Over the last couple of decades, business to business marketing has emerged as a unique discipline of its own. Unlike consumer marketing, B2B marketing can be a lot trickier since you’re targeting affluent businesses that’ll make a more informed buying decision to generate maximum profit and value. Which is why marketers ought to get creative and steer clear from pesky phone calls and blatant advertising.
B2B buyers are more knowledgeable and rationale in terms of purchasing decisions while consumers are usually driven by emotional triggers.
In this post, we’ll be discussing business to business marketing in detail. We’ll also walk you through a few of the best business to business marketing strategies to aid learning and propel your brand to success.
However, before we dive into the details, let’s take care of the basics first.
Table of Contents
What Is B2B Marketing?
Now, this is fairly simple. In B2B marketing, a company sells its products and services to other companies as opposed to regular consumers. B2B marketing typically deals with products that regular consumers have no practical use for such as packaging materials or raw products.
Also, unlike consumer marketing, B2B marketing deals with different channels in terms of information dissemination.
B2B Vs. B2C Marketing
Here are some primary differences between business to business marketing and business to consumer marketing:
- Purchasing Point: Unlike businesses, consumers purchase products and services for personal use. The purchasing decision of B2B buyers often relies on multiple parties or departments within an organization such as the finance or business department.
- Pricing: When it comes to B2B customers, pricing may differ depending on the number of orders or may vary on special terms negotiated between buyers and sellers. This is very different from B2C marketing where customers are expected to pay the same price.
Business to Business Marketing Strategies
Because of the intense competition, it’s becoming incredibly important for B2B marketers to blend a number of marketing practices to come up with the perfect customized strategy. Every strategy must be designed to cater to a specific target audience and must incorporate relevant trends to make your campaign more successful.
Here are some powerful B2B marketing strategies you ought to try:
Inbound Marketing
We’re sure this marketing term has been profusely drilled into your mind over the last couple of years. With the inception of social media, outbound marketing has taken quite a fall with customers and B2B buyers becoming smarter than ever before.
Inbound marketing is one of the most effective and highly practiced B2B strategies today. The strategy focuses on luring potential buyer using relevant content that’s designed to convert. Here, marketing professionals need to be careful about providing value at every step of the buying journey. Thanks to inbound marketing, B2B buyers are able to find companies through social media platforms, search engine and of course, company blogs.
It’s important to take notice of marketing has changed over the years. Sure, you can always print ginormous ads to get people to notice your brand but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re paying attention any attention to your brand.
Advertising vs. B2B Inbound Marketing
We feel it’s important to clear the air about advertising and B2B inbound marketing because both terms are certainly not interchangeable. While advertising, you’re basically renting the attention of your audience. Inbound marketing does more than that. It utilizes a long-term strategy to nurture prospects over time.
This might not produce immediate results but it definitely is a great long-term strategy. Using B2B inbound marketing fosters trust between your brand and prospects which plays an integral role in the buying decision.
Incorporate Explainer Videos
Please don’t underestimate the importance of visual content when it comes to leveraging your brand. If you don’t know where to begin, start by creating explainer videos. These videos have become drastically popular over the last few years.
As the name indicates, explainer videos utilize an engaging storyline to inform potential buyers about important products and services. It works better than an ordinary advertisement because it dives deeper into the product’s unique value proposition and how users can actually benefit from it.
Here’s a perfect example from Hubspot that you can gain inspiration from:
At this time and age, we definitely can’t ignore the importance of visuals. Apart from being active on platforms such as YouTube and Instagram, brands must also make it a priority to incorporate visuals in their written content.
Build a Successful Website
Today, your company website works as a digital billboard to attract B2B buyers and is practically your most valuable asset. A successful website solidifies your brand’s online presence and works as an effective means to propagate information about your business to the World Wide Web.
This is why you should generate ideas to bring more traffic to your website. The most fool-proof way is to create useful educational content that’ll drive your audience into making a purchase. Use your website as a powerhouse to move forward and build authority in your niche.
The Best B2B Marketing Strategies: Wrapping it Up
We hope this detailed guide has helped you learn more about business to business marketing.
Did you enjoy reading about B2B Marketing Strategies? Is there something you’d like to add? Tell us about it in the comment section below. We’d love to hear from you!
