Jul 09, 2020

7 Go-To Content Types for B2B Education Brands

Creating a tool for educational brands is a big deal. Once you’ve got a product ready to go, you then have the difficult task of shopping it around to relevant institutions. And, when there’s thousands of schools and colleges to target, the amount of sales calls you need to make quickly becomes overwhelming. 

This is where content marketing can be incredibly helpful.

By creating content that’s geared towards your target audience, you can reach a wider range of businesses in a shorter amount of time. It gives companies an opportunity to find you before you’ve had a chance to reach out to them. 

As a result, you’ll land more customers and will effectively shorten the sales cycle by providing information that potential buyers need as and when they need it. 

The ultimate goal of your content should be to provide value and solutions that are geared towards your target audience. To do this, you’ll need to create a mixed bag of content, from blog posts and presentations to ebooks and webinars.

Here are the kinds of content that B2B education brands benefit from. 

1. Blog Posts

Blog posts are a foolproof piece of content to add to the mix. They provide a way for customers to find you via search engines and social media, and present an important step in the sales cycle. 

Consider the common questions you get from prospects and dig into customer support tickets to find out what information potential buyers need from you to move forward. Then, turn these into blog posts to deliver information your audience wants and needs. 

Edmodo’s blog is full of posts that tackle key questions potential users might have, like “what can I use Edmodo for?”

2. Videos

Videos are becoming an increasingly popular way for B2B brands to communicate with their audience. Short, engaging videos that focus on offering one solution or one specific pain point are effective assets for turning visitors to your site into buyers. 

Again, think about the common questions potential customers might have and use these to fuel your video strategy. Alternative, turn customer stories into animations, offer pre-recorded demos, or turn blog posts into short, snappy videos. 

 

Khan Academy was one of the first B2B education brands to incorporate videos into the marketing strategy and it has worked out really well for them. 

3. Webinars

Webinars are an effective way to communicate with your audience in real-time. Not only do they give you the chance to share valuable information and showcase your expertise as an educational tool provider, but they also let prospects engage with you and get to know who you are as a brand. 

Think about the common problems your audience faces, like creating engaging lessons, organizing their lesson plans, or creating resources for students and devise webinars that speak directly to these needs. 

This selection of webinars on EdSurge tap into the needs of key B2B education prospects with value-packed information. 

4. Presentations and Demos 

Getting prospects to the final hurdle is the hardest part. Not only do you have to show that your solution is valuable, but you also have to pitch yourself against competitors and come out on top.

Presentations and demos help your prospects see your product in action and what kind of use cases it can be beneficial for. This is particularly important for innovative educational tools that institutions might never have used before. It’s your job to convince them they need your product to solve their pain points, and demos can be an excellent and visual way to do that. 

6. Case studies

Like demos, case studies show prospects how they can use your product or tool. They showcase past customer success stories to prove what’s possible with your product and to show off the various different use cases. 

Being able to see what other brands have been able to achieve with your tool is a brilliant incentive for future prospects who also want to achieve similar things. 

Newsela has a whole page dedicated to customer success stories. They outline the journeys specific buyers took and what they managed to achieve by using the product. This forms a vital part of the sales cycle – proof. Without proof, you might struggle to get prospects to invest in a product that’s new to the market. 

7. Ebooks

Ebooks offer a deeper dive into some of the key pain points your prospects have. Not only do they act as a good lead magnet when you offer them as free downloads, but they also provide a great opportunity to showcase your expertise in the industry. 

Create ebooks around the main pain points your audience have and ensure they offer a considerable amount of value. These will be the pieces of content that turn website visitors into leads, so they need to be highly engaging. 

Schoology has a selection of ebooks for visitors to choose from, which makes it highly likely that there’s something for everyone. Prospects are then invited to download their chosen ebooks in exchange for the email address, which Schoology can then use to send nurturing sales emails. 

Content is Key for B2B Education Brands

Content is vital for B2B education brands. It creates a touchpoint for prospects, serves valuable and much-needed information, and fills in gaps in the sales cycle. This means you can reach more prospects at any one time and shorten the sales cycle for many prospects by giving them key pieces of content exactly when they need it. 

Related Posts:

How B2B Education Brands Can Boost Their Authority with Savvy Social Marketing

4 Key Marketing Strategies for B2B Education Brands

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