B2B marketing can be difficult. First, it is full of jargon. You are already starting from behind when you put the abbreviation "B2B" in front of the word "marketing". Things don't get any better from there. Welcome to a wide variety of B2B sales kits, including ABM, SEO, CRO, PPC, CPA, CPC, etc. - If you don't speak the language, your head spins quickly. On the other hand, it is constantly evolving. Six years ago, account-based marketing was a barely known concept. Now, this is the first strategy on this list. It's hard to keep up. But hey - someone has to. Because if you're building a B2B business, you need marketing to grow. That's why we put together this list of the most effective B2B marketing strategies.
B2B marketing can be difficult. First, it is full of jargon. You are already starting from behind when you put the abbreviation "B2B" in front of the word "marketing". Things don't get any better from there. Welcome to the world of ABM, SEO, CRO, PPC, CPA, CPC, etc. - If you don't speak the language, your head spins quickly. On the other hand, it is constantly evolving. Six years ago, account-based marketing was a barely known concept. Now, this is the first strategy on this list. It's hard to keep up. But hey - someone has to. Because if you're building a B2B business, you need marketing to grow. That's why we put together this list of the most effective B2B marketing strategies.
List Of The Most Effective B2B Marketing Strategies
ABM, Pay Per Click Marketing, SEO, Social Media Marketing, CRO (Conversion) Optimization ), Email Marketing, Sales Support, and Customer Marketing are some of the multiple types of B2B marketing strategies.
I have organized these strategies roughly according to the main marketing channel and the current B2B sales requirements. ABM, pay-per-click marketing, SEO, and social media are all (at least to some extent) demand-generation techniques.
CRO, email marketing, and sales support help convert and retain leads. And customer marketing helps keep current customers and makes them happy. I take a simple approach when unpacking each product. We'll learn what each strategy is, where it fits in the B2B marketing funnel, and how to use it effectively. One final note before we dive in: I titled this post "Best B2B Marketing Strategies," but the reality is that some of the approaches listed here are probably better described as tools than full strategies. Mind me - these things are critical parts of the most effective B2B marketing campaigns, and I think it's more profitable to get into the tactics than the top level of thinking. Okay - after that, let's dive in.
1. ABM
ABM stands for Account Based Marketing and as I mentioned earlier, it's been a buzzword for the last five or six years. What is ABM? We have described it in the past as follows: Instead of creating a message and applying it to the market to get some customers or accounts to raise their hand, in account-based marketing, we reorganize the process. We treat each account as its marketing area and create our messages for each. WordStream puts it this way: "Account-based marketing is a strategic marketing strategy in which key customers are marketed directly as one-to-one entities (as opposed to the typical one-to-many approach)." Where does ABM fit in the B2B marketing funnel?
I classified ABM a few paragraphs ago as a demand generation strategy - and ABM is that, but it is more. The ABM approach covers the entire marketing funnel. It turns the funnel on its head. You first identify the specific customers your business wants to work with, then target them to increase awareness, start conversations and increase sales.
How to Use ABM Effectively: ABM is most effective when you serve a small or niche group with a high point of purchase. For example, if you supply IoT software to car manufacturers, the market is probably small enough that you know exactly who you want to sell to - and getting a few accounts will increase your revenue significantly. ABM is perfect for this.
2. Pay-to-Click
Pay-per-click (or PPC) marketing is here to stay as one of the best demand generation tactics in B2B marketing in the toolbox. Even HubSpot, long a proponent of inbound marketing and skeptical of paid outreach, has come out in recent years.
What is PPC Marketing? Pay-per-click marketing is what its name says: Marketing where you pay for a click on your ad. This form of marketing can be practiced on almost any digital platform—Google Search, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.—where user activity can be tracked. PPC Hero puts it this way: "PPC (pay-per-click) marketing is a form of online advertising where advertisers collect costs when users click on their ads. Advertisers bid based on the perceived value of a click, compared to keywords, platforms, and audience, from where it's coming." A note on this: While PPC stands for pay-per-click advertising, it can also colloquially refer to paid display advertising - where you pay each time a user views your ad. For example, many social platforms allow you to pay per impression or click. Where does PPC marketing fit in the B2B marketing funnel? PPC marketing is best used for demand generation. This is an effective way to reach existing markets. For example, if you sell CRM to small businesses, you can take advantage of Google's 2, 00 monthly searches for "CRM for small businesses" by running Google search ads with this query. In addition, PPC marketing can also be used to maintain contacts through your channel through remarketing. Let's say you have 10,000 contacts on your email list. You can create Facebook ads and display them in this list to encourage other actions. How to Use PPC Effectively: Pay-per-click marketing is most effective at generating demand by targeting an existing audience. If you know there is a market demand for your product or service, PPC makes sense.
3. SEO
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a longer-term tactic than PPC. You won't get an immediate profit, but it can be more cost-effective over time because you don't have to pay for every click.
What is SEO? SEO is complex, but its essence is simple: in practice, you can see your content appears in search results with valuable keywords. This is a tactic to help your B2B business get found online.
Moz (an old-school SEO researcher) puts it this way: "SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to a website through organic search engine results." Using SEOs can guarantee an increase in B2B lead conversion rates.
Where does SEO fit in the B2B marketing funnel? B2B SEO is all about raising awareness. It's a tool to grow your audience. Let's say you sell custom ERP development. If you rank for that search term, users will visit your website, learn about your business, and possibly make a purchase. SEO is a way to fill the top of the funnel.
How to Use SEO Effectively: Like PPC, SEO is an ideal tactic to reach an established market. If your services - or closely related terms - are highly searched for, it's worth investing in SEO. Tactically, any SEO strategy has two main areas: on-site SEO and off-site SEO. Onsite SEO involves creating content and modifying your website to improve ranking factors. Off-site SEO involves building backlinks (yes, it's still important) to improve your site's domain authority. Note that good SEO takes time, especially if your B2B business is relatively new.
