Technology—and, most recently, AI—have made it easier than ever to create lots of content, which seems like a good thing at first glance, but this has actually created new problems for content marketers.

Today, there's an even higher bar to clear when it comes to original work that can stand out from the sheer volume of content out there. Because of AI tools (and the often generic content they put out), it takes more work to get your customers to pay attention; it's hard to know what to look at when you're bombarded with content from all angles.

Think of the change in the clothing industry when factories sprang up. At first, it was likely a relief that the work wasn't going to be so labor-intensive for workers and everyone would have easy access to clothing. However, nowadays, with fast fashion everywhere, it can feel like a monumental task to find quality clothes that speak to you. That's where your customers are at, at this moment.

The flip side of this is that if you're already creating useful, engaging, unique content with a strong and specific POV—and if you're distributing it across platforms in intentional ways—you're in a better position than ever before.

Read on to learn from some great examples of B2B content marketing campaigns and what they're doing well.

Today we'll cover:

• 4 top examples of winning B2B content marketing strategies
  • HubSpot
  • Shopify
  • Salesforce
  • Atlassian
• Key things top B2B content marketing campaigns get right
• Repurposing B2B events with Content Lab
• Goldcast fuels successful B2B content programs

Let's get started by learning from some of the best! 🏆

Top B2B companies recognize that they need to prioritize original content that meets their audience's needs, deliver content across platforms for customer convenience, and build brands that stand out from the pack.

Here are four companies that are doing a solid job with their B2B content marketing efforts:

First of all, many of us probably automatically associate the color orange with HubSpot now because they've made their logo and branding so consistent and easy to recognize.

As a tool for inbound marketing, it makes sense that HubSpot's content would be good at attracting organic traffic. You can count on each asset to be smart, valuable, and full of actionable insights you can put to use right away. They've got a great content library your business can use to improve different aspects of your operation, you can learn from experts in one of their podcasts, and they routinely put out detailed ebooks.

HubSpot also stands out because they harness the power of community. They host INBOUND, a well-regarded annual conference that brings together a ton of marketers and other professionals for three days of inspiration and fun educational sessions.

Shopify has solutions for real problems that entrepreneurs face when it comes to e-commerce, whether it's an online store editor to help you create your site or a POS system to sell to customers in person. Tools like this show they understand their target audience and establish Shopify as a trusted go-to authority. There's even a business name generator that promises to help you name your brand in 10 seconds or less!

And they don't just have solutions; Shopify also offers content geared toward each of the points above. So if you're looking for help with your marketing plan, you can read up on their comprehensive guide before you take the next step forward. Or you could check out a case study about how one brand decided to move from Etsy to Shopify and evaluate whether doing the same makes sense for you. Or you might even listen to their podcast during your work commute and learn from other founders.

Shopify also hosts events like Shopify Unite, which brings together Shopify users to network and learn from each other.

Salesforce is a CRM solution that aligns teams and streamlines workflows across the organization. You might say that Salesforce has done for the color blue what HubSpot did for orange, and you wouldn't be wrong.

Salesforce is incredibly well-known for its vibrant user community and engaging mix of events. Whether it's a conference for Tableau users, the notorious Dreamforce conference, or their current World Tour about AI capabilities, there's something for everyone. They also offer a wide range of Trailhead training tracks to help users become experts on the different solutions, which empowers and motivates customers.

There's a great degree of brand loyalty with a company like Salesforce. Customers of the company take pride in being associated with Salesforce, they share their success stories. That attracts other customers to the brand over time. When you look at their content, you get the feeling that you get a valuable tech solution while also getting access to a fun community—and that's very appealing.

Atlassian provides a suite of products, including Trello for collaboration, Jira Software for software development, and Beacon for company security. They offer customers events like team'24 promoted above (Ahem! Are you starting to see a theme here? Events are where it's at!), community discussion boards to learn together, blog articles about working challenges, and more.

Companies looking to upskill in certain areas can check out Atlassian University, which contains free self-paced training as well as paid instructor-led courses and certs. Or if you're looking for help with team building and management, you can download a free team playbook and use it to boost your team's effectiveness.

By creating a wealth of content that addresses the needs and challenges of its audience, Atlassian stays top of mind for its audience and continues to build trust.

We bet you recognized some, or even all, of the companies we just highlighted—which is proof that they're doing a great job of getting their brand out in the world. Though each company takes a different approach to content marketing, there are some common threads throughout each of their campaigns.

Here are some of the hallmarks of successful B2B content marketing efforts:

Offering quality over quantity is key. It's better to produce a few high-quality pieces of content a year than dozens of mediocre or average blogs, videos, or other assets. Your focus should be on creating content that is valuable to your audience, relevant to their needs, and showcases your specific POV.

Think about what experts you can leverage; do you have internal influencers or SMEs that you can interview as thought leaders? Can you be one of the first companies to talk about a certain topic or viewpoint? Are there areas you can go in-depth on in ways that other companies can't?

A good example of how we approach this at Goldcast is our Demand Generation Compensation Report. Each year, we survey people in our audience to find out how they're being compensated, and then we develop not only a report but webinar events, blogs, social media posts, and other content based on the findings of that year's report.

This report offers value to our audience and is the first of its kind for demand gen marketers. While we could have churned out a ton of content in the time it took us to plan for, research, and produce the report, we end up with a much more valuable end result this way.

Smart companies know that audiences need to feel included and valued. Take advantage of the multiple types of content you use, from video to your company blog to newsletters, in order to meet the learning styles and preferences of the different people in your community.

For example, someone who's more of a visual learner might enjoy receiving your newsletter and discovering new content that way, whereas someone who likes to listen to their content will appreciate your podcast or YouTube recordings.

