Business-to-Business marketing, aka B2B marketing, is an integral part of a business' success. Unlike business-to-consumer marketing, or B2C marketing, efforts should be focused on reaching a smaller, more specific group of individual. The difference in target audiences changes how to approach marketing efforts. The seven tips below provide a roadmap on how to get the most out of your B2B marketing program.
Appealing website
As I was conducting research during a project, I ran across a line that stated,"your entry door is a visitor's first impression of your home before walking in." Your business' website acts as an entry door for your business, giving visitors a glimpse of what they can expect. It is important that your website feature up-to-date content, visual appeal, and easy navigation.
Research
No matter what time of marketing you are doing, research should always be the foundation of any marketing effort. Engaging in B2B marketing will be easier once you have a thorough understanding of businesses your business is targeting.
Define your goals
Once you have completed your research and have obtained a better understanding of your target audience, it’s time to figure out what actions you want them to take. Similar to B2C marketing, success in B2B marketing depends on clear and realistic goals to guide marketing efforts.
Your ultimate marketing goal should to convert your target audience into customers. Along the way, smaller goals should serve as benchmarks to help you track and measure the performance of your content along the way.
Sponsored Social Media Content
In 2015, it is general consensus that social media is a useful tool for organizations that is here to stay. One unique way that a business can reach their target audience is through sponsored social media content. This allows you to promote your social media content to a wider audience. By promoting your content beyond your business’ social media pages, you can drive more traffic and conversions.
Appropriate points of contact
An important aspect of content marketing strategy is deciding how you are going to initiate conversations with your target buyers, and get them to respond to your content offerings. Emails, phone calls, text messages, and tweets are all tools used to initiate contact with your target audience. The research you gathered should dictate which contact method is used.
Create valuable content
Similar to B2C marketing, business representatives are constantly exposed to advertisements and promotions. It is important that content on your organization’s website, social media, and advertisements contain valuable information for your target audience.
Stand Out
In a SWOT analysis, your strengths are one of the components identified. Find one strength that sets your business apart from your competition and use that to stand out to your target audience. While the competition is rehashing the same points, your identifiable strength will place you above the crowd.
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