It’s likely that, as a BtoB publisher, you have your foundation in place for a digital-first strategy, already. But, are you on the cutting edge of execution? Let’s talk about what that looks like in 2015, so far.

1.    Content that inspires and informs. Of course, your content comes first—but does it stand out and motivate your readers? Are you giving them ideas for today’s world in business—their business?  There is more content out there than ever, all the more reason to continue to be creative about what you are giving your readers. That also means targeting those creative ideas to the right audience.

2.    Visual Savvy. Sight, sound, motion, vibrancy—these are all things that readers of all kinds are looking for in today’s digital content. It’s apparent in the growing force of platforms like Instagram and the steady stream of enticing, gripping video that gets better and better with each day.

3.    Cohesive Content Teams. You are producing content for multiple platforms and audiences these days—because people have countless options for finding you. A true digital-first content team understands your deep data and more importantly, how to leverage it to reach the right readership in the right place. They are individualizing content for readers, but also to a variety of platforms. They know how to work with a CMS that allows them to develop their content from one dashboard, but tweak and deliver it to multiple channels in multiple formats. Your content team unites editors, writers, IT and marketers towards a common cause: highly adaptable, targeted content. And, they harness . . .

4.    Powerful UGC. It started with blogging—all of a sudden everyone was a writer.  Now, everyone is a filmmaker.  Yes, many of us will argue that there is a lot of user-generated content that perhaps shouldn’t see the light of day, but that’s not the point. More and more people are making videos. More and more people snapping compelling real-time photos. Some of these are your readers and they have a great power to bring positive attention and context to your business—for other readers. Publishers who get that are helping to harness, encourage and turn that content into solid ROI.

5.    Pre-targeting. Remember how your content team should know how to leverage deep data? These days, that means predicting trends and meeting them. Where is your market going and how can you get there before your readers do?

6.    Facebook Publishing Tools. You’re probably pretty dialed in on LinkedIn publishing and that should certainly be a priority for BtoB publishers.But, Facebook introduced better tools for publishing at the beginning of the year, and it’s worth getting acquainted with them. They enable publishers to:

Facebook also launched a feature called Smart Publishing that allows media companies to see what posts are most popular on the platform and tailor strategies to maximize exposure. It’s only available to certain media clients right now, but keep your eyes on it—it should be more widely available in the near future.

• Target users more effectively
• Eliminate dated posts
• Use better analytical tools
• Access regular media updates to the platform

7.    Mobile-First. Sure, you might be rolling your eyes right now. You know how important mobile responsiveness is. But, did you know that it is predicted that it will be the ONLY method of accessing the Internet for one billion people this year? It just got more important, didn’t it? Keep focusing on a simple, swift and intuitive mobile experience for your readers.

Hopefully, this will give you a good idea of how to stay first in digital-first.