Lead Generation is both the biggest goal and the biggest challenge of every marketing team out there. Countless tactics and initiatives can be carried out, and I’m sure either you or your marketing team has tried them all. But ensuring that your plan of action is effective and will yield the results you’re after is no simple feat.

At Influence & Co., we’ve found that our most consistent and cost-effective strategy for generating leads is content marketing. In the same breath, we understand that a lot of companies struggle with it.

Content Marketing is a long-term play, and in order to see results, you need a perfect combination of the right strategy and the right content, and you need to create that content consistently.

For the past decade, content marketing has become all the rage, and with good reason.

It has become the vehicle businesses use to communicate with customers. It allows businesses to transform from nameless enterprises looking to make a sale to organizations that want to add value to customers by providing valuable content.

A content audit is an essential part of any content marketing strategy.

At its simplest, a content audit starts with gathering all of your data that is associated with the content you have created. Then by analyzing that data you can identify and better understand patterns in how your audience engages with your content.

The goal of a content audit is to perform a qualitative analysis of all the content your business has created, and use the insights gained to improve future content marketing strategies.

There are lots of ways to drive conversions. We’re always told how much copy matters - how it builds trust with people, how using social proof and reviews add credibility, and how telling a story pushes emotional buttons.

But, humans process images 60,000 times faster than text. Simply put, we process visual data better than written data. 

The biggest problem you might be facing is knowing what images to create to drive conversions. 

If content marketers thought marketing couldn’t get any more technologically advanced, they were sadly mistaken.

Content Marketing has gone through many transformations in recent years. From more of an emphasis on marketing analytics to the increased use of automation, the intersection of content marketing and technology is evolving.

Now, content marketers are looking to dive deeper into the possibilities of what content can do. How can they align their content marketing goals with their business goals in one place? Is that even possible? Content Intelligence is a prime example of how technology can complement content marketers.

Storytelling is an Art. As a business, when you tell a story about your values, products or solutions, it paints a picture and allows your audience to connect with your business. 

When your audience hears a relatable story or similar anecdote to their real life experiences, they are intrigued and establish a connection with your brand.

Storytelling not only enhances the perception of your brand, but when executed correctly can actually impact your business. Neil Patel states, "62% of B2B marketers rated storytelling as an effective content marketing tactic in 2017".

Content Marketing has become incredibly vital to the success of businesses and organizations in recent years, and its importance will only continue to grow in the future. If you’re new to the world of content marketing, there’s no better time to perfect it than now.

According to a survey conducted by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) in 2016, 88% of B2B respondents were using content marketing.

Before we dive into content marketing trends to look out for, you may be asking yourself, “what exactly is content marketing?”

Honestly, who doesn’t want to improve their conversion rates?

Consistent conversion improvement is a goal that drives every functional area within a company.

However, the marketing team has some tools at their disposal to increase this number drastically. The difficulty comes in how to do this properly. While there are many methods marketers may take to improve conversion rates, one of the best is creating compelling and engaging content. Why is content so important to conversions?

What is a Content Strategy?

Explaining content strategy can be somewhat difficult.

It is best defined as the "creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content.”

To break it down, your content marketing strategy is the foundation that guides your content marketing plan.

Content Marketing is Everything.

It can catapult an unknown business into a brand people rely on. As a brand, you can create data-driven content guided by your content marketing strategy, adding value to their business and building a community until they become your loyal customers and brand advocates.

However, it doesn’t happen overnight.

Did you know that 96 percent of individuals who visit your website are not ready to buy anything (but likely will in the future)? Many consumers and business product buyers are doing the online equivalent of window shopping when they find their way to your products and services.

According to a 2015 Google Survey, 89 percent of B2B researchers used the internet during their product research process.

So, how do you keep them engaged until they are ready for a B2B sale?

Content Creation is difficult. But, it is a priority for most marketing teams.

After all, content marketing gets three times more leads than paid search advertising (Content Marketing Institute, 2017).

With that in mind, life as a content marketer can be made easier by combining any number of the below content marketing tools.

If you're new to marketing, all the terms getting thrown around can become a bit confusing.

Inbound marketing, outbound marketing, content marketing - what does it all mean?

In this post, we will give you a definition of inbound marketing and how it can fuel your content marketing strategy.

The phrase coined by Bill Gates, "Content is King" still holds true.

Content continues to dominate the digital marketing landscape. However, the types of content businesses are creating is changing rapidly and is heavily influenced by various factors including conversion rates, click through rates and customer acquisition cost.

Of the factors mentioned, Customer Acquisition Cost is a key indicator of success for any content marketing strategy.

Content Marketing is one of the most effective uses of your marketing budget. It generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less.

While this is an impressive statistic, for it to hold true for your business you need to ensure you have a comprehensive content marketing plan.

Scoring your content can help see that your content marketing strategy is successful and your budget is being well spent on content your customers will engage with.

Creating a content marketing strategy for your business is no easy task. It was once a lot of trial, error, and guesswork, but with the help of big data and machine learning you can now publish content knowing that it will perform.

B2B vs B2C: What is the difference?

B2B (Business to Business) content marketing is an entirely different ball game than B2C (Business to Consumer) content marketing, which is what most people are used to engaging with.

B2B focuses on building professional relationships and giving your audience value. Contrary to popular belief, B2B content marketing is a more complex and elongated process, with the primary goal being to acquire new customers.

B2C focuses on eliciting an emotional response from an audience. While the primary goal is also to acquire new customers, the B2C content marketing process is much simpler and therefore shorter in duration.

Although there are differences between B2B and B2C content marketing, one similarity is the use of content marketing to generate leads or new business opportunities.

Let's see how a B2B and B2C content marketing strategy might differ in today's world, and learn how to get started.

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

The internet-savvy consumer of today, who spends a great deal of time online, creates opportunities for brands to tap into their prospects’ mind by sharing compelling stories and adding value.

AI is the new content marketing. It’s no longer the faceless Hollywood science-fiction movie character it was in the 90’s.

It’s helping companies crunch data at an unprecedented speed and deliver highly personalized content to their customers.

Even as content marketing has assumed greater adoption in the B2B industry today, it still hasn’t been able to solve one of the most perplexing challenges content marketers face on a daily basis.

The challenge is many of them are not really sure what kind of content they should produce to address the concerns of their niche audience.