How Do I Create A Digital Resource Center?

So, you already understand the importance of having both a resource center and a blog on your website. Digital resource centers can help you:

• Educate your audience about your products or services
• Attract new leads through targeted content topics
• Boost the quality of overall website conversions
• Empower your sales team with resources they can easily share
• Better control, organize, and plan your B2B content

Now, it’s time to build your B2B content hub and let those resources shine! As with everything else in marketing, though, you can’t get started without first establishing a strategy. And that’s exactly what we’re here to help you do.

 

Your Ultimate Guide to Building A B2B Resource Library

Building a resource center online from scratch takes a lot of time. If you’re going to put in the effort involved with adding an entire new section to your website, you’ll want it to have the bones to perform well.

We’ll guide you through the process of strategically organizing your content and offer elements to consider when building your resource hub. You’ll also hear our top strategies that you can use to engage your audience and boost conversions.

Use our 6 top secret tips below to guide you as you develop your website’s B2B content library.

 

Tip #1: Organize All of Your Content

Before you or your web developers even set foot in the backend of your site, you’ll need to take stock of your existing content. This involves getting all of your URLs together, compiling them in a spreadsheet, and categorizing them appropriately.

We know — this is not the fun part! But in order for your resource center to function properly, organizing everything is an absolute must. This step will take time and maybe even some hand wringing, but your efforts will pay off in the long run.

 

 

Once all of your site content is in a spreadsheet, it’s time to identify each item’s format type (guide, template, video, etc.) and area of interest. If you’re planning to have additional categories that your audience can use to filter through your content, make sure you add those as well.

Bonus tip: while you’re looking through your website content, consider using this opportunity to improve your older content. For example, if you discover a blog you wrote five years ago and notice that it’s outdated or not correctly optimized, take a moment to revamp it. This will help ensure that your website visitors are getting the most value from your content. Not to mention help boost your site rankings, too!

 

Tip #2: Create a Page for Your Resource Hub

Now that your content is beautifully organized, it’s time to start building your B2B content hub. Be sure to place your resource library somewhere on your website that’s easy to find. This may seem obvious, but your content is less likely to perform well if nobody can see that it’s there.

To ensure that visitors can quickly find our own content resource center, we placed a link to it in our footer:

 

 

However, not everyone who lands on your content hub will have arrived there from your website. If your resource center is optimized properly, people will also find it via Google search.

Once your website visitors land on your resource center pages, there should be no room for confusion. Your content library should be easily navigable and user-friendly, allowing visitors to quickly sort through your assets to their heart’s content. That’s where the audit you completed from our last tip comes into play.

Reference your spreadsheet to assign an asset type and topic to each resource in the backend of your website. Once all of your assets are categorized correctly, your audience will be able to easily filter through them.

 

Tip #3: Add Compelling Calls-to-Action

While it’s important for your resource center to provide value to your audience, it also needs to be valuable for your business. Great news: you can kill two birds with one stone by adding relevant calls-to-action (CTAs) within your resources.

A clear CTA helps to guide your audience through their journey from site visitor to customer, improve conversions, and shorten your sales cycle. Whether you use a form, a button, or a custom image, calls-to-action can be incredibly powerful tools for motivating your audience to continue engaging with your brand.

Here are a few examples of CTAs that yield high conversions:

 

 

It’s important to establish a goal before setting up your CTA. Your goal should inform the design and copy of your call-to-action. For example, is your goal to encourage visitors to read as much of your content as possible? You’ll want to create CTAs that link readers to your other resources. Is your goal to increase leads? Try embedding a lead generation form.

Regardless of your goals, remember that audiences typically don’t like disruptions. CTAs are most effective when they’re added sparingly and genuinely relate to the on-page content. So, as tempting as it might be to scatter 100 calls-to-action in your posts, this will only annoy your site visitors.

Doing this also doesn’t provide any additional value for your clients and prospects. Excessive CTAs actually make the information in your content more cumbersome for people to read. Don’t forget that the goal of your resources should always be to provide easily accessible value first.

 

Tip #4: Enable Social Sharing

Make it easy for your visitors to share all of your amazing content by enabling social media sharing. Adding social share buttons is an easy, effective way to encourage readers to share your website with their own network.

If your website runs on WordPress, there are several social sharing plugins available that are super easy to use. Just make sure that the social icons are large enough to quickly spot. If your audience can’t easily see your social sharing options, they’re less likely to use them.

It’s also important to avoid adding every social platform under the sun. People can get overwhelmed if they’re given too many choices. Sticking with 4-5 popular platforms is your best bet. We recommend including the social platforms that your audience uses the most.

Adding a customized sharing message is also a good idea. Some widgets let you choose what auto-populates in the social post that accompanies your content. This allows you to strategically tailor your message in a way that your target audience would find the most engaging. And with targeted messaging comes improved conversions.

 

Tip #5: Regularly Update Your Resource Center

Whenever you create a new and exciting piece of content, make sure you add it to your B2B content center. After all, you want your website visitors to keep coming back for more of your insights. Make sure they have new resources to look forward to!

When you’ve completed your audit from Tip #1, you may have noticed that certain topics or asset types are lacking. Identify any gaps and draft new content ideas to ensure that you’re covering every relevant topic.

Websites that are consistently updated also perform much better than pages that lie dormant for any period of time. Every time you publish a fresh piece of content, search engines will take notice and index your website. New content is seen as more relevant and valuable, so recent posts typically rank higher on search engines.

But don’t forget to follow a format when creating your new resources. The resources on your website should be uniform in order to create a consistent experience for your visitors.

 

 

Tip #6: Promote, Promote, Promote!

Don’t forget to share your resource library and any new content with your audience. Promote your B2B content library by highlighting it in your monthly newsletter and sharing links across your social media platforms. This will keep you top of mind for existing customers and allow you to share your industry expertise.

Also, consider what content you can leverage in the future to help boost traffic. One strategy is to invite a guest author to write a new piece of content for your page. Since they wrote the content, they’re likely to share it with their own network. This can extend your reach significantly depending on the number of followers they have. So, it’s a good idea to choose someone with a fairly sizable audience.

If your marketing budget allows for it, you can launch a pay-per-click advertising campaign to further promote your content hub. Any marketing strategies you can use to attract more visitors will only aid you in your efforts to create a high-converting resource center!

 

Maximize Your Resource Hub’s Potential

Creating the perfect resource center takes time and a lot of planning. Doing so will only help draw in your audience and help them with their needs, answer their questions, and build trust. And by incorporating our 6 tips into your process, you can enjoy performance increases across the board.

At BNP Engage, we understand that launching a brand new page on your website takes time and skill. That’s why we built CoreResources, a custom service designed to develop the perfect resource center. Reach out to the B2B website developers at BNP Engage today to get started!