Artificial intelligence is playing a significant role in online blogging efforts for B2B lead generation results. If your goal is to provide useful information and great stories for your customers, which it should be, while also ranking well organically, you need to consider content intelligence.
That said, in 2018 Google announced their ground-breaking new search algorithm called BERT. How does this apply to your B2B lead generation blog? While a lot of us may know Bert as Ernie’s hilarious sidekick from the kids’ show Sesame Street, the acronym is short for “Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers.” (Wow, that’s technical… hence why they call it BERT.)
This article explains BERT and NLP, but the short explanation is that it better understands the actual intent behind the words used in online searches. This means that it helps your potential sales leads find exactly what they are looking for faster. And if you’re doing blogs for B2B lead generation, this is very good news.
Write for human beings, not bots, and you’ll be rewarded
Keywords are great, but insights and true connections are even better. Especially when we’re looking to generate leads. As marketers and businesses, we’ve gotten so used to writing for SEO that we sometimes forget about the actual humans we’re talking to. They need something or they wouldn’t be searching for it. Creating content that truly connects with them gives you a better chance of showing up first in their search. B2B lead generation companies like 360 Leads (that’s us) can help you with content, and here are some of the techniques we use.
Everyone loves a good story
Storytelling is back in a big way. And with good reason. As we explain in this blog about generate leads by selling your story, a good story is a scientifically proven and effective way to create an emotional connection. What you know as case studies, actually have the potential to be great stories. A satisfied customer is your “hero,” the problem they need fixed is “the quest,” and then your company came and solved it, which is the “the happy ending.” A true sales lead will identify with whatever struggle your story’s happy customer hero had.
Find the pain points for B2B lead generation success
As this article (identifying customer pain points) explains, when coming up with a lead generation strategy, it’s important to understand exactly what problem(s) you’re solving with your brand. One exercise to do is explore these 4 types of common pain points: 1) Cost (they want a better bang for their buck), 2) Productivity (they want to save time or prevent wasting it), 3) Ease Of Process (they need something that will make their lives easier) and 4) Assistance (they want access to helpful customer support after purchasing).
The beauty is in the details
What’s great about Google BERT and other content intelligence tools is that being more detailed and specific in your B2B lead generation content will work in your favour. If you think of ads from the 1920s, they would tell a story about how a problem was solved and the text would take up most of the page. Using this approach, we can take an opening title such as “How do I get a better sleep?” and rework it addressing the pain points and solutions with something like, “How I Got A Better Sleep After I took Melatonin And Chamomile Tea Just Before Bed.” Going “old school” like this with your content can actually help both Google bots and humans to find you.
Your audience should define your brand voice
Sure, you can sit in a boardroom with a whiteboard and brainstorm a brand voice that will resonate with your potential B2B sales leads. But the best B2B lead generation companies know that to really resonate with them and create a good story, you need to put yourself in their shoes and use the same type of words that they do. That means digging deep and reading social media conversations, customer reviews and Q&A forums about your industry. Not only is this the most unfiltered and valuable research you can do, you’ll get the actual words you need to reach more sales leads.
Bottom line: making an effort to talk to your B2B leads like actual humans, in a way that makes them actually want to read it, will get noticed by Google. Need some help? We’re ready when you are.
