As a B2B business owner with limited resources, it’s easy to spend a lot of money and time on digital marketing without seeing much result. In this article, we’ll look at five key foundational tactics you can use to unlock the profit potential of your B2B market through digital marketing.
1. Develop A Comprehensive Marketing Strategy
Directors of a certain age may remember the mouthwatering Pick and Mix section at Woolworths, and it’s easy to fall into the same approach with digital marketing: a little bit of PPC here, a few blogs there, a bit of social media – and so on. This may get you a tasty bag of sweets, but it isn’t the way to get the best results in digital marketing, or nutrition.
A comprehensive digital marketing strategy, with a defined budget and achievable goals, is essential for success in the B2B market, and you’ll spend less this way than by dipping into different activities piece by piece. It is important to consider all aspects of your business, including the customer journey and sales process, your target audience and ideal customers, the competitive landscape, and your current online presence. This will help you identify opportunities to reach new customers and define the channels that are most likely to bring success.
2. Optimise Your Website For The B2B Market
Your website is the key asset when marketing your products and services to businesses – akin to a shopfront or sales forecourt – as it helps establish credibility and trust with potential customers. Ensure that your website design is fully optimised for the B2B market, with a clear navigation structure, easy-to-use mobile content, and visible contact information. Invest in good quality content that provides useful information for buyers and is easy to find through Google searches.
3. Get Active On Social Media
Businesses of all sizes are now active on social media, making it an important channel when marketing to B2B decision-makers, who tend to be as glued to their phone screens as everyone else! The platforms to pay attention to as a B2B business are LinkedIn first and foremost, and potentially Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram if your customers use these platforms. A YouTube channel is also a good way of extending your brand recognition for ‘how to’ related searches for awareness stage customers, as well as customer engagement and brand recognition.
There are several ways you can use social media, the first being simply to get involved with posting regular (non-sales) content, commenting on other people’s posts, following interesting and influential people, sharing useful third-party content with your followers, and so on. To get yourself established you could also invest in targeted ad campaigns and sponsored content that will let you quickly reach your target audience with tailored messages and promotions. Remember that social media platforms, even LinkedIn, are more like digital Chambers Of Commerce than job fairs or tradeshows – they aren’t the place to keep pushing sales. Use social media to develop relationships with other businesses and influencers in your industry, as well as engage regularly with existing customers for the best long-term results.
4. Use Email Marketing To Connect With Buyers
Email may have fallen out of favour as a means of personal communication, but it is still the main communication channel in the workplace. By building an opted-in email list, you will be able to keep in touch with buyers while they are at their desks and offer them valuable content at a time when it is most needed – i.e. when they are neck-deep in problems, realising that they need your products and services to overcome them. Create informative newsletters that provide helpful business tips or case studies to keep your audience engaged. Take the time to segment your list, so that you can send personalised messages to specific customer groups or personas.
5. Leverage Marketing Automation
Automation tools offer a great way to save time, money, and effort on repetitive manual tasks when marketing to B2B businesses online, and are a godsend for busy SME owners without much time to waste on admin. Whether it’s automating your social media scheduling, or creating automated email drip feed campaigns, automation tools can help you reach more customers in less time and build better relationships with them. Consider investing in a good automation software platform, such as HubSpot, that will enable you to automate a wide range of marketing and sales activities.
Find out more
To find out more about digital marketing for small businesses and how JDR Group can help with your strategy and customer reach, please contact us today.
Image Source: Canva
