B2B content syndication is a powerful tool for audience activation and lead generation. This tactic fits well into an integrated digital marketing campaign and complements your other marketing efforts. Targeting your audience with B2B content syndication is a great way to fill your pipeline and drive more results. To get the most out of your content syndication campaigns you need to use the right content.
What is B2B content syndication?
B2B content syndication is a marketing tactic used by B2B marketers to get their content in front of a wider audience by publishing on another organization's property. The idea behind content syndication is that you can collect data from those who download your content. Then you can use that data to retarget the reader you already know is interested in your content.
How to choose the right content
It all boils down to creating good content. The content that performs best in content syndication is well thought out and high-quality. If someone is exchanging their contact information in order to download your content, they expect they’re getting accurate and helpful content.
It’s content that gives your reader value and answers a question they have. This is why it’s essential to know your audience. Understanding your audience means you’ll be able to serve them content that they want and in turn, it will perform well.
Think about your audience
When creating any content, but especially content for syndication, you should start by thinking about your audience. Who are you trying to reach? It's best practice when developing content is to keep your ideal customer profile or ICP in mind. If you haven’t already identified your ICP, start there. To build an ICP you should outline characteristics in these categories:
- Demographic
- Behavioral
- Intent
- Psychographic
- Buying group
You may be able to build one out using your own data, but consulting a data provider can help you fill in any gaps and make sure you have all the in-depth data needed.
By first mapping out your audience you not only develop better content, but you can also use your persona knowledge and data to target the right audience for your syndication program. Content syndication varies in sophistication, and can include account-based content syndication and intent-based content syndication. Layering intent data onto your content syndication program is a popular way to reach your audience at the right time. No matter what content syndication program you deploy, it starts with understanding your audience and the creation of audience-centric content.
Where are they in the funnel?
Content alignment throughout the customer journey is key. Content will perform differently based on your targeting and the stage of the marketing funnel.
Your content may be the first touchpoint you make with your audience. They also may rely on content when making purchasing decisions. That’s why you should start by thinking about your audience’s needs and where they sit in the funnel when developing or choosing content for B2B content syndication.
In the awareness stage, your audience may not know about your company yet. They may not know about your solutions either, but they do understand their own challenges and pressure points. In this stage, you want to show them your unique expertise in overcoming obstacles or improving their business. Aim to introduce your brand and get them to understand what your organization offers.
Some of the different types of content best used to educate during the awareness stage are:
- Blogs
- 101 articles and eBooks
- Introductory videos
- Landing pages
- Infographics
Next, in the consideration phase, your audience knows they need a solution and is starting to research and shop around. In this stage, you are trying to get the audience to add you to their list of vendors to consider. For this phase some content options to use are:
- eBooks
- Interactive content
- Webinars
In the lower part of the funnel, your potential customers enter the decision phase. This is when they are close to making their purchase. In this stage, you want the audience to choose your product or service over the competition. To help them make their decision you can offer them:
- Competitive analysis
- Customer care studies
- Buying guides
- Demos
Content positioning
Since B2B content syndication is just the first touchpoint, focus on educational content. This content typically performs best in content syndication. You can still position the asset for lower in the funnel if that makes sense for your goals, but make sure to keep the content educational and focused on delivering value to your customer. It shouldn’t be selling—that comes later, once you’ve had time to identify that the leads are warm and ready to convert.
When creating content for B2B content syndication, think about also keeping it action-oriented. Offering actionable content to your potential customers is a good way to ensure your content is educational and adds tangible value. One way to do this is through how-to guides. These can help them address a current problem and build awareness that your organization is an expert.
You can use these guides to reach different stages of the funnel. A buying guide makes sense for those lower in the funnel but to reach higher funnel leads you may want to use an introductory guide.
Test content to see what works best
One of the benefits of content syndication is that it can run with variations to test what works best. Then, as the program is running, you can pivot your resources to support the segments that are performing best.
You can try testing your campaign for
- Number of assets
- Different assets for different job titles
- Messaging and positioning for different funnel stages
Next steps
You have a great piece of content. Now what? You’re ready to run a content syndication program.
Dive deeper into content syndication and learn how to prepare your program, choose a partner, and follow up with leads in our eBook Effective Content Syndication Strategies: A Marketing Guide for Successful Campaigns.
