Marketing done right translates to revenue. Brands across the world rely on marketing strategies to curate their brand image. The best marketing campaigns craft a play with human psychology and data.
While it can be difficult to get marketing right, the biggest factor is your audience. Unless you cater to the right audience, even the best marketing tactics will fall flat. In the sixth edition of Salesforce’s State of Marketing report, it was revealed that 89% of B2B organizations have an account-based marketing program. They tailor their content for specific audiences. WebFX found that 80% of decision-makers are on the lookout for articles over ads.
Before we delve deeper. Let us take a look at what exactly B2B marketing is.
What is B2B Marketing?
B2B marketing focuses on selling a business’ products or services to other businesses, instead of individual customers. B2B marketing strategies aim to build a brand’s image, create awareness about its products, and eventually convert them into customers.
Such transactions often happen between different businesses in the supply chains. For example, one company might buy raw materials from another company to mass produce certain goods. Entertainment companies might help Netflix put together shows. They are common in the auto industry, clothing lines, and household goods manufacturers amongst others.
On the other hand, B2C transactions directly involve businesses and the end customer. Finished products are often sold through the B2C method. For example, Netflix sells different subscriptions directly to the audience.
How to Set your Goals for B2B Marketing
In a B2B set up customers are focused on the end goal, and pay keen attention to ROI.
The purpose of B2B marketing is to make yourself familiar to prospective buyers and convert them into paying customers. To achieve this, one must determine what success looks like for your company, who is your competition, and what sets you apart. Goal-setting is an integral part of any business. Here are some steps to help you draw up goals that are challenging and achievable.
Define your Buyer Persona
For any venture or campaign to be successful, it is important to understand the customer with regards to the services you offer. Understanding the buyer persona also gives you key insights on where they are coming from and what they want from your company. To build a complete buyer persona, one must take demographics, motivations, challenges, and criticisms pertaining to your product into consideration. Building buyer personas helps companies tailor marketing strategies for segmented consumers.
Study your Competition
Often, your competition is facing similar problems. They might also have found better ways to reach their customers. Evaluating your competition is a critical component of your marketing strategy. When Sam Walton was building Walmart, he would check out almost every retail store he came across. It drove his family crazy when they went on road trips, only to have Walton stop at random stores to find out how they managed things.
A lot of data about your competitor’s health is readily available online. In the case of a public company, their financials and overall performance are accessible to everyone. Further, not all competitors are worthy of your attention. It is important to study the ones you can learn from and figure out their best practices.
SWOT Analysis
What gets measured gets improved. Conducting a thorough SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, and threat) analysis will help you understand where you stand in the market, along with a 360-degree view on internal and external factors that affect your brand.. Leveraging the power of data and technology helps us understand what we are doing right and what we need to improve. To increase the odds of our success, we must know where we are to get to where we want. It is best to track progress religiously, so that you know how far you have come.Clearly defined goals for the short-term and long-term serve as milestones on our journey to success.
A SWOT analysis is the quickest way to build your roadmap to success.
Top 6 Best Marketing Strategies to Smash your Goals
Keeping these factors in mind, we have compiled some of the best B2B marketing strategies to help you hit your targets. Good marketing is all about focusing on the target audience.
1. Understand Millennials
According to TeamStage, millennials make up the largest working population in the US. By 2025, 75% of the global workforce will be dominated by millennials.
The millennial generation comprises those born between 1980 and 2000. They are particularly known for their desire to keep learning and moving forward. They have grown up with smartphones and laptops, and have a good understanding of the digital world. Millennials are the generation that made “Let’s Google it” an everyday phenomenon. They are one of the hard workers and a quarter of them work 2 jobs or more. Many are interested in being successful entrepreneurs and have side-hustles to add to their income.
A PwC report also found that millennials are attracted to employer brands they admire as customers. So, it is important to frame your message in a way that appeals to the younger generation. They also study employers and businesses on their views with regards to CSR and sustainability, and will part ways if their values don’t match.
While the business landscape is continuously changing, there is no denying that millennials will roost in the coming decade and make up the biggest set of consumers.
