When you’re searching for a deck on practical social media marketing tips, the last thing you want is an ill-informed or blatantly promotional presentation. In fact, that’s something that most B2Bers agree on. The CMO Council recently dove into the world of B2B content marketing to determine the most disliked characteristics in B2B content. We’ve detailed the top three, and what you can do to avoid them, below.
Too many requirements for download.
Trading your content for lead gen information is important, but going overboard on the information you require can seriously turn off potential readers. Of the 400+ B2B content seekers surveyed, 50% reported that one of the characteristics disliked the most in B2B content was having too many requirements in order to download desired content. Rather than turning off potential readers, only ask for the essentials. If you only need a name, email address and company, then make sure you only include those form fields. If you need or want more information, you can find another way to ask for it later, like in a survey or an outreach email.
Blatantly promotional and self-serving.
Sharing your knowledge and crediting your brand is one thing, thinly veiled promotional content, however, is another. Of the B2Bers surveyed, 43% expressed their disdain for blatantly promotional and self-serving content. If you want to promote your brand or your new product, use a press release or a blog post. Use white papers, decks and ebooks to detail valuable content for B2Bers, including case studies, how-to guides and marketing best practices. If you haven’t got something valuable and worthwhile to communicate, don’t write it.
Non-substantive and uninformed.
B2B brands produce great content like blog posts, white papers and Slideshare presentations every single day. This makes poor content stand out even more. We don’t have the time or patience to wade through poor content, and 34% of the B2Bers surveyed said that non-substantive or uninformed content drives them crazy. Not only do you need to have something real to say, you need to have research and data to back it up. Do your homework and make sure that your content is well-informed and worth sharing. If it is, you’ll get great responses and, undoubtedly, great leads.
Did you know visual content is overtaking written content in B2B content marketing? Learn all about it here.
