The B2B2C Network as an SEO Booster

In three-tier marketing, your partners are responsible for bringing your solutions to the customer. Your digital presence significantly determines how your products are presented and sold. By providing your partners with content for their communication and implementing a networked content hub, you generate visibility among your end customers. Cornelia Gutmann explains in a guest article how this works and which tools can support you.

What is three-tier marketing?

Three-tier marketing means that companies do not communicate directly with their end customers. Instead, dealers or sales partners are involved. So companies communicate with their partners, inform them about new products and provide materials. The partners ideally pick up this content in their communication with the end customers. In short: B2B2C marketing.

Challenges in three-tier marketing

It's a bit like playing telephone: The longer the communication chains, the more likely it is that messages and content will not (correctly) reach the end customer. As a rule, you have no contact with the end customers and cannot understand whether and how your messages are communicated.

This is partly due to the fact that your partners face various challenges when it comes to digital communication. They often don't have enough time for marketing. The demands on contemporary communication are manifold, and the selection of the right channels is a challenge, not least because of the many options available.

The central challenge is the development of content. In order to reach your target groups, both relevant, personalized and regular content is of great importance. The texts must be written in an SEO-optimized manner and technical requirements should be considered so that you can be found by your own target groups for the desired keywords. A study by Das Örtliche and the Search & Information Industry Association (SIINDA) in 2018 found that 95% of websites from self-employed individuals, small businesses and medium-sized businesses need optimization. Almost 60% of the websites examined even have glaring deficiencies.

Other pain points for your partners can be lack of reach and questions regarding data protection. And not to forget the question of resources: What costs are incurred? How much time has to be spent? Who takes care of the tasks? Where does the necessary know-how come from?

The fact is: in order for your partners to be able to communicate your products and messages digitally, they need know-how, time and financial and human resources. Or: help from you.

Content provided by you as a booster for SEO efforts

Content is an important success factor in digital marketing. However, in order to be able to rank with their own content, your partners usually need time, regular posts and technical and specialized know-how. And this is where you come in.

Research and creation of suitable content

By providing your partners with content for their end customer communication, you ensure that your content is correctly communicated. To develop relevant content for the end customers, it is worth taking a look at current trends. An important - and free - tool for this is Google Trends. For a search term, the tool outputs different information, such as the frequency of searches for this term, frequently searched phrases in this context or seasonal/regional fluctuations. Google Trends also shows similar search queries. These are a good trend indicator, as they show in which areas connected with the topic demand has increased recently. Furthermore, it is worth looking at the competitors on the left and right. With tools like Sistrix or Semrush you can analyze which topics other market participants are currently focusing on.

Once trends have been identified, keyword research helps to find the right keywords for text creation. The aforementioned tools Sistrix or Semrush

When it comes to specifying topic finding, AnswerThePublic is a very helpful tool. For one term, the system displays results in the form of a mind map, which is divided into areas such as 'questions' or 'prepositions'. This can provide a lot of input for your own content and prepare responses to common questions. Also UberSuggest helps to get an overview of what readers are interested in in connection with a topic. For a search term, a keyword overview and keyword ideas are displayed. In the 'Content Ideas' section, popular posts on the term are displayed.

This gives you the perfect basis for creating or having your texts created.

Setting up a content hub: providing content

Once the posts are written, you provide them to your partners. Remember to add as much input as possible: Give them pictures and social media teasers as well.

To avoid having to simply send the content by email to a large distribution list, it is recommended to use a system through which both the management and the distribution of the content as well as the provision of technical infrastructure can take place. Such tools can, for example, be ActiveCampaign , COCO, HubSpot Marketing Hub and Mailchimp.

Such tools enable you to use the potential of a B2B2C content hub. We define the content hub as a technically advanced blog with a complex backlink logic and integrated partner listing. To use the power of the network for you, the following needs to be done:

1. Choosing a suitable tool.
2. Setting up your content hub - reachable via a separate domain or integrated on your corporate website.
3. Addressing your partners (onboarding).
4. Publication of your articles in your content hub - these are the original articles. Your content hub serves as a central hub for end customers.
5. Providing content for your partners.
6. Your partners can use the articles for their own blogs and social media channels. Alternatively, you have the option of publishing the articles directly on the channels of the participating partners - so they don't have to do any work publishing. If the partner wants to approve the articles in advance, this can, for example, be done conveniently via a provided mobile app.

Generating numerous backlinks for your articles

The more of your partners publish your texts, the more backlinks there are to your central content hub. On the one hand, you place links to your hub in the text templates, on the other hand, when all publications automatically Canonical links are set that refer to your original post. The generated backlinks increase the relevance of your content hub and give you a relevant search engine ranking.

The customer journey: where the magic happens

If an end customer now searches Google for a topic you have covered, the original post from your content hub appears at the top due to the relevance gained. If the customer clicks on this post, the geographically closest partner from your network is displayed next to it and linked to their own website. Of course, you can expand the parameters according to which the partners are played out - for example, by preferring companies with the best ratings.

If you don't want to display the contact person directly, you can of course also generate leads, by integrating an appointment scheduling or a contact form. You can then forward these to the appropriate partner, at the same time you get access to the contacts and build up valuable distribution lists.

Evaluation & adaptation

Last but not least, for the further development of the content hub, you should of course regularly scrutinize the figures: What are popular contents? How are the views developing? Which keywords do readers come to your site for? What optimization needs does your content hub have? The Google Search Console or all-in-one tools from the SEO area such asSeobility,Sistrixor Semrush can help you.

A win-win situation for everyone

Your partners receive content for their communication and more leads. You actively support them in their digital communication. This makes them visible and generates new outreach. You ensure that your products are communicated correctly and in compliance with the brand and you gain access to end customers. The stronger the portal becomes, the more options are available to you. You can, for example, use the newly gained outreach for your own marketing or building brand awareness among end customers - or monetize the outreach using advertising partners.

In summary, you implement a novel service offering that supports you in your B2B as well as the downstream B2C marketing. In line with the motto: One for all and all for one!