The Effectiveness of Content Types In B2B Social Media Marketing
Which content types are promoted in social media that provide the greatest impact? You might be surprised. Keep in mind that this list of content types isn’t what performs best overall – just the response from B2B buyers on content that had the most impact after they viewed it when it was shared socially.
By priority, here’s the list of the most impactful content types with definitions from Eccolo Media:
- Case Studies – detailed depictions of how customers deploy a vendor’s products or services.
- Detailed Technology Guides – in-depth descriptions of product features and functionality, or step-by-step instructions for implementing a technology solution.
- White Papers – analysis of technology or business issues and trends from a largely independent, vendor-neutral perspective
- Podcasts – audio recordings of customer testimonials or discussions with subject matter experts that can be streamed from a Web site or downloaded onto a desktop or mobile device
- Blog Posts – brief online dispatches that treat current topics in an informal style, with the intention of engaging customers and prospects.
- Infographics – visual representations of data and trends, with the goal of communicating complex information succinctly.
- Videos – used for a broad range of marketing communications, from customer testimonials to product demonstrations to executive interviews.
- Brochures – product, service, or vendor information.
- Newsletters – the traditional newsletter in an electronic format and typically feature quick article summaries with links to longer treatments.
- Ebooks – long-format documents designed to be consumed digitally, delivering information in a visually stimulating and often interactive way.
- Webinars – online seminars that deliver presentations or workshops either live or in a prerecorded, on-demand format.
- Competitive Vendor Worksheets – compare product features and functions from multiple vendors.
- Customer Magazines – in print and online, deliver company news and explore key issues and trends.
- Web Slideshows – online presentations that cover product details or key trends, typically with an emphasis on charts and images.
In volume three of the Eccolo Media 2015 B2B Technology Content Survey Report, we asked technology buyers, from engineers to the c-suite, to tell us what content they consume via social channels during a technology purchase.
Our agency has developed a discreet methodology we refer to as building content authority for clients. While the above speaks to what’s the most impactful in a purchase decision, keep in mind that you typically have to utilize some less impactful methods to pull buyers deeper in. For example, a webinar are blog post may promote a whitepaper… and that whitepaper may lead someone to request a case study.
It’s not as simple as one content type over the other, it’s how they work together overall in a cross-channel strategy. Here’s some other great information provided in this infographic from Eccolo Media, What Social Content Has Sex Appeal?
