Marketing Profs recently released results from their 2013 Content Marketing Study. One point that stood out to me is the number one challenge for B2B marketers is producing enough content, rather than engaging content. Here are some other interesting quick stats to give this article some perspective:

• B2B marketers are spending more on content marketing than previous years.
• 54% B2B marketers say they will increase their spend in the next year.
• 33% of marketing is spent on content marketing.
• They are publishing more content, on more sites.
• The most popular channel is LinkedIn.
• A new challenge they revealed is having enough content (this is more important that engaging content).

It's important to note that this study was done in the US and focused on B2B marketers. However I feel there's a lot Australian business owners, marketers in both the B2C and B2B markets can learn.

My No.1 tip to help small business succeed with content marketing

is to know your buyer personas. This process should be an ongoing process that is never complete. This means you need to make a conscious effort to be wanting to learn more about your buyer personas all the time. You may do this yourself or hire a professional but once you have a general sense of your buyer personas, every time you speak to someone who should buy your product or service, take note of their character, values, habits, day to day life - anything and everything that is going to help you better understand to whom you're targeting, and why? And remember that buyer personas aren't just the people that buy from you, they are also the people that don't buy from you, but should. What are their reasons for not buying? Fear? Lack of faith or trust?

As you go about your day meeting people and tweaking your buyer personas, the information you learn is all good information for content. Don't worry about publishing enough content, worry about publishing the right content. The right content will be shared, increasing your reach, increasing awareness, increasing trust and increasing leads. The wrong content will lose followers and damage your reputation making lead generation and sales a lot harder.

I've published some articles on buyer personas and content marketing - here are links to some articles you may find helpful.

5 Steps To Help Marketers Create Content Marketing People Will Love

4 Content Marketing Templates To Plan 90 Days of Marketing

7 Steps To Help Small Business Plan Content Marketing

Buyer Persona + Inbound Marketing = Success: Learn why and how here