3 Biggest Mistakes with B2SMB Content and Marketing

Are they keeping you from getting great results from your content?

The stakes have gone up. Content marketing is no longer something that you need to do because “everyone else is doing it.” Exceptional content is no longer a nice-to-have. Rather, content is now critical to you and your organization. It is something you need to excel at, because it is increasingly a major factor in why, how and when SMBs buy. In short, your company’s success depends on it.

Why is content so important? Because studies show that, typically, only 3% of your target market is ready to buy today. Sure, conventional, product-and-promotion-oriented content can help you nurture and convert that 3%, but what about the other 97% of SMBs that might buy tomorrow?

Also, the buying process for most SMBs doesn’t start with a search for a particular product or service. SMBs begin by looking for ideas or solutions in order to capitalize on an opportunity or overcome a challenge. Content is the first opportunity for you (or your competitors) to offer SMBs ideas and help solve their problems, well before they begin to look for specific solutions. Initially, many SMBs don’t know what they don’t know. Your content can spark ideas and create demand for your solution at the same time—but only if it’s compelling enough to get their attention in the first place.

With that in mind, here are the 3 biggest mistakes we see with B2SMB content, and marketing in general, that create barriers to generating the exceptional content that will drive SMB buyers and prospective buyers to your brand:

1. No documented strategy: The Content Marketing Institute will tell you that approximately 2/3 of the companies surveyed don’t have a documented content strategy. Do you? I can usually tell by looking at your website. If you aren’t convinced that a documented content strategy is essential, ask these 4 questions of any executive, manager, or content creator in your marketing department and see how they respond:
   1. What are the specific goals of our content program?
   2. How is our content program unique in the marketplace?
   3. What is our content strategy for the top, middle and bottom of the buyer’s journey?
   4. How will we distribute and promote our content?
2. Content that doesn’t change the reader’s point-of-view (POV): SMBs have little time and hundreds of brands and media companies producing content to try to get SMB business. If you don’t teach them something they don’t know or help them look at their challenges and opportunities in a different light, you will lose them.
3. No stories. Just featuring ideas and best practices can make for a dull experience. Who doesn’t love a good story? Here is the best part: you have dozens—if not hundreds—of stories inside your company and among your current customers, just waiting to be brought to life in ways that potential new customers can relate to. We call these customer stories, and they can be magical.

I remember telling an audience at the 2017 CEB (now Gartner) Small Business Summit that content has gone from being nice-to-have to must-have. Today, exceptional content is an imperative that must be embraced and fully mastered to generate results from busy, highly-sought-after SMBs.

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