B2B Content Marketing – five or so mistakes

In B2B marketing, content marketing is what works.  It’s all about generating content that the target audience will value, then driving that content into the market and out over the web.  An example: mobithinking.com, a website packed with content for mobile marketers that we’re doing with our client, dotMobi.

A recent Junta 24 blog post lists ‘five mistakes’ that content marketers make (I count six, but let’s not quibble).  All good stuff:

Five[ish] Content Marketing Mistakes Made by Marketers

They give up on the content program too quickly.
It takes some time to build a real relationship with customers.  Some corporations start a newsletter or blog and expect magic to happen in three months.  Usually doesn’t happen.  Content marketing must be consistently delivered in order to really build a relationship.

They don’t understand the informational needs of the customer.
Businesses need to leverage free online tools such as Google Alerts and Twitter as listening posts to then develop great content.

They don’t ask for help.
Many companies leave this to internal marketing or pr people.  Many times these people can’t take their sales hats off – so the content isn’t perceived as valuable to the customers.  Almost all businesses can afford to hire a journalist or partner with a custom content provider who has expertise in content that is important to your customers.

They don’t integrate the content program with their overall marketing.
In many companies, a corporate magazine, newsletter or enewsletter seems to fall outside of the other marketing initiatives.  Integrating both can be powerful.

They see social media as just another distribution channel for selling
And don’t see it as an opportunity to get closer to customers and begin to better understand their needs.

They don’t plan. 
You need to plan out good content and not just rush to get content out when you see an opportunity. Editorial calendar anyone?

It’s funny how new buzzwords emerge to describe fairly well-established things.  Content Marketing seems to be emerging as a buzzword for B2B marketing agencies and B2B marketers in general.  We’re happy to hop on this particular bandwagon — after all, it’s what we do.