It's also true that people simply enjoy variety and need a change from time to time, so offering a mix of content formats can hold people's attention. Each content type has different benefits as well; a longform blog might help boost SEO while shortform videos are shareable and can increase audience engagement.

Using a mix of channels boosts visibility of your content and allows people to hear from you in the ways that match their preferred learning style.

After each episode of Donuts & Demand, our monthly show for demand gen marketers, we do a few things with the content:

1. We host it on-demand on the series page, where visitors can view all past sessions. (Evergreen content is the way to maximum ROI!)
2. We post to our YouTube channel so people searching on relevant keywords can find it there.
3. We use Content Lab (more on that soon) to slice and dice the content into bits and pieces we can use in email marketing campaigns and posts on LinkedIn and other social media channels.
4. We create a blog like this one, based on the main points of the discussion.

You can see how a multi-pronged strategy like this allows you to get a ton of life out of your events. It's also a good idea to lean on influencers to share your message across channels; these folks have established credibility and a wide network that can benefit from your message. When they share your content, it helps you become a trusted brand in the eyes of their followers.

On- and off-page search engine optimization is still necessary to be sure that your content is discovered by the people who are looking for it.

There are many ways to optimize your content creation. For on-page SEO, you might conduct keyword research to identify which phrases or terms to use throughout your content (remember that readers still want content to sound natural and relatable, so if you get keywords that are overly formal or complicated, you might want to omit those).

Here are some other tips for on-page SEO:

• Optimize your title tags and meta descriptions, based on the aforementioned keyword research.
• Use structured header tags.
• Optimize images with file names, alt tags, and appropriate sizing.
• Use descriptive, easy-to-understand URLs.
• Incorporate internal links when possible to help users flow through your website and discover new relevant content .

And here's some advice for boosting off-page SEO, which involves actions you take outside of your website to improve your content visibility:

• Build high-quality backlinks from relevant companies and websites. You can do this through guest blogging, appearing on panels/podcasts/events, and networking.
• Build a presence on social media. Share your content regularly and engage with people who comment.
• Check any sites where your company info appears, and be sure that it's accurate and consistent.
• Encourage B2B customers to share about your business on social media and any review sites like G2.
• Engage in communities like The Event Marketers Club to grow your network and find organic ways to share about your business.

If you're looking for ideas around what type of content to create, here's an idea: Match your existing content to different parts of the customer sales or digital marketing funnel. Are there any areas of the journey where you're lacking content, compared to others? This exercise can help you identify what kind of content your audience needs most.

It's important to include stakeholders from across the business when you're building out your content strategy, and this point illustrates why. In order for content to be timely, say, for your sales team, you have to know where they're at with potential customers and what they need to move forward.

Your sales team or other customer-facing teams will also have key insights around what content is working well and helping to close deals or boost loyalty, which can signal that you should create more, similar content to that.

Strong B2B brands have a distinct voice and personality, and the tone of any content you put out should always reflect that. Otherwise, you risk confusing your audience and diluting your brand reputation

Take Slack as an example. We expect content from the company to be playful, fun, and irreverent. Current Slack users know that the tool itself interacts with you in casual but effective ways; it's like the friendly colleague that everyone wants to grab a drink with after work.

Now imagine that Slack released a super formal report full of jargon you can't understand. How would you feel reading it? Would you wonder if AI robots have taken over the Slack HQ? Perhaps you'd feel disappointed that a brand you thought you could count on has clearly outsourced some of their content.

Either way, not a good scenario—so remember to stay on tone with your own content.

Staying on tone doesn't have to mean being like everyone else. It's your tone you want to stay true to, and no one else's. In fact, it's almost required that you be original and authentic in order to stand out from other brands.

The Goldcast team is full of open-minded and optimistic people excited about what the future of the event marketing world holds. As such, you'll find our content to be more conversational than not, more hopeful than doomsday, and with some emojis sprinkled in when it makes sense—like right now ✨

It's also a top priority for us to center inclusive language. We want everyone who consumes our content to feel welcomed and safe, so we steer clear of any controversial sayings and we're constantly updating our content guides to reflect new learnings.

Events are a heavyweight champ when it comes to content marketing. They give you a space to showcase your brand, provide value to attendees, and network—and then they live on long after you log off in the form of repurposed content.

Repurposing allows you to continue to spread the word about your events and raises the signal about your brand as a whole. Repurposed content can contribute to a repository of on-brand assets like blogs, infographics, email newsletters, white papers, and more.

The main thing holding marketers back from repurposing their events? Time and energy. You can only do so much—until now. Allow us to introduce you to Content Lab, our AI-powered repurposing magic maker.

WIth Content Lab, you simply upload your event recording and watch as it's turned into social media posts, video snippets, testimonial snippets, and more. It's truly that easy. By automatically honing in on the most relevant, engaging content from every event, Content Lab streamlines the entire repurposing process and makes sure that the top moments of your event aren't forgotten.

If you're a current Goldcast user, Content Lab is part of your package by default. If you're not already a customer and you'd like to try it for two weeks on us, follow the link below and we'll be in touch.

Goldcast is the only platform centered around the needs of B2B marketers like you. We're here to help you develop, maintain, and grow a robust B2B content marketing strategy that includes events.

If you're looking to learn from industry experts and meet other marketers, check out our ongoing events like Donuts & Demand and Event Marketers Live. We also recommend revisiting the CMO Diaries; every episode features an amazing marketing campaign and breaks down why it worked so well.

Or, if you'd like to see how the Goldcast platform can help you transform your company events, reach out to us for a demo. We'd love to talk you through how we've worked with companies like Smartling to develop Netflix-like experiences or how we helped Waylay IO smash registration and attendance goals!