Devising the right B2B digital online marketing strategy for business requires a specific approach. The acronym “B2B” stands for “business to business” and B2B marketing encompasses activities related to marketing of products or services to other businesses, intended to support the businesses’ operations or growth.
This means, unlike with B2C companies, the target audience isn’t the direct consumer, but rather, key individuals in a company with control or influence on purchasing decisions. Essentially, marketing a B2B product or service requires the ability to build a direct experience that can effectively reach a company’s decision-influencers and decision-makers.
When it comes to winning this outreach, digital marketing is the way to go. Like everyone else, business to business buyers are going digital-first and b2b marketing is changing : 89% of B2B buyers use the internet during their research process, meanwhile, 74% of business customers in their b2b buyer journey conduct more than half of their research online before making any offline purchases.
In this article, we will discuss the importance of digital online marketing for B2B, and why following these 4 paths to digital marketing success will keep you ahead of your competitions.
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Four B2B digital marketing strategies to stay ahead the competition
1. Know your audience
B2B potential buyers usually consist of various key stakeholders, from B2B researchers who directly influence buying decisions, to high-level executives who are the decision-makers.
Recently, research has shown that 46% of B2B researchers who influence buying decisions are millennials, aged 18 to 34 years old. Meanwhile, while 64% of C-suites indeed have the final sign off, 81% of the non-C-suiters also have a say in a purchasing decisio
Make sure to keep this in mind when creating the target buyer’s persona for your business. Your marketing content and approaches need to be tailored to their needs and preferences. For example, providing high-value content that offers hard-to-find insights will certainly win high-level executives decision-makers, however, your marketing plan will also need to involve and utilize media channels preferred by millennials B2B researchers.
This ability to know your audience, map out committees and reach buyers with the relevant, personalized approach will get your company far.
2. Know your strategy
Knowing all the key pillars of a B2B marketing strategy is very important to ensure your digital success. Choose relevant frameworks to implement your digital marketing strategy: create the best content, find the connection with your target audience, and sustain the communication pattern until they are ready to convert.
It is also crucial to have all your digital strategy integrated. In the era of information overload, your marketing approach will need to cut through the noise. Make sure to have all your marketing strategy consistent and integrated from A to Z, this will make it easier for your B2B customers to understand your offers, your company value, and how you could propel their growth.
3. Know your assets
With an in-depth knowledge of your audience and a consistent and integrated marketing strategy, it’s time for you to also invest in your toolbox. Put simply, to achieve digital marketing success for your B2B business, you will need to be able to combine all the strategies you have with the many different assets in your toolbox, to reach your intended audience online.
There are cornerstone digital assets when it comes to online marketing, such as a good B2B website, a great and informative blog or article section, high-performing newsletter cycles, great social media communication channels and social credentials, and high-value WERIs (white papers, e-books, reports, infographics).
You need to at least utilise 2 or 3 of these assets successfully to have a meaningful digital marketing campaign. The challenge is to determine which would be your best assets to work with your strategy and your target customers.
4.Know your metrics
Knowing your metrics might just be the final path that guarantees your B2B digital success, but it is one whose journey is ongoing. Understand the success (or the flop) of your B2B’s digital marketing by measuring the results. What’s working? What’s not? The more vigilant you are in using the accurate metrics, the more likely you are to surpass your goals and grow continually.
Use the right B2B KPIs to measure your success: monitor your sales, qualify your leads, calculate the cost of your customer acquisition and customer lifetime value. Additionally, get familiar with your sales team response time, website traffic, landing page conversions, email marketing performances, as well as social media reach and engagements.
These metrics might not apply to all businesses, but understanding the right data will help you make intelligent decisions onwards. Do your monitoring persistently and consistently, make sure to cut or alter anything that is not working, double-down on those that are performing best, and prepare yourself to do it all over again.
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Why is digital marketing so important for B2B?
As of 2019, the global B2B e-commerce market – following either the direct model or marketplace – reaches US$12.2 trillion, over 6 times that of the online B2C market. Gone are the days where manufacturers, distributors or wholesalers take business orders in person, by phone, or by fax. B2B buyers are now going digital-first at an unprecedented rate, and it is important for any B2B business to understand every key aspect to guarantee the success. If you’re ready to develop and deploy the best B2B digital marketing plan for your business, don’t hesitate to give us a shout out at Mowgli. We are here to help!
