So, this is going to be a no-BS article on how to leverage content to get more clients. I run a B2B firm myself and know firsthand the value of inbound leads.
It took a lot of wasted time with outbound junk like cold emails, cold outreach on LinkedIn, and even cold calls before I understood content is the best way outside of referrals to get more clients.
A lot of companies get caught up in creating tons of content that never gets seen by anybody. To prevent this, the focus of this article is going to be on blog posts.
Blog posts are reliable, they have a high ROI, and most of all, with consistent effort, they can easily propel your business to $100m+ revenues.
Now, here are the content ideas you’ve been waiting for:
1. Create entertaining listicles for ToFu traffic
Listicles are a very ToFu (Top Of The Funnel) content strategy, but they bring in HEAPS, and I mean HEAPS, of traffic.
If you don’t know what listicles are, they are the
- “top 10 ways to..x”
- “best ways to..x”
type articles you find on Google.
This post is a listicle.
The thing with listicles is that they’re entertaining. If your listicle is relevant, it lets you get your content in front of your target audience, which, since you’re creating B2B content, is either going to be the CEO or the division head in your sector.
Listicles allow you to open a dialogue with your prospect and motivate them to connect with you.
I’ll explain this through an example:
Let’s say your prospect saw some interesting read you posted like”5 ways SaaS startups can get non-VC funding in 2023″, so they click on your page.
Now, if you really understand your prospect well, and you hook them with interesting information and visuals, promising them the moon in the first part of the listicle, they’ll want to stay and read further.
Then, in the latter part of the listicle, you can talk more in the context of your expertise, all the while providing value, of course, and before you know it, voila!
Your prospect is now entertained, educated, and somewhat likes you because you’ve “provided value.
At this point, you can just throw in a CTA, and they’ll be ready to reach out.
We’ve done this ourselves, and it has worked like gangbusters, with single listicles drawing in over 300 leads a year!
2. Fuse your case studies with SEO
If you actually want your prospect to read your case studies, you can’t leave them sitting around as a PDF or whitepaper. You need to upload your case studies to your blog and pair them with solid SEO.
The whole point of creating case studies is for you to demonstrate your expertise to your prospect so you can convert them. What a wasted effort if your prospect never has a chance to look at your case study in the first place.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking.
“Oh, but we just use case studies in our proposal or with prospects we’re already engaging with.”
Nonsense.
You’re only using 20% of the true potential of your case study.
Here’s an example.
Let’s say you run a strategy consulting firm and have a case study on generating $1m revenue for a healthcare startup in a year.
Are you telling me that if you had a post titled, “Here’s how this healthcare startup went from $0 to $1m revenue in 11 months,” your prospect wouldn’t find that interesting?!
With good optimization, you can get your case study to the first page of Google. If your content is interesting and fun-to-read, you best believe your prospect is delving deeper into your expertise and considering reaching out to you after reading your case study.
Moral: Utilize your case studies as blog posts and optimize them with strong SEO.
Honestly, if you have good case studies and this was the ONLY content you were creating, you could still generate approximately 200+ leads per year just by supercharging 5-6 case studies.
3. Untangle your prospect's problem with how to guides
How-to guides are another personal favorite. They’re like case studies but without the need for proof.
You focus on your prospect’s “pain points,” and provide an easy-to-implement solution. Your prospect then reads the solution, understands that you did them a solid for free.
This motivates them to reach out to you if they need more help with their problem.
It’s that simple.
The only things you really need to make your how-to guide a success are:
1. Keyword research to identify client pain points. You can rely on your own knowledge of your clients’ pain points too, but I prefer keyword research because it removes any room for human error. It’s data-based, and the data is very clear on what your client’s problems are.
2. Engaging writing. Don’t be dull and boring with your writing. You’ll turn your prospect away even if your solution is great.
3. A CTA (Call-To-Action).
You do these three things, and just like with case studies, you’ll fill your calendar with leads through just a handful of quality how-to guides.
4. Participate on reddit for short-term wins
Most B2B content takes a long time to materialize, except Reddit.
If you have good information to share with your prospects on Reddit, you’ll get leads dropping in within days.
