B2B content marketing is the process of creating and distributing valuable, relevant content to attract and engage a specific business audience.
Unlike B2C, which focuses on individual consumers, B2B content marketing targets the needs, challenges, and interests of individuals making purchases on behalf of their organization.
At the heart of effective B2B content marketing lies three key aspects:
Solid Strategy
This involves understanding your audience deeply, identifying their needs and challenges, and aligning your content objectives with your business goals. A solid strategy should reflect both short-term wins and long-term engagement. A strategic foundation ensures that all content efforts are purpose-driven.
Consistent Creation
Consistency in content creation refers to not only the frequency of posts but also maintaining a high standard of quality and ensuring that all content is cohesive and reflects your brand’s voice. Regularly producing valuable content that educates, informs, and engages your prospects establishes your organization as an industry thought leader, which builds trust and credibility.
Diligent Distribution
Effective distribution ensures that your content reaches the right people at the right time through the right channels. This includes leveraging SEO best practices to increase organic reach, strategically promoting your content on social media platforms, and partnering with a content marketing agency, if required, to streamline content efforts and maximize ROI.
Since their inception, big B2B SaaS brands like HubSpot and Ahrefs have relied on content marketing as a means to demonstrate industry authority, solve problems, and help other businesses succeed in their ventures.
When you consider the tremendous growth of these brands, you know for sure that B2B content marketing is a worthwhile investment (when done consistently!).
Now, here’s a natural question that might pop into your brain: How does B2B content marketing differ from B2C content marketing?
Put simply, in B2B, the buying cycles are longer, the decision-makers are typically multiple, and the content types are more detailed. The goal here is not just to engage but to educate, demonstrating thought leadership and solutions that fit within complex buyer ecosystems.
For B2C companies, the audience is usually pretty broad. Their content needs to reach the end customer, who might be interested in trying their product (this could be backed by genuine need and research or on a whim).
On the other hand, B2B content targets decision-makers within organizations. These individuals require logical, data-driven content to justify their business decisions. The typical B2B buyer’s journey involves intricate purchase decisions, multiple stakeholders, and a longer sales cycle, necessitating content that supports such a decision-making process.
We’ve successfully crafted and implemented B2B content marketing strategies for clients like PACK & SEND, enhancing their reach and engagement. Here is a snapshot of the growth we enabled for their website via strategic B2B content marketing.
So, where do you begin?
We’ll cover everything crisply and to-the-point, sharing actionable tips and resources you can implement right away to boost your SaaS brand’s organic visibility, traffic, and conversions.
Use the ToC below to jump to a chapter of your choice.
Establishing a strong footing is a five-step process.
Understanding precisely who your content is for is crucial. For this, start by creating detailed Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP) and buyer personas. These documents outline key characteristics of your target market, such as industry, job role, pain points, and buying behavior, which guide your content creation.
Here’s a table that differentiates between Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP) and Buyer Personas:
| Aspect | Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) | Buyer Persona |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Targeted at accounts or companies | Targeted at individuals or roles within companies |
| Content | Demographic and firmographic data, potential value | Psychographic and demographic data, buyer’s habits |
| Purpose | To align marketing and sales strategies with high-value accounts | To create content that resonates on a personal level |
| Data | Revenue, industry, number of employees, market position | Age, job role, challenges, goals, personal background |
Next, dive deep into the specific challenges and pain points your customers face. Analyze their buying journey to understand what information they need at each stage. This insight helps you tailor your content to address these needs directly.
There are plenty of ways to figure out what pains your audience and what they’d find helpful at different points of their journey:
Once you have identified pain points, map out the buyer’s journey from awareness to decision. This involves detailing each step a potential customer takes, what information they seek, and what decisions they make along the way.
Knowing your customers’ pain points and buying journeys inside out, you can now be confident in your content creation endeavors. Confident that you are not shooting arrows in the dark but actually addressing specific needs at each stage of the buyer’s journey.
You can take the help of ChatGPT to create a detailed ICP. Here’s how:
You can also take a leaf out of this sample ICP document (from Pipedrive).
Clear goals guide consistent action. They align everyone on your team and let you measure success.
And so, with the who of your content marketing clear, define the why.
Use the SMART framework to define goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Here are examples of what SMART goals can look like in B2B content marketing:
SMART goals give you a clear roadmap for your B2B content marketing strategy. They help ensure every piece of content serves a specific purpose toward achieving your objectives.
A content audit evaluates your existing content to identify gaps, strengths, and weaknesses. This process helps refine your content strategy to better meet your goals.
Here’s how to conduct an effective content audit:
In your audit, examine SEO metrics such as organic traffic, backlinks, and keyword rankings for each piece of content. This analysis helps identify your existing high-performing content and areas that need improvement.
Review whether the content aligns with your current marketing goals and audience needs. Decide whether each content piece should be kept, updated, or removed based on its performance and relevance.
Based on the insights gained, create an action plan for updating content. This could involve rewriting outdated articles, improving SEO for underperforming pages, or creating new content to fill gaps.
At Growfusely, we conduct thorough content audits for our clients before and after a campaign. We use insights from our content audit to craft a data-driven content strategy. We track improvements in various key areas, such as user engagement, time on page, and organic traffic.
For instance, here’s how we approached the content marketing campaign for Thena.ai, a modern B2B ticketing platform. We audited their content repository to pinpoint gaps that could be filled and strengths we could build upon—providing a detailed analysis and recommendations.
