Last updated on November 24th, 2022
B2B content marketing in simple terms is an art of developing and distributing curated, relevant and valuable content. But B2B content marketing isn’t an easy task, it requires a strategic approach. Amit Kapoor who heads content marketing at Cigniti has answered some of the most significant questions about B2B content marketing. He has also has spoken about a useful approach for creating an effective B2B content marketing strategy. Before proceeding ahead to that, here’s a little read about Cigniti and Amit.
About Cigniti
Cigniti is the world’s first Independent Software Testing Services Company to be appraised at CMMI-SVC v1.3, Maturity Level 5, and is also ISO 9001:2015 & ISO 27001:2013 certified. Cigniti’s test offerings include Quality Engineering, Advisory & Transformation, Digital Assurance, and Quality Assurance solutions. It is headquartered at Hyderabad, India. Cigniti’s 2200+ career testers are spread across US, UK, India, Australia, and Canada.
About Amit
Amit Kapoor has 17+ years of in-depth experience in the field of technical writing, content, and digital marketing for global organizations. Amit has been awarded as the ‘Most Influential Content Marketing Professional’ by the World Marketing Congress and recognized as a Global Top 200 Content Strategist by MindTouch, and India’s Top 100 Content & Brand Custodian by PaulWriter.
A mentor & social media influencer, he is a regular speaker on topics pertaining to communication, content and digital marketing. He has been a Speaker and a Guest Lecturer at the TAPMI-Manipal, IBS-ICFAI, Information Developers Conclave 2017, JNTU TechFest 2017, and STC Annual & Regional Conferences 2016-17. He also has been a Panelist at events as National Level Innovation Summit “Prerna-2018”, Tata DocoMo DoBig, and more.
He writes articles for ET pertaining to MSMEs, and has edited articles published on IEEE. His articles have also been published in magazines & portals such as Hakin9, Industrial Automation, IIT Mumbai (TechFest), and Inc500. A published Poet, two collections being ‘The Waves Flowed On.’ (Amazon.com: https://amzn.to/2sQ7laP) & ‘We Shall Grow’ (Trafford Publishing, SKU-000128736), he is reachable at amitwritesat@gmail.com and www.akwrites.com. He currently heads the content marketing initiatives at Cigniti where he has helped generate content leading to a 1000% increase in visits from search engines at Cigniti.
The Interview
What is the definition of content marketing according to you?
According to me, content marketing is the act of sharing and spreading content that has been created about an organizations’ products and services. It involves understanding the buyers’ persona and their needs so that relevant, clear, and useful content is created and shared across multiple social media platforms. This creation and promotion of targeted content generates awareness and interest about the products being offered. This helps in bettering the brand image, and also leads to higher number of ambassadors and clientele. A very critical aspect of the content being generated is that it should not have a sales-pitch. Rather, it should be written in a manner that is informative and helps the readers get an overview of the challenges facing them, and the solutions available. Today, most organizations wish to have a global presence. While marketing the content in its different formats (blogs, case studies, emailers, infographics, videos, white papers and more) across the social media, one must also ensure the best days and time for publishing the content for a particular region.
What drives successful content?
At a high level, relevancy of the topic being covered, information that helps resolve issues, timeliness, ease of readability, consistency and a disciplined approach to publication of content (for example, at Cigniti we follow 2 blogs a week policy – without fail!), and more.
Keeping an eye on the trending news about what is happening in the world relevant to the services offered leads to well-timed information that is much appreciated. If as content writers and marketers we are able to understand the thought process of our readers and perform in-depth research about the topic being written, the written content will surely be successful! Having a crisp, strong headline/title for your content, adding a call to action (CTA) in your content, having some visual content (images), etc. are a few good ways to increase the success rate of your content.
Who is your target audience?
As Head of Content for Cigniti, a global leader in Independent Software Testing Services, my target persona is the person who is at the helm of affairs of technology in an organization that has software testing needs. Usually, it is the CTOs, CXOs, CEOs etc. who are looking at how best to use Quality Engineering, Advisory & Transformation, Digital Assurance, and Quality Assurance solutions to enjoy growth and sustainability of their organizations. If I am able to make these decision makers understand the services that Cigniti can provide, they might come back as possible prospects and even clients. As an individual content contributor, my target persona is anyone who can make successful use of the content I am creating and marketing. And then, based on the satisfaction achieved, come back for more content related activities as a client.
What’s the style, tone and voice that you use to address your target audience?
