Yes, B2B Content Marketing WORKS

I get this quizzical look when I pitch content marketing to my B2B clients all the time. The implied question is: Does B2B content marketing really work?

Yes.

In fact, B2B content marketing is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to reach prospects and maintain relationships with existing clients.

Results on B2B content marketing efforts in the last 12 months

Don’t believe me. Here are some fun facts from the Content Marketing Institute’s (CMI) 2026 Report on B2B content marketing.

Here are key findings from that report (in case you don’t have time to read this entire post)

• Only 12% of marketers surveyed say they were successful in reaching their content marketing goals
• Factors that improved performance in the last 12 months were: content quality, team skills, and alignment with sales
• Adopting a better content marketing strategy and improved technology account for improvements in effectiveness over the last year, including AI
• The biggest remaining challenges for these marketers include (in order): creating content that drives conversion, resource constraints, and measuring effectiveness
• Most B2B managers are using AI for content creation, but few are optimizing their content with personalization, prescriptive analytics, and advertising optimization with AI.
• The three most effective platforms for disseminating thought leadership are: LinkedIn, email newsletters, and speaking engagements.
• Only 28% of respondents report effective personalization of content marketing efforts.

Should B2B firms use content marketing?

The question of why use content marketing if you’re in B2B arises. I mean, your customers aren’t on social media much, are they? Well, you’d be surprised how many firms either use social media to communicate with customers, listen for mentions, or use social media as individuals. All these folks hear what you’re saying across outlets for content marketing. But social media isn’t the only outlet used in B2B content marketing, even though it’s the most commonly used. In addition, B2B firms use a host of content marketing tactics, including blogs, email marketing, and white papers.

Why?

B2B marketers who use content marketing are able to reduce the cost of leads, increase awareness and position themselves as thought leaders — Artillery

And, it seems like most B2B firms in the Content Marketing Institute’s survey agree — with a whopping 88% of firms using the tactic. But what to use? There are dozens of content marketing tactics. Here’s what they found B2B firms used in the study:

Of course, the big question is which of these content marketing tactics yields the highest ROI?

That’s a more complicated question. First, you have to look at the types of content, then the distribution of that content, which is all mixed up in the graphic above.

Let’s look at types of content first. According to eMarketer, featured articles, followed by video and white papers, deliver the highest ROI, although the data is from 2013 and includes all firms using content marketing, not just B2B content marketing.

Next, let’s look at the ROI of distribution strategy, where you can see that email marketing blows other distribution tactics out of the water. One metric I’d like to see is social media distribution, but, unfortunately, it’s not there. But, according to McKinsey, email marketing delivers against social, generating 40X more conversions than social media marketing. Not surprisingly, LinkedIn is cited in the study as the most effective social media tool for bringing in revenue.

B2B content marketing: Biggest challenges

Creating content

This fact isn’t surprising since the effort necessary to product valuable content on a consistent basis, then repurpose that content or supplement it with the variety of types of content (video, white papers, blog posts) and distribution outlets (email, social, etc) necessary to achieve content marketing success if staggering.

Many firms buy content produced by others or use it with permission. For instance, Business2Community syndicates my content, along with 100’s of others, to their readers. Huffington Post has 1000’s of citizen journalists turning out fresh content every day. Other firms, including IBM, find great content and then license that content for their website. I don’t really recommend this strategy, although I cash the licensing checks, because Google gives preference in search to the original content. Others have teams of content marketers creating original content.

What to write about

Everyone struggles with determining what to write about. In the past, you did keyword research to determine what content to create. In a world dominated by AI, gaining brand mentions rules the game and discerning user intent in search is the biggest challenge. Try googling queries your users might ask or reading content on B2B sites, like LinkedIn, to follow user discussions.

Creating thought leadership is equally important in an AI-world. You need to demonstrate E-E-A-T (expertise, experience, authority, and trust) by writing in-depth articles that address key user questions, displaying the credentials of your key personnel, and posting references from satisfied customers. IBM employs a strategy of writing flattering posts about targeted businesses as a means to attract the notice of executives at these firms and potentially build relationships with them. Finally, consumers of all types, including B2B execs, are heavily influenced by shared values with your firm. Writing content about your values and contributions to them is a great way to build a favorable image.

