What is your content game? Do you post every day? Are there any identifiable gaps? If yes, then building a social media calendar will help you create relevant B2B content. However, preparing a B2B social media marketing plan is not a cakewalk. You must focus on various factors to ensure your products and services are promoted to the right audience.
Need some quick tips to make an effective content calendar for social media marketing? Let’s start right away.
7 Best Hacks to Create a B2B Content Calendar
1. Focus on Clear Objectives
Identify clear goals and KPIs before creating your content. Your brand cannot be everything to everyone. What did you achieve in the last quarter? How was your sales cycle? What are your company’s goals in 2024? Which audience group are you planning to target?
These are a few questions you and your team need to answer and set measurable goals to ensure your B2B social media tactics are successful and you can track your progress.
2. Strategize Timelines & Bandwidth
Content creation and finalizing a B2B social media marketing plan involves planning, forecasting, and coordinating with multiple departments to gather insights.
- When will you create each piece of content?
- Who will manage the creation, publishing, and analysis of the insights?
- How will you promote and repurpose your B2B marketing content?
Additionally, every marketer should set clear expectations and bandwidth to tick off the day’s checklist. Your company’s content is a representation of your team’s total creative capabilities. Therefore, mapping the content creation timelines is important to move ahead with your calendar.
3. Combining Content, Buyer Persona & Topics
Content is not about what you do or like to watch online, it’s about what your audience likes to consume and whether it is solving their pain points. So, if you are running a B2B tech company, your B2B social media marketing plan should align the content types, buyer persona, and topics to create a robust content calendar.
Tailor your content to each stage of the buyer’s journey to increase the likelihood of conversion.
4. Promotion Channels
Once you are clear about the timelines, content strategy, and objectives, start thinking about promotion channels to bring your content in front of your target audience. Will you use PR, social media, email marketing, paid advertising, or a mix of all? This will enable you to plug into your content calendar for social media marketing and bring all the stakeholders on the same page.
5. Create a Calendar Format
You have all the information you need to store it in a calendar format. Use tools like Excel spreadsheets, Notion, and Hubspot to organize information and create a centralized calendar so that everyone stays updated on upcoming marketing campaigns. This sets a strong foundation for your B2B social media marketing plan.
6. Distribute Everywhere
You are ready to roll out content, and the calendar is complete. However, before proceeding with your B2B social media marketing plan, distribute the calendar to all relevant stakeholders – clients, business partners, and the team.
Everyone should have access to the calendar to understand which content needs to be posted, and if there are any recent changes, people can stay updated by checking the calendar. Moreover, there are marketing automation tools like Buffer to streamline workflows and save time on repetitive tasks.
7. Generative AI
Incorporate AI into your content calendar for social media marketing to boost ideas and multiply output. Start asking these tools to analyze your calendar outlines, present alternative viewpoints, or challenge the validity of arguments.
This amplifies your productivity and reduces the time needed to research content. However, do not rely on AI to do all the marketing work and use it wisely as an additional resource to boost your productivity.
Next, let’s discuss the things you should include in your calendar.
B2B Content Calendar – 5 Content Types
1. E-Books
Identifying buyers is a vital step in preparing a B2B social media marketing plan. Depending on the type of resources, you can include downloadable PDF guides and e-books for early users at the beginning stage of the buyer journey. An E-book contains detailed information to convince your audience to buy your product or service. How-to guides and E-books are the key types of B2B content that boost conversion.
2. White Papers
Research-oriented content works well for prospects closer to a buying decision. White papers are clinical and rely on research and in-depth information. While preparing a content calendar for social media marketing, add white papers to offer deep information to your clients.
3. Blog Posts
Blogs are still relevant to generate leads and drive traffic to your website. It is an essential component of your B2B social media marketing plan and regardless of the content frequency, it is a foundational element for attracting prospects to your company.
4. Press Releases and News Articles
Self-promotion is necessary only if you strike the right balance. Press releases or news articles on your B2B website or PR sites are a place to highlight your achievements and successes. If you are creating a content calendar for social media marketing, post press releases with compelling content to boost your presence and credibility without overdoing it.
5. Videos
Irrespective of your B2B content calendar plan, make videos a central element of your content strategy. Start small by recording your live sessions and webinars and improve your skills to create great videos that align with your company’s brand.
6. Infographics
Many B2B marketers make the mistake of not including visual and graphic elements in their content calendar. However, infographics can be a great way to summarize your e-book or blog content visually. These are bite-sized content pieces that are easily readable and catch attention quickly.
7. Educational
Do you know your target audience’s needs? Do they understand your product or service? Promotional content is good but educational pieces are far better. Strictly include educational content in your B2B social media marketing plan to educate your end users.
That said, let’s unravel the commonly asked questions for a B2B social media marketing plan.
FAQs – B2B Social Media Marketing Plan
How do you make B2B content interesting?
It’s important to provide valuable content to your audience. In contrast to promoting your product, provide deep insights, information, and knowledge about your company’s vision and mission statement. By offering helpful content, you are not only solving the pain points of customers but also giving them opportunities to engage with your content.
What are the key elements of a B2B content calendar?
The essential elements of a B2B content calendar include KPIs, goals, content timelines, workflows, distribution, and content formats.
What are the important pillars of content creation?
The vital pillars of content marketing include – clarity, conciseness, compelling, and a credible call to action. Your message should be clear and speak directly to your audience. Avoid jargon and complex language to make the brand language relatable to your audience.
How to create a B2B social media content calendar?
Identify your social media channels and conduct a detailed audit of your B2B content strategy. Decide what you want to track and create a spreadsheet in calendar format to record, edit, and update your content plan.
Wrapping Up
Creating a content calendar is the first step to building a B2B social media marketing plan. From providing consistent workflows to regular content upgrades, a calendar keeps all stakeholders in a single loop.
Creating a content calendar is a pretty straightforward process but it is just one of the many steps to creating a winning B2B social media content plan. At Midas Touch, we specialize in providing end-to-end social media services to B2B tech companies so they can create content that generates high-quality conversion.