Muneeb SiddiquiB2B marketing has evolved drastically in the last decade. Everything from technologies to customers, processes to metrics have changed. The focus is slowly but surely shifting from products to customers. B2B businesses are more inclined towards enhancing customer experience than improving their product collateral.
Despite all the advancements in technology, B2B businesses still face challenges like aligning sales and marketing teams, managing technology integrations, getting content in front of the right people at the right time If you are a business who operate in the B2B space and finding it tough to generate more leads and convert those leads into customers then, you are at the right place.
Do you want to increase sales & create realistic marketing goals?
In this article, you will learn about seven B2B marketing strategies that will help you stand out from the crowd in 2020.
1. Conversational Selling
Selling has always been a one to one interaction where a seller tries to convince the buyer that their products and services could solve their problems. After the influx of chat and messaging apps, this is no longer the case. Your B2B business can leverage these platforms to attract new customers, nurture relationships and turn prospects into loyal customers.
With conversational selling, you can also improve your customer retention rate by adding value and delivering product support in real-time. Make sure that the interaction is contextual and highly relevant in order to be effective. Focus on customer’s problems and start a two-way dialog instead of just talking about your products and services.
2. Start a Podcast
Ask a B2B marketer about their biggest challenge and you will find them admit that their content doesn’t reach the right people. The reason behind this is that they try too hard to reach out to too many people and in the process forget about who their target audience really is. Instead of targeting everyone with your content, you should target decision-makers, experts and thought leaders with your content.
The best way to do that is to start a niche podcast. You can invite some of these industry experts on your podcast too. It is a win-win situation for both parties involved. You get a guest which is an industry expert and they can boast about appearing on your podcast. It gives you an opportunity to promote your offerings to their target audience. Even if a few hundred people listen to your podcast, you can still generate enough revenue to thrive.
3. Sponsored Social Posts
The dwindling organic reach on social media, frequent algorithm changes and shift towards paid has made life difficult for B2B marketers. They are forced to look at alternatives that help them get more eyeballs on their content. One of these alternatives is sponsored social media posts.
Sponsored social posts can not only amplify your reach but it can also boost your conversion rates and increase brand awareness. It also lets you target specific customers by letting you segment prospects based on dozens of factors. Let’s say, you only want to show your sponsored posts to C-suite executives, you can easily do that with sponsored posts and social media ads.
4. Create Pillar Pages
A pillar page is a detailed website page that provides in-depth information about a broad topic. It is a cornerstone for other content on your website as other pages link back to it. For instance, you can create a pillar page about digital marketing on your website and create topic clusters such as SEO, social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, influencer marketing which links back to the digital marketing pillar page.
Pillar pages serve as a valuable resource as it provides in-depth knowledge about a topic. This makes it easy for your readers to understand a complex subject. Since it organized content in a better way, users get a better experience while reading it. Due to this, it also generates more backlinks and boosts your search visibility. It can accelerate your content creation process by giving a direction to content creators.
5. Guest Blogging
Want to establish yourself as an authority in your industry? Pitch some of the leading industry publications and share your knowledge, expertise, and experiences in the form of a guest post. Choose your publication wisely and make sure they have the same target audience as yours.
By guest posting on other websites, you can increase brand exposure, earn more backlinks, expand your network and reach out to new customers. If your content is worth it, you can become a regular contributor and get interview calls from other publications and prospects.
6. Influencer Marketing
Most marketers think that what works for B2C won’t work for B2B. Well, it might be true for other marketing strategies, but that is not the case with influencer marketing. You can partner with other influencers in your niche and co-create and promote content the same way B2C businesses do.
The only difference is that you need a solid game plan as decision-makers and industry experts won’t get convinced as easily as normal consumers. Ask influencers to give your content a unique twist. The more spin the influencer put on your content, the easier it will be for you to convince the decision-makers.
7. How can we forget SEO?
Just because you are a B2B business does not mean that you don’t need to optimize your website for search engines. You should because B2B buyers also use search engines to find information. If you don’t believe me, here are some of the statistics:
- 89% of B2B researchers use the internet to gather information and 90% of them use search engines.
- B2B buyers won’t get in touch with a salesperson until they’re 57% of the way through their buyer’s journey.
- B2B buyers will perform 12 searches before contacting a business for a quote.
Search engines like Google can identify the intent behind a search and show results accordingly. Instead of relying on keyword research, focus on learning more about your customers and analyze their behaviors. This will help you know what type of information your B2B buyers are looking for. This way, you can create highly specific content that offers a solution to their problems.
Which B2B marketing strategies do you use and why? Share your opinion with us in the comments section below.
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