If you have been in the B2B business for some time, you probably already know that making sales to other businesses is one of the biggest challenges for the marketing and sales department in 2024. In the case of these sales, the decision-making period can be as long as a few months to years, sometimes. Besides, the extent to which it gives results becomes quite difficult when the decision is made in such an extended period.

This is probably one of the main reasons why many of the communication channels used by businesses with a B2B product are, in fact, unsuitable for sales in this niche. In addition to a lot of patience, a good knowledge of the discipline and power of marketing is required to convert to B2B. In the following, we discuss what results in business-to-business marketing.

B2B marketing is very different from B2C marketing (where you sell directly to end customers). Business is much more "demanding", pursuing, above all, the return on investment, high expertise, and a high rate of return on investment for every leu invested. Here the sales are not emotional but driven by logic, a lot of analysis, and trust in the brand with which the collaboration is decided. Among the basic strengths of B2B marketing is the fact that purchases are made for a longer term and more stable relationships are established with companies.

Before launching your B2B marketing campaign, you need to decide on 3 basic things: 1. who you are addressing (ie you have a well-defined customer avatar), 2. to understand very clearly what steps your target audience is taking in the virtual environment before to decide to buy from you, 3. to understand how your offer differs from that of your competitors and to be able to express this clearly in one sentence.

1. Target audience - defining a customer avatar

With B2B business, you target serious organizations and companies. When defining your target audience, you need to understand the types of organizations you want to target and what defines them: the industry they belong to, the size (number of employees, turnover), and the budget available for your products or services. You also need to understand who in the given organization has an impact on the purchase decision (who decides concerning necessity, who influences the decision, who makes the final decision - and for each step, it could be people and file different jobs). You need to know at least the demographics, goals, and pain points of these people. An important thing to remember here is that even if B2B sales are different from B2C sales, in both cases, you are dealing with people who may be subjective, and who have various needs and/or specific human pain points.

2. Customer Journe

This stage consists of establishing the customer's journey and what type of content is best suited to propel the potential customer further into the sales funnel.

The B2B customer journey is different from the B2C buyer's journey (where there are fewer decision-makers involved and the decision is made faster). So, the journey of the B2B buyer involves 4 basic steps:

• Consideration: at the consideration stage, the creation of awareness takes place, through advertising and articles presenting your company;
• Evaluation: here it is important to have as much accessible and good information about your company online as possible, such as PR articles, press releases;
• Decision: at the stage of purchase, the support you offer as a Christmas tree is a decisive factor; online chat, telephone support, and a very good technical team are helpful;
• When collecting recommendations: this is where the strengthening of relations and the creation of brand ambassadors take place. The use of affiliate programs and discount programs is recommended.

 3. Positioning and differentiating your brand

• Competition analysis - researches the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, as well as their marketing efforts, trying to make an estimate of the marketing budgets used. The online competitors' advertisements can be spied on as follows: on Facebook Ads: facebook.com/ads/library, on Linkedin ads on the competitor's page you look at "Ads", on YouTube ads you can use the Chrome extension - SwipeTube.
• A SWOT analysis - will help you identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your company, understanding your steps further.
• Make a list of your differentiators - write down what your competitive advantages are: why should your customers choose you over your competitors?
• Evaluate the market share you already have to know how much more you have to grow and what, in general, the potential of the market you are in.

Only after you understand these key features of your business can you move on to the next step: establishing your marketing strategy.

So what kind of content and marketing channels to invest in as a B2B business for tangible results?

1. In content marketing

Content marketing can be the most effective tool for online promotion when it leads the customer through a well-thought-out sales funnel and shows them why they need a product or service. The first step in determining the types of content that will be created for your B2B promotion is to write down all the questions and interests that your target audience has. Afterward, you have to create complete, informative, high-quality, and interesting content that answers these questions. Yes, professional content can even be your business card when it comes to converting a B2B client, where professionalism is on the pedestal. But don't expect that the sale will take place there and then, or over 95% of visitors will not do any micro or macro conversion the first time they visit your site. To increase the likelihood of a micro-conversion right from the start, don't forget to put a small call to action (CTAs) on the website to offer people different guides, e-books, or infographics, in exchange for subscribing to e-mail.

