Digital marketing is often seen as a B2C strategy. After all, it’s much easier to sell commodities and consumer items online than big-ticket products and equipment, or complex services and solutions. But with 4 billion active internet users worldwide spending an average of almost 7 hours online every day, digital channels are an unavoidable and critical part of the buyer journey, whether your customer is a small business owner, a procurement officer, or the C-level executive of a large company. Everybody’s first stop when looking for or evaluating products or services is the internet.
To ensure success in your B2B digital marketing efforts, here are some of the things your company needs to do:
1. Create a strong online presence, starting with your website.
Your website needs to clearly communicate what you do, for whom, and why customers should choose you. If this is how customers get to learn about you for the first time, then your site needs to make a good impression. Beyond showcasing your offers and thought leadership, your website can be a powerful lead generation engine when you can get customers’ permission to contact them in exchange for something of value such as ebooks, free trials or scheduling appointments. By providing valuable content or experiences and clear calls to action, you can turn passive visitors into leads.
2. Stand out and be found.
Having a great website with compelling content is one thing; getting found is another. How do you compete with 400 million active websites, the latest viral video, countless social media posts, ads and articles? Remember that you don’t need everybody to know about you; just the right people. Smart targeting, following basic Search Engine Optimization techniques and investing in digital ads can help your target audiences find and interact with you online.
3. Integrate digital marketing into the full customer journey.
The customer journey consists of all the touchpoints you have with the customer from the time they first become aware of you until they make a purchase, and even beyond. Your digital and offline or in-person touchpoints need to complement each other in guiding your customer towards a purchase. This is not the work of the Marketing group alone; it requires Marketing and Sales to work together and agree on internal processes for lead generation, handover and management.
4. Be Active on Social Media
Creating brand awareness online calls for scaling up your social media strategy. Establish a strong social media presence by regularly posting educational and thought-provoking content. You can use a variety of platforms, but focus on the ones frequented by your target audience and adapt your content formats accordingly.
Remember, posting is only half of the work. Spend just as much time engaging prospects with a combo of social listening, awareness campaigns, and actively taking part in conversations within your market.
5. Plan an Effective B2B Content Marketing Strategy
Build credibility by publishing thought leadership pieces, case studies, and similar content regarding issues within the industry. To increase topical authority, create content around keyword clusters to address all the questions and needs of your niche.
Churning out original content regularly can take a lot of effort, so instead of starting from scratch every time, repurpose content across platforms. Turn podcasts into blog posts and videos into tweets; you never know where your ideal prospect may find you.
Regardless of your chosen strategy, stay consistent, be patient and prioritize quality. In time, you’ll see your efforts repaid in full.
Beeline provides consulting services for B2B companies who want to increase sales and enrich the customer experience through digital channels. Contact us to assess your customer journey and digital footprint, or to help you plan and run your next digital marketing campaign.