Content marketing trends are constantly evolving. As we enter 2024, business leaders are searching for new B2B content marketing ideas to keep their engagement afloat among the new competition.
After 57% of B2B brands revealed that they found it challenging to create the right content for their audience in 2023, 2024 drives hope as new online trends bring more B2B content ideas to trial with your demographic.
As we welcome TikTok as a key content marketing channel and tap into the benefits of B2B podcasting, let’s take a closer look at some of the newest B2B content marketing ideas dominating the new year.
What is B2B content marketing?
B2B (business-to-business) content marketing is the process of sharing creative and valuable content with your target audience to attract engagement and qualify leads.
Working similarly to B2C content marketing, B2B content aims to drive brand awareness, build consumer trust and, most importantly, generate leads.
The most common forms of B2B content marketing are:
- Social media posts: On platforms such as TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
- Thought leadership content: Such as employee blog posts, webinars and workshops.
- Research content: Such as case studies and whitepapers.
- Tutorials: Such as slide decks, presentations and product demonstrations.
Regularly trialling new B2B content marketing ideas is essential in educating your audience on your product or service’s value.
In fact, according to a recent study by Marketing Charts, the B2B channel producing the highest ROI leads in 2024 is content marketing, responsible for over 62% of all convertible leads.
10 B2B content marketing ideas for successful engagement in 2024
As more marketers embrace the power of content in their B2B lead generation strategy, we have collated ten content marketing ideas to try out in your next B2B content campaign.
From introducing AI to your content strategy to trialling employee ambassadors, here are the content trends dominating the B2B market in 2024.
1. AI-assisted content
As online audiences grow, so do their content demands. On the back of shortform success on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, consumers are saturated with regular content updates daily.
To compete with this, more B2B content marketers are embracing AI-assisted content bots such as ChatGPT. This B2B content marketing idea consists of using a chatbot to help brainstorm content ideas and even generate content captions and blog outlines for a more streamlined strategy.
Marketing automation tools allow B2B professionals to offset repetitive content tasks and analyse customer engagement metrics, creating campaigns that garner more engagement.
(Image Source: OneIMS)
With over 75% of consumers now trusting content written by generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, B2B marketers will likely keep taking advantage of the service, seizing more content opportunities and creating quick-fire posts that meet growing consumer demand.
Better still, B2B scheduling platforms such as HubSpot and Buffer are also embracing AI automation. They use it to improve the accuracy of content posting times based on the highest potential for demographic engagement.
B2B marketers who choose to create their content ahead of time can now use AI-powered scheduling tools for a better chance at reaching their targets as they appear on social feeds.
2. Hyper-targeted content
Next up on the list of best B2B content marketing ideas of 2024 is hyper-targeting.
When creating content on numerous channels, it can be difficult to see success among large, diverse audiences.
The key to B2B content engagement is to create targeted content that speaks directly to your consumer group. This includes choosing the right platform for your demographic and considering a number of factors before releasing your content on a new platform.
Here are some of the most important factors to consider when creating hyper-targeted content:
- Customer pain points: What services are your business targets lacking? How can your B2B service solve their problem?
- Age range: How old are your targets? Are you likely to find them on TikTok or Linkedin? Depending on the platform your targets feature more heavily on, you may want to adjust your content form, tone and style for platform success.
- Location: Are you targeting global businesses or local startups? This will determine what you include in your B2B content. For example, if you’re targeting locals, you may create a post inviting them to a local workshop or business fair.
- Interests and values: What are your targets interested in? What are their company values? Look at the content they’ve previously interacted with and create something corresponding to recent niche content trends and your target’s beliefs.
The more you think about your sample buyer persona, the better your B2B service will perform.
3. B2B brand communities
Brand communities already dominate B2C content marketing success.
Take Sephora’s Beauty Insider Community as an example. With over 5 million users using the community platform to create their own content about Sephora products, sales have skyrocketed based on consumer word-of-mouth and UGC content.
For B2B marketers looking to introduce new B2B content marketing ideas to their strategy, creating a brand community could solve several current targeting challenges.
Not only are communities hubs for first-party data collection, but they accelerate the adoption of new products and services. They’re also well-trusted by new consumers.
Mindbody One is a B2B service that demonstrates the power of a good brand community content strategy.
(Image Source: MindBody One)
Created by Mindbody, the healthcare SaaS provider, the community page allows business managers to come together and share their experiences, questions and content in one professional social zone.
What a great B2B content marketing idea that subtly promotes your brand while providing a safe space for your targets to come together.
4. Omnichannel video content
We all know that video content has taken off within the B2B marketplace.
In 2024, B2B owners should post videos on every channel to help improve engagement. Over 89% of B2B consumers claimed that watching a video persuaded them to make a purchase, so there has never been a better time to invest time into video content marketing.
Taking an omnichannel approach is a great way to link all of your communication channels and build brand awareness on a wider scale. Enterprise video platforms help create a compelling experience for your audience.
For example, if you post a video on TikTok, ensure that it’s converted into an Instagram Reel or LinkedIn short. Embed it on-site for maximum visibility.
