The B2B Content Graveyard
Open any B2B company's blog and you will find the same thing: a graveyard of content that nobody reads. Posts about industry trends nobody searched for. Listicles written for SEO that are indistinguishable from 50 other posts on the same topic. "Thought leadership" that has no actual thoughts in it.
The average B2B blog post gets fewer than 100 views. Most generate zero leads. Companies publish them because someone said they should be "creating content" and nobody stopped to ask what the content is supposed to accomplish.
B2B content marketing works — it can be one of the highest-ROI activities in your entire marketing program. But the way most companies do it does not work. The difference comes down to three things: topic selection, content quality, and distribution.
Where B2B Companies Go Wrong
Mistake 1: Writing for Search Engines Instead of Buyers
SEO and content marketing are connected, but they are not the same thing. Most B2B companies start their content strategy by pulling up a keyword research tool and looking for high-volume search terms. Then they write blog posts targeting those terms, stuff in variations of the keyword, and hit publish.
The result: content that ranks for terms nobody with buying intent is searching. "What is digital marketing?" might have 50,000 monthly searches, but the people searching that term are students and job-seekers, not your buyers. You get traffic that never converts because the traffic was never qualified to begin with.
Better approach: start with your buyers, not your keywords. What questions do they ask during the buying process? What objections do they raise? What do they need to convince their boss? Build content around those questions. Then optimize that content for search. The order matters.
Mistake 2: No Point of View
The worst B2B content is aggressively neutral. It says nothing that anyone would disagree with. It presents "both sides" of every issue. It concludes with "it depends on your specific situation." It is safe, forgettable, and useless.
The best B2B content has a clear point of view. It says "this is how we think about this problem" and defends that position with data and experience. It risks alienating people who disagree. And in doing so, it attracts the people who share that perspective — who are exactly the people most likely to become customers.
Example: "Should you hire a marketing agency or a fractional CMO?" The neutral answer is "it depends." The useful answer is: "If you do not have a clear marketing strategy, an agency will not fix that. You need marketing leadership first." That is a point of view. Some people will disagree. The people who agree are your target market.
Mistake 3: No Connection to Pipeline
Most B2B content exists in isolation from the sales process. Blog posts get published. Some people read them. But there is no mechanism to capture leads, no path from content to conversation, and no way to attribute revenue to content.
A content program that generates pipeline has these elements:
- Lead capture mechanisms. Email newsletter signups, gated downloads (whitepapers, guides, templates), embedded booking links. Every piece of content should have a next step.
- Nurture sequences. Someone who downloads a whitepaper enters an email sequence that provides additional value and eventually offers a conversation. Not a spam sequence — a useful one.
- Sales team integration. Your sales team should know which content their prospects have consumed. A prospect who has read four blog posts and downloaded a case study is much warmer than a cold lead. Your CRM should track this.
- Attribution. You need to know which content pieces generate leads and which generate revenue. This requires proper UTM tracking, CRM integration, and regular analysis.
What Good B2B Content Looks Like
Case Studies With Real Numbers
Your best content is proof that you have done this before. Case studies with specific results — "Increased qualified leads from 25 to 110 per month in 8 months" — are the most persuasive content you can produce for B2B buyers.
The format that works:
1. The situation. What did the company look like before? What problem were they facing? 2. What we did. Specific actions taken, timeline, and approach. 3. The results. Specific, quantified outcomes. Revenue impact, cost savings, lead growth, efficiency improvements. 4. Why it worked. What made this approach successful? What would you do differently?
Most B2B companies have zero case studies. Even one or two with real numbers will set you apart from competitors who have nothing but claims.
Comparison and Decision Content
Content that helps buyers make decisions is extremely valuable because it targets people who are actively evaluating options. These people are close to a purchase decision, which makes them the highest-value audience for content.
Examples:
- "Fractional CMO vs. Full-Time CMO: Which Is Right for Your Stage?"
- "In-House Marketing Team vs. Agency: A Cost Comparison"
- "SEO vs. Paid Ads: Where to Invest Your First $5,000"
Process and Framework Content
Share how you actually do the work. Not in a way that gives away proprietary methodology, but in a way that demonstrates genuine expertise and gives the reader a framework they can use.
Our blog post on marketing metrics is an example. We share the exact 15 metrics we track for clients. Readers can take that framework and apply it immediately. Some will implement it themselves. Others will think "these people clearly know what they are doing" and reach out. Both outcomes are good.
Original Data and Research
If you can produce original data — survey results, benchmark analyses, aggregated client data (anonymized) — you have content that nobody else can replicate. Original data gets cited, linked to, and shared. It is the single most effective content type for building authority and earning backlinks.
This does not need to be a massive research project. Even small data sets are valuable. "We analyzed 50 Google Ads accounts and found that the average HVAC company wastes 38% of their ad spend on irrelevant searches." That is one data point from one analysis, and it is more compelling than 2,000 words of generic advice.
The Content Calendar That Actually Works
Stop publishing on a schedule for the sake of publishing. A consistent cadence matters, but quality matters more. Here is the calendar we recommend for most B2B companies:
Weekly: 1 blog post (alternate between educational content and point-of-view pieces)
Monthly: 1 case study or customer success story
Quarterly: 1 larger piece — whitepaper, original research report, comprehensive guide
Ongoing: Email newsletter featuring the best recent content plus original commentary
That is roughly 4-5 pieces of content per month, which is manageable for most companies. The key is that every piece has a clear purpose: targeting a specific keyword, answering a specific buyer question, or providing proof of results.
Distribution Is Half the Battle
Publishing content and hoping people find it is not a strategy. Every piece of content needs a distribution plan:
- Email newsletter. Send it to your list. This is the single most effective distribution channel for B2B content.
- LinkedIn. Share with original commentary, not just a link. The commentary is often more engaging than the article itself.
- Sales team enablement. Train your sales team to share relevant content with prospects. "We wrote about this exact problem — here is our take."
- Paid amplification. For your best-performing content, put ad spend behind it. Promote blog posts and case studies to targeted audiences on LinkedIn.
- SEO. Organic search is a distribution channel, but it takes time. Do not depend on it as your only distribution method.
Stop Publishing Content Nobody Reads
If your blog has 50 posts and none of them generate leads, you do not need more posts. You need better posts — on the right topics, with a clear point of view, connected to your sales process, and distributed to the right audience.
Fusion Marketing builds content programs for B2B companies that generate pipeline and revenue, not just pageviews. If your content is not producing business results, call (704) 255-5147 or email contact@fusionmarketing.biz — we will audit what you have and show you what a content program that actually works looks like.
