B2B content marketing would be a lot easier if you could read minds. Telepathy would tell you what your prospective clients want, what they don’t want, and guide you right to the pitch that would close the deal immediately.

Unfortunately, you can’t read minds. But we have the next best thing for you: three things your prospective clients are looking for in your content marketing.

DemandGen’s 2013 B2B Content Survey showed that when it comes to content marketing, B2B buyers’ wants generally fell into three main categories:

Offer readable content.
The survey showed that a whopping 63.7% of respondents are sick of text-heavy pages and small print in content marketing. This number is up substantially from last year’s 46%, so this is obviously an important issue to address — and one that many content marketing providers must have ignored in the past year. Make text easy to scan by using subheads, including lists, and keeping your copy concise and clean.

A wall of text can make a reader click away the moment they see a page. We’re all busy people; if reading becomes hard work or interrupts other things, we stop wanting to do it.

Solve problems, don’t pitch products.
The whole point of content marketing is to offer relevant, helpful content so that readers get acquainted with the business and become more likely to buy. But that means that content marketing can’t just be an advertisement — it has to offer value.

More than half of respondents — 57.8% — think B2B content is too “sales-y.” They have no motivation to read an article in which you talk about how great you are. Instead, try to offer your reader some information or value that they can’t get anywhere else through articles, blog posts, whitepapers, and exclusive offers.

Back it up.
Use data and research to back up your content marketing, urge 59.9% of respondents.

This is about trust; in order for your content marketing to be effective, your readers need a reason to believe that you’re not just inventing claims that will aid your business, but that you are backing up your statements with factual representation.

Ignoring these three issues will alienate more than half of your audience. In this year’s content marketing, address these concerns to bring those readers back to you — and potentially double the number of eyes on your business.

We can help you turn your content into real-life sales scenarios and opportunities. Get in touch to find out how.