Tag: business to business marketing

b2b-business-marketing

What Is B2B Marketing: Definition, Strategy, and Trends

Posted on | by Agency Partner
Expert Tips For What Is B2B Marketing: Definition, Strategy, and Trends

There are many different kinds of businesses and just as many terms to match! Like B2B, business to business, B2C, business to consumer, and SAAS, subscription as a service. Today, we will focus on B2B and what makes this kind of marketing different from other businesses, giving you best practices, trends, and strategies to use for your own business. If you’ve wanted to grow your B2B marketing for your company, you’re in the right place!

What is B2B?

A B2B or business-to-business company is one that sells its products or services directly to other businesses or organizations, not the general public. Services like Office 365, Salesforce, SugarCRM, and others are examples of SAAS companies that are B2B. Many organizations operate under both the B2B and B2C umbrellas.

Any individual(s) with control or influence on purchasing decisions is the target audience for B2B marketing efforts. This can range from low-level researchers to the C suite.

What is B2B Marketing?

Marketing your B2B business is different than marketing for a B2C business. When looking at content, B2B is going to be more informational-based. It doesn’t have to be boring, but it is typically more focused on the services you offer and value for clients or members rather than selling a product immediately with catchy headlines.

Most decision-makers are focused on the bottom line and are trying to get the most ROI or return on investment they can. It’s essential to give as much data as possible and provide as many services as you can to show the value in your company.

Creating Your B2B Marketing Strategy

Customers and even attention are in high demand. A thorough B2B strategy that results in success necessitates careful planning, execution, and management. Here’s a high-level summary of how B2B businesses distinguish themselves in a crowded market:

Develop a Vision:

The first step is to develop a clear business vision. You need to identify what you want your company’s future to look like and the role that social media, content marketing, etc., can play in achieving this goal.

Define Your Market:

Who is your ideal client? Who would benefit the most from your business? What are their demographic traits? Where do they live online and in the real world? Who are the decision markers? These are all things you want to consider as you start figuring out your place in the market.

Identify the Best B2B Marketing Channels:

Once you’ve defined your market, it’s time to start thinking about what channels will work best for marketing.

The good news is that there are many options available these days, and the choice of which one(s) to use largely depends on how much budget you have, where your ideal clients live online (and offline).

  • Where do they spend their time online? 
  • What questions are they asking search engines? 
  • Which social media networks do they prefer? 
  • How can you fill opportunity gaps that your competitors are leaving open?
  • What industry events do they attend?

Create Assets and Run Ads:

Once you’ve figured out the best platforms to reach your customer, it’s time to create some ads! Find out what message you want to send to your customer. What will resonate best with them? What will they be most interested in? What do you want them to think or feel when they see your ad? Create engaging ads that are informative, not sales. You’re looking for value-add here rather than someone clicking on an ad just because it looks interesting.

Optimize and Learn

Once you’ve started your ads and your marketing strategy, it’s time to take a look at results and learn from what you’ve done. Which leads or customers came from which channel? What ad performed the best and why? How did these ads impact your overall marketing strategy and business goals? Look for ways to improve and look at new opportunities continuously. A well-performing B2B marketing strategy will need this less often, but when it’s just started, you’ll need to do it a lot.

Types of B2B Marketing

There are many types of b-to-b marketing strategies and campaigns, but they all can be broken down into four main categories: Blogs, search, social media, white pages/eBooks, email, and videos.

Blogs: Blogs are a great way to get in-depth and detailed with your company’s expertise. Blogs allow you to create more educational content than sales, but it takes time and planning to do this well. The best B2B blogs are at least 1000 words.

Search: SEO, or search engine optimization, is a very popular b-to-b marketing channel. This channel allows businesses to get in front of their ideal customer at the exact time they’re looking for a certain service or product. Google and Bing change their algorithms a lot, so it’s essential to stay up-to-date on search trends and best practices.

Social Media: Social media is a powerful B2B marketing channel because, as we know, most business transactions start with some research phase – typically online – where your ideal customer will be looking for you or someone like you. Paid and organic social media channels are both valuable when it comes to B2B marketing.

White Pages/eBooks: eBooks and white pages offer a way for B2B services providers and companies to get in front of their ideal customer with targeted, relevant information that they’re very likely looking for at just the right time. These are often used for lead generation and can be a very inexpensive way to reach your customer.

Email: Email is the linchpin of all B2B marketing strategies, especially for lead generation and nurturing campaigns. Emails are most often used for sending eBooks or white pages and communicating with prospects throughout their buying journey from awareness through purchase.

Videos: Videos can be a great way to introduce your company and its unique selling proposition (USP) while educating about the pain points of problems you solve. B2B companies often use whiteboard videos, live video streaming, or recorded webinars for this purpose.

Ready to Up Your B2B Marketing Game?

