What is B2B marketing and why is it important?
Business-to-business marketing, the practices that companies use to sell products or services to other companies, are constantly evolving and remain relevant and effective. Those who keep up with them and take advantage of the latest B2B marketing tools and strategies can capture the most lucrative business opportunities and achieve all of their goals.
In the past, business-to-business marketing was largely done face-to-face. Companies used to employ teams of sales agents, who organized meetings with the owners of other companies and tried to convert them into paying customers. Today, most B2B digital marketing activities are carried out online and include B2B social media marketing, B2B web marketing, B2B content marketing, and others. So, we really need to avoid some
common mistakes on B2B
Because it can be difficult for companies to maintain a sharp focus on their core business and at the same time market their products and services to others, a B2B marketing agency such as ComboApp is often hired to handle all marketing activities in your name.
Consolidation of marketing tools
In 2020, marketers could choose from more than 8,000 marketing tools, a staggeringly large number considering that only about 4,000 companies were part of the MarTech landscape in 2016. To say that the supply of marketing tools has surpassed demand would be an attenuation.
Experienced B2B digital marketers are familiar with the myriad tools that do nothing more than extract readily available data from Google Analytics and turn it into a nice dashboard, for the small fee of several hundred dollars a year.
2021 is the year B2B marketers should step back and get their toolboxes in order. If possible, choose B2B marketing tools that span multiple functions. Consolidating MarTech will not only save you money, it will also make it easier to train new people and process marketing data.
When you find a brilliant new B2B marketing tool, ask yourself if its value justifies its price. Most of the time, you will find that you can achieve the same results with an existing tool, even if it requires a few more clicks.
Beyond the blog
Informational blog posts have been the foundation of B2B content marketing for years because they are relatively simple to produce (you just come up with an idea and hire a writer to turn it into a blog post). But marketing statistics indicate that other types of content are becoming increasingly important, sometimes even surpassing blog posts.
Millennials are now the biggest B2B decision-makers and they love video marketing because videos can be easily consumed on mobile devices and have a huge impact in just a few seconds. Google is aware of this trend and ranks video content above text-based content.
By including short videos in your blog posts, you can attract 3 times more inbound links and increase the time that visitors spend on your website by 2.6 times. You can also access YouTube and reach its 2 billion users worldwide, many of whom are your potential customers.
Companies that are not afraid to experiment with emerging technologies should consider virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) as two interesting ways to tell their brand story and present their products or services.
Marketing customization
According to Salesforce, 72% of buyers expect B2B companies to personalize their communications with them. For that to happen, B2B marketers need data, a lot of it. They also need a proper promotion strategy, and account-based marketing (ABM) seems to be the answer.
Also known as key account marketing, ABM is emerging as one of the most effective marketing strategies for the business-to-business market because it concentrates resources on a set of target accounts, relying on highly personalized campaigns to engage each account.
Yes, it is true that ABM requires more effort than traditional marketing because all promotional messages must be written and designed in a way that addresses the specific needs and motivations of each buyer, but the amazing return on investment justifies it.
In 2013, 85% of B2B marketers said that ABM outperforms other B2B marketing investments in terms of ROI, and the number has increased since then. In addition to being a sound financial decision, ABM can also improve customer relationships and consequently the reputation of the company.
If you don't have enough human resources to customize your B2B digital marketing campaigns for each target account, you should consider partnering with a B2B marketing agency like ComboApp, which can help you achieve your business goals with comprehensive digital marketing solutions aimed at engaging your target market, whether B2B or B2C, and produce tangible growth results.
Email marketing is here to stay
For an advertising channel that is almost 40 years old, email remains exceptionally popular when it comes to B2B online marketing in 2021. In fact, 83% of marketers use it as their preferred mode of communication with companies. Business.
B2B email marketing is popular because it is effective. 59% of B2B marketers say it is their most lucrative channel in terms of revenue generation, and 80% of retail professionals indicate that email marketing has the greatest positive influence on customer retention of all advertising channels.
Marketers can thank smartphones for these encouraging numbers because email open rates on smartphones have increased by more than 40% in recent years, while open rates on desktops have dropped. by more than 18%.
On smartphones, incoming emails announce themselves with push notifications, and it takes a single tap twice to open them. Thanks to mobile data, smartphone users can receive, read and reply to emails anywhere and at any time of the day.
Business-to-business marketing and business-to-consumer marketing have the same objective (to sell products or services) and are based on similar techniques and principles. The biggest difference between them is actually in your target audience.
Consumers are irrational creatures who select products and services based not only on their price and value, but also on their popularity, status, and other emotional factors. Companies, on the other hand, make decisions predominantly based on price and profit potential.
In most companies, there is a specific group of people who make purchasing decisions, and the goal of B2B marketing strategies is to hyper-target these selected people and provide compelling arguments as to why their products or services are the best.
Many marketing strategies for the business-to-business market are used when marketing to consumers but are tailored to meet the unique needs of B2B marketers. marketers need to adapt to the new era of content marketing, start writing quality content, promote it and track the results.