Check out the post-implementation performance in Google Search Console.
Competitor analysis gives you insights into what works (and what doesn’t) within your industry.
Understanding what works for your competitors can provide valuable input for your own content strategy.
Here’s how to analyze your competitors’ best-performing content effectively:
Once you’re done, shortlist the types of content (e.g., blogs, videos, infographics) that generate the most engagement for your competitors. Create a spreadsheet of keywords that are driving traffic to their sites. You can use Semrush to see which keywords they rank for and the performance of their content.
Also, look at how competitors are acquiring backlinks—do they contribute guest posts, do link exchanges, or focus on creating link magnet content (such as an original research or study)?
Learning from their successes lets you confidently refine your B2B content marketing strategy, as now you know for sure if something sticks. You just have to beat them at their own game.
Here’s an example of how we analyze competitors for our clients before beginning any campaign.
As you can see, we use Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to learn what keywords competitors are ranking for and which pages bring the most search engine traffic. We also see their backlink profile— which websites link to competitors’ sites and what is the general quality of their backlinks.
Even today, when Google’s ranking algorithms have evolved to the point where they incorporate AI to collate and reproduce content as useful SERP snippets, proper keyword research holds a foundational place in your B2B content marketing strategy.
Sprinkling the right keywords within your content makes it more discoverable and relevant. It aids Googlebot in accurately indexing your content.
Broadly speaking, keywords fall into two categories:
Here are the four core keyword metrics you must take into account when deciding which keywords to target:
Focus on a mix of high-volume keywords (for brand awareness) and long-tail phrases that might have lower search volumes but are highly targeted and less competitive (for high-intent users).
Also, you can use some common keyword frameworks to structure your content around search phrases that your audience typically types into the search bar. Examples include:
Our SEO team follows a thorough keyword research process for each campaign to ensure every piece of content we create targets the most relevant keywords with the best potential for rankings.
Here’s a rundown of our process:
1. Identify Relevant Topics: We begin by listing topics closely related to the client’s product. These should capture the core areas of their business and customer interests.
2. Generate Seed Words: We compile a list of seed words that their target prospects might use when searching for solutions to their problems or when aiming to achieve specific goals.
3. Expand Keyword List: For each topic identified in Step 1, we gather a comprehensive list of keywords. We use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs to fetch these keywords.
4. Organize Keywords in a Spreadsheet: We arrange all keywords in a spreadsheet in a manner that allows easy comparison. We then assess their potential for quick results and overall impact.
5. Refine Keyword List: We remove irrelevant keywords, those in other languages, and overly generic terms that might not yield specific enough results.
6. Incorporate Competitor Keywords: We analyze the client’s competitors to add additional relevant keywords they are ranking for that might have been missed.
7. Add More Keywords from Various Sources: We deepen the list by including keywords from related searches, extensions of your seed keywords, and trends that are current or emerging.
8. Value Assignment:
9. Summarize with a Pivot Table: We use a pivot table to summarize and visualize the data, facilitating streamlined content creation and efficient publishing strategies that yield quick results.
10. Client Selection: We present the organized keyword strategies to the client for them to choose the topics and clusters they wish to prioritize for content development.
Content marketing is a long-run game.
To realize real gains, you need your foundational strategy to be able to scale as your business grows and offerings expand. It should be well-defined yet flexible enough to accommodate various content formats and tactics in terms of both creation and distribution.
Let’s look at the three key steps in building a scalable B2B content strategy.
As you know, marketing can be segmented into three stages of a hypothetical funnel: top, middle, and bottom of the funnel. And there’s a fourth stage focused on retaining customers and turning them into loyal fans.
So, let’s learn how to map your content creation to your marketing funnel.
This first stage is where you create content that answers broad questions related to your industry or addresses common pain points. This helps in attracting a larger audience.
Best Content Types:
How-to guides, listicles (tips, tactics, trends, examples, etc.), infographics, thought leadership (experience/anecdotes-based content from founders), original research or surveys.
Optimize each piece with the right blend of primary and long-tail keywords. Aim to address as many questions about the topic as you can based on what your audience searches for on Google. Lead them to relevant product/features pages on your website with contextual internal links and CTAs.
Here’s an example of comprehensive ToFu content we created for Zeda.io, a product management software: SaaS Product Management 101 – Everything You Need to Know
It is an exhaustive guide, covering everything from the basics to best practices, that a product manager would find valuable. It currently ranks second on the SERP.
In the second stage, you develop content that helps your audience compare different solutions or learn more about how your product can solve their specific issues. This includes detailed guides on using your products effectively and showcasing how your product offers better value than its rivals.
Best Content Types:
Checklists, templates, cheatsheets, webinars, alternatives-to articles.
This stage is all about guiding prospects in their product research phase where they’re aware of a problem and looking for solutions. This is where compelling content can help turn them into leads by encouraging them to sign up to your email list, attend a free webinar, download templates, and so on.
As an example, check out our Website Redesign SEO Checklist, a complete guide+downloadable checklist aimed at helping SEOs at enterprise companies navigate through major website overhauls such as migrations. You can make a copy of the spreadsheet for easily documenting and comparing all your URLs pre, during, and post your website redesign.
In the third stage, you shift your focus on converting your leads into customers by providing proof of success through case studies, offering free trials, or detailed product breakdowns that underscore your unique selling propositions.
