“B2B marketing doesn’t have to be boring!”
It’s the industry’s go-to cliche.
We disagree with some of the ideas that this popular phrase is based on.
The first suggestion is that our industry is boring by default. Time has moved on since 2012 and you need to move on too.
Many people in the business world are passionate and engaged in making a positive impact on the world. They are passionate about their work and take pride in doing it well. And they are extremely knowledgeable about tools and services they use for work.
Didn’t anyone tell you? Nerdy is the new cool. And B2B marketing has come a very long way. Do not think for a moment that audiences do not care about you, your business, or your product.
Not everyone needs a flashy, hi-tech product to make an impact. Great B2B marketing isn’t about having the most cutting-edge product. It is finding an angle that engages people and provides value. It’s all about helping your audience achieve greater things. In today’s business world, where companies’ impact is felt around the world, it’s only natural for their customers to have global concerns.
So if that’s what B2b marketing isn’t, then what is it exactly? What does great marketing between businesses look like in 2022? Which strategies are actually delivering results right now?
We are going to explore something over the next few thousand words. There is no single correct way to do B2B marketing. Vastly different approaches can yield great returns. As we explore contemporary examples, we hope to discover some underlying principles that shape our understanding of quality marketing. In order to understand how today’s marketing landscape is different from everything that has come before, we need to understand how marketing has changed.
This text contains a lot of information. In order to be successful in B2B marketing, we need to have a complete understanding of it. That’s no easy task. Get set for a journey through some of the most impressive B2B marketing campaigns from the past decade.
First, we need to understand some basic terms before we can analyze the situation.
What is B2B marketing, really?
Marketing is the act of promoting and selling products or services, and it can be done either to consumers or other businesses. B2B has a reputation for being boring, and this is closely connected to the idea that B2B companies are all the same. We often think of businesses as large, faceless corporations in ugly glass buildings. We forget that businesses are groups of people coming together to work for a shared purpose.
Often, it’s the profit motive that drives a business. But that’s not always the case. Many businesses today are focused on trying to achieve higher goals, such as finding ways to improve social, environmental, or cultural issues.
We’re all human
The best B2B marketing recognizes this human factor. And the very best companies work to enable the attainment of higher goals, going beyond sales motives to build something of deeper value.
It may seem unrealistic for the corporate world. In the future, you will see how this concept can be applied in real life. You will see the results that it can produce.
What makes B2B different from B2C?
A business is simply a group of people. We believe that the difference in mindset between B2B marketing and B2C marketing is often exaggerated. It doesn’t matter if we’re at work or at home, we still feel the same emotions, have the same personality traits, and hold the same biases.
That means that the right buyer for your product can find it just as exciting as the best consumer goods. There’s no reason not to try to get the same feeling of excitement in B2B marketing that you would from getting a new watch or perfume.
Longer buying cycles
Even though there are some key differences, they can’t be ignored. Purchase cycles are often longer in the B2B space. When there is a lot of money at stake, buyers will invest the extra time and effort needed to make sure they are making the right choice. Instead of comparing the purchase to a new pair of shoes, it would be more accurate to compare it to buying a new car or even a house.
Your buyers want to have a long-term relationship with you. Service-based models are commonly used in the B2B industry. And that makes sense. You don’t want to have to invest a lot of time and energy into your purchase again six months later. This means that providers will want to invest a lot of time with their audience.
Medium and tone
B2B user journeys can vary a great deal. The experience your audience has with media shapes their expectations. If you break the expectations that customers have of your brand, it will usually have a negative effect on their opinion of your brand. This is because businesses are more likely to find results through LinkedIn than TikTok for B2B marketing.
This does not mean that there is not a significant difference in the way people interact with each other depending on the medium they are using. The things that made us laugh, pique our interest, or tug on our heartstrings when we were younger still have the same effect on us now. Brands need to be aware of how audiences view their brand and what they associate it with.
Don’t bother your audience with work when all they want to do is relax. Do not behave idiotically when you are under pressure to do well. If you want to be successful in B2B marketing, you need to be aware of the changing needs of your customers.
Our emotions and what we expect from the media we consume varies depending on where we are, whether it’s at home or at work.
Inform us, but don’t bore us. Engage us, but don’t waste our time. Such are the demands of the B2B audience.
Business-to-Business Marketing Strategies
There are plenty of ways to get your B2B business noticed online. You just need to be creative with your marketing strategy. Things are constantly changing and evolving in the marketing space, so this list is by no means comprehensive, but here are some tried and true approaches you should consider:
CONTENT MARKETING
Content marketing is a fairly broad business-to-business marketing term. Content marketing is online marketing that uses content assets to build brand awareness or drive clicks, leads, or sales.
