B2B marketers set long-term goals with audience targeting a top priority for their content campaigns.

When developing online marketing strategies for 2013, B2B professionals look at the short-term and long-term benefits of various practices. Whether building a social media marketing campaign or conceptualizing a content creation strategy, brands must set goals for the year, and work tirelessly to show results.

DemandBase Channel Use for 2013In B2B marketing, companies that develop broad promotional campaigns for the masses may not generate favorable results. According to Demandbase and Ziff-Davis’ “Account-Based Marketing in 2013” report, 60 percent of marketers will use social media and 53 percent will embrace content marketing to bolster lead generation and engagement within their business sectors. This trend highlights the fact that B2B brands have begun to focus their efforts on building rapport with new and existing customers through channels that foster continuous interactions.

As digital marketing plays a greater role in brand exposure across all industries, marketers must adapt their content and social strategies to make campaigns more targeted, fitting the appropriate niche. Overly broad content doesn’t resonate with readers, as writing looks promotional, and consumers have trouble relating to the material. Therefore, to reach prospects, audience targeting must be perfected to achieve short and long-term results.

DemandBase Audience Targeting Objective for 2013The “Account-Based Marketing in 2013” report showed that vertical industry targeting complements B2B content marketing, allowing brands to identify the industries in which their products or services would be successful. The study noted that case studies and product or service demonstrations were the most powerful resources used to reach prospects across industry verticals.

The source found that 74 percent of B2B marketers create content for company-specific needs. Sixty-four percent built content strategies to develop expertise and target industries or companies in niche business sectors. When crafting new content, 36 percent of marketers focus their attention on buyer personas, despite the fact that 29 percent of B2B companies say that reaching specific users is a long-term marketing goal.

B2B marketers who want to reach consumers by delivering hyper-focused content must develop buyer personas to guide future writing. Companies that struggle to identify their audiences may publish irrelevant content that goes unread. Content and social media marketing help establish long-term relationships on the web – the practices shouldn’t be used solely for SEO and PageRank. These outlets help extend brand awareness and build promotional entities that attract and convert leads, so making the wrong move and neglecting the obvious benefits of each channel puts marketers at a disadvantage.

Ted Karczewski is an Executive Communications Associate at Brafton. He works to develop his own voice and apply his passions to the evolving world of SEO and content marketing, but he doesn't shy away from writing for fun. After graduating from Suffolk University, Ted used his Communications degree to test out Sports Journalism before Marketing at Brafton.