The B2B world is undergoing a significant paradigm shift in which customer support is becoming an increasingly important function. Whether you’re selling technology, data, or services, you need to make sure your customers have the resources they need to succeed—otherwise, they’ll churn.

Personalized service is a must in the B2B world. Companies are investing heavily in building top-notch relationship-management and “happiness” teams. The challenge, however, is that it’s impossible for firms to deliver personalized service to every single customer.

Fast-growing businesses need an efficient yet high-touch way to personalize experiences for customers. That’s where content enters the picture.

Here are three ways that content is essential for B2B product marketing.

1. Customer Onboarding

B2B companies need simple, engaging, and high-touch onboarding programs. New products and services can be difficult to navigate: your customers will need a guide to succeed.

The challenge that founders, account executives, and relationship managers face, however, is that they’re time-strapped. Recognizing the importance of individualized attention, they simply don’t have time to create tailored experiences for every customer.

Content can help.

Identify frequently asked questions, early onboarding steps, and core product benefits. Create tip sheets, drip campaigns, and best-practices guides. By streamlining these processes, relationship managers will have more time to engage with each customer in depth.

2. Continued Engagement

The opportunity to use a new tool or product is exciting…until it gets old.

Human beings have short attention spans and get bored easily. They may forget about your company, move on quickly, or get distracted with competing priorities within their organizations.

It’s up to your marketing team to keep people engaged. Content can help with this.

People are drawn to great stories, helpful tips, and the opportunity to learn. By producing, publishing, and promoting content, your team will create an ongoing dialogue with your customers. You’ll keep them coming back to your business, which in turn will influence your customer retention rates.

3. Customer Development

Content marketing is more than a storytelling tool: it’s an opportunity to learn. As part of your research process, you’ll have the opportunity to identify the topics your audience cares about.

These content ideas, starting as blog posts or whitepapers, can evolve to influence your overarching product direction. Through writing (or any other type of content creation), you’ll learn more about your customers.

You’ll find opportunities for your business that you may not have previously considered.

Successful B2B product marketing is built on relationships. Content marketing is the most powerful way to build these relationships at scale—especially when you don’t have time to devote the level of personalized attention that every prospect and customer needs.

In addition to producing content to teach, use these research and interviewing opportunities to learn more about your customers. The end results will be stronger product positioning, happier customers, higher retention rates, and more sales.