When it comes to B2B digital marketing, the business needs of customers should be approached differently.
There has to be a greater focus on relationship development and being a useful resource to help your B2B customers meet their own business needs.
Factors such as price and profit potential are central to B2B business customers’ decision-making. It’s not about how products make them feel like it might be for B2C customers. Instead, it is all about the business benefits.
But by identifying specific opportunities to enhance brand awareness and customer loyalty, B2B businesses can reap the rewards of a successful digital marketing strategy. We take a look at what to focus on.
Sort your Strategy
If you’re a B2B business that’s not delved into digital marketing wholeheartedly before, one of the best things you can do is create a concrete digital marketing strategy. This needs to be tailored around the aims you have as a company and allows for a shared vision to be established.
Are you looking to better serve your existing customers? Expand the services you offer to existing customers? Acquire new business? All of the above?
Whatever you feel your B2B business needs, a strategic approach gives you the best chance of setting and reaching targets. This can ultimately turn your B2B digital marketing efforts into quantifiable success.
Drive new Acquisition
A key goal of many B2Bs is driving the acquisition of new customers. By running dedicated pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns aimed at targeted potential audiences, there’s a chance to outline exactly what you offer as a B2B organisation and outline the benefits of signing up for a trade account with you.
A PPC strategy can help drive new registrations and potentially add tens of thousands in incremental revenue each month from new customers – not to mention the impact on lifetime value from new customer acquisition.
Email marketing
When it comes to customers retention tactics, email marketing is a highly effective method in the B2B arena.
You can tailor emails to specific recipients to provide relevant offers or product selections.
There’s also an opportunity for B2B businesses to use email marketing to secure repeat orders and provide timely reminders to customers to stock up on certain items. This can not only benefit your revenue as a B2B business, but also develop and increase brand loyalty.
Website Design and Branding
Wherever your company appears online, you want it to look good. Don’t underestimate the need for an attractive B2B ecommerce website and strong, identifiable branding.
Think of your website as an ‘online salesperson’. If a decision-maker at a potential B2B customer likes what they see from the off, that bodes well for you. Remember that it’s likely there will be multiple decision-makers involved in a decision to shop with you as a B2B business. That means plenty of eyes on your website and your branding.
So don’t underestimate this part of your B2B digital marketing focus. Though B2B customers are going to base the bulk of their decision on the products and potential profit they can gain from buying from you, they may well be on the lookout for a long-term partner.
Presenting yourself as an established, capable, professional and dynamic organisation through your website and branding can support in this area.
Search
As a B2B business, each company that decides to shop with you is precious. In a digital marketing context, being able to add to those ranks is a definite aim. According to Google, 71% of B2B researchers start their research with a generic search, while on average it takes 12 searches before a B2B researcher engages with a specific brand’s website.
Therefore optimising your website for search purposes gives your business a better chance of appearing in front of the right people.
Including SEO and PPC as part of your digital strategy can help your business gain visibility and move ahead of the competition.
Social Media
Having an active presence on social media can be beneficial to B2B businesses for a number of reasons. Social media channels present the chance to:
- Promote your own offering, including discounts and offers
- Start conversations and develop relationships with potential business customers
- Increase brand awareness
- Position yourself as an expert in the field
- Open up a new channel of communication around customer service and better monitor your brand
- Find people who like what you do and work with them
There’s a host of social media mediums out there, so you can pin down what works for your business and start to expose what you do to more people.
Specify and Progress
As a B2B business, don’t make the mistake of blindly following general advice around digital marketing. Pinpoint what you offer, what you want to achieve, and tailor your approach accordingly.
Digital marketing can play a big role in the success of the modern B2B business, so don’t miss out.
Williams Commerce is an expert in the field of B2B ecommerce and digital marketing. Get in touch with our team of specialists to see how we can help your business.