If you’re looking to improve your B2B marketing, consider contacting an agency. Agency Partner Interactive is a digital marketing agency that specializes in B2B marketing strategies.

For more info, read our Ultimate Guide to B2B Marketing here and contact Agency Partner Interactive for a free quote and personalized strategy for your business.

b2b-marketing-2021

The Ultimate Guide to B2B Marketing in 2021

Posted on | by devops
Expert Tips For The Ultimate Guide to B2B Marketing in 2021

When it comes to business marketing, 2021 looks completely different than last year. A few years ago, the strategies and plans you had in place for b2b marketing will need an overhaul for 2021. COVID-19 threw changes at businesses, increasing the need to appeal to customers and clients working from home.

As a marketer, you may already know that business-to-business marketing has to be on-trend, modern, and engaging, and the only way to do this is to follow the latest trends and line up with what your clients will need to see from you.

B2B marketers today have to rethink their plans, rework strategies and consider their current approach and whether it applies. Customer expectations are changing, and the need for digital engagement is on the up. With different digital channels used to build new and existing customer relationships, B2B marketing experts must widen their scope with digital engagement.

Business-to-business marketing strategies will differ from business to business, but the most significant focus needs to be on driving growth and improving consumer experiences. This will boost your business marketing and improve your relationships with your customers at the same time.

The world may look like a different place right now than a few years ago, but digital marketing is steaming forward, and we all need to look at customer engagement and branding. Below, we’ve put together a list of the B2B marketing strategies that will be taking 2021 by storm. 

Widen Digital Engagement

Did you know that over 90% of B2B marketing experts use email as their primary strategy for marketing? Email marketing – despite what people think – is not dead yet! From using interesting subjects to segmenting emails depending on the customer group, B2B marketers are using responsive and user-friendly emails to capture the attention of their customers.

It’s important to broaden this sphere, so missing in web marketing (paid ads, SEO, and a branded website) will help. More than 80% of consumers will check a company website before they commit to a purchase.

Lastly, use content marketing! People are using their phones and their computers to search for information. Excellent content needs to be value-driven, data-driven, and AI-driven, too. 

Invest In SEO

As most of the world moves in and out of lockdown, B2B marketers need to consider their current SEO strategy and adjust it to suit. It will help if you enhance your visibility while generating quality leads for B2B businesses. When you have a strong SEO strategy, your marketing goals can be better realized.

Offer Better UX

User experience is one of the most crucial pieces of the B2B marketing puzzle. It ensures that your business customers repeatedly return, so you need to make the necessary investments in user experience (UX) to grow the business quickly.

Inbound Marketing Increases In Popularity

Did you know that inbound marketing is as essential as any other marketing sphere? It’s going to increase with customers that are looking for tailored content. You must build long-lasting connections with your customers, and to do this, you have to gear your content toward offering them the answers they need to their business problems.

Consider Artificial Intelligence

One of the most popular marketing strategies for this year is artificial intelligence. This can help you broaden the scope of B2B marketing. Marketers in the business sphere can employ automation strategies to gain better insights and make better decisions. In our data-driven culture, artificial intelligence is ready to change the game. AI is going to be an essential tool for delivering user-friendly content.

With our need for instant gratification, chatbots and live help (all AI-based) are becoming more popular for businesses worldwide. It’s all about customer service, and chatbots are there to help you connect better to your customers, providing them exceptional experiences every time.

More Than One Channel

When it comes to your B2B marketing strategies, you need to ensure an omnichannel provider. This is more than a trend; this is the next step in promoting the right message between consumer and brand. Social and digital channels need to be maximized to offer the best possible service.

Consider Software As A Service

This is a business-to-business marketing strategy that is provided to other businesses through cloud-based applications. SaaS uses platforms such as the internet for better accessibility and at a cheaper cost. You can optimize sales and generate more revenue, all the while improving your performance!

Invest In CRM

When was the last time you updated your customer relationship management software? With people staying at home and business leaders working from anywhere, you need to retain your customers. To do that, you need to invest in the best cutting-edge CRM software this year, and it’s expected that many B2B marketers will do precisely that!

Voice Search Soars

Ah, Siri and Alexa have changed the marketing game! Voice search is becoming more and more popular with customers who are more tech-savvy than all the rest, and with the help of AI and ML, more companies are utilizing voice search on their websites to attract more customers.

B2B marketing is full of challenges, but the traditional B2B marketing strategies are in dire need of an overhaul given the changes to the way businesses are working throughout the pandemic. Companies have to do what they can to reach their targeted audiences, and with the help of digital engagement and multi-channel marketing, your business can better connect with consumers.

When it comes down to it, whatever digital tools are at the disposal of your business, you should use them. You can ensure that you reach business customers in the right way and provide them with the best marketing and content options. All of this will keep them coming back for more!