Effectively marketing a product or service can be challenging to accomplish. Marketers must take into account various factors such as budget, channels, and creative demands in order to develop a successful marketing strategy.
However, the most crucial aspect of marketing is identifying your target audience. Without targeting the appropriate persona, your marketing efforts are unlikely to yield desirable results.
It’s important to note that marketing to individual customers and businesses requires different approaches. This article aims to provide insights on various marketing strategies and how to use them to achieve your specific business goals.
Gartner predicts that digital channels will account for around 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers by 2025.
What is B2B Marketing
B2B marketing serves the purpose of introducing your brand to other businesses, educating them about the value of your products or services, and ultimately converting them into loyal customers.
B2B marketing vs B2C marketing
The strategies, executions, and communication of value propositions in B2B (business to business) marketing differ significantly from B2C (business to consumer) marketing.
B2B marketing focuses on targeting individuals who make purchasing decisions on behalf of organizations, with the organizations being the customers.
Examples of B2B marketing
- Infosys: IT company that serves enterprise clients
- Cisco: A digital communications technology company
- Slack: An instant messaging service for organizations
On the other hand, B2C marketing is aimed at individuals who purchase products or services for their own use, thus becoming the customer.
Examples of B2C marketing
- Amazon: An e-commerce company that offers a wide variety of sales to individual customers
- Apple: A technology company that sells smartphones, laptops, etc to individual customers
- Netflix: A streaming service that sells to individual customers
B2B Marketing Strategy vs Tactics
There is often a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the distinctions between marketing strategies and tactics, even among seasoned marketers.
A marketing strategy is essentially a comprehensive plan designed to achieve specific marketing objectives. For instance, a company may set a goal of generating 12,000 leads in the year 2023, and then create a strategy to accomplish this objective. An example of such a strategy might involve targeting key influencers involved in the buying process.
On the other hand, marketing tactics refer to the actual methods or tools utilized to carry out a marketing strategy. To illustrate, a company that seeks to target influencers in the buying process might implement a variety of tactics, such as utilizing paid advertisements, optimizing their search engine rankings through SEO techniques, and implementing targeted email campaigns. In this instance, the specific tactics used are paid advertising, SEO, and email outreach.
A B2B marketing funnel serves as a structured set of steps intended to draw in, persuade, and ultimately convert a target audience into paying customers. This funnel outlines the path that prospective customers follow as they progress towards making a purchase decision, and it illustrates the various marketing activities utilized to engage them at each stage.
In the context of B2B marketing, using a funnel is especially crucial due to the typically longer sales cycle involved in these types of transactions. Furthermore, the funnel model enables marketers to segment their target audience into distinct personas, allowing them to craft more personalized and effective messaging for each group.
B2B Marketing Strategies
Before beginning any marketing execution, it’s important to take certain steps to make your marketing efforts more structured and effective. These steps may include:
Brand Positioning
Brand positioning refers to the distinct manner in which a brand presents itself to its customers. This approach assists in establishing a brand identity and developing a value proposition that is appealing to the target audience.
Target Audience
The target audience refers to the individuals who are actively seeking your product or service and are the ones to whom you want to sell. Identifying your target audience can assist you in developing buyer personas that help you understand their purchasing behavior and pain points. With this understanding, you can create marketing strategies that are more effective in connecting with your target audience.
Competitor Analysis
As a marketer, conducting a competitive analysis is essential to gain insights into other brands that are targeting your audience. It’s important to identify your competitors and thoroughly analyze their approach.
- What are their products?
- How are they selling to the customers?
- What kind of content are they producing to engage the customers and how strong are they in different channels?
Set Goals
Marketing goals vary based on several factors, including industry and growth stage. When creating your marketing goals, it’s important to consider these factors and other relevant parameters.
- Create the goals in concurrence with the sales team
- Goals should be easily measurable
- Main marketing goals should be high level. The details can be covered in the strategy for each tactic
Marketing Channels
Conducting a competitor analysis can reveal the various channels that your competitors are using to successfully reach their target audience. By identifying these channels, you can diversify your own marketing portfolio and expand your reach to businesses that you may not be able to target currently.
When exploring these channels, it’s important to consider your target persona and the marketing funnel. This will help you determine which channels are most likely to be effective in reaching your specific audience at each stage of the funnel.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is essential in digital marketing as it helps make your website more visible on search engines like Google and Bing. By optimizing your website for relevant keywords, you can improve search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic to your site.
71% of B2B researchers start their research with a generic search
Think With Google
The goal of SEO is to rank high on search terms that are important for your business. For example, if you sell accounting software specifically designed for hospitals, you would want to rank for keywords such as “accounting software for hospitals” or “hospital accounting software.”