Best Content Types:
Product demos, white papers, comparisons, customer testimonials, and detailed case studies or success stories of existing customers.
This is the final nudge for prospects on the fence about trying or purchasing a product. Your content’s ultimate goal here is to convince them to sign up for your free trial or free plan, request a demo, or contact your sales team.
For instance, we wrote this detailed comparison article for Multidots, a premium WordPress development agency: Oracle Content Management (OCM) vs WordPress: A Comprehensive Comparison
It objectively compares the two CMS solutions and showcases how WordPress is indeed the better choice.
The fourth and final stage. This is all about retaining those hard-earned customers who chose to give your brand a shot via more valuable content that makes their life easier.
Best Content Types:
Industry commentary, original analysis, insider tips on making the most of your product via email drips, in-depth knowledge base to enable instant self-service, FAQs.
The best customers are ones who stick around and become your brand’s advocates, bringing in even more customers on autopilot.
For example, Userpilot, a B2B SaaS product growth platform, maintains a great knowledge base that covers most of the customer service queries they get frequently, in the form of easy-to-understand how-to articles.
This resource improves the brand experience their existing customers have, improving retention and word of mouth.
Let’s take a deep dive into 12 B2B content marketing strategies you can use to build your reach, rankings, and authority. We will illustrate each strategy with real-world examples from B2B companies who’ve successfully been there, done that.
HubSpot reorganized its entire blog in 2017 around the pillar-cluster model, creating comprehensive pillar pages on broad topics with clusters of related posts linking back.
For example, HubSpot’s “Ultimate Guide to Sales Qualification” serves as a pillar covering an in-depth core sales topic while linking to many subtopic posts (cluster content). This strategy helped HubSpot dominate broad keywords by signaling topical authority—instead of targeting isolated long-tails, they group content by topic clusters.
The pillar pages (often titled “Ultimate Guide to…”) provide a one-stop overview, and each supporting article in the cluster dives deeper into a subtopic, all interlinked. This approach improved SEO rankings and user navigation by showing HubSpot’s breadth on each subject. HubSpot’s pillar library ranges from an Ultimate Guide to SEO to an Ultimate Guide to Sales Qualification, each anchoring a cluster of related content.
ClickUp, the project management suite, aggressively creates “alternatives to…” pages to capture high-intent searchers looking for options beyond a competitor.
For instance, their blog features posts like “15 Best Evernote Alternatives & Competitors in 2025,” where they list Evernote’s top alternatives and naturally include ClickUp in the mix (often as #1).
By targeting keywords like “Evernote alternatives” or “Asana alternatives,” ClickUp attracts prospects already seeking a new solution. These pages compare features and pricing of various tools and subtly highlight ClickUp’s advantages.
ClickUp’s site hosts a “host of comparison pages” showing how it stacks up against competitors (e.g., Asana, Trello, Notion, Monday)—helping them rank for competitor keywords and draw in ready-to-convert traffic. This bottom-of-funnel content addresses buyers actively evaluating options and has been a huge driver of high-quality leads for ClickUp.
Ahrefs published a detailed head-to-head comparison page titled “Ahrefs vs. Semrush vs. Moz.” This versus page directly compares Ahrefs with its two main competitors on features, data, and results. The content is designed to rank for searches like “Ahrefs vs Semrush” and capture those evaluating SEO tools.
In fact, if you Google a query like “Ahrefs vs. Semrush vs. Moz,” Ahrefs’ own comparison ranks prominently, allowing them to own the narrative before a third party or the competitors themselves do.
By laying out side-by-side comparisons and highlighting the unique strengths of Ahrefs, the page helps prospective customers make an informed choice (and naturally positions Ahrefs favorably).
Such versus pages are prime BoFu (bottom-of-funnel) content in B2B, as they target users deep in the decision process. Ahrefs’ strategy here is noted as preventing competitors from controlling the narrative and driving more conversions to Ahrefs.
Similarly, the email platform ActiveCampaign built a whole hub of “X vs Y” pages to emphasize its advantages over each competitor.
Consider Ahrefs again. They frequently use industry experts to create authoritative content.
A great example is an article on the Ahrefs blog titled “8 SEO Hiring Managers Share Their #1 Interview Question.” For this piece, Ahrefs interviewed eight seasoned SEO managers, asking each for the single most important question they pose to job candidates.
The result is a curated interview roundup: each expert’s name, role, and answer is featured, along with their rationale and Ahrefs’ own take. This format brings multiple SME perspectives into one content piece, lending enormous credibility and depth.
As the write-up notes, “everyone’s answering the same simple question, informed by their own expertise and experience,” which neatly showcases different insights. Ahrefs then adds value by supplementing the expert answers with tips and relevant product features (where appropriate).
By publishing SME interviews, Ahrefs positions itself as a facilitator of expert knowledge. The content is far more credible to readers (potential customers) because it’s not just Ahrefs’ opinion—it’s backed by the voices of real hiring managers in the field. This strategy demonstrates thought leadership and builds trust with the intermediate-level audience, showing that Ahrefs is plugged into the expert community.
Video hosting SaaS Wistia produces an annual “State of Video” industry report that shares proprietary data and insights about how businesses use video.
In their 2023 report, for instance, Wistia analyzed platform data from 80 million videos and surveyed 1,500 marketers to identify trends and benchmarks.
