he most critical factor that determines the success of your digital marketing is identifying your target audience. If you don't reach your audience in the right way, chances are your marketing won't attract any attention! And if your project targets businesses rather than individuals, then it means your marketing efforts fall under B2B marketing, which builds marketing strategies in entirely different ways than marketing to individuals
What is B2B marketing? And are there steps to build an integrated corporate marketing strategy? We'll answer that in detail in the following paragraphs
What is B2B Marketing? And What's the Difference Between It and B2C Marketing The term "B2B marketing" refers to digital marketing strategies for companies that sell products or services to other companies rather than consumers
B2B marketing aims to make other companies aware of your brand name and the value of your products or services, and to establish long-term deals with them
B2B marketing differs significantly from B2C marketing in both marketing strategies and objectives and communication methods
The main difference between them lies in the fact that B2B marketing targets the needs and interests of individuals who make purchasing decisions on behalf of or for the benefit of their organizations, making the targeted company the actual customer
While the purchasing motives for individual consumers are emotional, the purchasing motives for businesses are logical and take into account their financial capabilities
Steps to Build a B2B Marketing Strategy
B2B marketing strategies can be divided into two sections: "preparatory," which should be implemented before starting digital marketing, such as identifying the target audience, and the other is practical and preferably started after completing the first section, such as creating a website and content strategy
Here are the steps for marketing to companies that your project can apply to reach your target audience in the business world
Understand the Customer Journey in B2B
Before delving into practical B2B marketing strategies, it's essential to understand the customer journey and its stages. This information will help you create and execute B2B marketing strategies that meet potential customers at each stage of the purchasing process
The B2B sales cycle tends to be longer than that for consumer sales due to the higher prices of business-targeted products. This means that communication with businesses and convincing them takes longer
Therefore, you should use specific methods in each stage of marketing to businesses to push them towards making a purchase decision or requesting clarification
The customer journey in B2B marketing is divided into 3 stages: awareness stage, research stage, and decision-making stage.
Identify the Market and Target Audience
Once you have a strong understanding of your customer's journey, it's time to research those who undertake this journey and purchase your products and services. Start by gathering important data such as company size, location, industry, number of employees, and annual revenue
The next step is to identify your target audience, i.e., potential customers looking for products or services offered by your brand, and create buyer personas for the people working in the companies you're targeting.
Determine the Marketing Mix for Your Project
After gathering enough information about your customer and target market, it's time to design a B2B marketing strategy specific to your project. Start by determining the marketing mix or the four elements of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion.
Identifying these four elements serves as an excellent introduction to creating a marketing strategy for companies because it combines the information you've collected about your potential customers with the information you know about your products. This will help you execute strong B2B marketing strategies.
Build a Marketing Strategy
You can now delve into B2B marketing by creating a plan or marketing strategy that combines market conditions, your company's marketing objectives, and the channels and metrics you'll use
Choosing marketing strategies—such as social media marketing and search engine marketing without following a marketing approach is easy. However, you'll be at risk of wasting your time and money on inappropriate marketing channels
Therefore, you need to develop a clear B2B marketing strategy, including a summary of your company's message, the target market, B2B marketing channels and strategies, and your digital marketing budget
Create a Website
Choosing B2B marketing strategies depends on the sector you operate in, but creating a website remains one of the best B2B marketing strategies regardless of your field
Creating a website significantly helps increase your chances of reaching your target audience by building a site that complies with both internal and external SEO standards. Marketing strategies like content sharing and email marketing also help enhance your digital presence
Analyze Competitors
If you want to seriously test the marketing strategies you've chosen, you can conduct a comprehensive analysis of competitors and their marketing methods and results
Start your research by asking questions such as: Do your competitors have a website? Do they have a prominent presence on social media platforms? Do they offer special deals? What is their sales approach, and what do the numbers say about it
Analyzing competitors helps you gain a broad understanding of your and your competitors' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
Selection, Measurement, and Improvement
One of the advantages of digital marketing is that its strategies are flexible, measurable, and subject to continuous improvement. This means you still have plenty of room to develop your B2B marketing strategy even after its launch
Just as research is the cornerstone of your marketing, testing and improvement are its foundations. You should not stop testing marketing strategies, adjusting them, and developing them
Monitor the performance of your B2B marketing strategies through content reach data and sales figures, and use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as precise measures
But beyond the language of numbers, monitoring customer feedback and reviews tells you a lot about the performance level of your digital marketing strategies
Pay attention to what succeeded and what didn't in marketing, and update your goals, budget priorities, and next steps accordingly.