We have personally received over 100 leads from Reddit in 2 months.
If you post on Reddit, and your content is exceptionally relevant and high quality, people will PM (Personally Message) you, inquiring more about what you posted or commented.
Then you can discard the prospects that don’t have the budget for your service and funnel the ones that do to a meeting.
Closing 2-3 prospects a month on Reddit is a great way to keep the gravy train going until your blog content kicks off.
Here’s an example.
Say you’re an accounting firm and you want to get more clients, so you lurk on subreddits like r/smallbusiness and r/agency where business owners hang out.
Then when someone posts a problem on accounting like, “I’m frustrated with the IRS because I’m…”, you answer it comprehensively and give them a solution.
The OP (Original Poster) will continue the conversation with you, and everyone viewing his post is also going to benefit from your expertise. If you now throw in a little CTA like, “we specialize in fixing this exact XYZ situation, so PM me if you need additional help” even if the OP doesn’t PM you, you’ll have some of the viewers reach out.
Additionally, you can also post helpful accounting tips on these subreddits and add a CTA at the bottom, encouraging people to reach out to you for personalized accounting help.
That said, Reddit is brutal, and people are very averse to being sold to on there, so to get Reddit posts right:
1. Don’t talk about your service until the very end of the post. Not more than 1-2 lines including your CTA, like “pm me” or whatever.
2. Provide exceptionally great value in your comments and posts for them to be upvoted and pick up steam.
5. Use emails to non-annoyingly keep your brand top-of-mind
You can use emails like free advertisements until your prospect needs to make a decision about your service. So that then when the need for your service finally arises, yours is the only number your prospects are dialing.
Newsletters are a simple way to do this.
Let me exemplify.
Let’s say you’re a management consulting firm, and most of your clients are in VC-backed startups.
Most startup owners don’t have a go-to management consultancy. They don’t care about management consulting in general. They only care about managing their own employees.
Now if you’ve been giving them robust management solutions with every email you sent them over the past few months, who do you think they are turning to when they actually need management assistance?
They’re going to the only management consultancy they know!
You.
Now they may not sign with you right away, but they’ll at east schedule a meeting, and then all you got to do is close them.
Where most people go wrong with email content is that they literally use it like advertising.
Repeatedly talking about your service will get you ignored and unsubscribed. Push helpful content in your email that focuses only on your client.
Don’t talk about “why management consulting helps business owners”.
Instead focus on their problems like,
“Why that one employee just won’t cooperate”.
Don’t talk about your service at all. Keep it completely about their desired outcomes, and then add in a little CTA at the bottom to book a call with your sales team.
6. Sparingly use polarizing posts on your blog to win over prospects with similar values
Here are some facts.
People like to do business with people they like. If you’ve got strong views on a subject that interests your prospect, don’t be afraid to share them.
Your blog should be 90% case studies, how-to guides, and listicles, but posts that demonstrate you taking a stance on a controversial topic are important. They inspire trust in your company and the people running it.
Here’s how this works.
Most people think their way of thinking is correct. If they see their views reflected on your website, they’re more likely to trust you and get on a call with you.
For example, let’s say you’re a social media marketer, and you know that 90% of social media marketers are snake-oil peddlers just looking to rip clients off.
Create a post that talks about this.
Validate your prospect’s frustrations and then talk about how real social media marketing works.
All the prospects who have had their fingers burned with social media marketing before but know they still need it for their brand will reach out to you.
They see you “keeping it real”, and that inspires trust in your character as well as your expertise.
Almost every company tries to market their expertise to their clients.
Look at most of your competitors, and you’ll find them doubling down on case studies, how-to guides, and other expertise-proving posts, but how many are marketing their trust?
Literally, all your industry prospects who suffer from a trust deficit, whether inherent or by burning their fingers, will reach out to you as a result.
This is because your prospects need your service, but they need it without worrying about being ripped off again.
7. Compare your solution with a sub-optimal solution
People don’t realize that this is a great way to talk about your services in detail without actually selling to your clients.
Once your prospect has read about your solution in detail, he feels motivated to use your service/solution and would look to your company as the provider.
