Every content marketing professional would love to have the Midas Touch when it comes to content marketing. In reality, most have a story to tell which goes like this: You seek to provide value to your niche audience, so you set out to deliver something remarkable. After hours of heavy work, you release what you think is concise, masterfully crafted, expression of your ideas. And what happens? Crickets! No one engages with your content and your hard work bears no fruit. This is the reality of most B2B marketers. A study conducted by the Content Marketing Institute, B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America, revealed that 58% of marketers struggle to achieve results.

55% of B2B marketers report that search engine marketing (SEM) is their most effective paid advertising method. - Content Marketing Institute

The 42% who are ahead of the curve aren’t there by chance. There is a deliberate ordering of their steps so that they capitalize on all their resources and talents to yield the most effective results. So what are the steps that highly effective marketers take to up their game and differentiate themselves from their less-productive peers? If you want to find your way out of the wilderness of negative Return On Investment (ROI) and the silence that ensues your efforts, these seven habits are essential.

Set Your Content Marketing Agenda

If you do not have clearly defined, actionable and flexible objectives as part of your content marketing strategy, you will find yourself going nowhere fast. Foremost, you need to pinpoint what the end game is and identify the most time-sensitive and effective means of getting there.

To achieve success, you must have a clear understanding of what success means to your business. It could be social engagement, SEO rank, web traffic or any goal that is relevant to your marketing strategy.

Never Stop Learning

Successful B2B marketing professionals are ceaseless in their pursuit of knowledge. It takes an unwavering commitment to being a true advocate of your niche market and audience to amp your marketing game. As you intuitively engage with the information that is out there, you become more aware of consumer needs and how you can best serve these needs. In staying on top of industry developments, you master your space and thus your influence increases.

Bonus: Three sites we recommend for continuous learning:

• SalesForLife.com
• Business2Community.com
• Hubspot.com

It is important to note that effective marketers always seek credible experts and information sources when they’re in research mode. We live in a very information-dense world which could easily lead to decision fatigue. Psychologists define decision fatigue as the deteriorating quality of a person’s decisions after being bombarded with too much information and choice.

You want to make decisions that are relevant to the individuality of your business as well as the strategic goals that you’ve set from the get-go.

The most effective B2B content marketers allocate a larger portion of their budget to content marketing: 42% of their total budget, compared to 28% for less-effective marketers. - Content Marketing Institute

Harness the Power of Community for Successful Content Marketing

Are you a lone wolf or are you a team builder?

Your capacity for relationship and community is integral to success in the cut-throat world of marketing.

Highly effective marketers understand the importance of developing a vast and influential network. You can’t master social media marketing without mastering the social aspect.

It is imperative that you maintain an energetic presence on the key social media platforms. Interact constantly with your audience and reach out to major influencers. This will help to build a community that can be leveraged to achieve your marketing and business goals.

Amplify your Content with Employee Advocacy

Are you utilizing the full force of your resources to achieve the marketing results that you want?

Your greatest resource is your human resource.

An employee advocacy program offers a tremendous opportunity to tap into the time and talents of your employees. Get them involved in the content marketing strategy by having them create and share content on their personal social network accounts.

Not only does this supercharge your content with the gusto that it needs to impact a higher volume of people, but it fortifies the management-employee dynamic. When employees feel like they’re contributing significantly to the business objectives, their morale, and motivation skyrockets.

Recommended Reading: Is An Employee Advocacy Program More Powerful Than a Fan Page?

Keep Track of Your Content Marketing Analytics

While content creation is essentially qualitative, every successful marketing strategy utilizes a feedback loop in the form of an analytics system. Financial outcomes and ROI percentages are all key performance indicators that need to be noted.

You can’t possibly know how firmly you stand in the face of your competitors without these figures. Mapping progress through quantitative means you will serve to enhance future marketing efforts as the numbers reveal what works and what doesn’t.

Offer Value

Most businesses and content marketers fall to the wayside because they neglect the cardinal rule of commerce.

Value creation.

You can instantly resuscitate an ineffective marketing strategy by removing your primary focus on generating revenue and placing it on providing value.

Wrapping It All Up

I am not here to suggest that marketers should not place considerable efforts towards their sales channels. In fact, the successful marketers operate based on revenue impact. However, your relationship with your customer will determine your longevity as an enterprise. When you cater to the needs of your audience by providing the biggest bang for their buck, your ROI will simply leap as a ripple effect. Your customers grow to rely on the positive experiences that you provide and thus, will be the source of your biggest support. Highly effective marketing professionals evolve as the result of a few core strategies and habits which allow them to extract high revenues from their efforts. Are you employing the habits that will allow you to effectively power the engine of your B2B marketing vehicle?

Don't waste anymore time. Drive more traffic with content marketing today!