B2B Digital Marketing Strategies
New year and with it comes the new opportunity to grow and get better.
If 2019 isn’t your lucky year in business, this year may just be your turn to up your game.
Have you already reviewed your marketing plans for this year? Or are you still stuck up in the previous year recycling what you have?
Wake up, you slow poke!
While you’re busy rehashing the marketing strategies you have the previous year, your competitors are already enjoying the good traffic and increased engagement in their own digital platforms.
If you want to experience growth, you know you have to go through some painful realizations. For one, your traditional mindset of doing traditional marketing won’t pay off. Second, you need to keep up in order to stay relevant and to stay in business in this digital age. Lastly, if you won’t step-up, you’ll end up getting lost in the business radar.
So, would you rather accept defeat or gear up and fight your way to success?
If your answer is gear up and fight your way to success, then read up on how you can turn the table in your favor.
B2B Business Digital Marketing Statistics
Take a look at these statistics:
As early as the year 2017, research shows 40 percent of revenue in leading business-to-business (B2B) organizations comes from mobile drives.
Google, who partnered with The Boston Consulting Group (BGC) in this research, indicated that mobile experience for a B2B buyer is becoming increasingly important.
Almost half or 50 percent of B2B searches are made using smartphones.
Take note that the percentage of these searches will continue to grow and by 2020, it is projected to reach 70 percent.
Unlike before, B2B buyers usually depend on what the sales team would pitch to them.
Now, more and more buyers are turning to their mobile gadgets when they want to learn about certain things. They now have a library of information right at the tip of their fingers.
In fact, mobile users are now more than half of the population in the world according to We Are Social.
A statistics report released by We Are Social and Hootsuite says there are now 5.135 billion unique mobile users out of the 7.593 billion people all over the globe.
So, what does this mean to your local business and startup?
It means, you should think and go digital, now or never.
You might also want to take a look now at who are the current B2B buyers.
Who are they?
According to Google and BGC, they are the 18 – 34 age group or what they call nowadays as the millennials.
If you’ve met a millennial, chances are, you know how they act and react. They are the ones who often do not like slow pages that take time to load and websites that are not mobile friendly.
When they see that your site is not also that easy to navigate and your content is not engaging enough, it takes only a tap from one of their fingers and they’re likely to go to your competition.
Before you can even convince them to get to know your products and services, they’ve already migrated to a more interactive site.
So much for missed opportunity, right? You’ll get a lot of this if you don’t switch to digital.
Which means you should also check out your calendar of activities to see what content you can utilize to start your digital journey.
The very first important thing that you should do is to have an inventory of your previous digital marketing strategies implemented.
Your data in the previous year is really helpful when it comes to determining what went right and which areas should you work on for improvement.
To also keep you updated, you need to read on industry trends and projections from experts in the field of B2B digital marketing.
As another treat for the New Year, here’s a list that might help you strategize your game and be on top of it by the end of the year.
B2B Business Digital Marketing Strategies
(1) Learn to understand your customer’s journey.
You wouldn’t be getting to the bottom of the sales funnel if you wouldn’t go through some stages. Each customer goes through at least four stages, according to Margaret Rouse, the one who manages WhatIs.com.
Rouse said it could help you predict also the path of future customers.
The four stages include inquiry, comparison, purchase and installation.
Normally, a customer really wants to know if what they’re purchasing has the value for money. So, they turn to their smartphones for reviews and information about the product they want to buy.
Don’t let them go too far. Work on your own site to make it a one-stop shop for all the information and testimonials they need to convince themselves that your product is what truly they are looking for.
(2) Go to where your audience is and connect with them.
As a local business or startup, you should know where you could promote your site’s content.
Where do you do the promotion? Of course, be on a digital platform where your audience is!
If they are on social media, then, get in front of them by promoting your content there.
Since you are a brand they trust, getting clicks, traffic and engagement will be easier for you.
You just have to know where to find them. Do you know where most of your customers are hanging out in the digital world? Do your research.
(1) Let the experience become the product.
Some local petroleum companies in the Philippines have taken the initiative to make gassing-up a whole new destination instead of just a shortstop.
A franchise owner of Shell’s gas station thought of a way on how to make his business area a destination by transforming his comfort room (CR) into a sophisticated and well-maintained one.
It was such a hit in Bohol province that it made news even on international media.
image source: Group One
The owner, Rex Carampatana, shared his desire to make a customer’s CR experience a memorable one.
