There is a lot of information on this blog that caters specifically to individual authors; but, until today, there wasn’t much here for the business authors—the executives who produce non-fiction books as part of their corporate marketing strategies. That’s why I was so grateful to connect with Ian Dainty on LinkedIn recently. As a CEO, business-to-business (B2B) sales and marketing coach, strategic business advisor, speaker, trainer, and B2B blogger, Ian is the perfect person to fill this “content void” on the PPG Publisher’s Blog.

I’m sending out a special thank you to Ian for allowing us to share this recent post from his own blog titled ‘Why B2B Content is So Important’ as it provides a fresh perspective (including relevant statistics) to back up so much of the other information here. Not only is it valuable to have a book published and available online nowadays, but it is also crucial to have a diversified platform to promote that book through because, as Ian states below, “…People gather information from mixed sources. So you need to put your content on a few social media sites. Blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube and Google+ are relevant for B2B buyers.”

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Everyone is telling you that you need more and more content in order to grow your business.

But you’re not sure why it’s so important, and how to ensure you are getting the right content in front of your potential clients.

And there is so much content on the web that you wonder if your content is going to matter, and will the right people see it?

Let’s have a look at why B2B content is so important, and how to ensure the right people see it.

Importance

The reason B2B content is so important is because that’s how your potential clients are judging you, and more importantly, finding you now.

Here are some significant statistics for you to know.

1. 90% of B2B buyers say when they’re ready to buy, they’ll find you. (Earnest)
2. 94% of B2B buyers report conducting some degree of research online before making a business purchase. (Acquity Group)
3. Content creation is marked as the single most effective search engine optimization (SEO) technique. (Marketing Sherpa)
4. Most buyers are 50-60% of the way into the buy cycle before they’ll talk to you (Earnest)
5. 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement. (CMI)
6. 81% of B2B CEOs believe that the importance of marketing has increased, and 46% of them say significantly. (Stein IAS)
7. 73 percent of tech buyers surveyed said they consume two to eight assets (articles, videos, eBooks, pdf’s, etc.) before they purchase. (Eccolo Media)

Ensure Your Content is Relevant & Distributed Properly

The other side of the marketing coin is to ensure your content is relevant and distributed to the right platforms for maximum viewing and effect. Here is why that is so important.

1. 66% of B2B marketers with a documented content strategy feel they are effective, vs 11% of B2B marketers who don’t have a content strategy. (CMI)
2. 78% of CMO’s think custom content is the future of marketing. (Ragan)
3. Peer reviews matter. Ensure you have case studies and testimonials that sell. Customer testimonials are the most effective form of content marketing. (SocialTimes)
4. People gather information from mixed sources. So you need to put your content on a few social media sites. Blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube and Google+ are relevant for B2B buyers.
5. 87% of B2B marketers use social media to distribute content. (CMI and Marketing Profs)
6. The average content length for a web page that ranks in the top 10 results for any keyword on Google has at least 2,000 words. The higher up you go on the search listings page, the more content each web page has. (QuickSprout)
7. 83% of B2B marketers invest in social media to increase brand exposure; 69% to increase web traffic; and 65% to gain market insights. (Social Media Today)

Click here to view the original post on Ian’s blog. It was republished here with his permission.

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IAN’S BIO:

Ian Dainty is the CEO of Maximize Business Marketing. Ian has close to 40 years’ experience in B2B marketing & sales. Ian started his career at IBM, in the large systems division, in 1974. He has owned, operated and sold two successful businesses in the technology field.

For the past 20 years, Ian has been working with B2B companies, helping them increase their revenue by 25% to 100% over forecasts, through better marketing and sales strategies and techniques.

With the advent of the Internet, and all of its many platforms for reaching people, Ian has become a student, researcher, advocate, coach and mentor, helping companies use these tools wisely, as well as more traditional marketing and sales strategies, to help B2B companies grow.

Ian has a good grasp of the marketing capabilities of websites, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, PPC, and YouTube.

Ian also has over 40 years of B2B selling experience. He has trained and coached thousands of sales people, marketers, executives and business owners in how to sell their products and services.

Ian has developed, through his years of experience and also through extensive research and interviews, a methodology for growing your current accounts. The methodology is Strategic Account Management or SAM. It is taught to you and your team through extensive training and coaching.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/iandainty

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iandainty

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/iandainty

© Ian Dainty 2017

All https://blog.polishedpublishinggroup.com guest posts from before 2017 were included in Diary of an Indie Blogger VOL 1 which can be downloaded from Amazon, Kobo, or E-Sentral free of charge. All other guest posts from the original PPG Publisher’s Blog have been moved here: https://polishedpublishinggroup.com/category/guest-bloggers/.