In B2B marketing, the customer journey looks a little different than B2C marketing. Potential B2B customers are primarily concerned with logic-based metrics rather than an emotional connection to a brand. These customers care how your product or service will help them achieve higher ROI, work more efficiently, and enable them to meet their customers’ needs successfully.
B2B marketing has evolved to include new omnichannel marketing approaches, content marketing, and messaging around brand awareness and trust. Here are five smart ways to improve your B2B marketing and stay competitive.
Invest in influencer marketing
B2B marketers can take a page out of the B2C marketing playbook. HubSpot reports that this year, 71% of B2B marketing teams are planning to invest more in influencer marketing. This strategy makes sense: Since the pandemic, more companies are shopping for vendors online. Social media is becoming an increasingly effective marketing tool for B2B companies, with 75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-suite executives saying they use social media when making a purchase.
Consider using a micro-influencer with industry-specific credentials to boost your brand’s visibility to potential buyers. Work with someone who can build trust for your brand and authoritatively speak from experience about why your partnership is a good bet.
Automate the small stuff
Adding more marketing channels, more campaigns, and more outreach can overburden your team and potentially lead to missed connections or errors. As you boost your B2B marketing, use tools to automate the repetitive, manual processes that come with launching content.
“You most likely will only be able to automate one or two processes at a time, so prioritize where you need to save the most time,” wrote the experts at The Blueprint. “Is it social media, where you could benefit from an automated social media post scheduler? Do you need a chatbot to cover your online conversations and customer experience interactions? Or, should you invest in an automated email marketing service?”
Turn to tools like Sprinklr, Hootsuite, and Mailchimp to automate email marketing, social media, and more.
[Read more: B2B Sales Tools for Your Remote Team]
Make sure your website is mobile-optimized, provide fast customer support through live chat, and engage in social media marketing beyond LinkedIn.
Target millennials
Millennials are the B2C marketer’s favorite audience, but in fact, they are an important demographic for B2B marketing, too. By 2025, millennials will make up 75% of the global workforce. This group will be highly involved in product and service procurement at companies, with an estimated 30% of millennials operating as the sole decision-makers.
What does this mean for your marketing? Millennials are not a monolith, but they do tend to have a digital-first approach to researching new products or services. Make sure your website is mobile-optimized, provide fast customer support through live chat, and engage in social media marketing beyond LinkedIn.
Use case studies and client testimonials
Reviews, case studies, and customer testimonials can help build trust in your brand. Businesses want to hear from other businesses about their experience. They’re looking to understand how others have used your product or service. Share metrics to help prospective buyers benchmark against their own expectations.
Consider developing customer testimonial videos with real people to increase your brand awareness. “Millennials are less focused on analyst data and more focused on peer-to-peer reviews and recommendations,” wrote Wordstream. “Facebook is a good place to provide this information on a platform they frequent.”
Optimize your website
Finally, pay attention to your website’s SEO. B2B customers do a lot of independent research; therefore, it’s important to make sure your brand is being seen in searches.
There are many ways to make sure Google’s algorithm gives your page favorable standing. Use keywords — including long-tail keywords and low-volume keywords — throughout your site. Optimize your page load speed to keep your bounce rate down. And create valuable B2B content that can act as a lead magnet for potential new clients.
[Read more: The 4 Most Common Lead Generation Funnels for B2B Businesses]
Ultimately, successful B2B marketing requires a B2C approach to delivering a results-oriented message. How can your outreach communicate the desired benefits of working with your brand in an engaging and educational way?
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