8 Blogging Tips for B2B Companies

B2B companies can cover a wide range of industries, from industrial parts manufacturers to accounting firms to software developers, but the one thing they all have in common is that they target their product or service at fellow businesses. As a result, your B2B audience is on average going to be a little more savvy and have different expectations than the average B2C audience. With a B2B blog, you’re writing for a lot of business owners or top level professionals. With B2C blogging on the other hand, you could be writing content geared toward people of all ages and professions. Now I’m not implying that as a B2B blogger you need to go throwing around million dollar vocabulary words and technical jargon to impress your audience, but you do want to come off sounding knowledgeable and post content that is useful to a business-minded audience.

Although a lot of the blogging advice out there can be applied to both B2B and B2C businesses, the nature of the business market makes for a different kind of content requirement. The focus is more on thought leadership and expertise rather than promotions and product showcasing. So if you’re wondering how you can get on board with this blogging trend as a B2B company, here are some ideas to get you started.

1. Present Industry News

Show your savvy business customers that you keep up with cutting edge industry news and pass the word on to them with informative and timely blog posts. I like to use Google News to search for news on specific topics. This way you get results from every news source on the Internet, which is more efficient than searching individual news sources one by one. Once you find a relevant story, discuss the article and take a stance on it in your next blog post.

2. Conduct Market Research

Blogging is not a one-way street in terms of communication. The feedback you can get from your customers or potential clients via your blog is one of its most valuable assets. Utilize the comment section of your blog to garner valuable feedback from the people who actually buy your products. If you find your comment section is looking a little sparse, elicit feedback by ending your blog posts with a question.

For example, if you are looking to make improvements to one of your software lines, present some options for possible improvements and ask the readers which one sounds the most appealing to them.

3. New Product Introductions

Take advantage of your captive audience to build up the hype around new products. Not to compare your blog to commercial air time, but posting an article about your latest and greatest product offering every once in a while is a great purpose for your blog. Just make sure to write these blog posts with the reader in mind and not just for your own selfish purposes. Focus on how the product will benefit the reader rather than writing out some 800 word sales pitch.

4. Reader Mailbag

You can call this type of blog post what you want, but essentially you want to use this type of blog post to answer any questions you may have received from clients. If you don’t tend to get questions from customers, make some up! Pose a question from a fictional client and answer it on your blog. Chances are someone out there has this exact question and was too lazy or afraid to ask it anyway.

5. Client Success Stories

Your blog can’t be all about your company all the time without running the risk of boring your customers. Show your clients some love by sharing client success stories. Maybe one of your clients was recently featured in the media for being an outstanding company. Look into setting up an interview with someone at the company and feature the Q & A on your blog.

6. Company News

Chances are if a client relies on your products or services for the operation of their company, they have a vested interest in the well-being of your company too. Use your blog to give quarterly updates on what’s happening with your business and its employees. It gives readers an inside look at your business and gives your company and blog a more human feel. Let people know that when they patronize your business they’re working with actual people.

7. Turn Cold Contacts into Warm Contacts

After following your blog for a while followers may even start to feel like they know you. Think of the DJ on your favorite morning talk show. She leaks little tidbits of her personality and happenings in her personal life and before you know it you feel like you can relate to the DJ just as well as your old college roommate.

As your blog readership grows you may start finding the potential clients you call on already know who you are through your blog. The familiarity of your company will make the reader a lot more willing to hear you out and listen to your sales pitch the next time you call on them for business.

8. Reward Your Readers

Give your readers a reason to keep reading by rewarding them with useful tips and tricks. Write about your company’s products specifically, but also include tips for better performance in general. For example, if you manufacture construction materials, write about best practices in the construction industry. Think about topics your clients might pay a consultant to help them with, and then write about them at no charge to your readers.