We’ve all felt the frustration of calling a vendor and trying to get through to the right person. First, you must navigate the automated attendant to get to the right department. Then you punch in your account number. Finally, you get to a human being on the other end, and it turns out they’re not even in the right department. They transfer you to the correct one, and that agent asks you for the information you punched in earlier.

And you haven’t even gotten to the reason for your call.

Selling to B2B customers can be a similar process. Getting your message in front of the decision makers is difficult. So, how can you ensure that your B2B content makes it past the gatekeeper and into the hands of your target audience? (i.e. your ideal customer’s decision makers)

Create relevant content

Demand Gen Report found in their latest B2B Buyer Behaviour Survey that 58% of B2B buyers spend more time researching their purchases than they did in the past. Creating content that will help buyers in their research ensures that you stay top-of-mind with them as they make their decision. If your content “is relevant to their research and is helpful for them during the process,” then B2B technology buyers will pay attention to you.

Target the appropriate audience

Because there are always multiple involved in any B2B buying decision, create content that’s appropriate to those various roles and responsibilities. Understand that a one-size-fits-all approach is going to negatively impact the number of times your information makes it past the initial gatekeeper of your target audience. Repurpose your content and copy so that it appeals to IT staff, management, and senior executives. In fact, over 80% of IT executives stated that that content was a “significant” driver of their buying decisions. Eighty percent! Now that’s a BIG reason to target the appropriate audience with your B2B content, isn’t it?

Have the right timing

The final piece of the puzzle is to have the right timing with your content. The B2B buying pipeline is long, and your ideal customers appreciate the amount of content you can produce for each stage of the pipeline. Over 60% of surveyed B2B businesses said their winning vendors “delivered a better mix of content appropriate for each stage of the purchasing process.”

Final thought

After all this planning and creating, there’s one final thing that will ensure your B2B content gets past the gatekeeper and into the hands of the people that want it: help, don’t sell. B2B buyers are looking for information that proves you understand them and can help. To excite and inspire your target audience, your content should help them with obstacles and problems they face. By doing so, they’ll unconsciously think that you can help them solve their problems (which of course you can, but by not saying so outright, they come to the realization on their own, and create a bond with you.)

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