They compiled findings on video length, engagement, conversion rates, and more into a comprehensive study (released as a downloadable report and accompanied by blog content). For example, Wistia’s research revealed which interactive video features yield the best conversion rates and how video performance varies by placement on a webpage.
By publishing these findings, Wistia provided valuable industry benchmarks (e.g. what a “good” engagement rate is or which types of videos drive the most conversions). Marketers refer to the report for data-backed guidance, which keeps Wistia top-of-mind.
Similarly, companies like Salesforce and HubSpot publish annual studies (i.e., their “State of Marketing” reports), using original survey data to become go-to resources in their domains.
Moz (that old SEO toolkit founded by Rand Fishkin) is famous for its extensive ultimate guides.
The most notable is the Beginner’s Guide to SEO, a free online guide that spans 8+ chapters covering everything from how search engines work to link-building tactics. This guide has been read over 10 million times, making it one of the most popular comprehensive resources on SEO.
Moz structured it like a digital book, with a table of contents and chapters that readers can navigate through sequentially. It’s essentially an “ultimate” how-to manual for the entire topic. By investing in such in-depth content, Moz established itself as an educator in the space (many marketers’ first introduction to SEO is via Moz’s guide).
The guide is ungated, providing immense value upfront, which in turn builds trust and goodwill with readers who may later consider Moz’s products. Moz has replicated this formula for other topics (with guides on link building, local SEO, etc.), but the SEO guide remains a stellar example of using a comprehensive one-stop guide to capture audience interest at scale.
It demonstrates Moz’s expertise (thus indirectly promoting its tools) while genuinely helping practitioners—a classic content marketing win-win.
Email marketing platform Mailchimp took content marketing beyond blogs by launching Mailchimp Presents, a digital content hub featuring original series, short films, and podcasts aimed at entrepreneurs and small businesses.
This is essentially a streaming platform for B2B content, complete with episodic shows and documentaries—all created or curated by Mailchimp to inspire and educate business owners.
For example, they produced an animated comedy series “All in a Day’s Work” about the candid ups and downs of running a small business. They’ve also released documentary-style films profiling entrepreneurs, and podcast series like “Call Paul” featuring candid conversations with small business owners.
With these, Mailchimp Presents deliberately focuses on storytelling and valuable insights (not on pitching Mailchimp’s product).
This edutainment approach keeps viewers engaged with the Mailchimp brand in a much deeper way—forging an emotional connection through content that resonates with the entrepreneurial experience. The strategy here is that by providing high-quality video content for free, Mailchimp builds brand affinity, which ultimately can translate into customer loyalty.
Team collaboration software company Atlassian uses its active user community and other online forums to discover what topics matter most to its audience, then creates content to address those needs.
For example, Atlassian’s community forum (where customers and experts discuss questions) often reveals recurring questions or pain points about teamwork, agile project management, using Jira/Confluence, etc. The content team keeps an eye on these discussions—when they notice the same question being asked repeatedly by users, it signals a great blog topic opportunity.
In fact, an Atlassian community manager once advised: “If the same question has been asked many times it’s probably worth the topic” for an article. By listening to the community, Atlassian can proactively publish help articles, how-to guides, or FAQs that directly answer those popular questions.
So, if multiple users ask how to run effective sprint retrospectives, Atlassian might publish a blog post or Playbook guide on “5 tips for better sprint retrospectives.” This strategy ensures a steady stream of fresh, relevant content ideas sourced from real user interest—essentially crowd-sourcing their editorial calendar.
This also guarantees strong SEO, since the content uses the exact phrasing people are searching/asking. The value to readers is high because the content is literally built around their voiced needs, and it reinforces Atlassian’s reputation for responsive, community-driven support.
Slack, the workplace messaging app (now part of Salesforce), highlights compelling case studies to show its product in action.
One notable example is Slack’s showcase of IBM’s adoption of Slack as its “Digital HQ.” In a Salesforce blog Q&A titled “How Salesforce and Slack Power IBM’s Digital HQ,” Slack interviewed IBM’s Vice President of Global Sales on how IBM rolled out Slack to 350,000 employees worldwide.
The case study details the challenges IBM faced and the results achieved: IBM’s teams now send 16 million Slack messages per day, replacing much of their internal email. The IBM VP describes how Slack “turbocharged our productivity” by enabling real-time collaboration and reducing meetings.
This narrative is powerful social proof—a prospective customer sees a global enterprise trusting Slack for mission-critical communication. Slack’s case study is presented as a success story interview, with quotes from the client (IBM) explaining the benefits in their own words. The piece also touches on specific features (e.g., Slack Connect for external collaboration) that delivered value to IBM.
By publishing this kind of in-depth case study, Slack (and Salesforce) provide a storyline that potential buyers can relate to and find credible. It demonstrates ROI and use cases through a real customer’s experience, which is far more persuasive than marketing copy.
As such, Salesforce’s site is rich with big-brand case studies, and Slack’s IBM story is a prime example of using storytelling + data to showcase product impact.
Customer support platform Zendesk maintains a dedicated Customer Testimonials page on its website where visitors can see hundreds of short testimonials and mini case studies from real clients.
Zendesk’s testimonial hub is well-organized: readers can filter the stories by industry, company size, use case, and region. This means a prospect in e-commerce can quickly find how other retail companies benefited from Zendesk, or an enterprise prospect can filter to see quotes from large-company clients.
