Content marketing is widely used in today’s digital age by companies that seek to reach out to their potential customers. Thus, by creating valuable content and sharing it, you can build your database of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and nurture them to move through your funnel. A strong content marketing strategy is vital in the field of B2B content marketing; the decision-making procedure here is a bit complex, and your buyers look for trust and reliability in any piece of information that you provide. 

Keep reading as we dive into the impact of content marketing in creating MQLs.

What is B2B Content Marketing?

B2B content marketing helps you put your offering in front of your customers. It is the process of creating and distributing different types of B2B content, such as blog posts, white papers, webinars, podcasts, and case studies, to hook your prospects. B2B content marketing focuses on addressing the pain points, requirements, challenges, and concerns of your prospects via its content, along with pitching how we can help. Around 90% of B2B marketers are leveraging content marketing to drive in new customers. An effective B2B content marketing strategy also helps you to build a strong foundation for your business and project yourself as a thought leader in your industry.

What are MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads)?

MQLs are the leads that have displayed interest in your marketing campaigns. These leads have interacted with your B2B marketing content and could be subscribing to your newsletter, downloading a PDF or an ebook, filling out a contact form on your site, or attending a webinar. Marketing Qualified Leads are more likely to be your customers compared to ordinary leads, as they have shown a higher amount of interest in your marketing efforts. MQLs are classified on the basis of content type consumed, engagement time, and number of touchpoints. MQLs help businesses identify leads with high potential, which, when nurtured efficiently, could convert into a potential sale.

Importance of MQLs in the Sales Funnel

• Efficiency: Using MQLs, your sales teams can improve their overall efficiency by directing their focus on warm leads. 

• Alignment: With MQLs, you can align the efforts of your marketing and sales departments to work towards the common goal of making a sale. 

• Higher Conversion Rates: MQLs are more responsive to your offerings than cold leads, as they have shown a certain level of interest and engagement. 

• Shortens Sales Cycle: Since MQLs are warm leads that have already engaged with your brand, the sales team can skip the part of educating the prospect and move ahead in the sales cycle.

Impact of content strategy on Marketing Qualified Leads

Attracting the Right Audience

Content marketing helps grab the attention of potential leads by providing information that they are looking out for and addressing their concerns. With content that’s specific to the targeted audience, you are likely to attract people who might convert into MQLs in the future.

Building Trust and Authority

Producing and sharing relevant and trustworthy content, helps you become an expert in your industry. This is advantageous as it builds trust with your potential leads, who are likely to get converted in MQLs.

Engaging and Educating Leads

With Content marketing, you can share information about your products or services with your audience via various mediums like social media posts, white papers, webinars, etc. The content when addresses your potential lead’s pain points, helps them build trust in your services and is likely to convert into MQLs.

Better Lead Segmentation

Content marketing allows you to create strategies curated for each customer segment. By analyzing how a lead engages you can segment them, and nurture them further increasing their likelihood of conversion into MQLs.

Aids Lead Nurturing

Providing useful content via various mediums over time can guide your prospect into gaining understanding through their journey. Nurturing them over time can help them become MQLs when they are ready to make a purchase actively.

Strategies for using content marketing to generate MQLs

Creating High-Quality, Relevant Content

The most important factor in attracting potential leads is to produce relevant and high-quality content. This includes creating blog posts, ebooks, and articles to cater to your audience. For instance, if your audience is concerned about their digital marketing needs, you should write about new trends and best practices of digital marketing. The aim is to create content that provides value and earns the trust of your targeted people, getting them closer to turning into MQLs.

Making use of SEO and Keyword Approaches

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)  is the effort and practice you inculcate in your content to rank higher in the search engine. Therefore, make sure that you use keywords that your audience is looking for to attract visitors to your website. You should start with the keywords that have low volume, increasing your chances of ranking and moving up in the ranking. These keywords should be used in your content, title, and meta description to enhance your site’s SEO rankings. You can also try off-page activities to drive visitors to your content, visitors who have the potential to become MQL.

Social Media and Email Marketing as tools for promoting and expanding products

Social media and email marketing are the best methods for advertising. Share your content on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to drive traffic. You can also use email marketing to deliver your content to your subscribers. This keeps your audience interested and drives them to take action, like registering for a webinar or downloading a guide, increasing their likelihood of converting into MQL.

Personalization and Targeted Content

Curate content personalized to individual segments of your audience. Deliver tailored content that aligns with each prospect’s needs. Personalizing emails, landing pages, or recommended reading based on past behavior increases the chances of nurturing visitors into MQLs.  

For example, you can send out personal emails that contain content that the prospect had interacted with earlier on your website.

Conclusion

Due to the vast competition in today’s B2B world, content marketing can be a very effective technique for identifying MQLs. Providing great, timely, solutions-oriented content that addresses the needs and challenges of the targeted audience is a perfect way of attracting, capturing, and cultivating prospects. 

Looking to level up your B2B lead generation? Marketboats is the leading B2B lead generation provider, and we can assist you in targeting and converting genuine prospects. Do not hesitate to contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help grow your business.