Clients often ask OLIVER about the differences between B2B and B2C content. Here, OLIVER bid manager Alistair Vines writes that while both aim to connect brands with customers in engaging ways, the strategies used can vary significantly.

Why B2B brands should consider content

Content marketing lends itself to the B2B sector in particular because of the longer sales cycles associated with business brands and the requirement to target current clients with cross selling approaches.

The crucial thing for a B2B brand considering content activity is to ensure that it is relevant and benefit-led for the prospect. Every day professionals in B2B and B2C organisations face challenges they need help to overcome. If you can offer them answers via well-planned content, you will create good will as a potential supplier.

Do channels for content distribution differ between B2B and B2C campaigns?

They have to. B2B content has to be accessible to target audience and in a corporate environment, some formats that are effective for B2C are blocked. Take YouTube or Facebook for example. There is no point in running B2B campaigns through these channels if you know your audience will be unable to access the content in their place of work.

That’s not to say that video, for example, is not appropriate for B2B. It’s a really powerful medium and you just have to be clever about how to package it. OLIVER has had great results with the likes of AXA by embedding video content in owned channels showcasing events, new products and industry news.

A B2B brand is more likely to focus more on LinkedIn and Twitter than Facebook, but that choice depends on the brand’s marketing objectives. For instance, if a B2B brand wanted to ‘humanise’ itself, YouTube might be the option. If it wanted to have thought-leader visibility, LinkedIn lends itself to this, especially since earlier this year, LinkedIn opened up its ‘Influencers’ blogging platform beyond the original, handpicked elite group to all users.

Should B2B and B2C campaigns be measured differently?

The ways of measuring results don’t vary but the importance of them might. For example, the HTC Specialist work conducted by OLIVER goes directly to shop-floor sales advisors. The video content is targeted on drop off and recall. If it was a consumer campaign then there might be a target for shares.

B2Bs might also place more importance on one type of activity or interaction. This could result in moving prospects into the sales pipeline faster. But largely content is measured in the same way.

The core challenges for B2B content marketing

Measuring a return is easier with B2B content marketing than with B2C, but the challenge is identifying a level of engagement that is worth passing to sales teams. OLIVER has done a lot of work helping The Economist move to a content-led strategy and the two biggest challenges identified were when to pass the lead to sales, and how to keep the content fresh and engaging.

The Economist has lead-scoring based on interactions, but this only tells half the story. When you’re running an event for chief medical officers in Africa, for instance, the prospect pool is relatively small and fixed. But the content associated to that event might be engaging for other people in the community. That doesn’t mean they should be canvassed by sales. But it also means the content should remain engaging for them.

At times there is no direct return, and that can be hard to swallow in a B2B world.

The hurdles for B2C brands

For a consumer brand to achieve real cut-through with content is difficult. Content can be so short-lived and consumers can be fickle; it’s challenging for brands to make the right impression at the right time for the right investment.

One way is to plan activity around events and execute content marketing in real-time. An example would be OLIVER’s “Send me to Wimbledon” activity with Robinsons. We used a real-time trigger to trend across the UK on the opening day of the Wimbledon Championships.

Should B2B content campaigns be interactive?

It depends on the objectives of the campaign. Sometimes you just want to put content out there because you see engagement drop without it. If that’s the case, then interactivity is not very important.

At OLIVER, we treat business development opportunities for B2B clients like content marketing campaigns. When you’re developing a proposition for a B2B client and feeding content out to key decision makers in a highly-targeted way, then interactivity is key.

People will interact if the experience resonates with them. It’s about understanding your audience and your objectives to decide if it’s worth making something interactive, and how to do that. It really frustrates me when insightful articles on LinkedIn are followed by nonsense comments, devaluing that content.

Where should B2B brands best house their content?

There can never be a right answer to that. What works for AXA in the insurance sector might not work for AXA in the wealth market. It’s down to the brand’s marketers and its agency to identify what works best.

How can B2Bs extend the reach of their content?

For B2Bs it’s not all about reach or impressions. Reach, impressions and shares might be the objectives for brands such as giffgaff, for whom OLIVER creates highly shareable content. But with B2B brands you have to consider that the catchment for prospective customers is almost always going to be smaller.

Fundamentally, B2Bs should be considering how to reach their audience. Soap-box content with a thin veneer is not going to engage or resonate with prospects. B2B content should be tailored, targeted and beneficial to the audience, and not just plastered around to increase impressions.

What are the standout B2B and B2C marketing campaigns?

The recent Adobe Marketing Cloud campaign stood out for me. I particularly enjoyed the spot with the baby; it’s got great share-ability. But at the same time I found the whole campaign a little incongruent with its messaging. As somebody who is not in a decision-making position for that sort of investment, I feel that they probably wasted media spend on me.

As for B2C campaigns, the much-lauded Dumb Ways to Die campaign by Metro Trains from 2013 in Melbourne ticks every box. It’s shareable, funny, engaging and gets its message across well. I remember seeing my partner’s 10 year-old brother playing the game on his iPad and thinking: ‘they really nailed it’. It’s a brilliant, insightful content marketing campaign, because kids – a core target audience for Metro Trains – want to interact with devices. In other words, a campaign that’s absolutely on brief.

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OLIVER can help you with your B2B or B2C campaign.   Get in touch to find out more.