Business-to-business marketing (B2B) is a concept that many are unfamiliar with but it can be a useful tool for any company. This type of marketing involves organisations selling their services or products to other establishments rather than directly to a customer. It can be highly profitable but there is also a lot of competition between businesses.
As a result of the importance of competitive advantage the strategy must be spot on. Every aspect of the B2B marketing mix should be focused and targeted, from the website to each advert that is produced. It is vital you understand who you are looking to reach.
A lot of the time businesses employ the “spray and pray” method when they target their audience for B2B marketing. This can actually be a massive waste of funds because it lacks focus. A better option may be to narrow down the target audience with “hyper targeting”. Lululemon, although not a B2B company, stands as a prime example of how this can produce great benefits.
The marketing team behind this business took steps to create new personas for those people that they were attempting to target. While it may seem odd and silly to manufacture these false personas for your clients, it can aid you in placing yourself within their mindset. By doing this, you can make decisions that will likely relate to them more.
If you neglect to do customer research and find what they want you are completely unaware of what consequences your actions will result in. With B2B marketing, obtaining feedback from the businesses you work with should be considered mandatory. By gathering the data you can ensure you do your best to satisfy them and retain their business.
To get your feedback, one of the best ideas is to make use of a survey process in your marketing endeavours. This will reveal extremely handy data that you can use to make all kinds of changes to your product and service offering.
What makes the difference between B2B and B2C (business-to-customer) strategies is that the time it takes for a user to go from prospect to lead to full on customer is considerably longer. There are many reasons for this, including greater budget allocation and approval times, and a longer product/service education process.
What B2B marketers tend to do though is develop a short marketing funnel. This is accomplished by creating educating content, hosting webinars and utilising social media to increase awareness of the brand and engage with the people. Each of these can provide great benefits.
It’s vital to have goals in B2B marketing, but milestones are more crucial. Think of a goal as the final destination, while each milestone is a stop on the road to achieving them. While it may not seem all that complicated, numerous marketers forget how important it is to understand how they’ll reach their destination.
Evaluating current marketing goals and breaking them down into simple milestones is the way forward. This way, your teams will find it easier to succeed, as the process will be simpler to grasp for them.
With the correct strategies in place, your B2B marketing efforts can be a great success. Plan accordingly and come up with ideas that best suit your specific intentions. If you need help with it we would be happy to offer some advice. We are particularly knowledgeable about making sure your website and digital marketing efforts work well for you.