Ask your browser to provide a definition of business-to-business (B2B) content, and you’ll get an admittedly … dry … response: “… a form of transaction between businesses, such as one involving a manufacturer and wholesaler, or a wholesaler and a retailer. Business-to-business refers to business that is conducted between companies, rather than between a company and individual consumer. Business-to-business stands in contrast to business-to-consumer and business-to-government transactions.”

 

B2B Content Has the Potential to Fascinate

But B2B content has the potential to be downright fascinating.

 

Businesses do so many interesting things and communicating about each other’s products or services can enliven any effort at marketing.

 

Think about every business you use or work for. There’s more to it than being a simple provider of a thing — a product. A business is people, first and foremost.

 

There’s an owner, who might have spent years working for other companies to develop the skills needed to establish or overcome challenges to launch and maintain it. That’s good content.

That owner might have invented the product the business makes/sells/distributes. More good content.

 

The company might support community projects and charitable causes. That’s great content.

There are employees, some of whom might be in their first-ever jobs or been with the business for many years, have special skills, have gotten a first chance to show they can contribute despite a disability or health issue, or won awards. That’s good content.

 

The things a business produces, sells or distributes can save lives, make life more fun or interesting, educate people, bring people together, and more. More good content.

 

Businesses rely on each other; they are symbiotic. Every business needs to know, and show, how it fits with other businesses — how all of these aspects of what makes a business interesting can work together to enhance and support each other and the communities where they operate.

 

Content can focus on how one company supports or works with another through products, community service, materials, training or education, personnel, or professional services.

 

Before assuming that B2B marketing is “boring,” look for what makes those businesses interesting or important and use B2B marketing to connect them to each other for a stronger economy and community. Every business needs other businesses to survive and thrive.

 

Every business has a story, and B2B marketing can be a great way to relay those stories, in the business sector and to the wider world.