To achieve a higher ranking, it’s important to optimize various aspects of your website, including the content, meta tags, URLs, and backlinks. By creating high-quality, informative content that uses relevant keywords and phrases, you can improve your search engine visibility and attract more potential customers.
Effective SEO strategies require ongoing monitoring and optimization to stay ahead of competitors and maintain rankings over time. By doing so, you can improve online visibility and attract more targeted traffic to your website.
Paid Acquisition
Paid acquisition refers to the practice of paying channels such as Google, Facebook, and others to display your ads to your target audience. This can be achieved through various audience targeting options, such as keywords, user demographics, and more, depending on the specific channel.
Paid acquisition is a crucial channel to explore, particularly if your SEO is not yet strong or is just getting started. It allows you to reach a wider audience and drive more traffic to your website in a shorter amount of time.
To make the most of paid acquisition, it’s important to develop a well-defined target audience and set clear goals for your campaigns. This will help you create more effective ads and choose the most relevant targeting options for your audience.
It’s also essential to continually monitor and optimize your campaigns to ensure they are performing as expected and driving a positive return on investment (ROI). By leveraging paid acquisition alongside other marketing channels, you can create a more diversified and effective marketing strategy that reaches your target audience across multiple touchpoints.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a vital channel for B2B businesses that involves creating valuable and relevant content for your target audience and promoting it through various channels. This content can take many forms, such as videos, blogs, whitepapers, guides, eBooks, and more.
Content marketing aims to establish your brand as a thought leader, build trust, and drive conversions. To succeed, create informative and engaging content that speaks to your target audience’s interests and pain points. Promote it through various channels like social media, email, and paid ads to increase reach and drive traffic to your website.
Overall, content marketing is a powerful tool for B2B businesses that can help you establish your brand, build relationships with your target audience, and drive more revenue over time.
Social Media Marketing
Social media has become a critical platform for businesses to connect with their target audience, including those in the B2B space. This is particularly important for B2B businesses as they are marketing to individuals who make decisions on behalf of their organizations.
Content Marketing Institute
Some of the most popular social channels for B2B marketing include LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. Each of these platforms offers unique benefits and can be leveraged in different ways to reach your target audience effectively.
As an example, LinkedIn is ideal for professional networking, connecting with decision-makers, and showcasing industry expertise. Twitter, on the other hand, is suitable for real-time engagement and conversation regarding industry trends and news.
Regardless of which social channels you choose to focus on, it’s important to have a clear strategy in place. This should include defining your target audience, setting clear goals, and developing a content plan that aligns with your overall marketing objectives.
By leveraging social media alongside other marketing channels, you can create a more holistic and effective marketing strategy that reaches your target audience across multiple touchpoints.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a highly effective way to market a B2B brand. It can be combined with other strategies such as content marketing, social media, SEO, and paid advertising to reach your target audience and drive more conversions for your business.
Email is a highly effective content distribution channel in the B2B marketing industry, with 87% of marketers utilizing this medium to reach their target audience.
Smart Insights
One of the key benefits of email marketing is that it allows you to follow up with users who have expressed interest in your brand or engaged with your content. For example, you could use other channels like paid advertising and SEO to drive traffic to your website, and then capture email addresses through lead magnets or other opt-in forms.
Once you have a list of email subscribers, you can use email marketing to nurture those leads and build relationships with your target audience. This could include sending newsletters, promotional emails, and other types of content that are relevant to your subscribers’ interests.
To achieve success with email marketing, it’s important to have a clear strategy in place. This should include defining your target audience, segmenting your email list, and developing content that resonates with your subscribers. You should also track your email campaigns’ performance metrics, such as open rates and click-through rates, and continually refine your approach based on what works best for your audience.
Overall, email marketing is a highly effective tool for B2B businesses that can help you build relationships with your target audience, drive more conversions, and ultimately grow your business over time.
Referral Marketing
B2B referral marketing can be an incredibly powerful channel for leveraging your existing customer base to drive new business. With this strategy, you can encourage your satisfied customers to refer their peers and colleagues to your brand, typically in exchange for some type of incentive or reward.
The key to success with B2B referral marketing is to create a program that motivates your customers to refer others. This might involve offering discounts, special promotions, or other rewards that are valuable to your target audience. You should also make it easy for customers to refer others, by providing them with clear instructions and tools for sharing your brand with their networks.
Another important factor to consider when developing a referral marketing program is to ensure that you are targeting the right audience. This means identifying the types of customers who are most likely to refer others, and tailoring your program to meet their specific needs and interests.