Each testimonial entry typically features a client’s logo, a quote praising Zendesk, and often a link to a fuller “customer story” article or video. By elevating the Voice of the Customer in this way, Zendesk adds massive social proof to its marketing—prospects see real-world validation that “companies like me” trust Zendesk.
For example, a quote might read, “Zendesk helped us improve customer satisfaction by 20% in one year,” attributed to a support lead at a well-known company. Zendesk’s testimonial page also demonstrates scalability: it’s not just one or two happy customers, but hundreds, reinforcing that Zendesk’s solutions work across scenarios.
This strategy of highlighting reviews/testimonials can be seen in many B2B sites (often pulling in G2 or Gartner Peer insights, or featuring video testimonials), but Zendesk’s extensive, filterable library is a best-in-class execution.
Marketo, the huge B2B marketing automation brand, partly built its reputation by producing in-depth white papers/e-books on key marketing topics.
One hallmark example is “The Definitive Guide to Lead Generation,” a comprehensive 160-page e-book Marketo offers to its audience. This guide (one of a series of “Definitive Guides” Marketo created) covers everything from content marketing and SEO to lead nurturing and analytics—all through the lens of how to generate and manage leads effectively. It’s packed with checklists, charts, and expert contributions, essentially serving as a textbook for modern lead gen.
Marketo’s strategy was to gate these guides behind a form so interested readers provide their contact information (becoming leads in Marketo’s funnel) in exchange for the valuable resource. The content itself is high-value and non-salesy; for instance, the lead generation guide teaches marketers how to define a lead, use various channels, and measure results—agnostic of any product.
By educating the market, Marketo established thought leadership and trust, making readers more receptive to considering Marketo’s platform when they’re ready for a solution. This approach exemplifies using substantial, authoritative content as a lead magnet.
HubSpot similarly has an extensive library of e-books and white papers for download, trading insights for contact info. Professional services firms like Deloitte or IBM produce white papers to showcase their expertise as well.
Marketing software company CoSchedule created a popular free tool called Headline Analyzer that content marketers use to evaluate the quality of their article titles. Users can input a headline, and the tool generates a score and suggestions—analyzing factors like word balance, length, sentiment, and clarity.
This simple utility has become ubiquitous among bloggers ( “I don’t know a single content marketer that hasn’t heard about this app or used it,” said one SaaS CEO).
CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer delivers immediate value by helping writers improve their headlines, but it also smartly requires users to submit their email to get the full results report. Thus, it acts as a lead generation magnet—you get a useful analysis, and CoSchedule gains a new lead for its pipeline.
This strategy of offering high-utility templates or tools works brilliantly in B2B: it attracts your target audience with a handy resource, showcases your brand’s expertise, and captures leads in the process. In CoSchedule’s case, the tool itself aligns with their product offering (marketing planning software), reinforcing their brand purpose.
Other examples: HubSpot’s Website Grader (which grades your site’s performance/SEO for free) is another famous instance of this tactic. It has graded over 2 million websites and funneled countless leads to HubSpot by offering tailored improvement tips.
B2B companies also share downloadable templates (e.g., social media calendars, budget spreadsheets, etc.). Again, HubSpot, for one, provides dozens of free templates on its site to help marketers and sales reps organize their work. These resources solve real problems for the audience and, in doing so, keep the company top-of-mind as a helpful partner.
Here’s a quick summary of each strategy, its exemplary brand and content piece, with a link to that content.
| Strategy | Example (Brand & Content) | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Pillar-Cluster Model | HubSpot – Ultimate Guide to Sales Qualification (pillar page) | Sales Qualification: Gauging Whether a Lead Aligns With Your Offering |
| Alternatives Pages | ClickUp – 15 Best Evernote Alternatives & Competitors (2025) | Psychographic and demographic data, buyer’s habits |
| Versus Pages | Ahrefs – Ahrefs vs. Semrush vs. Moz comparison page | Ahrefs vs. Semrush vs. Moz: Learn What The Industry Thinks |
| SME Interviews | Ahrefs – “8 SEO Hiring Managers Share Their #1 Interview Question” | 8 SEO Hiring Managers Share Their #1 Interview Question |
| Industry Studies | Wistia – 2025 State of Video report (original research) | State of Video Report: Video Marketing Statistics for 2025 – Wistia Blog |
| Ultimate Guides | Moz – Beginner’s Guide to SEO (multi-chapter online guide) | Beginner’s Guide to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – Moz |
| B2B Video Content | Mailchimp – Mailchimp Presents (original video series platform) | Mailchimp Presents |
| Community-Sourced Topics | Atlassian – Using user Community questions to inspire blog posts | Atlassian Platform Questions |
| Case Studies | Slack (Salesforce) – IBM’s Digital HQ with Slack (Q&A case study) | How Salesforce and Slack Power IBM’s Digital HQ |
| Testimonials/Reviews | Zendesk – Customer Testimonials page with filtered quotes | Customers – What Companies Use to Service You |
| White Papers/E-books | Marketo (Adobe) – Definitive Guide to Lead Generation (160-page eBook) | The Definitive Guide to Lead Generation – Marketo |
| Templates/Tools | CoSchedule – Headline Analyzer (free headline scoring tool) | Write Better Headlines: Headline Analyzer From CoSchedule |
By studying these examples, you can see how intermediate and advanced tactics (from SEO-focused pillars to community-sourced topics) play out in practice. You can see how they contribute to a cohesive B2B content marketing strategy that attracts, educates, and appeals to an audience of decision-makers.