2. B2B Digital Marketing
The 4Ps of marketing come into play, especially in digital marketing. They stand for product, price, place, and promotion. Usually, most businesses consider these factors while building their marketing strategies.
Digital marketing involves leveraging devices like smartphones, desktops, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to convey your message. According to Marketing Evolution, 85.4% of Internet users search for information online at least once a month. Google processes over 40,000 search queries on average every second. The global digital marketing software market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19.1% from 2022 to 2030 to reach $264.15 billion by 2030.
The growing usage of social media platforms in marketing, such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and Pinterest, has forced marketers to acknowledge the impact of digitization as it permeates our everyday life. Building your campaigns on these platforms will drive traffic to your website.
One company that leveraged digital marketing is Ikea, the international furnishing brand. Ikea’s success story would be incomplete without mentioning the engaging campaign the brand built using social media to get the conversation going.
3. B2B Email Marketing
Millennials are a generation of text-ers and email-ers. According to BankMyCell, 81% of millennials are apprehensive about making calls while most of them feel that phone calls can be too time-consuming.
Email marketing helps cater to all demographics as one can check them at their convenience. This form of marketing aims to educate the consumer about the services offered and solicit sales. When done correctly, it can help customers feel connected and valued. By 2024, global email users are expected to number around 4.48 billion. B2B customers often look for data and good ROI, and 93% of B2B marketers use emails to convey their message.
One of the best marketing strategies with good numbers, email marketing is responsible for the most conversion numbers. They often contain a call to action and lead the user to at least visit the company website. One company that successfully used this technique is Groupon. By adding the FOMO technique, Groupon mailed its customers with offers that had a fixed expiration date. The significant amount of discounts offered in the mailer worked their magic and had customers reaching for a plethora of services.
4. Automation and AI
There is no denying that AI will soon dominate the workforce. With advancements in technology, automation and Ai-powered processes have become part of how we function. According to billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, “The companies that have harnessed AI the best are the companies dominating.”
In conversation with CNBC, Cuban quoted TikTok as a brilliant example of using artificial intelligence. The platform uses AI to understand and present things you are interested in.
Automation and AI efforts will drive how marketers will perform data collection, data analysis, and audience observations or track economic trends that may impact marketing efforts. AI can also be used to boost ROI on marketing campaigns. AI helps eliminate guesswork and presents you with concrete data, minimizing errors.
Investing in good AI-powered technologies to drive marketing strategies will lead to greater returns in the long-term. The market for AI in marketing is estimated to reach $107.5 billion by 2028, according to Statista.
5. Enhance Content for Personalized Experiences
Customers seek out personalized content. To successfully target your customers, B2B marketers must run multiple tests and vary the type of content. It can be an article, a short video, an eBook, or a short success story.
According to Demand Base’s B2B Buyer Behavior Survey, 70% of buyers wanted to see content that is relevant to their company, and ranked it as “very important.” Also, 80% of business decision makers prefer getting information from an article rather than an ad.
Although it is difficult to tailor content for individual customers, marketers can use AI tools to roll out a more personalized experience. You can use different chat options depending on how they found your site, or gather data on what exactly they are looking for and curate their experience.
You can rely on technology to guide your marketing strategies and guide the B2B buyer to the page most relevant to their needs.
6. Self-Service and Support
The pandemic forced us to rely on ourselves and reduced social interactions. Two years in, the effects have stayed and a majority of people want to avoid human interaction. For B2B buyers this means having good self-service features, along with an option to ask for support when needed.
According to McKinsey, only 20% of B2B buyers want to return to in-person sales experiences. Millennials, more than 50% of them, prefer live chat over any other option. A simple popup on the homepage asking “what are you looking for?” with some fixed options will help prospective buyers navigate the online maze.
B2B marketers must focus on driving prospective customers to their site and then leave them along to figure things out. On the sidelines, it is a good idea to have chat options, where a live agent can answer their questions in real-time.
A marketing strategy is of utmost importance and must take into account the customer, competitor, and company for best results. B2B marketing strategies must be informative and draw out the buyer, as they are more discerning than your average customer.
