7 Must-Know B2B Marketing Strategies to Advance Your Business
The business-to-business industry is worth billions of dollars. Marketing B2B is a whole different game than marketing to consumers, though, and it can be difficult to develop a plan.
Fortunately, there’s a handful of tips that you can keep in mind while you concept.
Not sure where to start? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about B2B marketing strategies.
1. Establish Your Online Presence
We live in an era where the Internet has become one of the most useful tools we have access to.
One of its main roles it’s used for is conducting research and making purchases. So, if you don’t have a strong online presence for your business, you run the risk of missing out on significant potential sales and brand awareness.
Instead, you’ll need to set up a quality website for your business that conveys what your brand’s goal is, what you can provide, and a way to contact you/learn more about your products or services.
If what you offer is readily available, you should also have an online store segment of your website.
More often than not, your competition is working to grow their online presence, and you could easily fall behind if you don’t get to work.
2. Optimize Your Keywords
One of the most common reasons that businesses struggle is because they’re offering something in a market that has no need for it. Even if your company brings in millions of dollars per year in revenue, targeting the wrong people will significantly hold you back.
If you’re not hitting the numbers you want to (or ones that you should be achieving), you may need to fine-tune the keywords you use for your target audience.
Google’s Keyword Planner is a free tool that you can take advantage of in order to optimize the keywords you use. Sometimes, all it takes is a few tweaks.
For example, using “wholesale businesses in New York City” may deliver better results than “wholesale NYC”.
3. Listen to Your Customers
It’s fairly difficult to tell how efficient your customer service is if you don’t listen to their feedback. You’ll also have difficulty with this situation if you don’t offer them a simple way to voice their opinion.
One of the most efficient ways for your customers to let you know how they feel is through a survey that asks about the purchase process, their satisfaction with what you provide, etc.
To take things a step further, you should provide a link to this survey through email. This accomplishes two tasks other than getting their feedback:
- It shows that you value their opinion enough to contact them about it
- It allows them to provide feedback on their own time (and anonymously)
From here, you’ll have honest information about what you’re doing right, what needs improvement, etc. Then you can strive to provide a better customer experience.
4. Take a Look at Your Competitors
One of the worst things you can do for your company is forego researching your competition.
While looking into their strategies isn’t guaranteed to skyrocket your success, it often provides insight into how to refine your own tactics. Similarly, you may also discover effective methods you hadn’t previously thought of or considered.
You should make note of a handful of your biggest competitors in the industry. Document things like:
- Their strengths/weaknesses
- Areas you outperform them
- Areas they outperform you
- How you can improve your own strategies to surpass theirs
Looking into how your competitors operate is sure to benefit you, so don’t put it off any longer than you need to.
5. Give Something Away For Free
By giving something of value for free to your customers, you’ll simultaneously build their trust while providing them with a look at what you have to offer them. But, the key here is that they need to provide you with their contact information in order to get it.
For example, let’s say you’re offering a free, comprehensive eBook that details various trends within your industry. Before they can download it, your customer will need to give you their email so that they can receive a link.
After you have their email, you now have a way to send them offers in the future. You also have a way to send them newsletters, surveys, etc.
6. Automate What You Can
The more time you save, the more potential you have to generate revenue. So, it’s in your best interest to automate anything that you can.
Common automation processes include social media post scheduling, chatbots on your website, and email marketing.
Handling time-sensitive tasks this way will allow you to both spend less money and focus more on providing a better experience for your consumers.
7. Check Your Analytics
Learning from your past performance is crucial if you want to continue to grow. For this reason, you’ll need to take your analytics seriously when you look them over.
When you first implement (or revamp) your B2B strategy, it can be difficult to establish metrics to use as goals. After a few months, though, you’ll be able to analyze what’s been working and what hasn’t before making the appropriate changes.
Developing B2B Marketing Strategies Can Seem Difficult
But it doesn’t have to be.
With the above information about B2B marketing strategies in mind, you’ll be well on your way to marketing ninja status.
For more information on how we can help grow your business, feel free to get in touch with us today.