Tips for Adding a Learning Center to Your B2B Website
Building a Learning Center that’s jam-packed with informative, educational content is an effective way to establish your company as a thought leader within your industry.
The goal is to be the source your audience comes to for industry-related information, and provide a positive brand touch point where they can find the material they need and answers to their questions. A company Learning Center often houses educational resources such as blogs/articles, demo videos, datasheets, case studies, webinars, and much more.
This helps to build trust and hold a distinctive position in your customers’ minds. Educating them through content marketing provides value to your prospects and customers that will help keep their interest and increase engagement.
Interested in establishing a Learning Center on your company website? Read on for some advice:
1. Know your target audience.
In order to create effective content, it’s important to know what your audience needs and what they value. What is most important to them? What do they want to learn about?
To gain insight, create a buyer persona. This is a fictional representation of your ideal customer based on real data about customer demographics and online behaviors.
Ask questions and learn how your products/services can help address your viewers’ needs. Interview at least ten people within your target market, no family or friends.
Formulate a list of questions that’ll allow you to learn about your audience’s goals and challenges. Then utilize their responses to determine how you’ll position your brand/products in a way that speaks to your audience and solves their dilemmas.
2. Choose topics that resonate with your audience.
How to come up with content ideas:
Listen to your audience and find out what types of messaging resonates the most.
Social listening is the perfect tool to guide you. You can learn what your target audience is engaging with and responding to, and you’ll be able to develop content that focuses on what they enjoy learning about.
Some helpful free tools for social listening include:
- Facebook interest groups & the comments sections of your posts
- LinkedIn interest groups
- Reddit communities
- Google Trends
- Mention.com (Free trial)
If you need help coming up with content ideas, see what common questions your audience asks in the sales process as well as in the comments section and DMs via social media. Listen to what they have to say, and answer their questions by providing appropriate content.
3. Create valuable, educational content.
Share educational videos.
We have found videos to be extremely effective for our B2B clients’ LinkedIn pages, increasing key performance indicators (KPIs) such as impressions, reactions, click through rate, and engagement rate.
Demonstrate how your product is used in specific cases. For example, one of our manufacturing clients shares educational videos with helpful tips on the application of their products and demos at least 1-3 times per month. These videos often generate a lot of engagement, which is because they’re used as an opportunity to teach and answer their audience’s questions.
See which topics your audience is responding to, and determine video topics based on what they engage with the most. Tutorials, how-to videos, and unboxing videos are wise options.
You can also use video testimonials from key opinion leaders (KOLs). For instance, one of our manufacturing clients collaborated with a well-known industry leader who created an interesting demo of a fan-favorite product, which generated a lot of viewer interest.
Start blogging.
Write instructional, explanatory blogs that appeal to your audience’s special interests.
A common question we encounter is: How frequently should I post to my business blog?
Blog consistently, but don’t sacrifice quality for quantity. The number/frequency of your blog posts should depend on what works the best for your brand.
Experiment to figure out the best strategy. We recommend posting about 1-3 blogs per month initially. The more frequently you post, the higher your chances are of increasing website traffic.
Include case studies.
Case studies are another beneficial resource to incorporate in your company’s Learning Center. When writing a case study, focus on the results your brand provided. The goal is to compel prospects to work with you.
Showcase a specific example of how your product/services helped a company overcome their challenges and meet their objectives. Keep your target audience in mind. Readers, with similar challenges, should be able to picture what it’s like to work with you.
Case studies should be organized, concise, and easily digestible (1-2 pages). To build trust, provide quantifiable metrics. Engage your readers by utilizing testimonials, infographics, photos, and videos.
4. Provide further opportunities to learn & grow.
Whether it’s educational webinars, available courses/sessions, or upcoming tradeshow details, provide access to additional informative content and opportunities that can help industry professionals gain knowledge and enhance their craft.
5. Tell a story.
If you’re going to mention your product/services in the content your brand creates, show how they helped clients solve unique challenges, providing results only your brand can achieve. Tell a story by sharing specific examples.
Storytelling can help your business stand out from the competition, develop a connection with your audience, and provide more memorable content.
Contact CGT Marketing for adding a learning center to your site!
Need assistance starting a Learning Center on your website? Give us a call at 631.842.4600.