5. Using TikTok as a B2B marketing channel
On the topic of video content, we can’t forget about TikTok as a key B2B marketing channel. With over 2 billion users expected to be on the app by the end of 2024, it’s no surprise that B2B marketers are flocking to the platform to try their luck.
In 2024, a staggering 57% of young adults prefer TikTok’s short-form video content to traditional long-form advertorials. This has driven some of the most profitable B2B content marketing ideas in the last year and continues to be one of the best platforms for targeting success.
TikToks allow a B2B brand to engage with this fun side and present a more human front to their targets. While B2C marketers regularly use TikTok, B2B brands are still relatively new to the app, providing business leaders with an opportunity to get in their first.
The work management platform Monday is a great example of how to utilise TikTok as a B2B service.
(Image Source: Monday on TikTok)
Playing on Gen Z’s influence within the modern workplace, the B2B brand executes a hilarious play on procrastination and remote working trends. Monday’s post raked in engagement among an organic audience without directly promoting their service.
The brand has since gained 25K followers and continues to post B2B content about its software and how it adapts to modern-day work life.
6. Repurposed content
An easy B2B content marketing idea to trial in 2024 is repurposed content. While you may want to create numerous individual pieces of content for each platform, most B2B businesses just beginning their content journey don’t have time.
Instead, why not take the most recent blog post on your website and find new ways to repurpose it as a social post?
For example, share a snippet of the best paragraph on Linkedin and then the link for the full version. That’s a great way to get leads interested while picking up new website visitors.
Creating content that directs leads back to your website is a great way to encourage your audience to engage with your services and membership packages without directly telling them to.
7. B2B podcasts
Podcasts have continued to take off in the last few years. If you’re looking to try something new in 2024, there has never been a better time to embrace the world of audio-powered marketing.
In fact, according to experts at Statista, global podcast listeners are expected to exceed over 500 million by the end of 2024, rendering podcasting a great avenue for B2B success.
Most B2B content marketing ideas centre around educating and informing your targets about your shared industry and your helpful services.
Podcasting is a great long-form content marketing strategy. Use it to host educational debates and lectures about your industry and establish yourself as a thought leader in your trade.
This builds trust among other business leaders while organically selling your services.
Cognism is an excellent example of this! Our In The Loop Live webinar series is available in podcast format and follows employees Alice, Fran and Liam as they share new tactics and strategies that help you reach more B2B buyers.
The podcast is available on Apple and Spotify and regularly interviews marketing leaders, shares new B2B insights and promotes Cognism as a sales intelligence expert.
8. Conversational content
Adspeak is out, and conversational content is back in. Why is this happening? Well, B2B buyers in 2024 are saturated by ad-like content every day.
In an industry full of competitors, creating promotional content based on your product or service only fails to establish your brand as unique and memorable. To target your customers effectively, you must start a conversation with your content.
Conversational content helps the consumer feel heard by the brand and gives your targets something to attach to when remembering your business.
To embrace conversational content as a new B2B content marketing idea, you must first learn what your targets want to hear, their values and beliefs. Once you’ve established a tone of voice that matches what they are looking for, why not try writing a blog post, eBook or content caption conversationally?
One way to do this is to ask questions within your content. Encourage your readers to comment on your social post or blog article. Starting a debate or conversation in the comments is a great way to boost engagement.
9. Micro-influencers for B2B
Influencers are well-known within the B2C community. They’re fantastic at selling products using word-of-mouth and are an asset to B2C brands aiming to pick up new leads.
The question is, can the same approach be applied to new B2B content marketing ideas?
While B2C influencers are usually chosen based on their social following and weighted voice within your chosen demographic, B2B content influencers tend to be chosen based on their knowledge of your niche and their own experience as either a business leader or service user.
Think of them as micro-influencers. They can promote your products without appearing too promotional.
10. Employee ambassador content
Regarding micro-influencers, let’s talk about employee ambassadors as a B2B content marketing asset.
According to a recent study by the MSL Group, employee advocates can increase your brand content reach by a whopping 561%. They’re also connected with up to ten times as many leads as their brand on social channels.
Allow your employees to post their own content on behalf of your brand and share their experience, knowledge, and use of your product/service. It’s one of the best, easiest B2B content marketing ideas to try in 2024!
Take this example from Microsoft if you don’t believe us. Nuria Munoz, Global Talent Acquisition at Microsoft, is known for engaging in LinkedIn webinars, posting Microsoft labelled social content and much more to her thousands of followers.
What’s next for B2B content marketing in 2024?
Now we’ve revealed the newest B2B content marketing ideas to try in 2024, let’s look a little further into the future.
B2B content marketing is certainly set to change within the next year. As we embrace more AI adoption within the marketing sector, creating content has never been so easy. The only problem is that as more brands churn out regular social posts and blog articles, the competition for engagement will only increase.
As we enter a new era of mass content distribution, success will come for those who prioritise valuable content. It’s no surprise that the brands closest to their consumers will win the engagement race!