B2B audiences (i.e., high-level executives and decision-makers) aren’t aloof to social media.
LinkedIn, X, and YouTube—these are the places you’ll find them hanging out the most (in their non-leisure time, of course).
As professionals, they’re here to consume content that aids their business in some or the other way (and maybe post their own stuff to build their personal brands).
And so, your B2B content needs to be there as well.
The question is: do you need to invest more time, effort, and money into creating more content for these platforms?
Not necessarily.
Here are a few ideas to repurpose your existing long-form content into bite-sized formats for these social avenues:
As a B2B agency, we dedicate a part of our own content marketing strategy to platforms like LinkedIn. Our content, design, and SEO teams work together to create (and repurpose existing) sticky content—a blend of meaty, slippery-slope text and attractive graphics—that actually sticks.
The content goes out from our founder’s profile, serving the dual purpose of building his personal brand (which brings in leads for the agency) as well as the agency’s reputation and reach.
Check out some of our top LinkedIn posts that have racked up some decent engagement stats:
Aim to emulate the quality of content and the process of creating such quality content in these examples, and you’ll ensure your content is of the highest standards.
Effective B2B content marketing doesn’t end with content creation. Using your content to gain links to your website and promoting it for maximum reach is how you can ensure your content investment yields the returns you expect.
This chapter provides insights into how to enhance your content’s reach and visibility through effective link-building strategies and distribution tactics.
Recent statistics suggest:
Put simply, having relevant, high-quality websites link to your content is a surefire way to boost your content’s visibility on the SERP and thus, drive more traffic to your website.
There are some tried-and-true strategies to earn backlinks from relevant websites and boost your content’s SEO visibility.
Let’s touch upon them briefly, in the context of our hypothetical HR management SaaS.
Identify reputable HR blogs, industry publications, or professional associations that accept guest contributions. Here’s how:
Ensure your article submissions are all about actionable insights and naturally incorporate a link back to your content or specific landing page.
Guest posting enhances visibility among HR professionals and drives qualified traffic back to your site. Done consistently, it builds your brand’s reputation as a thought leader in the HR tech space.
Quick Tip:
Build relationships with editors and content managers at these publications. Regularly contribute articles to create ongoing visibility, and make sure each piece provides genuine value to the audience to encourage them to seek out more information about your software.
Use tools like Ahrefs Site Explorer that can help you find broken links on other websites, such as HR-related blogs and resource pages.
Once you find a broken link, offer your content as a replacement where it provides relevant and valuable information. For example, if a university’s HR resource page has a broken link to an article about “Improving Employee Engagement,” suggest a well-crafted article from your site that discusses how your software enhances engagement through continuous feedback and recognition.
Not only helps in gaining a backlink but also assists in building professional relationships with industry-related academic and professional sites.
Quick Tip:
Be respectful and helpful in your outreach, emphasizing the benefits to their audience. Provide a quick and easy way for them to see the value in updating their page with your link.
Develop and launch free tools such as an HR compliance calendar, payroll calculator, or a template for employee development plans that HR professionals can use. Promote these tools in your blog content, forums (like relevant Subreddits), and LinkedIn.
Tools that save time and offer valuable insights can quickly gain popularity and earn backlinks from various sources, including niche bloggers and even competitor sites.
For example, Gusto, a payroll and HR management software offers a free tool to calculate hiring costs for a new employee.
As you can see below, it has a total of 127 backlinks presently that have been growing on autopilot in the past year.
Quick Tip:
Ensure the tool is easy to use and genuinely useful. Include a feature that encourages users to share the tool with others, such as social sharing buttons or an email-a-colleague feature.
Conduct surveys or compile data on topics like the latest HR trends, technology adoption in HR, or the impact of remote work on employee productivity. Publish the findings in a comprehensive report that includes data visualizations and expert analyses.
Original research can position your brand as a data-driven leader in the HR software market, attracting backlinks from industry news sites, bloggers, and perhaps even academic researchers.
Besides offering free tools, Gusto leverages this strategy, too. Their team of economists gathers the latest insights from the hundreds of thousands of businesses using Gusto to highlight emerging trends and help small businesses reach their full potential. Leading institutions, policymakers, and media platforms have highlighted the team’s research — earning them very valuable links and mentions from high-authority websites.
They go a step further and also offer interactive, real-time data on things like remote work trends, hiring and termination rates, average hourly earnings, etc. from Tableau.
Quick Tip:
Promote your research through press releases, social media, and by sending personalized summaries to key influencers within the HR industry who might benefit from citing your findings.
Create press-worthy stories about your software, such as significant product updates, notable partnerships, or unique use cases. Distribute these stories to high authority relevant publications, such as HR Dive and Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
Consider using digital PR tools like Cision PRWeb for creating and distributing press releases, as it offers robust tracking and reporting features to streamline your PR workflow.
Effective digital PR can lead to high-quality backlinks from news outlets and well-regarded industry blogs, significantly boosting your SEO and brand visibility.
Quick Tip:
Tailor your pitches to specific journalists and outlets that cover HR technology. Offer exclusive data or insights to increase your story’s appeal and provide clear, direct links to pages on your site that expand on the news item.
