Marketing B2B: How to Succeed and Beat the Competition

By Jacob Dillon

B2B marketing has changed drastically in the last couple of decades, taking the vast majority of activities from the real world to the digital environment. Today, social media gather over two billion daily active users, while there are more than 50 million business pages on Facebook alone.

At the same time, running a successful small business without a website or email marketing is unimaginable. But how can you combine all these channels to create a comprehensive B2B marketing plan? Are you really able to get the foot in the door and outperform competitors?

If you are not sure, keep reading to learn nine ways to craft an all-encompassing B2B marketing strategy.

1. Set Goals

Business goals set the foundation for the marketing strategy. Only 45% of B2B companies have a formal marketing plan in place, which is a great opportunity for you to step up and distinguish yourself from the biggest competitors.

The plan of activities depends on what you want to achieve, so think about your objectives. Is it to raise awareness, boost customer loyalty, generate new leads, or something completely different? The way you answer this question will tell you where to go and how to do it most effectively. At the same time, business goals give you key performance indicators (KPIs) that you can follow and measure the results of your strategy.

2. Design a Beautiful Website

A website is the first thing B2B clients search for when they want to analyze your company. For this reason, it is critical to design an attractive site that looks amazing and is easy to use. The structure of the B2B website must be simple because you want to allow visitors to find whatever they need with only a click or two. Of course, it is also necessary to optimize a site so as to be mobile responsive, improve page load speed, use the best visuals, and add all those little details that can make your company look fully professional.

3. Publish Quality Content

Do you know that over 90% of B2B buyers want content with more input from industry thought leaders? Genuine assignment masters interpret this stat as a chance to win over their audiences by proving that they have the skills and expertise to solve customers’ problems.

In the B2B universe, content creation is highly demanding because you have to discuss every aspect of the topic and support statements with data-driven insights. Don’t hesitate to use supporting files such as charts, graphs, infographics, and all other types of multimedia that can prove your thesis and make it sound more convincing.

4. Local Search Optimization

Small and medium-sized companies usually have physical branches or stores, so it’s always a good idea to optimize your business for local searches. That way, you allow users who search for your kind of products or services to find you effortlessly. The only thing you need to do is to create a Google My Business account and enter fresh business-related information such as address, opening/closing hours, and phone numbers.

5. Social Media Marketing

We already mentioned that social media have billions of daily active users, but this marketing channel demands further elaboration. For instance, YouTube is excellent for publishing video case studies, while Instagram is perfect for product-oriented organizations.

But while it can’t hurt to create accounts on these platforms, keep in mind that LinkedIn is by far the most important B2B social network. According to the research, 80% of B2B social media leads stemmed from LinkedIn in 2017. The platform targets industry professionals, so it’s up to you to take advantage of LinkedIn and post content that closely relates to the needs of your target audience.

6. Influencer Marketing

Most marketers consider influencers to be focused on the B2C niche exclusively, but the fact remains that popular industry figures can play a major role in B2B as well. If you can find a person who really nurtures the same style and values, you are good to go with influencer marketing. This mechanism is slightly different than standard B2C influencing, but it delivers just as successfully.

7. Email Marketing

Almost 80% of B2B marketers believe email is the most effective distribution channel for demand generation efforts. However, we strongly believe that email newsletter serves another very important purpose – it allows you to nurture long-term relationships with the clients.

Consistency is the key factor here because you need to send newsletters regularly. It can be once a week or once in 15 days, but it’s crucial to get the subscribers used to your content. Doing so, you will build a feeling of anticipation among potential clients and prevent them from forgetting your business.

8. Event Marketing

While it is true that digital content is dominating modern marketing, B2B companies should never underestimate the value of good old events. What makes this tactic so valuable? It gives you the opportunity to meet customers face-to-face, which is always the best ways to seal the deal. Besides that, it allows you to acknowledge regular clients, raise awareness, and build brand affinity. B2B events come in different forms, so you can organize exhibitions, road shows, VIP dinners, conferences, etc.

9. Business Analytics

The last tip on our lists rounds up the whole story. If you want to maximize the productivity of B2B marketing, you have to analyze the results of your strategy. Tools like Google Analytics, Buffer, Ahrefs, and many others provide users with real-time insights, so you can rearrange and adjust marketing operations almost instantly. But in order to do so, you need to come back to the business goals and KPIs (as explained in the first section) and compare it with the actual results of your marketing plan.

Conclusion

Running a profitable company without a comprehensive marketing strategy is almost impossible. If you want to stay competitive in the B2B niche, you just have to invest a lot of time and efforts into promotional activities.

But it’s never an easy task because your competitors definitely want to do the same thing. In this article, we showed you nine ways to design a great B2B marketing strategy that could make your business flourish. Keep our ideas in mind and don’t forget to leave a comment if you have other suggestions or questions – we would be glad to discuss it with you!

Jacob Dillon is a professional writer and distinctive journalist from Sydney. Being passionate about what he does, Jacob likes to discuss stirring events as well as express his opinion about technological advancements and evolution of society. Find Jacob on Twitter and Facebook.