Strategy is literally the sum total of the actions an individual or an organization takes to achieve a desired result. A plan, a budget, and a tactic are not strategies.
Your B2B (Business to Business) business will not be successful without a clear marketing strategy. This strategy will help you win against competition and achieve your goals. Your efforts will be much more effective with a marketing strategy in place.
It is especially important for businesses that sell products or services to other businesses (B2B) to have a marketing strategy. Often, B2B businesses have complex sales cycles and long decision-making processes. Additionally, multiple individuals are usually involved in one B2B sale.
Here are some steps you can take to create more effective B2B marketing strategies:
What Is a B2B Marketing Strategy?
A B2B marketing strategy is a plan that outlines how a company will achieve its marketing goals.
But the first step of marketing is to have a strategy that outlines what you’re trying to achieve, because without a strategy all of your marketing efforts are going to be haphazard, and you’ll never achieve sustainable, long-term growth. Advertising isn’t a marketing strategy. Neither is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), content marketing, WOM (Word of Mouth), email marketing, or PR (Public Relations. These are just marketing tools that might help support your strategy. The first step of marketing is to come up with a strategy that outlines what you’re trying to achieve.
They’re the pipes that carry the water. The platforms mentioned do not solidify a strategy- they are more like the channels water flows through.
The goal of providing the best customer experience is a strategy. This strategy includes a marketing plan, budget and tactics. The platforms that may be used include a website, resource center, microsites, marketing automation software and customer support infrastructure.
When Salesforce first entered the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) market, they employed a market disruption strategy using various tactics. One of these tactics was partnering with a taxi company to give Salesforce employees free rides to the airport leading up to the annual conference of their biggest competitor. This way, they could sell the benefits of Salesforce to their customers during the ride. However, this tactic was not part of their overall strategy.
The Difference between a B2B Marketing Strategy vs. B2B Marketing Plan
A B2B marketing strategy is a high-level overview of the overall direction of your marketing efforts. A B2B marketing plan outlines the specific steps you’ll take to execute your strategy.
A B2B marketing strategy that considers your marketing goals, business opportunities, target audience, positioning/differentiation, and competitive landscape will provide you with a comprehensive view of how your marketing efforts will fit together.
A B2B marketing plan focuses on the practical steps you will take to achieve your marketing goals. This plan includes aspects like what channels to use, what platforms to use, what offers to make, what messaging to use, and how to budget and time your campaigns.
A strong strategy is the most important part of successful B2B sales, followed by a plan for attracting attention, connecting with your audience, driving engagement, increasing conversions, and accelerating lead velocity.
Effective B2B Marketing Strategies
There are many possible marketing strategies for businesses to choose from. The most important thing is to select strategies that you can execute effectively. It is one thing to decide on a marketing strategy, and it is a whole different task to carry it out and achieve significant marketing results.
The following are B2B marketing strategy options:
1. Know your audience
If you want any of the other B2B marketing strategies on this list to be effective, you need to clearly define your audience first. This is because there are usually multiple stakeholders involved in a B2B purchase, so you need to create separate personas for each type of person who could influence the decision to buy your product or service.
When we are talking about “defining personas” we are not just talking about the surface level information such as a buyer’s demographics, their position, and the size, type, and location of the company they work for. We are instead talking about motivators. Why do they want/need your product? What is the driving force behind their actions?
- What are buyers looking for in a product or service like yours?
- What problems are they trying to solve/what pain points do they have?
- How do they prefer to communicate? (i.e., email, live chat/messaging, social network)
- How and where are they seeking information? (i.e., internet search, online reviews, conversations with peers)
- Based on your answers to the above questions, what makes your product/service stand out from the competition in their eyes?
Website visitor tracking can help you to know more about and understand your audience better.
2. Track the success of your B2B marketing strategies
You need to set two types of goals that work together in order to be successful. These are strategic goals, which are more general, and measurable goals, which are more specific.
The goals you set for your company should be focused on marketing, not sales. This means that your goals should be about how you can make your brand stand out from your competitors through your marketing efforts. By having well-defined goals, you can ensure that the strategies you use will be effective in achieving those goals.
You should do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis when you are trying to figure out your company’s strategic goals. This will help you see your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Knowing your company’s strengths will help you figure out how you have an advantage over your competitors. Knowing your weaknesses will help you decide what changes you should make to improve. Knowing your opportunities will help you figure out what new things you could do. And finally, knowing your threats will help you defend against your competition.
However, you must also establish achievable objectives to test whether the strategies you have chosen are effective. demonstrating a significant return on investment is essential.
For example, consider tracking these metrics. Set goals by month, quarter, or year, and define how you will track whether they were accomplished:
- Number of new website visitors
- Average time visitors spend on the website
- Qualified leads captured
- Customer retention rate
If you want to accomplish this task, it would be helpful to partner with sales. According to a study by ANA and GFK, 57% of marketers believe that working together with sales helps marketing track ROI and achieve measurable goals more effectively.
Once you’ve selected and implemented goal-achieving strategies, continue to monitor their progress and refine your methods as needed. Use the data you collect to help you determine which strategies are most effective. Try changing variables in your strategies, or running A/B tests, to see what kind of messages, layouts, or mediums your B2B buyers respond to best.
