How a B2B Content Marketing Strategy Uses Storytelling to Drive Leads

Quality -- and not just quantity -- is an essential part of a B2B content marketing strategy. Without quality content, you’ll have no valuable information to provide your prospects, and they’ll find it elsewhere on the internet instead. 

What good is content if the information is conveyed in a manner that would put a bullfrog to sleep? (If you don’t understand this reference, take the time to look up a bullfrog’s sleeping habits.)

The point is, it’s important to implement customer-focused storytelling elements into your B2B content. In doing so, you’ll create content that’s both valuable and entertaining, increasing your odds of capturing leads.
 

Why B2B Content Marketing Strategies Need Storytelling

It’s said that 87% of marketers have seen an increase in success due to personalization. And although you can’t personalize your content for every individual audience member, creating your content with a more personal approach will help you earn the trust and respect of your audience. 

And if users come to find that your content is enjoyable and sales pitch-free, you’ll establish a rapport that will create returning users. Over time, this helps polish your brand and establish you as a thought leader in your industry.

And with brand awareness and rising popularity in your industry comes a sense of trust that will allow you to organically generate more leads. Of course, understanding the value of storytelling is only useful if you know some methods to actually implement it.

Methods to Incorporate Storytelling Elements Into Your B2B Content

Now that you understand why it’s important to implement storytelling elements into even niche content marketing, it’s imperative that you know how to do it effectively. There are several proven methods, but you can always add your own unique spin to it.

These tips are different from your normal technical blog writing tips. In fact, you may even find that some of this advice is different from what you were originally taught about blog writing. And this is OK so long as you understand who your audience is.

Some methods to incorporate storytelling elements into your B2B content are:

• Show, don’t tell
• Use characters within your content
• Provide engagement opportunities
  
  

Show, Don’t Tell

This advice is good for any content, conversation touchpoint, or human interaction you’re involved in. Using stats, numbers, visuals, and actions is a great way to convey a message, and will keep your audience engaged.

A good way to remember this is to use the puppy method. If you sit down for conversation with a friend about their new puppy, you don’t want to listen to them ramble about its breed, gender, growth potential, etc. while the puppy’s clawing at a closed door elsewhere in the house. You want them to SHOW you the puppy.

Of course, content on a screen and a puppy are two very different things. Therefore, you’ll have to adjust this strategy a bit.

Instead of just throwing blocks of text at your readers, try using visuals to help represent your ideas or main points. There are many different types of visuals you can use. Three of the most common are:

• Images
• Videos
• Graphs
  
  

Use Characters

You don’t have to write the next hit novel here, but sometimes just creating a small setting with some example characters can be effective in conveying a message. A good example is the puppy method above that was used to describe the idea of showing and not telling.

Even better? Make your reader the hero of the story. That’s right -- you shouldn’t present your brand or product as the hero, you should empower the reader to feel that way.

The whole point of relatable storytelling is to help your audience understand the information you’re conveying. Create scenarios that are similar to the one your users are in. Don’t risk confusing them by creating a character and a setting that have no connection to their job or interests.

Humor is also a great addition to these fake characters and scenarios. The more chuckles you can get from somebody, the more likely they are to stay engaged with a technical or otherwise tough topic.

Provide Engagement Opportunities

Your content should align with your customer’s goals and objectives while addressing their pain points. 

A great way to ensure you’re doing this is to provide engagement opportunities that help keep them on the right path in their buyer’s journey. If you’ve managed to engage them and place them as the hero thus far, you’ve given your audience members a sense of importance and appreciation. Now you’ve got an opportunity to gather crucial information from them.

One popular engagement tool that a B2B content marketing agency will use is a call-to-action, or CTA. This marketing tool is designed to prompt an immediate action from the user, often providing them with valuable information in exchange for some general information about themselves.

Examples of this valuable information include:

• E-books
• Whitepapers
• Free consultations
• Newsletter signups
  
  

The End

Hopefully these storytelling tips will help you improve your overall marketing copywriting skills. When in doubt, always remember to:

• Show, don’t tell
• Use characters within your content
• Provide engagement opportunities

Overall, your content should align with your customer’s goals and current buyer’s journey stage. It should provide them with the information they need to make an educated buying decision. Maintain consistency in your content strategy, and always be looking for new ways to keep your blog posts enjoyable to read.

To learn more about creating effective content writing, download our free 101-level guide. It's not just for medical marketers, but also for manufacturers and other B2Bs!