7 B2B Content Marketing Examples
Launching a startup is no simple endeavor, and growing a business is oodles more challenging. That hasn’t stopped millions of entrepreneurs from pursuing their dreams and succeeding with the most popular industries for startups in 2018 focused on cryptocurrencies, cannabis, alternative travel, and virtual reality.
Most startups are challenged by a limited budget, competition from larger, more established players and for those entering a new market – figuring out how to educate consumers and create demand.
That said, startups have a chance of beating their incumbent competitors at their own game – and content is one way. But to create good, impactful, memorable content as part of your inbound marketing strategy, there’s no cutting corners.
To help your company stand out from the crowd, we’re sharing 7 examples of startups that are crushing it in their industries with content marketing.
1. Aqua Security
Aqua Security, is a cybersecurity company that enables enterprises to add security controls to their development lifecycle by providing a virtualized container security platform. It now operates in a highly-saturated market but this wasn’t always the case; when they launched in late 2015 the virtualized container space was in its infancy. Few people knew what the technology was but there was a thirst for knowledge. Targeting their blogs at CISOs and DevOps of tech companies, new blogs are still posted weekly taking a more industry education approach. The blogs are technical yet still accessible; consistent social media posting ensures that the blog gets to the right audience. Through this consistent market education approach, Aqua Security has secured a leadership position in their eco-system and are considered an authority on virtualized containers. Way to go!
2. RapidAPI
RapidAPI is an API marketplace that makes it easy for developers to find, test and connect to APIs. Serving vendors who want their APIs to be discovered and integrated by others, App developers use RapidAPI to consume APIs in their apps and monitor efficiency through the user-friendly dashboard.
RapidAPI is considered by Crunchbase to be the world’s largest API marketplace, but it still competes with industry giants such as Mashape. In contrast to the Mashape blog, which focuses mostly on its own Kong open-source API management gateway, the RapidAPI blog takes an educational stance by regularly featuring different APIs and explains why they are useful. The blog is geared for developers and is updated approximately twice a month with posts whose titles clearly identify which industry’s APIs are being showcased and why they are important. RapidAPI is relevant to developers in every vertical.
3. Cato Networks
Cato Networks is a leading network security company connecting data centers and cloud infrastructure into a single, secure network. The company leverages its blog to differentiate itself from competitors like Aryaka by posting valuable industry insights into SD-WAN and networking technologies. The blog is updated several times per week by different members of the team.
The Cato Networks blog isn’t just stuffed with generic posts; it’s chock full of infographics and case studies which makes it a well worthwhile read for all IT and network security professionals who want to stay on top of SD-WAN and security in the Cloud.
4. CONCURED
CONCURED is a content strategy platform (CSP) designed to help you deliver the best strategic content based on trends while uncovering the interests of your target audiences helping you create data-driven content. As a content platform, having top-notch, engaging content is critical, and CONCURED does not disappoint.
Anyone who works in marketing, content creation or data analysis should not miss CONCURED’s “Clever Content Club Blog”, which is updated only once or twice a month. Every post is organized, well thought out and researched. There’s no question that CONCURED shows readers that it practices what it preaches about the value of quality content.
5. Currencycloud
Currencycloud is a global payment solution that simplifies the sending and receiving of international payments with customized solutions. In today’s digital economy, the company faces stiff competition from established payment processors including Neteller, Skrill, GoCardless and more. To carve a niche in this highly-competitive market, the Currencycloud team posts regularly about diverse topics that are interesting to CEOs, CFOs and developers about building payment infrastructures, APIs, and platforms for money transfers across ‘borders.’ Updates several times per week ensure that the blog remains relevant to this diverse audience of decision makers.
The design of the Currencycloud blog sets it apart from competitors’ blogs. With a modular design that displays several posts on a single screen, every reader can identify relevant articles with minimal scrolling. Their labels also give direction as to who each post is written for.
6. Flixel
It has long been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but Flixel proves that a picture can be worth so much more. Flixel helps companies tell visual stories by creating moving pictures called cinemagraphs. The company’s blog is actually a mixed-media platform that integrates a blog, podcasts, and awesome moving images (of course!) all in one place. There is also a chat feature directly on the blog, which adds a comfortable customer support element.
The blog reflects a young, modern vibe, which is refreshing because many startups tend to get stale as they age. The message echoes what Flixel is trying to do and works well to show CMOs, designers and marketing teams how the service can add value to their efforts.
7. Graphcore
Graphcore is a semiconductor company that is looking to rethink the way AI works on a substrate level. Launched in 2016, Graphcore – still a fairly young startup – is competing with companies such as Thinci that were established more than five years earlier. To position itself as a serious player, Graphcore launched a blog with a specific focus on machine intelligence and AI. Though the blog isn’t updated regularly, the content is written at the highest level by Graphcore team members and experts in the field. A clean, uncluttered interface keeps readers focused on the facts, not on distracting graphical elements.
Conclusion
These 7 companies have each found a unique angle to distinguish themselves from the competition with content that’s worth every minute of your reading time. Don’t dismiss content marketing as a tactic that can work only for established brands. With the right strategy and a strong delivered message with every piece of content that you attach your name to, you can leverage B2B content marketing to be a game changer.
Otherwise, don’t bother publishing a mediocre blog; so-so content should stay as a file on your computer – and then either reworked on a rainy day, or better yet simply deleted. In the world of startups and the content you publish, there’s no place for mediocrity.
