Better B2B Content Marketing: Allocating Content To The Right Departments

Valuable and useful content is now the cornerstone of every successful B2B marketing campaign. But in order to use that content effectively, you’ll need to streamline your content marketing strategy by making sure that every department—from sales to public relations—has access to it. Each team that has a role in the buyer’s journey should be utilizing the content that you are creating.

Are you setting up your teams for success? One study found that 70 percent of all B2B marketing content wasn’t used by sales teams. Even marketing teams in the B2B arena don't often have access to the right content.

Your content marketing strategy will be more effective when you give each team the content it needs to prove credibility with prospective buyers. Which teams should you allocate your content to? And most importantly, what kind of content is most useful for each department?

YOUR SALES TEAM

Your sales team probably needs a lot more content than you realize. There’s a sea of competition out there, and the sales team needs to be able to show proof of how your product works, and why it’s better than everything else on the market. If you’re launching a new product in your B2B company, this is especially true. Set up sales for success by making sure they have:

1. Product Demos. Any product demos on your website are probably already very successful. Capitalize on that success by putting demos in the hands of your sales team, as well. They’ll take that product proof and deliver it to the outside.
2. Since your sales team needs to prove product differentiation from your competitors, they can effectively use charts and similar documentation that makes clear comparisons between your products and others. Visuals make the buying decision easier when they clearly illustrate the benefits of your product side-by-side with the competition.

Both product demos and charts are especially effective for trade shows. The sales team needs undeniable proof that your product is different from every other product in the industry. Even slight differences can encourage the buyer to make a final decision.

YOUR MARKETING TEAM

While the sales team needs content that shows proof of product differentiation, the marketing department needs content that exhibits industry expertise. They can take that content and spin it into more expansive marketing campaigns. Supply your marketing team with:

1. Review the blog posts that you’ve published, and try to think about what they can offer in terms of showing how your company’s industry leadership. The marketing team knows how to use this information to get prospective buyers’ attention by repurposing the message in social media posts or as marketing slogans.
2. The marketing team will be able to utilize the industry-specific videos that you’ve made to prove your expertise. They’ll integrate this industry authority in your brand message, for an overall more effective marketing campaign.

The marketing team can use both blogs and video for online and offline promotions, so make sure that they have the content they need to do what do they best: getting your brand out there and generating leads.

YOUR PUBLIC-RELATIONS TEAM

Public relations are an important element of your B2B marketing, and that department needs to be able to bring show what your products can do, offer industry insight, and promote trust in your brand. Set them up with:

1. Press Releases. News stories bring attention and immediacy to your marketing campaign that your public-relations team can take advantage of.
2. Analyst Briefings. Briefings will help foster a sense of trust from those in your industry, and offer insight to specific problems and how you can solve them.

Your public-relations team can send this content to the media so that your unique company message is seen by far more prospective buyers.

Historically, B2B content has been under the umbrella of upper management, and hasn’t been distributed to those teams that are actually on the ground talking to buyers. With content now playing a crucial role in B2B marketing, that’s all changing. Allocate content to the right department in order to streamline your content marketing strategy. You’ll boost your campaign and see vast improvements on how effectively you use your resources.