Once again, here’s an example to elaborate.
Let’s say, you’re a content marketing agency, and your prospect has two options. He can either use ChatGPT or choose you to create content for his business.
ChatGPT is $0. You’re $5,000.
However, you compare the two and explain why your service is better.
You write about how ChatGPT can’t create content that ranks on Google. At least 99% of the time. And ChatGPT content is uninteresting, lacking depth, and boring to read. As a result, it doesn’t motivate your prospect’s audience to reach out to his firm.
On the other hand, your agency creates content that outperforms your prospect’s competitors, is entertaining to read, and creates a brand for your prospect.
Most of all, your content marketing efforts result in a positive ROI, whereas ChatGPT just wastes your prospect’s time and effort.
Compare two solutions this way, clearly demonstrating why yours is the winner, and you’ll have prospects emailing you in no time.
Your main aim, just like with other blog posts, is to write your comparison in such a way that you don’t sound like you’re selling but help your prospect determine his next best move.
After you’ve explained to him why choosing a content marketing agency is better, he’d be foolish to choose ChatGPT (unless you didn’t do a good job explaining it). So, he’s convinced that an agency is the right move for his business.
Now he’s considering which agency to choose.
And you best believe you’re at the top of the list because you just cleared any doubts and confusion he had around content marketing.
He trusts your expertise because you competently solved his problem.
So, if he’s ready to move ahead, he will email you, and bam!
You’ve got a lead.
8. Use influencer roundups if you've got access
The idea with influencer roundups is that you will quote influencers in your roundup or ask them to contribute some other way, and in exchange, they share your article on their socials, usually LinkedIn.
It’s kind of like a broadcast referral from a very authoritative source.
The challenge here, though, is going to be access to the influencers.
And you might need to pay them too.
But, to be honest, if you’re a smooth talker and great at sales, you should be able to lure at least 5-6 influencers to share the article out of sheer politeness, if nothing else.
I don’t have a step-by-step on how you can connect with influencers in your niche, but it’s B2B, so at least 20-30% of them will respond to you on LinkedIn.
From there, you just tell them that you think they’re awesome and you’ve learned so much from them *insert genuine praise*. Then ask them if you can get their thoughts on a topic you’re writing about.
They’ll share their thoughts. Once they do, then you just ask if you can quote them. And then if they wouldn’t mind sharing it on their own socials.
They might say yes or ask you to pay.
If they ask you to pay for the share, you have to decide whether that social share is worth the price.
This is a great short-to-medium-term strategy because, unlike the other content ideas, roundups don’t need to rank on Google to bring you clients.
But I’m not going to lie, this has the absolute lowest ROI of all the ideas mentioned in this post because it’s basically like throwing money at lead generation so you don’t have to wait too long, so it’s not a great long-term strategy.
9. Guest post on relevant, high-traffic websites
Guest posting means you write a blog post for someone else’s website.
Here’s why you’d want to guest post.
If the website where you’re posting gets a lot of traffic and is relevant to your niche, you can post some helpful tips, a how-to guide, case study, etc. on there and basically self-refer yourself.
Then, since you share similar target audiences, your self-referral (guest post) will draw a lot of convertible leads to your website.
The best way to guest post is to provide genuinely great value on the referrer’s website.
For example, let’s assume you’re posting to a popular B2B publisher’s website. You want to post a unique solution for their audience’s pain points that will demonstrate your expertise to their audience.
So, let’s say you post an interestingly educative checklist on what to look for when choosing a consulting firm.
You write about all the common pitfalls of choosing a bad firm, how bad consulting firms usually interact, how they should be interacting and working (where you subtly imply that’s how your firm works), etc.
By the end of the article, you clearly demonstrate the difference between a good and bad consulting firm.
You do this in words and points they’ve never heard before, so they know your perspective is unique, and they’d be hard-pressed to find such a unique perspective anywhere else
Additionally, the entire time you’ve been laying out the differences between a good and bad firm, you have also validated your own firm by subtly implying that you work the way the “good firm” in your article would work.