3. Prepare to personalize
Salesforce reports that 83% of business buyers say that being treated like a person is very important to winning their business, which is the same level as B2C buyers.
Instapage believes that personalization is key to success in business-to-business relations as it allows for faster, more relevant communication that is tailored to the specific needs of each customer.
How can you make each buyer’s experience unique?
It is important to have a clear idea of your ideal customer, and to collect data on what they need and want. There are many ways to collect this data, so there is no excuse not to do it.
Then, consider the four factors of personalization:
- Channels: Target prospective customers through the mediums and channels on which they prefer to communicate and gather information.
- Intent: Determine how you will best target high-intent prospective customers (the most likely to purchase, who fit your ideal persona profiles).
- Messages: What calls-to-action, messages, and content pieces will best motivate each buyer to move forward in the funnel?
- Real-Time: How can you anticipate each buyer’s needs as they move through the funnel, and deliver solutions almost instantly? Will you offer real-time human assistance, use chatbots, or employ both?
Your website, content, paid ads, landing pages, etc. can all be used to help you deliver a high level of personalization.
4. Utilize SEO in your B2B marketing strategies
SEO is one of the most powerful tools for B2B marketing and your digital marketing strategy. By optimizing your web pages for important keywords, you can get them to rank on the first page of the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Search engine optimization (SEO) technique enables you to connect with your audience when they are most receptive to your message.
You can use SEO at every stage of the marketing funnel to engage potential B2B customers. For example, you can use SEO to generate awareness among people who are not familiar with your brand. You can also use it to drive consideration among people who are aware of your brand and exploring options. And finally, you can use SEO to drive conversions among people who are ready to buy.
5. Apply brain science to your marketing
Cut through the noise and engage with your customers on a deeper level by using brain science in your marketing strategy. You’ll also be more likely to create marketing campaigns that people will remember.
Brain science refers to the study of the brain and nervous system, as well as psychological and economic behavior.
For example, according to psychologist Jerome Bruner, the human brain is hardwired to love stories. This means that people are 22X more likely to remember information that is wrapped up in a story, as opposed to just being presented with the benefits of a product or service.
The human brain is wired for emotion, so when you evoke an emotional response, you’re more likely to get people’s attention. Emotionally-charged content is more likely to be shared and remembered.
If someone cannot feel emotion due to brain damage, they cannot make decisions, including purchase decisions. This is because they do not feel strongly about any options and thus cannot choose. people who don’t feel any emotion often result in endless waffling in their decision-making. In other words, your audience is far less likely to take any action to engage with your brand if they cannot feel emotion.
6. Harness the power of reviews
Whether your customers are business-to-business or business-to-consumer, they are more likely to trust the recommendations of other people over any message that comes directly from your brand. Although reviews and testimonials are crucial in business-to-business decision-making, not many B2B companies think to use them as part of their marketing strategy. Therefore, generating and taking advantage of reviews is an easy way to get an edge on the competition.
- G2 reports that 90% of B2B stakeholders are “more likely to purchase a product after reading a positive review.”
- 71% of B2B buyers consult reviews during their consideration stage.
- However, only 20% of B2Bs are thinking of using reviews as one of their B2B marketing strategies.
- 80% of people aged 35 and under don’t buy any products or services before reading reviews!
- Also, 63% of buyers need to hear a company claim 3 to 5 times before they actually believe it. This shows that B2B customers clearly trust peer recommendations over direct claims from sellers.
7. Re-market and keep things personalized
Although paid advertisement can be costly, it can still be useful in terms of increasing brand visibility. Many companies use pay-per-click ads to target consumers who search for terms that are related to their businesses. For the right price, businesses can place an ad on a search results page for a given keyword. For example, a company that provides help desk software might pay to place a Google ad for the keyword “help desk software.”
Don’t only rely on pay-per-click advertising to generate clicks from your target audience. If you pay for the wrong terms or too many terms, your marketing costs could go up significantly.
Remarketing ads can be a great way to increase conversions on your website by targeting visitors who have already shown interest in your product or service. By targeting these users with relevant ads, you can remind them of your product and convince them to come back and convert.
Retargeting ads are ads that follow you around the internet after you have visited a certain website. They are designed to keep your business top-of-mind for the consumer.
Remarketing ads allow you to create a highly personalized ad experience for each customer based on all the available data on their demographics and browsing habits. It’s important to make sure that your post-click experience (landing page) also delivers a message that reaches the prospect, not just the ad itself.
8. Build solid relationships
Personalization isn’t just about careful targeting and content strategies. Teaching your buyers how your product or service will satisfy their unique needs through conversations is key to establishing a relationship with them.
Focus on building a relationship with each prospect, even though you’re selling a product or service. Ask questions about what exactly they’re looking for, pay attention to their challenges, and listen to their concerns, so you can tailor your conversations to each buyer. This exceptional service often makes the difference and leads a buyer to choose you over a competitor.
You now know 8 of the top marketing strategies to use for the modern B2B buyer. Now it is time to use them in ways that best fit your business. Always keep in mind that buyers are in control of the process and that there will always be multiple stakeholders involved in any one business decision. Personalize the process to meet their needs at every stage of the buying journey to generate B2B leads.
Since existing customers are trusted by other potential customers, why not have them do some marketing for you as well?
Related posts:
