At Red Mallard we like to say that content marketing is a long game. It’s especially true in B2B industries, where the goal is to build lasting relationships with customers, not just make a quick sale. Through a process of constant reinforcement, organizations can use content to build a lasting reputation. Over a period of three, five, or ten years, a consistently growing library of content can have a transformative impact on enterprise value.
Without understanding the long-term nature of content marketing, the process can feel like running in quicksand. Some of that feeling comes from a lack of understanding of how the B2B context differs from consumer-oriented sales. The popular understanding of content marketing comes from the consumer world, where success is measured in minutes or hours.
Consumer marketing is like day trading. B2B marketing is like long-term investing.
Once the time scale is understood, the strategic emphasis shifts to content that can continue to deliver value long after it is published.
Measuring the Useful Life of Content
In a recent email, SEO expert Neil Patel shared the results of his team’s analysis of over four million social media posts. They were interested in identifying the half life of content posted to places like X, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs.
Posts on TikTok and X live at one extreme of the spectrum, with measurable engagement half lives of less than an hour. Posts on Facebook (4-6 hours) and LinkedIn (11-15 hours) fared only slightly better. Compare that to blog posts, with a half life of around two years.
Any content strategy that focuses on short-lived channels needs to emphasize consistency and volume. Organizations that are serious about building a social media following might need to post multiple times per day to gain traction.
Blog posts are another matter. Informative blog content can stay relevant for years. They bolster a website’s SEO performance while also giving visitors valuable insights into what the organization can do for them. A blog is owned media, so it can be updated as often as necessary to keep information current and relevant. The owner also controls how blog content is distributed and promoted.
Durable Content Takes Many Forms
A healthy blog is only one example of long-haul content. Here are some other examples of content that provides value long after it is finished:
- White papers. Long-form articles, or collections of shorter pieces, addressing a specific topic of your industry can sit comfortably on a custom landing page for several years, capturing data from visitors who are among the most motivated to learn about your brand.
- Sales sheets. In many industries, a sales sheet stays relevant for a surprisingly long time. I once spoke to someone who sells equipment for nuclear power plants using sales literature from the 1980s. Granted, our conversation was about how to update them, but the point stands: sales sheets can have a long and fruitful life.
- Infographics. Tasteful design can make complex ideas easier to understand. People love to share infographics because they answer questions in ways that text does not. An experienced designer can put together an infographic more quickly than you might imagine.
- Reference materials. The best content gives its readers something of value. What is more valuable than a quick source of basic information your customers use every day? For example, Red Mallard worked with a client in the brazing and heat treating industry to design a downloadable pamphlet of units and measures used in metallurgical processes. It’s a simple asset that everyone in the industry can use. The result is daily, positive brand impressions that build credibility and trust.
- Video content. Many people prefer to learn from videos rather than articles. Along with being easier to remember, videos are more likely to be shared and lead to conversions. Producing videos need not be expensive or difficult. And best of all, because they aren’t competing in as crowded of a space, they tend to be easier to find for longer.
Content you plan to keep around for years requires more work than its flash-in-the-pan cousins, but not so much more that it should be considered cost-prohibitive. Most of the extra investment is in time. For example, when compared to a blog post, a white paper probably will demand a few more hours of an expert’s effort to dial in all the details.
The extra effort is worth it for the steady returns delivered by long-lived content.
A Blend of Content Types Is Essential for Success
A strong strategy rarely goes all-in on bigger, slower projects. Focusing too much on longevity can miss the forest for the trees. Instead, develop a balance.
The reason is simple: different content channels deliver value at different speeds. By combining several of them together, an organization builds a library of content assets that, taken together, advances its marketing goals.
Social media posts are short-lived only if you evaluate their return on a post-by-post basis. Such granular measurements make sense for companies that pay for post promotion. The marketing team needs the data to know if their strategy is working or if it needs adjustments.
So-called “organic” posts (i.e., posts made for free) work differently. Every platform serves content to visitors according to an algorithm that strongly favors paid content. An organic post likely will only be seen by about five percent of a page’s followers. Measured one by one, organic posts perform badly when compared to paid posts.
Organizations taking the organic route need to look at social media differently. The goal is to steadily build a thread of posts that express something about the brand’s expertise, values, and wins. Over time, the post history becomes a kind of micro-history of the organization itself. Prospective customers and job seekers gobble it up.
A well-fed blog and a tastefully designed website each serve a similar purpose, even though their half-lives are measured in months and years, not days.
Rely On the Content Marketing Experts
Your content mix should reflect the behaviors of the audience you want to reach. If buyers mostly ignore email but always read your LinkedIn posts, your focus is clear. Almost everyone uses Google search for now, but AI search might expand the ways people find you.
Red Mallard develops tailored content strategies that leverage today’s technologies to empower our creative team to deliver polished, high-impact assets. What are your marketing goals? Reach out to us today to explore your options.