This was just an overview of link building. To dive deeper into each of these methods (and more), check out our complete guide to link building.
Besides building links to your content, you need to push it across other relevant channels and platforms to improve its reach across all your audiences (social media, email, etc.).
That’s what content distribution is all about.
Here are some great ways to distribute and promote your content effectively.
By implementing these strategies, you can effectively distribute and promote your B2B content, ensuring it optimally reaches your target audience, thereby maximizing your content’s potential to generate leads and drive business growth.
As your business grows, so too should your content marketing efforts. In this chapter, we’ll discuss some tips for tracking your content marketing performance and maintaining the efficacy of your content over time.
There are a number of key content marketing metrics you need to focus on to measure your content’s performance, assess the impact of your strategy, and make informed decisions to boost future performance. Here they are:
To effectively track the key metrics outlined in content marketing, you can use the following tools:
These tools offer a comprehensive approach to measuring the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts across various aspects, from traffic and engagement to conversions and SEO performance.
Sure, consistently publishing fresh content is an important part of any successful B2B content marketing strategy.
But if you’ve been investing in content for a while, then there are a couple of low-hanging fruits that will help not only maintain the effectiveness of your content but also scale your content marketing to reach more audiences.
These are:
We have detailed articles discussing the what, why, and how of both these strategies, and we highly recommend you go through them:
By “brand-building content”, we mean content that not only educates and engages your audience but also enhances and relays the core values, mission, and unique selling propositions of your brand. This type of content is designed to establish and reinforce the identity of a company in the minds of consumers, fostering recognition, loyalty, and trust. It connects with the audience, offers genuine value, and consistently reflects the brand’s voice and ethos across all platforms.
The Ahrefs blog is a perfect example of brand-building content. Every post (such as the one below) offers unique value, often weaves in their products naturally, and reflects their way of doing business — helping readers connect with the brand.
In the age of AI Overviews — wherein Google is generating new content based on all the indexed data (not just curating and organizing existing content) to give users fast and exact answers to their search queries right there on the SERP — you need to eventually focus on a more brand-centric approach rather than an SEO-only approach in your content.
That’s because AI Overviews and similar AI-driven features in search engines will likely tend to favor content from established brands, primarily because such brands are often associated with reliability, authority, and trustworthiness (think E-E-A-T).
Established brands typically have a long history of producing high-quality, reliable content that aligns with search engine guidelines for accuracy and authority. Consequently, AI Overviews are more likely to source snippets from these brands because their content is perceived as more trustworthy.
Brand-building content is a way to set your company apart as a long-standing thought leader, and here are some tips to get you started:
By following these tips, you can shift your focus to crafting brand-building content to differentiate your enterprise and establish it as a thought leader in the eyes of both Google’s AI and your customers.
We are now going to share with you some of the best B2B content marketing examples. These brands not only understand B2B content marketing but also unleash its true potential, creating some crazy good work of their own.
Here’s the list of 6 successful B2B content marketing examples who get it right. Dive into it for inspiration, kickstart your creativity, and brainstorm some fantastic ideas for your company.
Growfusely excels in content marketing and SEO, especially when catering to their target audience of B2B technology companies. They’re not just throwing words around; they create detailed guides that hit the mark.
Whether it’s data-driven long-form content or a more relaxed blog post like “Content repurposing,” Growfusely manages to keep things interesting and valuable. The unique thing? Their content writing team knows how to make complex B2B content informative without inducing yawns.
Another noteworthy aspect is their use of data-driven content. Since the B2B crowd is savvy and wants proof, Growfusely delivers, and they deliver hard.
Check out a snippet from their post, “8 Key Metrics to Focus on for Effective Content Marketing as a SaaS.”
The attention to detail and the abundant use of data make it clear that they’re not just talking—they’re educating.
That’s why the guide ranks in the top 5 in Google search results.
Key Takeaways:
Even though 75% of B2B buyers use social media for decisions, pushing intrusive ads on apps won’t cut it. What savvy B2B decision-makers truly crave is valuable content.
As business owners dive into social media for brand research, showing they’re in buying mode, it’s clear. Interacting with them authentically and moving away from generic content is what brings out the best B2B content marketing campaigns for brands.
Well, if you’re not sure where to begin, let Slack be your north star for successful B2B content marketing examples.
Firstly, B2B businesses grappling with Instagram bio challenges can learn from Slack’s approach— keep it short and focused on their mission.
Slack makes the most of Instagram Stories and Highlights for showcasing its latest features.
Coming to X (Twitter). It’s an awesome channel for B2B updates and support. Slack does a great job using cross-channel marketing to shine on Instagram too. And when it’s event time, they drop a cool 30-second video and make the event hype real.
Now Slack’s Facebook marketing strategy. It is sleek and minimal—a good example of a great social media copy.
They draw attention with beautiful posts, especially when sharing blog content. They update users on new features and cleverly repurpose content for different platforms.
Most B2B businesses on YouTube post sporadically, but not Slack. They’re active, publishing 2-3 videos weekly with a solid strategy. Thumbnails are sharp, sparking curiosity with color coordination and minimal words. Flawless visual appeal all the way!
Slack’s LinkedIn strategy highlights the value of writing a simple yet effective LinkedIn bio. The About section uses words like “diverse,” “inclusive,” and “equal opportunity,” showing their commitment to employee well-being.