PAY-PER-CLICK ADVERTISING
PPC advertising is a type of marketing where you pay for every user who clicks on an ad. PPC advertising is a broad term that covers any type of digital marketing where you pay to have your ad shown. This can take many different forms, but the most common type is “paid search advertising.” This is where you pay to have your ad shown in search results when someone looks up a keyword that you’ve targeting. Paid social media advertising is a form of PPC advertising that is done through platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
PAID SEARCH ADVERTISING
You can use Google, Bing, and Yahoo to advertise on their search engine result pages. If you’re looking for a way to target potential customers who are already interested in what you’re selling, paid search advertising is a great option.
PAID SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING
You can advertise on most social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Paid social media advertising is a great way to increase awareness among audiences who might not be aware of your business, product, or service.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Social media marketing is similar to SEO in that it is a free, organic way to market your business using social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. Organic marketing on social media requires more time and effort than SEO, but it can provide cheaper results in the long run.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
You can improve your ranking in the SERPs without paying by using search engine optimization (SEO) to target pages or blog posts on your site. getting a page to rank usually takes quite a bit of time and effort
CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION (CRO)
CRO is about making your website more user-friendly so that people stay on your site longer and are more likely to buy your product or use your service. B2B businesses often use CRO to increase the number of conversions they get from their existing website traffic. This can include tactics to increase the number of leads, chats, calls, or sales.
EMAIL MARKETING
Email marketing has been around for a long time and is still widely used. Many B2B marketers use email to advertise deals, content, or events.
NATIVE ADVERTISING
Have you ever noticed a list of suggested articles at the bottom of an article? That’s native advertising. Many forms of native advertising can be classified as content marketing because the ads are designed to attract clicks by using content that is interesting or attention-grabbing. Since native advertising is usually mixed in with non-paid content recommendations, it can be a bit hard to spot. However, this is often the goal of native advertising.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
Affiliate marketing is when you pay someone else to promote your products and services on their website. Many B2B businesses form partnerships with affiliates that help market their business. This help can be in the form of online marketing, as well as offline marketing efforts.
Getting B2B Marketing Right
It can be a bit overwhelming to start paid search advertising and content marketing, and doing SEO and testing your website. To succeed at business-to-business marketing, you need to identify what works and develop a sound strategy.
That takes some time, effort and persistence.
There are a few things you can do to make sure your marketing is effective and you’re learning as quickly as possible. Let’s take a look.
PUT YOUR LTV TO WORK
The average lifetime value of a B2B customer ranges from $20,000 to over $200,000. If you have a profit margin of 10%, you can make a large profit even if you only sell a few items.
So, what does that mean for business-to-business marketing? A wider profit margin allows for more leeway to make mistakes and still be profitable.
Even the best campaign is not perfect from the start and can be improved. If you set up your campaign correctly from the beginning, you will save a lot of money overall, though you will still need to adjust and fine-tune your campaign as you go to get the best results.
TARGET THE RIGHT AUDIENCE
This is often the case with businesses who are targeting other businesses. They may think they are targeting one type of business, when in reality, they are targeting another. For example, one of our clients who are businesses spent $60,000 on AdWords text ads that were targeting the keyword “translate”. Now, they ran a business-to-business translation service, so that keyword seemed like a good idea.
SPEAK TO THE PAIN POINT
Some B2B businesses have difficulty communicating in a way that resonates with their audience. Many businesses believe that everyone is interested in every detail of their product or service. They put a lot of work into those features.
KEEP YOUR MESSAGING CONSISTENT
The key to an effective landing page is having consistent messaging. This is true no matter what industry you are in. The message in your advertisement should be the same as the message on your business-to-business landing page.
TRACK EVERYTHING
If you want your message to be effective, you need to be consistent with it. Use of analytics is crucial to understanding which aspects of your plan are working and which need to be changed.
There are many ways to market a B2B business online. Therefore, it is common for businesses to either pay a business-to-business marketing agency to manage their online marketing or to have an in-house marketing team to handle things.
To be successful in business-to-business marketing, you need to identify and target your audience, and then create a marketing strategy that resonates with them. You also need to be sure to timing your marketing efforts correctly, so that you are reaching your target market when they are most receptive. The internet provides a way to reach anyone, anywhere, anytime!
If you don’t take the right approach, all the marketing potential won’t help.
You need to identify your target audience and the most effective way to reach them. If you have the right messaging and tracking, you will be successful.
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