By leveraging the power of your existing customer base, B2B referral marketing can help you drive new business and grow your brand over time. If you’re looking for a cost-effective and high-impact marketing strategy, this is definitely a channel worth exploring.
Influencer Marketing
Partnering with influencers can be a highly effective strategy for B2B businesses looking to expand their reach and connect with new audiences. By collaborating with a well-known public figure within your industry, you can tap into their existing following and leverage their influence to promote your products or services.
In 2023, the influencer marketing economy is expected to grow to $21.1 billion
Influencer Marketing Hub
For example, if you’re a digital marketing agency selling backlinks, you might consider partnering with an influencer in the affiliate marketing space who has a strong following of website owners and other potential customers. By working with this influencer to promote your services, you can reach a wider audience and generate new business opportunities.
When selecting an influencer to partner with, it’s important to consider factors such as their level of expertise, their audience demographics, and their overall reputation within your industry. You should also be prepared to offer some type of incentive or compensation in exchange for their promotion of your brand, whether that’s in the form of monetary compensation, free products or services, or other perks and benefits.
Overall, collaborating with influencers can be a powerful way to establish your brand and acquire new business in the B2B industry. By selecting the right influencers and developing a strong partnership strategy, you can position your business for success and achieve your marketing goals over the long term.
Other Strategies to Stay Ahead in 2023
Consider a longer buying cycle
It is widely recognized that the buying process for B2B businesses takes longer compared to that of B2C. However, the buying cycle has become even longer due to factors such as the pandemic and tighter budgets. This is an important consideration when developing a marketing strategy for a B2B brand.
First Party Data
As Google shifts away from third-party cookie targeting and Apple’s iOS 14 privacy update makes precise targeting more challenging, it is becoming increasingly important to have a deep understanding of your customers. In this scenario, collecting first-party data is crucial. Here are some ways to collect this data:
- Email list building
- Paid lead gen campaigns
- Alternatives to Google ads like Bing and Amazon
Career development content
Although you may be marketing to businesses, it’s important to remember that your audience consists of people who represent those organizations. These individuals are often seeking ways to educate themselves and develop new skills. Providing career development content can help you establish your expertise and build a stronger connection with your target audience.
Emotions in Ads
Studies have shown that even in B2B transactions, emotions play a role in the decision-making process. While B2B purchases often involve a longer decision-making cycle and are typically made by a committee, it’s important to remember that each individual on that committee is still a person who can be swayed by emotional appeals.
B2B customers have a significantly stronger emotional connection with their vendors and service providers on average than a consumer
Think With Google
Use LinkedIn demographics for more targeted ads
On LinkedIn, you can target ads to an audience based on a variety of factors including job title, industry, company size, seniority level, location, education, and more. You can also target based on interests, groups, and past interactions with your brand on the platform. This allows for highly specific targeting and can help ensure that your message reaches the right audience. Additionally, LinkedIn offers sponsored content and InMail options for advertising on the platform.
- Industry
- Company
- Position
Yes, identifying the audience visiting your website is crucial for effective B2B marketing. By using website analytics tools like Google Analytics, you can gather data on the behavior and demographics of your website visitors.
This data can be used to tailor your marketing efforts to the specific needs and interests of your target audience. You can also use tools like lead magnets, webinars, and gated content to capture information about your website visitors and generate leads for your business.
Enable dynamic content on the website
Providing relevant and personalized content is crucial for B2B marketing. Although it’s not feasible to customize the website for each persona, some sections can be made dynamic to offer a more personalized experience. For instance, the messaging on the chatbot should be tailored to the pages for different personas. This can help in improving engagement and conversion rates.
Criteria for dynamic content can include
- Company size
- Stages in the funnel
- Geographic location
- Behavior on the website
- Referral source
Use Facebook ads
According to research, 74% of people use Facebook for professional purposes, and decision-makers spend 74% of their time on Facebook compared to other social media platforms.
Here are some tips for using Facebook ads for B2B marketing
- Use Facebook ads for building awareness, and generating traffic, and conversions. Choose a campaign based on what you want to do.
- Create and complete a business page on Facebook. Facebook page can be a second homepage for your brand.
- Use Facebook Messenger for customer service
- Facebook is a good place to build reviews.
Build community on social media
LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are effective social media platforms for engaging in conversations and interactions with potential customers and existing clients.
Here are some of the tips for building a community on social media
- Participate in conversations
- Use it to build brand awareness
- Build a list of followers that matter
Use video emails
Video marketing is a popular tactic used by B2B marketers, and emails are a strong strategy for B2B. Combining these two can increase click-through rates by 300%. One effective approach is to use a video as a teaser for the content you want the target audience to read, creating an engaging introduction that entices them to learn more.