They tailor fun, engaging blogs for Facebook and Twitter, while on LinkedIn, it’s serious and professional, reaching a business-centric crowd. Their LinkedIn ads are intriguing, with videos, photos, and carousels—excellent design and content.
Key Takeaways:
McKinsey, the consulting maestro, excels in presenting case studies that encapsulate complex business transformations with clarity and strategic depth.
How are they different? Their case studies read like a captivating story rather than a dull report. They transform business narratives into a compelling journey. It’s not just facts; a narrative that begins with a clear depiction of the opportunity, setting the stage for the business challenge and its resolution. The storytelling unfolds logically, providing a comprehensive view of the situation.
McKinsey showcases a client-centric approach, focusing on the client’s objectives and the impact of McKinsey’s intervention. Integrating quotes from key stakeholders adds that human touch. The insights into the client’s perspective make the content more relatable.
McKinsey backs its narrative with numbers and metrics—the real proof that their strategies aren’t just talk.
And the language? It’s professional without being boring, expert without being overly technical. The tone is authoritative, instilling confidence in the reader about McKinsey’s capabilities.
Key Takeaways:
Over 464 million podcast listeners globally, expected to reach 504.9 million by 2024!
Judging by the numbers alone, it’s clear that the podcasts wield serious content marketing potential. Over half of marketers are already tapping into it to reach their audience. As this industry expands, it’s smart to include them in your B2B content marketing strategy now and stay ahead of the increasing competition.
For instance, Mailchimp, the maestro of email marketing, diving headfirst into the world of podcasts.
How does Mailchimp pull it off?
Mailchimp goes beyond content creation; they craft an experience that hits home with customers. Diving into the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, their podcasts speak to the heart of the journey. It aims for a real connection without the hard sell.
Variety is the spice of their podcasting life. From interviews to stories, they serve up a content buffet that caters to different tastes, addressing pain points, sharing insights, and adding a sprinkle of humor.
No silos here. Mailchimp’s podcast seamlessly integrates into their broader strategy. Emails mention the latest episodes, social media buzzes with podcast updates.
A standout podcast feature? They provide transcripts. Along with aiding the hearing impaired, it’s a savvy SEO move. A transcript packs in keywords and backlinks, making their content a breeze to find. Smart, right?
And, as Julie Douglas, the Senior Manager of Mailchimp Studios notes, they keep an eye on analytics – site visits, content consumption, and customer conversions. Yet, it’s not just about numbers; they take a holistic view, understanding how the platform genuinely supports both their audience and creators.
Key Takeaways:
Thought leadership goes beyond sharing expertise – it’s a hub for exchanging best practices, practical insights, success stories, and social responsibility.
Across industries, companies are strategically placing their key figures at the forefront of B2B digital marketing. These leaders become valuable assets for both organizational growth and community building.
While many B2B companies have excellent goods or services, only a few attain the coveted status of thought leaders. Most businesses are easily replaceable, but thought leaders stand out.
That’s why integrating thought leadership into your B2B content marketing strategy is a game-changer. As your business earns trust, it becomes integral to others’ growth, securing a top spot in the market and establishing itself as a respected authority.Deloitte shines as the best B2B content marketing example in thought leadership. Just look at their website, Deloitte Insights – it’s a treasure trove for businesses. They go beyond typical written content, offering industry reports, expert insights, and specialized studies on their services.
What’s noteworthy is the diversity. Deloitte doesn’t stick to written content alone. The ‘Watch & Listen’ section elevates the experience with audiovisuals. Their videos are eye-catching, and the podcasts are insightful and entertaining — a refreshing alternative for buyers tired of endless written articles.
Key Takeaways:
Semrush’s bread and butter comes from its SEO and content marketing expertise, so it’s no surprise that it produces the best B2B content for itself.
Recognizing that not everyone visiting their site is an SEO pro, Semrush creates an impressive educational content strategy.
They roll out a variety of free courses covering not only how to use their SEO tools but also how users can grasp and apply SEO tactics independently. You can touch upon diverse topics, from technical SEO to keyword research, and even get certificates upon completion.
Notice how they seamlessly integrate product-led marketing into courses without making their products the sole focus. This makes Semrush a good example of B2B content marketing.
For instance, look at the way they smartly talk about their Topic Research Tool while explaining content idea generation for B2B content.
Besides this, Semrush offers additional content derived from their original research and data. Then there’s the GoodContent Hub, a treasure trove of resources and tools to elevate your content marketing game.
Being an SEO tool, Semrush implements a robust strategy to enhance its content visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). Key SEO tactics they employ include Semrush keyword strategy, strategic keyword placement, effective internal linking, and optimized URL structures.
This approach positions Semrush as an SEO thought leader and turns it into a go-to for businesses seeking comprehensive SEO software.
Key Takeaways:
From establishing a solid strategic foundation and creating value-first content for each stage of the funnel, to effectively distributing and maintaining your efforts, each step plays a crucial role in establishing a strong foothold in the search and social web.
Our last bit of advice is that the key to successful content marketing lies in ongoing evaluation and adaptation. Regularly review your content strategy and stay attuned to the evolving needs of your audience, the search engines, and the market dynamics.
Pratik Dholakiya is the Founder of Growfusely, a SaaS content marketing agency specializing in content and data-driven SEO.
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