What do B2B and education marketing have in common?
What’s the #1 thing B2B and education marketing have in common? I’ll give you a clue. They both need quality content!
Both sectors generally have high financial stakes if the wrong decision is made, whether that's choosing the wrong degree or professional development course, or the wrong product or service for your business.
The number 1 thing education and B2B have in common is the importance of content marketing in their strategy.
Here are my top 4 reasons why content is so important.
#1 Long decision-making cycle
More often than not, there is a very long browsing stage for businesses buying from other businesses or students looking for the right course. To mitigate any risk, build trust, and make sure the right product is chosen, the buyer needs as much information as possible.
This is where your website comes in and an excellent content marketing strategy. It has the power to convert a 'browser' to someone with an active interest in your product or programme.
There are loads of ways and opportunities to create interesting content, firstly to create a well-informed customer and secondly to position your company or institution as a leader. It just takes a lot of time.
#2 Benefits and features-led marketing
When selling to B2B, and to some extent education as well, it's important to promote the benefits AND the features. Plenty of good quality content - such as eBooks, brochures, case studies, videos etc - can give you plenty of opportunity to cover both things.
#3 Giving away free information - a key lead generator
A key lead generator, for B2B and education, is giving away useful and free information.
Once you have your customer engaged in your content, you should be encouraging the website visitor to get in contact for more free content.
Sell the free demonstration or free prospectus, not the product or course. Capturing email addresses (in a GDPR-friendly manner, of course) is a top goal.
Having content that gives value creates those great high-quality leads that are already engaged and informed. This is as true for B2B as it is for the education sector.
#4 User-generated content
Both B2B and education marketing benefit hugely from user-generated content. Whether that’s reviews, social media posts, blog posts from current students or businesses using your product. All of this provides social proof that adds positively to the information needed by people during the buying process.
All of this takes a lot of time and effort
All of this content production takes a lot of time. Plenty of effort is needed to decide on what quality and useful content your prospective customers or students will need.
