Have you ever thought of how the world’s biggest companies could readily purchase bulk materials, say 1000 laptops? Of course, company personnel will not just go to the mall and buy them all in one set. But that only becomes possible because of what is called a business to business marketing, more popularly known as B2B marketing.
When the word B2B marketing comes to mind, a lot of firms correlate it to direct and outbound techniques- messages to send to identified clients and potential buyers. For this approach, you have to be compelling and persuasive enough. In that way, you entice your audience to interact with your product or service.
Now, before we delve deeper into the fundamental concepts, let us first contextualize B2B marketing into the layman’s term.
B2B Marketing in Layman’s Term
The name itself implies that B2B marketing refers to the marketing of a company’s products or services to another company or organization. When Amazon, for example, promotes its cloud services to Alibaba, that is B2B marketing.
Generally, B2B marketing delivers a more informational and straightforward content compared to business to consumer (B2C) marketing. For B2B, business purchase decisions rely more on bottom-line revenue impact. While a typical person rarely considers the return on investment (ROI) in a monetary sense, it’s a particular focus for corporate players.
Today, B2B marketers such as Sortlist.com market to purchase committees with different key stakeholders. As a result, the landscape becomes more complex and often challenging. As data sources turn more robust and accurate; however, the ability to market in a personalized approach radically improves.
Practical Steps in Creating a B2B Marketing Strategy
B2B marketing has become an aggressive approach these days. Thus, it requires intensive planning, implementation, and monitoring to generate profitable results. Now, here are some practical steps you may follow to get started with your campaign.
Create a Compelling Vision
The adage, “Fail to plan, plan to fail,” holds for every marketing strategy. Before expecting buyers to purchase, you have to set specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound objectives. Then create a bright and efficient framework on how your B2B campaign could achieve them. Remember. Your vision is your guide; thus, make sure that it’s appropriately crafted. Otherwise, you end up scrambling on different points.
Also Read: Biggest Customer Feedback Myths That Need to Be Busted
Identify specific markets and determine their needs
Just like any other form of marketing, B2B marketing entails a precise audience. Along with that, it is imperative to identify the arising needs and issues of the said audience. The more specific you are with these two factors, the better you’ll be able to reach out to them with greater relevance and personalization.
Take note. Make sure there is a need before your campaign. If none, you can persuade a company or organization that they have a problem and that your product or service could help them address so.
That is why, before marketing, do intensive research about your target clients, their demographics, critical people for the interview, and assessing the best B2B strategy for them. In other words, record a set of features you can match against potential clients to generate leads.
Determine B2B Marketing Techniques and Platforms
Once you comprehensively assessed your target stakeholders, you’ll need to identify how and where you intend to market to them. The knowledge you generated in the previous step should guide you on this one. In doing so, consider the following questions:
- Which online platforms or channels do they mostly use?
- What information do they search for on search engines?
- Which social media platforms do they prefer?
- Which gap do you need to address gaps your competitors have not tackled?
- What business events do they attend?
Get the Campaigns Running
With a detailed and well-thought plan in place, it’s time for execution. In every channel you use, make sure to incorporate best practices and standards. Part of this involves a creative approach, helpful insights, well-directed targeting, and a compelling call to action. Make sure that the message you want your prospects to receive relates to the desired outcome.
Assess and setpoints for Improvement
Don’t expect to get results once you start your B2B marketing implementation immediately. The more important aspect to consider is assessing your strategies and see if these are anchoring you to your goals. Specifically, assessment lets you identify why this strategy is high performing and why others are low performing. That can give you the signal to determine which approach has to stop and which you need to focus on and accelerate.
B2B Marketing Best Practices
Give it a Human Face
In B2B marketing, you may be selling to a company, not to the general consumers. Still, you are attempting to reach people within that company, and therefore, it also matters to give your marketing an emotional and cognitive touch.
Aside from learning the company, it counts to learn about the people behind so you can ensure that your marketing resonates with them. While your plans must be rational and logical, that does not mean that your approach should be robotic.
Targeting is Key
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, you should target a specific audience considering their particular needs. Take note. Too broad campaigns lead to wasted time and resources because you never know, most of them could either be uninterested or dislike what you are offering. That is why you should take time to define and study your prospects. And then create a personalized and relevant messaging that seeks to address their concerns.
Deliver a Personalized Approach
In B2B marketing, personalization and relevance are prime. You need to make sure that your strategies in place relate to the language and situation of your audience. Of course, it matters to channel content and ads that thematically suits where they are perceived.
For example, you can make use of shorter videos to hook your target audience on social media. Give your video a human face, a story that reverberates emotions and all enticing features of a human.
