPT, like the internet it learns from, lacks veracity. It’s trained to predict the content of an answer without evaluating its basis. This lack of truth-based context demands that brands continue to apply human oversight. 

Other brand-related cautions include:

1. Brand safety

Tools like ChatGPT are also likely to increase the volume of text produced by bots in social media with ill intent. This will escalate the need for organizations to monitor and respond to false and defamatory content, perhaps via a content authenticity function Gartner expects to be present in most marketing organizations by 2027.

2. Impact on search

Currently, ChatGPT is a complementary and partial alternative to search – not a replacement – since it focuses on generative approaches to answers rather than content discovery (this document, this sentence). Keep a close eye on how the increase in data in the training set and supervised learning continues to advance new versions of GPT.

Dig deeper: ChatGPT set to shake up search

3. Designed for consistency

ChatGPT’s out-of-the-box ability to produce consistent results limits the variability of its output. Attention to detail and human review of generated content are necessary to ensure that empathy, cultural awareness and perspective are provided to develop novel ideas.

3 near-term recommendations for CMOs

As ChatGPT and other generative AI tools become more mainstream, marketing organizations should act on talent, budget and strategy considerations in the nearer term.

1. Talent

Review staffing plans, skill sets and job descriptions to emphasize skills and experience with reviewing, editing and fact-checking text. From an agency perspective, ensure internal and external talent are up-to-speed on public AI usage policies and seek out creative developers familiar with ChatGPT API.

2. Budget

Free and low-cost tools like ChatGPT may be able to replace some costly features and functions supported by legacy martech applications and agency feeds, so work with IT to identify redundant capabilities and expect agency budgets for content production to drop.

3. Strategy

Accelerated content generation will put more pressure on distinct brand positioning as copy production explodes and more competitors rely on common models. Use newfound employee capacity to create diverse internal testing and review panels to speed up the evaluation of messaging, ads, social posts and other assets before committing to distribution. 

CMOs must steer the responsible use of AI

CMOs urgently need to compile a list of active use cases impacted by ChatGPT and collaborate with peers to establish policies and practical guidelines to steer its responsible use. Start with the basics as the possibilities of the software continue to get unpacked. 

For many organizations, leveraging custom models under IT governance, with an eye toward marketing’s pragmatic use cases, will yield the most transformative benefits.

ChatGPT marks a pivotal turning point in the role of generative AI in business and society. It may give way to newer products over time, but its capabilities will surely transform how people interact with technology.

The post How CMOs should respond to ChatGPT’s marketing impact appeared first on MarTech.