Matching your content to your organizational goals and your overarching strategies is a key element in not only determining what to write about, but ensuring the success of this type of B2B content marketing is essential.

Resource challenges

Lots of responding firms felt they were early on the learning curve, but spending on content marketing, as a percentage of overall marketing spend, was small. The average content marketing spend was just 28% of marketing budget, which is below the average for B2C firms — 32%. Of course, about half of the respondents plan to increase spending over the next 12 months, but that likely isn’t enough to generate the returns they want.

In my experience, managers still feel content marketing is too new, too risky, and are reluctant to increase (or sometimes even allocate) budget for content-related activities. Taking a risk-averse position by spending a small amount on content marketing is often a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the CMI study shows that the least effective performers from their study only spend 15%, on average, of their marketing budget on content as compared to the most effective, who spend 42% of their average.

In marketing, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

B2B content marketing versus B2C content marketing

B2B content marketing works effectively if you recognize the ways it differs from B2C content marketing. For B2B firms, you find:

• Much longer sales cycles, so you’re looking to generate leads, rather than conversions
• Often, your customers are less emotionally driven than B2C customers, which means creating long posts, white papers, and case studies that provide trust signals
• Firms often employ a buying center, versus a single individual making purchase decisions
• The tone should be more educational and professional

In summary, here are some of the key differences to consider when employing B2B content marketing:

Let’s delve more deeply into these differences:

Building trust

Businesses want to succeed; therefore, their buyers are less interested in your efforts to hack their emotions with dance videos on TikTok or fear appeals to buy the newest fashions and more interested in your thought leadership. Often, the costs of a bad decision by a consumer involve a few dollars, but a bad one in a B2B setting might tie a firm to a long-term contract that is either too costly or results in a lost opportunity to make a product that appeals to its customers.

Your goal is to create content that helps them make the right decision for their company and its customers. Show that your product solves their problem and that you can deliver when and where they need it every time.

With a long sales cycle, lead gen is king

Depending on the types of products you sell, buyers might mull over the decision for years, especially when buying capital equipment or buildings. You need to provide content that matches where they are in the buying process, from educational content to build awareness to technical specifications to confirm the suitability before purchase.

Not only do you need content that drives companies toward a decision, but you also need a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) process to ensure continuity when employees of the prospective buyer leave or attain a new position. This involves building a relationship with the firm, but also with individuals involved in buying decisions. It means sending appropriate email messages that not only maintain this relationship (such as a birthday or anniversary email), but also those that match the individual and company stage in the buying process. It also ensures that promised materials are sent, for instance, after a salesperson promises a quote or brochure.

The buying center

Commonly, end users buy products for themselves or their families without consultation, except for very high-risk purchases, such as a vacation. Meanwhile, businesses often employ professional buyers or even use a buying center to make decisions because most decisions are high-risk, either involving large amounts of money or threats to meeting customer needs.

A buying center often involves employees with different goals, making a purchase decision challenging and lengthening the buying process. For instance, a requisitioner like the operations manager wants a product that she can easily and inexpensively turn into a finished product customers will love, while a finance officer wants the cheapest product, and a buyer may want to buy from a company where there’s an existing relationship. These needs may conflict with each other to make the process very complex.

Content format

You need an emphasis on long-form content, such as blog posts, ebooks, white papers, and case studies, versus social media posts (except for those on LinkedIn).

Professional, educational content

Although you want content that’s professional and educational, don’t write content that’s totally impersonal and sterile. It’s ok to post a cartoon or use humor in getting your point across. It’s also permissible to use industry jargon as a tool to demonstrate your competence. However, don’t waste a busy executive’s time with long stories or wasted words. You should include a table of contents to make it easy for them to find the content they want without having to scroll through an entire case study, for instance. You might include an executive summary, as well, to summarize key findings.

Conclusion

Yes, B2B content marketing is an effective tool for driving business success when used the right way. Trying to run B2B content marketing the same way you do a B2C campaign will likely fail not only because you’re not creating content in a format that tempts business executives to buy, but because you don’t give them the depth they need to create an interest in your brand.

One thing to consider, however, is that most buyers are people (although AI might change that in the future). That means they are likely on other social media platforms, like TikTok and Instagram, especially as buyers get younger all the time. That means you should expend some effort with less weighty content for these platforms as part of your B2B content marketing plan.

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