Truly, this made his gas station into another destination.
Taking inspiration from what he has done to his business, you should also allow your B2B buyers to experience an enjoyable journey while navigating to your site.
Remember that, buyers usually magnify their bad experience. With the higher accessibility now of people, you surely wouldn’t want your business to be a subject of bashing online. This is bad publicity that will not do you any good.
(2) Influence is key.
Buyers nowadays put a tremendous effort in staying up-to-date on their favorite influencers online.
They are not just the actors and actresses that companies hire before for their television or print ads. These influencers are ordinary people who consistently made relevant content online and have helped in some of their follower’s decision-making.
If you’re a local business or a startup, you know you can always find the best promoters through your local influencers.
You can also look them up and see where you can collaborate.
Their followers will not just be your potential new buyers but they can be messengers or bearers of the good news about your company.
READ ALSO: Key Digital Marketing Strategies and Trends to Master and Prepare for 2018
(3) Long- form content is the new norm.
It’s well researched. It has complete statistics and infographics. With this, you are always sure you get the complete information.
Google says that’s how it is.
You say, that’s where I’ll go.
More and more buyers tend to consume content that has more information that it can offer to them.
This will particularly be beneficial to your blog.
Don’t forget to pair them with illustrations or photos. It also attracts buyers to stay longer.
A plus factor about this is that it ranks higher in search engine results like Google.
The technology giant has placed more importance to content that’s highly informative and very well presented.
(5) Introduce chatbots.
You need to keep in mind that most of your B2B buyers now are millenials.
While they would love to navigate your site and learn more about what you can offer, they don’t really need an actual sales person to talk to them about this.
Besides, talking to an actual sales person takes time because they take time to look for the best answers they can give you.
Plus, local businesses and startups wanted no added cost at their early stages of going digital.
So if you wanted to level-up customer service, you need to introduce new technology into the system.
You can try out and introduce chatbots.
They’re easy to talk with. They go directly to the point. They don’t beat around the bush.
Sometimes, most buyers don’t really have the luxury of time. They will always look for brands that would cater to their needs in a shorter response time and with a good quality at that.
(5) Film It.
You can no longer deny the great impact of videos to the marketing industry.
It is more human and it creates more connection more than ever.
It is also personalized and it speaks to your consumers.
Filming it should do the trick if you employ this activity into your digital marketing strategy.
Film the sneak peak of your new product line. Let your consumers see how you manufacture your products. Provide a do-it-yourself sample of one of your products for your followers.
You’ll likely bring more engagement to your site and your other digital platforms, as well.
So, you may ask what other things should you need to do in order to have a successful B2B digital marketing strategy? Here’s the ultimate treat for you as the following passages will talk about techniques to deeply understand why you’re doing the digital shift in your marketing efforts.
- Build a relationship with your customers. You know that customers would tend to be loyal to a brand if they know that their relationship is based on trust on its quality and performance.
You should also build a relationship with your customers online.
Your ability to create relevant and useful content will really matter to your customers and future customers. The more useful content you produce, the more they would rely on you for information. They rely on you because they know you are a brand that they can trust.
Don’t ever let that trust die down.
- Get to know your KPI. Your KPIs will help you determine on where you should invest our marketing energy in.
Knowing where you’re good at will help you set your focus. It will also help you determine the areas you need to work on and perhaps find other solutions to keep the numbers rising.
Also, don’t forget to look at other important data like your metrics and insights. They help you keep on track especially in achieving your goals and vision.
Image source: www.sweetprocess.com
- Get up-to-date. Your customers would always look forward if you bring something new to their eyes.
So make sure you know the latest trends in social media, SEO (search engine optimization), artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, among others.
The fresher content and trend you’ll bring in front of your customers, the better.
Keep in mind that your customers nowadays have this hunger to learn more and to know more.
Never miss out to feed them on what’s in and what’s not.
B2B Digital Marketing Strategies and TakeAways
Now that every important detail is laid down to you, you should probably get going and start the year right.
It might take you time to adjust to the new system but you’ll get by. You just need to keep in mind that you’re doing this for your company’s survival.
It’s a jungle out there in the digital world. If you don’t get to know them by heart, you know you’ll get lost along the way. There might also be a chance that you can get lost and couldn’t find your back.
However, if you’ll equip yourself with the right tool, skills, and knowledge, you can survive just about anything in the digital jungle world.
Just keep one thing in mind. That is to never lose sight of your ultimate goal to succeed and to stay on top.
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