10 Inbound-Marketing Hacks Your B2B Company Should Be Using
Given the time investment required for successful content marketing, any time saved in the process is beneficial for your company.
By Aaron Agius •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In a world that thrives on instant gratification, it's no surprise that hacking has become such a prominent technique. After all, hacks help you achieve your intended goal in a quicker, more efficient manner than traditional tactics.
Inbound marketing hacks are no different. Business-to-business companies can use these methods to achieve their goals in a faster, more efficient manner than established practices. And given the time investment required for successful content marketing, any time saved in the process is beneficial for your company.
1. Write in-depth content.
It's no secret: Google loves in-depth articles. We get a clearer picture of this love by reviewing data from serpIQ:
It's not just for search engines. Readers love them too: longer posts get more shares.
If you've got the drive and dedication, your B2B company can easily stand out by going deeper and longer than everyone else. You may even find that you save time, as one long post can do more for your business than a series of shorter articles.
Related: 10 Smart Ways to Earn or Build Backlinks to Your Website
2. Recycle content into multimedia.
Recycling content is great for your marketing environment. Stop wasting perfectly good concepts on just one form of media.
Let's look at a couple of powerful multimedia sources:
- Video content is dominating the web. We see it everywhere. Cisco predicts that online video will make up 55 percent of web traffic by 2016.
- Ana Hoffman used slide presentations to bring 243,000 views to her blog.
- Currency Liquidator transformed dry information about currency security features into a series of engaging infographics on its blog.
Could your business benefit from this kind of traffic potential? Harness it by transforming your past content into these new formats.
3. Follow the "Rule of Seven" with your marketing.
The "Rule of Seven" comes from traditional marketing. It's the idea that you need seven interactions with a lead before introducing a paid service or product.
It's a simple hack: identify the point of initial contact and then create a workflow of seven interactions built around that first meeting in order to build a rapport. To truly make this hack work, use marketing automation to initiate some of the early interactions in the funnel.
4. Don't create viral content, curate it.
Hacks aren't always easier, they just work quicker. Curating content others have already created is a great way to gain traffic, add value and convert readers. Look at how Mari Smith uses this tactic:
She creates a blog post linking to the content, along with a bit of information about why you should check it out. It works because she becomes a valuable resource, instead of just another voice in the crowd. Give it a try yourself.
5. Add a content upgrade to each blog post.
It's a simple strategy. Fortunately for you, many see it as too much additional work. So, as with everything in life, if you're willing to go above and beyond, you'll win every time.
Backlinko recently shared a case study that breaks down the exact step-by-step process:
If you already have some traffic and want to increase your conversions, use this content hack. It's a bit of extra work, but it's definitely worth the extra effort.
Related: How the 3 A's of Legitimacy Can Help You Earn Links and Gain Credibility
6. Turn FAQs into topics for content.
Customers have problems. You likely get similar questions on a regular basis. Instead of a dull FAQ page, answer each question with a full content piece.
By answering questions directly from customers, you know that you're solving a real problem that real people face every day. No guess work, no fake personas. It's the kind of value that every content marketer should strive to provide.
7. Get more out of your "Thank You" pages.
When a customer converts, you probably send them to a thank-you page. Many businesses use very generic, boring copy on this overlooked area of their websites. Instead, jazz it up with a bit of optimization. Some ways to optimize these pages include:
- Asking for a survey contribution.
- Promoting additional products.
- Showcasing new content, resources or apps.
It's all about keeping customers engaged with your business as long as possible. Don't let them down when they're as interested in your company as they'll ever be.
8. Optimize high-traffic posts.
Review some of your most popular blog posts from an inbound-marketing perspective. As you do so, try to answer one main question: Which pieces of content bring in the most traffic each month?
Once you answer that, go to those posts and focus their messaging, design and call to actions for higher conversion rates. If these posts bring in the most traffic, you can turn them into lead-generating machines.
9. Collaborate with industry experts.
Industry experts are those who have already built an audience and hold authority in your industry. Reach out and start building relationships with these influencers. Once you have a strong rapport, you'll be able to find creative ways to collaborate with them on future projects.
When you execute these projects, they'll likely share your collaborations with their larger audience. This opens up your brand to massive amounts of exposure. It does great things for your brand strength, as you're then associated with that influencer.
It's authority by association, and it can be a powerful driver of your business's growth.
Related: 4 Strategies That Must Be Part of Your Marketing to Customers
10. Improve page speed and load time.
Google factors speed into its rankings. As a result, improving your page speed and load time is a simple hack that you can implement right away. More important than search-engine performance, people like faster websites too.It's a win-win for both your business and customer. How could you not take a few minutes to try to make your site faster?