4. Social Media Marketing
Love it or hate it, social media is here to stay, at least in some form. While your B2B business probably isn't worth having on every platform, there are ways of B2B social media marketing that can be incredibly effective. What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms to build audiences, deliver stories and promote brand campaigns. It is often used just to show a pulse - in other words, to show that your business is legitimate. Social media marketing can be paid or organic. Buffer describes it as follows: "Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience to build your brand, increase sales and increase website traffic. This means posting great content to your social media profiles, listening, and engaging. your followers, analyzing results, and running social media ads."
Where does social media marketing fit in the B2B marketing funnel? Ask different marketers this question and you will get different answers. Here's my take: Social media is best used to raise awareness and show a pulse. Yes, it can be used to drive purchases, but most B2B businesses get better value for money in other channels like email. Tired of marketing that isn't producing the results you want? Stop trying and start doing. Focus on the top of the funnel. When done right, social media marketing can be a very effective tool for growing your audience.
How does B2B sales work and how to use it in Social Media Marketing Effectively: This is a tough one because it varies a lot depending on your business and industry. In general, the approach is as follows: Identify the social channels where potential customers spend time. Optimize these channels for your business and then post regularly. You should consider paid advertising to increase your reach. And you should probably ignore channels that your users don't use often.
5. CRO (Conversion Optimization)
Good - we worked on B2B marketing strategies that drive awareness and demand. With CRO, we move lower in the funnel. You need this strategy to build your contact list. What is a CRO? CRO or conversion optimization is the process of optimizing a website page so that users are more likely to take the desired action. Content changes, calls to action, button design, color changes, and A/B testing - that's what CRO is all about. The goal is to ensure that a higher percentage of your users convert. The directive puts it this way: "Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the process of optimizing the user experience of your website or landing page to improve desired actions (conversions). Think of it this way: if traffic is water and your website is a leaky bucket, CRO acts as a sealant that seals a bucket, so fewer wires are lost."
Where does CRO fit in the B2B marketing funnel? CRO is an intermediate channel tactic. It's not about driving users to your website or building awareness in the market. it does more with traffic. If you invest in any of the tactics above, you should almost certainly invest in CRO as well. Effective use of CRO: To perform CRO, you need to clearly define what the result is on the page so that you can optimize for it. In other words, every page should have a purpose. Also, CRO is most effective when you have data. Without data, the changes you make to optimize your conversion rate are based on opinion. Getting information requires traffic. So build the top of the funnel first. Once you have a goal and traffic to your page, start experimenting with what works to increase your results. Make smart, informed changes and your conversion rate should increase over time.
6. Email Marketing
Email marketers like to say that we have the best ROI of any marketing channel. This is pretty cool stuff. Yes, this channel is old, but clearly still profitable.
What is email marketing? Come now. You've known the answer to that since at least 2002. But hey, here it is: email marketing is the use of email to increase brand awareness and drive valuable activities. Or as OptinMonster (somewhat proudly) puts it: "Email marketing is a highly effective digital marketing strategy for emailing prospects and customers. Effective marketing emails turn prospects into customers and turn one-time buyers into loyal, rabid fans."
Where does email marketing fit in the B2B marketing funnel? Email marketing can be effective up and down the B2B marketing channel. For example, you can (and should) use email marketing to reach existing customers. However, the most common use of the tactic is to turn leads into customers.
How to Use Email Marketing Effectively: For email marketing to even be possible, you need emails to market to. You can do this by increasing traffic using the strategies described above and converting visitors into contacts. Or you can buy a list, although most email marketing platforms like HubSpot won't let you email people unless they've opted in. There are times for both - but collecting emails is necessary. Therefore, there are two main forms of email marketing. The first is to send one-off emails, usually to a large part of the list. Another option is to send automated campaigns (or drops) that create conversations with recipients. For example, You may receive emails offering to download specifications for your website. When users download the page, they will receive five emails detailing the various benefits of your product. Pro-tip. Segmentation makes emails much more effective.
7. Sales support
Too often marketing and sales are on different pages. Sales support is a good way to do things.
What is sales support? The name says it: sales support is marketing that helps salespeople do their jobs more effectively. TenFold describes it this way: "Sales support refers to a variety of activities that help your sales representatives focus on actual sales and closing deals." It should be noted that this is not strictly limited to marketing; there are other forms of sales support (e.g. bringing technical experts to sales calls). However, we are talking about marketing materials here. Where does sales support fit in the B2B marketing funnel? Sales support strengthens the bottom of the funnel. Done well, it can help salespeople convert more leads into customers and clients. How to Use Sales Support Campaigns Effectively: This may go without saying, but unless sales are heavily focused, you don't need sales support. Some low-cost SaaS companies may not need sales support (although most do).
However, if you have salespeople, sales support is probably worth it.
In practice, it can take different forms. These were some of the best ways to generate leads in B2B sales. More recently, we've helped support our client's sales by creating business sideshows, email follow-up automation, and LinkedIn message threads, among other things. The end result of all these efforts is that salespeople's jobs are getting easier.
About Engage48
Engage48 is a full-service B2B Content Marketing and Appointment Setting Agency servicing B2B marketers worldwide on their digital lead generation programs. We also provide accurate and verified b2b contact data for your marketing and sales outreach programs.
We support business owners, b2b marketing, and sales heads in their quest for qualified leads. Whether you are looking to promote your b2b offerings to IT directors, HR heads, CFOs, CMOs, or the executive suite you can rely on our targeted lead generation and appointment-setting programs to produce the desired outcomes. And on a budget!
