Unlike B2C marketing, B2B marketing strategies target businesses and professionals. It requires a different focus, as these business-to-customer relationships are often long-lived and involve repeated purchases. For a B2B marketing strategy to work, there must be a focus on personalisation.
With all the ongoing developments in technology, potential clients can now do extensive online research for their chosen firm. As a business looking to attract other businesses, you need to stand out against the competition by creating a personal brand that attracts and keeps clients. To do this, you need to nail some of the most fundamental B2B marketing strategies, which include:
- Market Research
- Referral Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- High-Performing Website
Read on to learn more about using these five essential B2B marketing strategies.
1: Extensive Research
One of the essential marketing strategies includes extensive research, particularly into your target customer. You have to know exactly who your audience is, what they want from a business, and what attracts their interest. It’s helpful to know both your prospective and current clients inside and out to improve your efforts and avoid being overshadowed by the competition.
You can analyse data, use social media platforms, and read published sources to conduct research. You can also send out surveys to your clients, which will help you form a picture of exactly what your target audience expects and desires out of your company. All customer insights are helpful, as they will help shape your company to benefit who is most important – those who buy from you.
Researching your competition, as well as current trends, will help you stay ahead of the game. If you know what other companies have to offer, you can adjust your own offerings to ensure they stand out against the crowd.
2: Referral Marketing
Referrals are when people recommend your brand to other potential clients. With a referral marketing strategy, you work toward boosting word of mouth marketing and encouraging your customers to become cheerleaders for your brand.
What makes referral marketing so effective is that it builds genuine trust. People are far more likely to put their trust in a brand that’s been recommended by a friend. Plus, these leads are often far more relevant; your customers will only refer your business if it is helpful for the person. That means the clients you gain through referral marketing are more likely to stick around.
One popular referral marketing strategy is using a referral program. You will see a quick rise in interest by offering your customers some kind of incentive to refer your business to others. Another effective method is great storytelling. If your brand tells a compelling, engaging story, people will naturally want to tell their friends about it. These organic referrals will inspire more people to use your business.
Referral marketing encourages your customers to speak highly of your brand to others. Once this starts happening, it will keep going – one referral could lead to dozens more down the line.
3: Email Marketing
B2B email marketing involves sending emails to businesses and professionals, including both current and prospective clients. As you have more control over who receives the emails than who reads your blog content or social media posts, it’s a way for you to personalise marketing. The more you understand your email list, the more impact your emails will have.
The first step is building a quality email list. You want it to consist of genuinely interested people in your business. You should routinely adjust this list, too, so that you don’t send a bunch of emails to people who aren’t interested or email addresses that are no longer in use. Data cleaning helps with this. Once you have an email list, you want to send out concise, helpful, and engaging emails that include call-to-actions. As your targets are businesses and professionals, there should be more emphasis on how your company can solve business problems.
Segmented email lists are also valuable for your B2B email marketing strategy. It divides your email list into different sections, allowing you to send more personalised and relevant emails to clients. For example, you could divide the list into industry types or membership types they have with you. Your email list will engage more with emails that are targeted directly at them.
4: Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is popular for B2C marketing strategies, but it can be as effective for B2B marketing. Many businesses seek out other businesses on social media platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
LinkedIn is especially popular for professionals. It’s also a growing platform, with more and more businesses using it to engage with other brands. In the QI of 2021, there was a 23% increase in revenue on LinkedIn. It is a trusted platform for B2B marketers and helps strengthen connections between professionals. For this reason, it’s an important platform to use in your social media marketing strategy.
5: A High Performing Website
A high performing, user-friendly website is crucial if you want to attract new clients. When potential clients click on your site, they judge your brand right away. To impress, you need to choose an excellent website host that delivers high-speed loading times for pages. Otherwise, your bounce rate could increase.
The content on your website should be informative, clear, and engaging. It would be best to describe how your business can help integrate call-to-actions. Testimonials are good to include, as they tell potential clients that you are a trustworthy company.
Optimising your website for search engine optimisation is also important, as that will attract more traffic to your site. A high performing website contributes to better SEO, as does quality blog content, using the right keywords, and link building. Remember, though, that SEO doesn’t produce instant results. You need to give your SEO strategies time to rank your website higher on search engines.
Strengthen Your B2B Marketing Strategies by Focusing on Personalisation
With so many B2B businesses fighting to stand out online, marketing your business requires extensive research and solid marketing strategies. To attract the right clients, you must focus on a personalised brand that puts the clients first. Get these five essential B2B marketing strategies right, and you will create a brand that targets the right audience.