Depending on the topic that I am writing on, I try to experiment with the style, tone and voice to address my audience. However, as a basic rule, I like to use simple words and avoid jargons and provide an easy, user-friendly flow to my content. I usually address the reader directly in 2nd person (you), and the voice active – unless the situation or topic decides otherwise. An example here is a content piece captioned – Lost Your Legs? Don’t Crib. Find, And Climb Your Own Everest.
An understanding of the target audience plays a critical role in deciding whether to keep the tone conversational or formal. In either case, though, there has to be consistency, clarity of thought, and the feeling of connection with the reader. In case I am writing a blog that intends to inform my audience about something, I would like to keep it informal. But when writing Sales driven marketing collaterals (such as blogs, white papers, case studies), external articles on various authority sites (for Forbes, StickyMinds), or other marketing content, I prefer to keep it formal. An example here is an article on Why SME’s should take digital marketing seriously that I wrote for ET. Of course, on a lighter note, when writing poems, I just let the words flow!
How do you go about planning the content strategy for your brand?
For a brand like ours to succeed, it needs to have a robust B2B content marketing strategy in place. There has to be complete clarity regarding who is the audience, how will it help them overcome their challenges, the multiple formats and platforms that can be utilized for sharing the content, and setting up the schedule of the dissemination of the created content. After deciding the above factors, we also need continuous discussions on how to keep improving the strategy. One of the factors that help ensure the success of a B2B content marketing strategy is to keep the content aligned with the current trends. Another one is to provide a constant, positive push of relevant content on multiple social media platforms. There is also a need to consistently track how the pages are ranking on Google, and how many visitors are landing or bouncing off. While planning the content strategy for Cigniti, we analyze how the keywords that we want to rank are performing based on Google analytics. Once the keywords are finalized, we perform a thorough research on the trending topics around software testing – and in what ways can software testing help organizations. Based on the outcomes, we identify the areas we can publish more blogs, white papers, case studies, infographics, and more, and keep doing it consistently. Apart from this, we also keep refreshing our website content as required.
What has been the most successful content format for your brand?
We have seen great results with blogs which are mostly a combination of text and images. You can check some of our blogs here. What is the role of QA in the world of DevOps?
10 Emerging Trends in Software Testing: Predictions For The Next Decade
Also, we have seen moderate to reasonable results with videos.
The most successful content format which we have seen till now is webinars where there is a lot of participation from our users. This helps us to address queries faster and explain better since there is a definite time(an hour) for the webinar. Also, the audience is engaged since they witness a demonstration of capabilities from the delivery rather than the Sales team!
Have a look at a few of our other concluded webinars. Apart from these formats, we also write case studies and e-books.
E-Book: The need to embrace digital assurance and digital testing.
Case Study:North America’s Leading Tire Distribution Provider Leverages Cigniti’s Expertise to Achieve 90% Reduction in Test Execution Efforts.
Why is it necessary to maintain a consistent supply of quality content?
In all earnestness – there’s probably no other way to be successful. A consistent supply of quality content reflects that there is enough thought leadership and experience that the organization can provide. It is a must-perform task as it helps keep the brand visibility alive. Research by TechiPedia established that consistent brands are worth up to 20% more than those that aren’t. If we also add ‘Engaging content’ to the equation above – along with Consistent Supply and Quality, the reader retention and decision making will surely move up the ladder – not to mention the growth and success of your business. While high quality ensures customer satisfaction, consistency ensures guarantee to our readers who become used to reading a new blog, say, every Monday. This creates a better connect with our readers. Internally, within the team, it helps improve team morale, performance and efficiency as fixed tasks help us plan better, and reduce any confusions regarding lack of direction.
Are there any tips that you would want to give to the B2B content marketers of today?
There are some that I personally follow and would advise the marketers of today to follow.
- Don’t stop reading, writing, learning, measuring, and experimenting with newer tactics and social media marketing tools, platforms, and channels in this world of digital transformation.
- Try to know as much about your customers and competition as much as you do about your company.
- Maintain a Consistent Supply of Quality Content.
- Keep measuring and analyzing the success or failure rate of your content.
Conclusion
There are n number of experiments that you can have with B2B content marketing. There are innumerable benefits of B2B content marketing. But what is important is to recognise content marketing B2B lead generation, following B2B content marketing white paper strategies that are highly actionable, engaging and focused on your audience. The content marketing interview was enlightening and the content marketing tips given by Amit are truly beneficial and we sincerely thank him for taking out the time to answer some of the most significant questions in B2B content marketing.
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