Building a customer relationship is important, and educating them through content marketing offers several benefits to increase your prospects' interest in your products or services over time. A good way to provide quality education is through case studies. By using them, you can inspire and educate the public with real examples.

2. E-mail Marketing

In B2B, email marketing works. Newsletters allow for good customization, if your company offers more services or products, you can create separate email campaigns for potential customers interested in each product or service. Likewise, the use of newsletters is a good tool for announcing special campaigns, CSR practices, and regular discounts.

3. Event marketing

You need to be present at all the events that take place in your niche: exhibitions, conferences, and industry seminars. But it is even better for you to host such events: you can invite current and potential customers to attend information and networking sessions.

4. Social Media

It would seem that corporations have no reason to be targeted by Social Media. Well, you're right about the standard methods of promoting on social media. Or, posts with inspirational quotes don't work here, beautiful images with cats and puppies still won't have much value for a B2B niche. Moreover, the number of appreciations of the page does not make any difference for the given clientele. What matters, though, is quality information: niche interviews, case studies, testimonials from reputable clients, informative webinars, tutorials, and infographics - all of these types of content can be valuable to your audience if they are created. with care for her needs. Don't forget to sponsor the materials you worked on a lot because as you probably already know, the organic impact on Social Media is decreasing every year, and you won't even reach your subscribers at a convenient percentage, without promoting the posts with a few dollars published. Another good idea is to be present and active as a specialist in groups and communities on social networks, post free content there, and not try to make aggressive sales, because this will simply not work.

Video content is the most popular online format. 90% of users say that video content helps them make a purchase decision, and in general, people spend 88% more time on pages that contain video. That's why it's important that what you post online also contains well-thought-out and dynamic little videos.

Social media channels to use

• LinkedIn - is considered the first B2B communication channel, which is mainly used for business relations. It is especially recommended for use in the brand awareness stage.
• Facebook -it has a wide audience with purchasing power (you can also find CEOs here and purchasing or marketing directors) and has many thematic groups.
• YouTube - can be a trick for experts who know how to film and edit good tutorials. This is the channel where you can give materials to experts. But that's where the humor comes in. YouTube is well-suited to clear, enthusiastic content and harmless, easy-to-consume jokes.
• Reviews and information about your business on the Google map - what should your Google profile contain? Company name, address, phone number, website link, rating and reviews, own quality images, and videos.

5. Remarketing

It has certainly happened to you that an online advertisement for a site that you have recently visited appears during your internet browsing. This is how remarketing works. This is considered to be a very effective way to promote websites through Google and social media (Google and Facebook Ads), due to their low cost and increased effectiveness. Using this promotional technique, you are addressing people who have visited your site before, so they have shown a real interest in your product or service.

6. Special attention deserves the user experience (UX)

The basic principle of UX is to create web interfaces that are simple, easy to understand, and necessarily intuitive to the user.

What does a UX-compliant website look like?

The site should be easy to use, intuitive, and easy to find. The buttons and links of the platform are super necessary to be functional and predictable in use. It is also useful to make navigation easy by using breadcrumbs.

7. Do SEO

A good B2B SEO strategy is to use topic groups and sub-topics to reach your target audience. SEO services help you, first of all, to secure a place in the Top search results in search engines. Why is it important? Imagine being able to reach the top of the most coveted keywords in your niche. The higher the monthly search volume on these words, the more qualified leads for your business. In SEO you have to take care of both the on-page part of the site (optimizing titles and meta descriptions, Open Graph tags, but also texts, images, URLs, internal links, etc.), as well as the popularity of your business (posting news and press releases on relevant sites, placing banners, ads and links on blogs in your niche or on popular sites, etc.).

Making B2B sales is an intellectual challenge capable of taking you completely out of your comfort zone and stimulating your imagination. If you do not have enough time or resources to do it thoroughly and with enthusiasm, we are here for you. We have more than 7 years of experience in business marketing! Call us at +373 69 809 235 (Moldova), + 40721 536 067 (Romania) or leave us a message at info{@}seolitte.com.