Now, since only readers interested in actually choosing a consulting firm are reading your post (would you read a post like that just for fun…?), and you have solved their problem, you’ve shown expertise.
Furthermore, since they trust the big-name website you’re posting on, you’ve also got an inroad to their trust.
This has all the makings of a warm lead, ready to convert after just a few emails or one meeting.
You can pull plenty of leads just guest posting, but you don’t really expand your own digital footprint this way. To do that, you have to post on your own blog.
10. You’re a B2B firm. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME ON TIKTOK/IG/Facebook.
I can’t believe I even have to say this, but your clients are not spending their free time dancing in front of their phone, nor are they 15 years old.
They will not find you on TikTok.
As for Instagram and Facebook, when was the last time your prospect searched for “The best CPA firm to deal with an audit” or “How to solve a lack of collaboration among team members” on Instagram?
They don’t.
LinkedIn is the only exception to this. Your prospects hang out on LinkedIn and look for service providers there too, so if you want to post there, do that. LinkedIn won’t yield a very high ROI, but it’s not bad for personal branding.
You can use your personal brand to funnel clients to your company. They work with you or your company, it’s the same thing.
However, there’s a reason 7/10 best B2B content ideas involve posting on your blog. Google is where your clients go to search for solutions to their business problems. That is where you need to be.
The pie is on Google, and your competitors are taking spoonfuls.
Meanwhile, if you’re creating content on TikTok, Instagram, or any other social media platform, you’re only getting the crumbs. Disabuse yourself of this strategy immediately.
Finally, if you’re using Instagram, Youtube, Tiktok, or Facebook, you run the very real risk of the app just disabling your account at a whim. And there’s not a thing you can do.
Instagram and Youtube are especially notorious for this. Not to mention, the additional risk of TikTok just getting banned in the U.S. altogether.
Some states have already banned TikTok with more considering it.
Now Google also has a penalty system, but you have to REALLLY be doing something wrong to get hit by a Google penalty.
So, in a nutshell, Google content = good. Social media content = bad.
Now, I’m going to address some common questions about B2B content.
What makes good B2B content?
I’ll keep this short. Content that sounds HUMAN.
If you’re writing about “synergizing global technology to drive innovative results”, you’re doing it wrong.
To ensure your content is good, you need to ask yourself these two questions:
1. Is this content going to interest my prospect? Will he find this entertaining?
2. Will this tell him something he doesn’t already know or hasn’t already read a thousand times before? Is what I’m saying unique in its perspective?
If your answer is a yes to these two questions, then all you need to do is pair these principles with engaging writing, and you’ll create enjoyable B2B content.
What content appeals in B2B marketing?
I’ve already covered the most appealing B2B content ideas in the list above, but here’s a guideline to keep in mind:
Content that sounds technical, but can be explained easily.
Read that again.
I’ll explain this using a case study as an example. When your prospects are reading your case study, the ones with money to spend are looking at it from a very different perspective from the ones who don’t have money to spend with you.
The DIY-ers will read the case study and try to apply your process. Your monied prospects will read the case study intro, the problem your subject was facing, and the outcome of the solution.
The solution or the process itself makes little difference to them. What matters to them is that you know what you’re doing in whichever way you do it and that you were able to masterfully solve a problem they’re facing.
If you make your solution sound just technical enough to demonstrate your capabilities without losing their interest in a bunch of jargon, you’ll give your prospects exactly what they’re looking for from you.
Competence.
And that competence will lead to sales.
Conclusion
So, there it is.
10 solid B2B content ideas. Implement even 2 or 3 of these correctly and with commitment, and within a year or two, you’ll seize tremendous market share on Google.
I know consulting firms who have 100 solid blog posts raking in upwards of $600k a month.
And the beauty about web content is that very few competitors have the patience, resources, and skill to usurp your position on Google once your content starts ranking.
The only drawback to creating winning content is that it’s a skill that takes time to acquire, and once you do acquire the skill, it can take another 6 or so months to substantiate results.
At Fervor Seo, we can eliminate 80% of the time needed for this whole process.
If you want to move fast on your content, reach out to us. We’ll be happy to discuss your content with you.