Maximising your B2B content ROI with the 80/20 ‘Rule of Distribution’
15th October 2024 •
15th October 2024 •
For B2B companies looking to increase brand awareness, engage audiences, and generate leads, content marketing is crucial. Yet B2B marketers often struggle with limited resources and the need to prove ROI.
What if there was a way to drastically improve your B2B content performance?
Enter the 80/20 rule of content distribution. By allocating just 20% of your effort to creating high-value content and the remaining 80% to smart distribution, you could significantly boost your content marketing ROI. Whether you handle content in-house, work with a B2B content agency or B2B content services provider, applying this principle can help you achieve more with your budget.
In this article, we’ll dive into the 80/20 rule and explore why it’s a game-changer for B2B content. We’ll then provide actionable tips to maximise your own content strategy.
The 80/20 rule, or Pareto principle, holds that roughly 80% of results come from 20% of efforts. When applied to B2B content marketing, this suggests that a small portion of your content will drive the lion’s share of traffic, engagement, leads, and revenue.
Identifying and optimising this top-performing content is key. These are your ‘pillar’ content pieces – the meaty, thought-leadership assets that provide genuine value to your B2B audience. Think comprehensive industry reports, in-depth guides, data-rich infographics, or interactive tools.
While creating this calibre of B2B content takes time and effort, it’s more likely to position your brand as an authoritative voice and generate meaningful results. The beauty of the 80/20 rule is that once you have these pillar assets, you can focus your energy on promoting and repurposing them broadly, rather than constantly developing new content from scratch.
Whether you develop content in-house or outsource to a B2B content agency, prioritising quality over quantity can improve your content performance.
A B2B content agency, well-versed in the 80/20 rule, can help you craft impactful assets and build effective distribution strategies to maximise their mileage.
Despite the potential of 80/20 distribution, many B2B marketers often miss the mark. A common pitfall is an overemphasis on content creation while neglecting promotion. There’s often an “if you build it, they will come” mentality, assuming great content will automatically find a keen audience.
In the crowded world of B2B content, even exceptional assets need targeted amplification to gain traction. Failing to adequately distribute content can lead to low ROI, as few people see the content you worked so hard to create.
Another issue is a lack of strategic skills on B2B content teams. Effective content distribution demands more than clever writing – it requires business savvy, analytical thinking, and the ability to collaborate cross-functionally. Without this strategic lens, it’s easy to churn out content without fully leveraging its value.
Implementing an 80/20 B2B content strategy involves four main steps:
The core of your 80/20 approach is creating a few standout content assets. Pillar content should be substantive, evergreen, and tailored to your B2B audience’s key pain points and interests. It should showcase your unique industry expertise and brand voice. Focus on quality insights over promotional fluff.
A perfect example of a high-performing asset could be a data-led report. At Torpedo we recently collaborated with Hays, a multinational recruitment company, as we helped them develop “The Future of Workforce” report aimed at recruitment leaders. The report generated over 30 pieces of press coverage in the first 48 hours, which shows high relevancy with the target audience!
Once your high-value asset is ready, slice and dice your pillar content into an array of shorter assets suited for different channels.
You can, for example, transform a whitepaper into blog posts, infographics (see below interactive infographic we created for Autodesk), videos, and social snippets. Atomising content extends its lifespan and reach, while keeping additional production minimal. It’ll mean you get your money’s worth.
Amplify your content through owned, earned, and paid media channels. The B2B user journey isn’t linear, so it’s important that you use as many channels as possible to reach your target audience.
Promote pillar assets via your blog, emails, social accounts, sales collateral, and more. Conduct outreach to earn backlinks and media coverage. Use paid social, native ads, and SEM to target key B2B audiences. Employ retargeting to nurture engaged users and serve them with even more relevant content.
Regularly assess content performance using analytics. Double down on top performers and optimise under-performers. Look for repurposing opportunities and repeatable patterns.
Does your audience enjoy a video summary of your high-value asset? Or perhaps they spent more time listening to top takeaways? A data-driven approach helps refine your 80/20 B2B content strategy over time for compounding results.
A great example of effective, data-led content distribution comes courtesy of sales intelligence platform, Cognism. In this case, the high-value asset was a book, The Diary of a First-Time CMO written by Alice de Courcy, the company’s Group Chief Marketing Officer. The book was later repurposed into multiple pieces of content that contributed greatly to sales success. In their content distribution strategy, Cognism regularly monitored the performance of assets and consequently introduced new formats. This helped with rising awareness of the book, as well as increasing perception of the brand among the target audience.
A skilled B2B content agency can assist at each step – from crafting captivating pillar content to executing sophisticated, multichannel distribution plans. With the right B2B content services partner and an 80/20 mindset, you can punch well above your weight.
You can further maximise your content’s mileage with these B2B-friendly distribution tactics:
A thoughtful mix of tactics and a test-and-learn approach will hone your B2B content distribution strategy. Let data guide your efforts and don’t be afraid to experiment.
The 80/20 rule is a powerful lever for B2B content marketers to improve ROI in the face of constrained budgets and high expectations. By prioritising a small number of exemplary content assets, then aggressively distributing them through diverse channels, you can generate outsized results from your content efforts.
An effective 80/20 content strategy requires not just clever tactics, but strategic thinking, analytical rigor, and cross-functional collaboration too. Partnering with a seasoned B2B content agency can augment your team’s capabilities, and bring a fresh perspective to your approach.
To start optimising your own B2B content strategy, audit your existing content to identify top performers and underutilised assets. Build a distribution plan to squeeze more juice from this low-hanging fruit, then plot your next few pillar content pieces.
By shifting your focus from constant creation to savvy distribution, you’ll be on the path to B2B content marketing success. Your KPIs and stakeholders will thank you.
