As business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketers, we often use the word “marketing” in a general sense that can apply to any and all situations.
But in reality, there are many subsets of marketing. And as the audience and interactions change, so should the tactics.
In this guide, we’re going to take a deep dive into the world of B2B marketing:
Let’s get right into b2b marketing…
B2B marketing, which stands for business-to-business marketing, is one of two major types of marketing. (The other being B2C marketing, or business-to-consumer marketing.)
The technical definition of B2B marketing is the promotion of products and services to other businesses, typically involving more complex products, longer sales processes, increased sales volumes, and multiple decision makers.
The simpler, layman’s terms definition is that B2B marketing is one business promoting its products and services to another business with the intention of ultimately making a sale of that product or service.
In today’s business world, successful B2B marketing involves a combination of strategies, mediums, and marketing channels, social media channels. It combines both digital marketing and traditional marketing tools with the ultimate goal of maximizing exposure, driving engagement, and ultimately producing conversions.
One of the big questions people often have is, how is B2B marketing different from B2C marketing?
After all, don’t they both involve the same goal of promoting a product and eventually closing a sale?
While B2B and B2C marketing might share the same goals, the approach is very different. Their respective strategies and applications are quite unique. (And so, too, are their target audiences and the ways in which they consume information.)
B2B marketing is all about targeting the needs, challenges, and interests of the individuals who make purchasing decisions on behalf of their organizations. (They aren’t technically the buyers.) In other words, the organization is the customer.
The individual being marketed to is merely one of the decision makers.
B2C marketing is much more direct. It targets the needs, challenges, and interests of individual consumers who are making their own purchase decisions. There’s no additional layer to consider. (There are situations where this can get somewhat complex – like if your target customer or target audience is a five-year-old boy, but the mother is the one making the purchase – but, for the most part, the customer is purchasing the product for themselves.)
To better understand the differences, check out this chart comparing B2B and B2C marketing (and how business customers differ in each category).
|
B2B Marketing |
B2C Marketing |
Customer |
The B2B customer is a rational buyer who makes logical decisions based on a predefined process. |
The B2C customer is a much more impulsive buyer, often making purchases decisions on the fly. |
Purchase Motivation |
These customers are typically driven by very logical and financial incentives. They’re hardly ever swayed by something that doesn’t align with their organization’s established goals and processes. |
These customers can be highly emotional and may make impulsive decisions in the moment. However, it all depends on the customer and their personality and needs. |
Purchase Process |
Customers will usually work with others, including account managers and salespeople. They want to get approval before proceeding. |
Customers prefer to make purchases directly and don’t usually need to involve others in the decision. (Though in major purchases, they may.) |
Focus |
The focus is to generate leads and build up a list of qualified buyers who could eventually become customers. |
The focus is on brand building. Businesses want to create a brand that people recognize, like, and trust. |
Tactics/Approach |
Lead nurturing is the main aim of B2B marketing. There’s no anticipation of making a sale on the spot. Leads must be “dripped” on and given time to consider the purchase. |
Each “type” of customer is sent through a personalized customer journey that speeds up the process and moves them from awareness to purchase at a much faster rate. |
Content |
Most of the content created is going to have a very professional, educational feel. |
Most of the content created is going to be highly-relevant and personal. Depending on the brand, it could be quite casual and relaxed. |
Channels |
Primary channels are email, video, mailers, etc. |
Primary channels include email, SMS, social media, etc. |
Data |
B2B marketing strategies rely a lot on the company, industry, location and other basic information that’s known about the company based on their website and industry insights. |
B2C marketing strategies use whatever information is available, including age, gender, purchase history, interests, hobbies, income, demographics, location, etc. |
Purchase Purpose |
In b2b marketing Customers generally make purchases for long-term solutions. They’re making major investments. This results in longer sales cycles, extended contracts, and (perhaps most importantly)longer relationships with the companies. |
Customers aren’t usually looking for long-term solutions, nor do they enter into a purchase with the intention of developing a long-term relationship. The purchase is designed to satisfy an immediate want or need. |
Every customer, regardless of whether it’s a B2C or B2B situation, goes through a journey. However, the B2B buyer’s journey looks a lot different. Understanding what it looks like will help you understand how to craft an effective marketing strategy that moves a lead through the process from awareness to conversion.
While the B2B buyer’s journey rarely plays out in a predictable, linear fashion, it can be broken down into a logical series of stages and decisions. It usually looks something like this:
As you can see, there are a lot of steps involved in a B2B customer’s journey. And to further complicate things, many of these steps are happening at the same time. Buyers may even jump from one stage to another and back again.
If you’re looking for a simpler, top-down view of what happens, it may be best to think about the process in terms of three distinct stages:
A good B2B marketing strategy considers the buyer’s journey and where they are in the process of making a decision. Marketing is then tailored to each stage so that prospects are gently pushed through the funnel without getting stuck in one stage for too long.
Email is still one of the preferred methods of B2B marketing.
Email marketing works well for a couple of reasons:
First off, it’s very easy to find a potential prospect’s email. Almost every business has a list of employees on its website. Sometimes their contact information and email addresses are included. If they’re not included directly on the site, it’s usually fairly easy to find scrape email addresses using another resource or tool. This makes it easy for B2B marketers to get in touch with the right people.
Secondly, email is still very much a part of business culture. While a business decision maker might not be active on social media, you know they have email (and that they check it multiple times per day).
In order to win with B2B email marketing, consider some of the following best practices:
Email is a very powerful tool that should be properly wielded in order to get maximum results from your B2B marketing strategy. However, it’s not the only resource in your toolbox.
Advertising certainly works in the B2B space, but it’s not nearly as effective over the long haul as organic marketing/content. In fact, 80 percent of business decision makers prefer to get their information from an article rather than from an ad.
Content creation is one of the most time-consuming aspects of B2B marketing, but it’s also one of the most important. And if you’re going to invest the time and resources into content marketing, you might as well do it right.
Here are some key principles and best practices:
If you do these four things very well, your content marketing strategy will work. It probably won’t get you results overnight, but it will deliver results over the long haul.
Most B2B companies aren’t going to have a lot of success with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Instead, it’s one of those investments that you have to make to keep up appearances and maintain a sense of legitimacy in the marketplace. However, there is one social media platform that’s quite significant for B2B marketers: LinkedIn.
While most B2C businesses don’t waste their time with LinkedIn marketing, it’s a ripe platform for B2B marketers. Not only is it a place where prospects gather, but it has a rich internal search engine that can be used to filter and find top prospects.
To win with LinkedIn marketing, you need a defined strategy that consists of:
Like the other methods, LinkedIn isn’t a fast play. It’s all about slow, gradual relationship building that moves the right prospects through the funnel from awareness to consideration to decision.
At SEO.co, Our marketing team understand the ins, outs, and nuances of B2B marketing like very few companies in our industry.
Not only do we market our own services to other businesses – like yours – but we’ve also worked with hundreds of B2B brands over the years to help them execute high-converting marketing strategies or marketing strategy that help them generate leads, book more appointments, and ultimately convert more prospects into potential customers.
If you’re interested in learning about search engine optimization & how you can scale your organic traffic with the highest quality content and backlinks, we’d love to start a conversation with you!
Please contact us today to learn more about how we can partner together!