Identify Buyer Problems and Create Content that Addresses Them

Of all the marketing strategies that you’ve developed for your B2B company, identifying your buyers’ most pressing problems should be at the core of those marketing efforts.

Then again, you may not really know exactly what problems your buyers face. Perhaps you have a good idea based on guesswork and from basic information that you've acquired from past buyers.

However, this doesn't really capture the full picture of what your buyers want. The reason they buy from you in the first place is to solve a problem, and often, those problems are unique just to them.

How do you get a full scope of what all of your buyers are facing, so that you can better target them with your marketing campaign? The two most effective ways of understanding what problems your customers need solved is by linking up with them on social media, and by consulting with your own company's employees and other industry experts on your team.

Once you have that information, distill it into different content marketing outlets. This will encourage questions and comments from prospective buyers, and stimulate conversations with current customers.

FINDING INFORMATION THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

In order to better personalize social media, B2B businesses are starting conversations that aren't a hard sell. No matter what your B2B industry is, you can almost always find a conversation going on under a simple hashtag search on Twitter. Watch these conversations to see what businesses are talking about and what kind of problems they're having the most trouble solving.

When you start a conversation, stick to the subject without any selling or links to your products. Instead, start a natural conversation and ask questions to glean some details about what these businesses look for in a product.

By proving your expertise in this area without selling, you'll have automatic followers that will see any content you post later. They'll discover that you're the answer to their problems by visiting your website and clicking your calls to action.

FINDING INFORMATION ON THIRD-PARTY SITES

You don't have to scope out typical business problems on social media alone. Third-party sites like B2B discussion boards are sometimes even better because you can engage in longer conversations that go on for days or weeks. While it's a more delayed conversation process, you can find out many more details about what businesses face today.

Discussion boards also have more organized ways to maintain discussions with multiple people. You might be able to converse with a dozen different businesses at once so you see what different industries face and whether your products could help them. Be sure to ask questions rather than just displaying your knowledge.

TALK TO YOUR STAFF

You likely have people on your staff who have as much or even more industry knowledge than you do. Meet with them to brainstorm on what problems your buyers typically face and how your products factor into the equation. Don't neglect to include your staff when in your content marketing efforts. They can answer questions in any comment section you have on your blogs.

Private messages are an additional avenue in which your buyers may reveal what they need from your product. If your buyers write you there with questions on your social media content, do not hesitate to answer as quickly as possible. What you find out there can help you tweak your content so that it's better targeted to addressing and solving issues that are typically ignored.