B2B Marketing Strategy for 2022
B2B Marketing
The B2B (business to business) marketing approach is very different from that of B2C (business to consumer). It has become increasingly more difficult for companies whose target market is other businesses to develop and maintain customer relationships.
B2C marketers know how important it is to understand their customer as an individual, but this isn’t as easy with a business as a client. Businesses usually won’t buy things like shoes or computers on impulse. They will do their due diligence first by checking the quality of your product, searching for reviews and seeing what another company’s experience was before buying. This makes establishing initial trust and rapport with a business more challenging than it used to be.
The Goal of B2B Marketing
The goal of business to business marketers should be to focus on long term relationships rather than short-term transactions. It takes time, effort and resources for a company to switch from another supplier to you, so it is important that you work hard at establishing trust first. Once they are aware of your excellent service and reliability then the chances are that they will stay with you for years.
Businesses know that B2B suppliers can’t afford to have poor quality products or services because their businesses are based on recommendations from other companies. They may choose not to do business with your company if they suspect high risks involved in doing so, or if there is no benefit for them and their customers.
New technologies mean B2B marketing has changed even more dramatically, but the principles of making valuable B2B connections and nurturing those valuable relationships remain unchanged.
Ten Principles of B2B Marketing
- The best way to market a company through social media is by creating a valuable customer experience.
It may be hard for you to quantify your value via social media, but it will be apparent in how well you listen and what benefits your customers receive from your products or services. Establishing a relationship with a business first requires that they feel comfortable speaking with you as an individual before trusting you enough to buy from you.
A good example of this was LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows companies to create customized profiles which show potential clients what their specialty, qualifications or skills are along with professional recommendations from previous clients.
Businesses like to know the limits of your abilities and expertise, so they will search for this information on your LinkedIn profile first before even considering doing business with you.
- To effectively market a company through social media, it is important that you focus more on content production than content marketing.
You can save time by writing articles or blog posts ahead of time and recycling them as long as they are still relevant when republished in future blog posts. This also allows you to produce valuable customer experiences through these articles that speak volumes about your products or services without having to do much legwork yourself.
- The B2B approach has always been about focusing on problems rather than seeking out opportunities.
It takes hours of research to seek out potential clients rather than focusing on what problems your company can solve for them. For example, let’s say that I am the owner of an accounting firm and I want to increase my client base because business is slow at the moment. The B2B approach would be to focus on people who are likely to need an accountant soon or have financial issues which accountants specialize in solving. It would make little sense for me to spend hours looking for companies with healthy finances when many businesses struggle with money these days.
- An important aspect of any B2B marketing strategy is knowing how much you should share online.
If you do not maintain a certain level of privacy, then you will be perceived as untrustworthy in the eyes of your target audience.
- One B2B marketing strategy which is growing in popularity is keeping up with current trends through social media.
You want to find out what influences your client base and then work that into your content marketing. For example, if you are an accountant you would make use of keywords like tax deductible or income tax return when writing articles for clients who own small businesses. These topics will show up on their news feed whether they follow you or not, making them more likely to become aware of your services at some point in the future.
- Another aspect of B2B marketing is knowing how much information about yourself to reveal.
If you are a lawyer, you do not want to openly discuss your prices or comment on other firms’ prices because you could be seen as crass and overzealous to get business if the price is too cheap. However, you can mention that you like helping small businesses grow without actually saying anything about how much it costs for you to do so.
- A B2B marketing strategy which is growing in popularity by the day is to make use of videos.
There are websites like YouTube which allow users to upload videos for free while others require subscriptions, but all of them offer video sharing abilities through their respective smartphone apps. Creating an effective B2B marketing campaign requires knowing whether or not your target audience prefers articles, videos or blog posts. Many people prefer articles while some will want to see videos, so create content for both to cover all your bases.
- One challenge which B2B marketing strategy experts face online is creating a sense of authority.
You want people to look at you as an industry leader or thought leader rather than just another marketer trying to sell something. The best way to go about this is sharing articles from other websites while adding your own two cents in bold text below it before sending traffic over to the original source. This makes people view you as a valuable source of information without directly pushing them towards your services or products even though they are likely to end up there eventually if you are seen as too helpful not to follow back.
- One significant change in B2B marketing is the idea that a lot of marketing strategies are now being fragmented from their usual centralized source.
Many companies have been moving towards cloud-based applications for this very reason because it allows information to be shared faster and easier without having to rely on an outside party.
- In 2022, B2B marketing strategy will become more about integrating artificial intelligence into lead generation ideas.
AI will allow marketers to receive automated updates whenever a particular person visits your site or pages you on social media, allowing them to quickly engage with that visitor through phone calls or email campaigns.
The future is coming soon and if you’re not ready for it then you could end up falling behind.