It goes without saying that it is easier to convert a B2C customer than B2B because the latter is informed, harder to get and expensive. To create marketing strategies for B2B clients, you should do detailed research from marketplace research to brand research because if you know your clients better, you will serve them better.
Moreover, every business is looking for Return of Investment (ROI) while making a purchase, therefore, they want to be informed and straightforward. They are driven by logic and financial incentives rather than emotions.
Unlike customers, businesses are looking for long-term relationships, contracts and sales cycles. Take a look at the high-level process B2B companies use to stand out from the crowd.
Develop a Plan
The first step to creating a marketing strategy is to come up with an overarching vision. Plan, Execute, Analyse, Amend and Repeat should be your mantra.
A plan will keep you focused on your objectives and goals, it will benefit in not getting carried away with what is happening outside but what is working for you. It is easier to evaluate when you have a plan in place and it will bring your whole organisation on the same page.
Define Your Audience and Buyer Persona
It is more crucial for B2B businesses to define their audience than B2C because the latter can have a more general audience while the former has to be much more specific about who their customers are and what their challenges are.
Also, the more defined you are going to be about your audience, the better you will be able to target them and converse with them. Research, conduct surveys and analyse the behaviour of your ideal customers to come up with potential leads.
Determine Marketing Tactics and Channels
After collecting data, you need to decide how and where you wish to reach the audience. The points you need to keep in mind are where your customers spend their time online, what are they searching for, social media platforms they prefer, industry events they attend, etc.
Some of the B2B channels are conferences/trade shows, email marketing, field marketing, partner marketing, SEO, social media, traditional media, outbound calling, among others.
Run Campaigns
Understand the tools and create a separate marketing strategy for each channel. Every campaign should have a message that drives action including a creative approach, appropriate targeting, useful insights, and strong calls to action.
Analyse and Improve
Thanks to Digital Marketing, it is easier to analyse whether your implementations are working in your favour or not. The more observant you are about consulting an analytics tool, the more likely you would be able to achieve your goals.
The data obtained from tools will help you in understanding what’s working and what’s not. Work on what is giving you results and cut or alter what is not performing.
Types of Marketing Strategies
In this section, you can check out the list of effective B2B marketing strategies you can use for your B2B company to reach your specific audience-
Email Marketing
It is said that around 93% of B2B marketers use email and is considered the most effective way because you can find individual consumers and business consumers via email.
Your business customers are looking for their business growth in any engagement made with you and that you give them through email by focusing on things that matter to them- money, time and resources.
However, make sure that you create an effective email marketing strategy because with tons of emails flooding one’s inbox it is difficult to focus on what matters. Start with an enticing subject line, add a call to action, and segment it to reach a wider audience.
Digital Marketing
Nowadays, digital presence is essential for every type of business, which includes paid ads, search engine optimization, website, etc. It is easier to target an audience digitally and with your buyer persona in place, you can gain demographic and psychographic information about them.
Let’s say if you are in the pound line wholesale market then you can easily look for what retailers are searching for and cater to your audience by launching a website with an inventory, come up with special discounts, and running paid ads to stay at the top.
Content Marketing
Not only does your content provide relevant information about your products and services but also supports SEO efforts. It is believed that close to 80% of business decision-makers choose to gain information about other businesses through articles and not ads as they want to gain more insights.
Come up with an attractive business blog, which can house all your content and its role will be to impart information about your business and a mode for your subscribers to stay connected.
Social Media Marketing
Social media might not be a lot effective to convert leads if you are a B2B company but it sure does help in building your company’s image. Its role is to build brand awareness and humanize your brands for prospective targets.
It is also a useful channel to share your content, most importantly, content shared by your employees on their social media channels holds more value than shared by your brand. With every share, you increase your reach and you never know it might lead to conversion.