There’s never been more B2B content than there is right now, with one study showing 92% of marketers increased their content marketing budgets in 2024.
And it’s only going to continue to increase. Articles. Blog posts. Emails. White papers. It’s all coming faster, louder, and more frequently than ever – with another study showing that almost half of all marketers expect to increase their content marketing again this year.
The result? An overwhelming cacophony of content competing for your audience’s attention, making the trust you seek to build with your content ever harder to achieve.
So how do you break through when everyone’s shouting louder and more often?
Don’t try to shout louder. Instead, speak smarter. Here are some important approaches you should take.
1. Be More Purposeful in Your Content
Too much brand content is created piece-meal, transactionally, and without a clear purpose or goal in mind. To effectively cut through the noise, it’s essential to have a well-thought-out content strategy. This includes:
- Being clear about your content objectives, your content mission and what your goals and objectives are.
- Purposefully creating Personas that document your audiences’ key challenges, pain points, and goals.
- Identifying your audience’s content needs and preferences to tailor your content around.
- Defining content pillars that establish your content’s key themes that align with your brand and resonate with your audience.
2. Hold the Sales Pitch
Modern buyers are seeking content that provides clarity, insight, or help, and they have fine-tuned BS meters that identify and tune out overt sales messages. In fact, trying to pitch too soon is the fastest way to lose your audience.
Instead, focus first on providing insights and information they are looking for. Being useful now fosters the credibility and trust that earns you the right to sell later.
3. Deliver Value, Not Volume
Much brand content is created to fill calendars, check boxes, and fill out spreadsheets, not to deliver real value.
Consider rising above the content chaos. You don’t need to post daily, publish multiple blog posts a week, or be active on all social platforms. Instead of saying more, focus your energy on fewer, better assets.This bit of restraint can be your competitive advantage – and allows you to put in the amount of effort necessary to create something really worth reading.
4. Have a Point-of-View
Most B2B content plays it safe. But playing it safe is what makes most content invisible.
If you want to stand out, don’t be afraid to challenge conventional wisdom or offer a take that’s counter to the dominant narrative—especially if it’s rooted in real-world experience. Audiences gravitate toward content that has a point of view and makes them think, not just nod.
5. Make It Easy to Read and Hard to Ignore
Your audience is busier than ever and pulled in a million directions. Because of this, they likely appreciate concise and clear content over long-form, jargon-laden tomes. Use straightforward language, break up text with headings and bullet points, and get to the point quickly.
Simplicity doesn’t suggest lack of depth. It projects empathy.
6. Play the Long Game
The goal of content isn’t to get a quick, one-off action, it’s to get someone to care. That requires nurturing the relationship over time.
So instead of focusing on hail-Mary’s or transactional efforts:
- Stay focused on their customer and their needs
- Deliver value over time
- Build credibility, not just visibility
- Nurture interest with additional content
In today’s massive content clutter, you don’t need to be louder to get your customer’s attention. You need to be smarter. That means content that addresses real paint points, delivers value consistently, and earns and builds trust over time. That’s what ultimately translates into winning customers and building loyalty.
*Originally published in MediaPost’s Marketing Insider 5.6.25
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