For consumers in the business to business or B2B market, the buying journey is complex. Analysis by Gartner determines that B2B consumers find new products, services, and vendors through a non-linear buying loop, rather than a funnel. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this nonlinear buying trend, with B2B customers embracing a self-service approach that relies heavily on digital marketing channels such as marketplaces, social media, and peer recommendations.
[Image source: Gartner]
Despite the fact that Gartner predicts that 80% of B2B sales interactions between buyers and suppliers will take place on digital channels by 2025, the buying journey will remain a complex mix of traditional and digital channels. Developing a B2B marketing strategy and sales process that takes these complexities into account requires B2B companies to maintain a balance between a broad range of B2B marketing channels.
[Image source: Marketing Locations]
A B2B marketing channel is any online or offline medium that a company can use to reach potential customers. B2B marketing channels include direct methods of promotion like paid ads, and inbound marketing tools such as content marketing and social media marketing.
In a B2B channel marketing strategy, a manufacturer or brand uses a network of first- and third-party channel partners to bring their product or service to market. Companies adopting a channel sales model can therefore use channel partners to expand their reach. A channel sales strategy also addresses some of the issues concerning the fragmented B2B buying journey by including more touchpoints where potential customers can discover and learn about a product or service.
Companies can use B2B marketing channels in a multi-channel marketing strategy, whereby providers focus on reaching their target market through various mediums, with each channel planned, tracked, and optimised separately. However, this approach may lead to a fragmented and inconsistent brand message across the various channels.
A more popular alternative is to take a holistic and omni-channel approach to the management of B2B marketing channels. Here, each channel is considered as part of a connected customer buying journey. An omni-channel marketing strategy enables B2B organisations to unite their marketing and sales strategies in a manner that connects marketing channels and touchpoints to provide a seamless buying experience for the customer.
[Image source: FourWeekMBA]
So, which marketing channels should be the focus of your B2B marketing strategy? We recommend the following.
Search engine optimisation or SEO is the process of optimising your website pages and digital content with keywords that you want to rank for, so that they appear organically and high on the list in search engine results pages (SERPs). This includes keywords and phrases related to your business or the services you provide, which you can also incorporate in strategic places such as your title tags, headings, and copy.
Read more to learn about efficient SEO strategies
With search engine algorithms becoming more sophisticated, results are increasingly influenced by user signals which indicate whether a result actually fulfils the intent of a search. This puts the onus on B2B marketers to provide quality content that truly addresses the needs of its target audience.
Content marketing looks to increase brand awareness by providing useful information, advice, and valuable resources for your target audience. By disseminating valuable knowledge and resources through your blog content, visuals, and other media, you can establish your brand as a trusted advisor, industry expert, and/or thought leader. Note that content marketing is a strategy that encompasses many channels, and therefore has great potential to expand the reach of your brand.
In terms of lead generation, content marketing can position your organisation as a trusted resource for prospective customers who may need your products or services in the future.
For digital marketing in the B2B sector, social media marketing provides organisations with a means to reach out to and interact with consumers at all stages of the customer journey. While it’s now common practice to have a presence on several platforms, B2B social media principally focuses on LinkedIn. According to recent research from CMI and Marketing Profs, 93% of B2B content marketers say they use LinkedIn to distribute organic content, and 77% say it produces the best results for social media.
(Image source: contentmarketinginstitute.com)
In Pay-Per-Click or PPC advertising, you bid on the keywords that you want to trigger your ads. If your bid is one of the highest, your ads will appear above organic search results. As the name suggests, advertisers typically pay the search engine a set fee every time someone clicks on the advertisement. This paid search approach tends to target keywords with commercial intent, enabling B2B advertisers to capture a more ready-to-buy audience.
By offering email newsletter subscribers insight, tips, and other information relevant to a particular industry, B2B organisations can position themselves as thought leaders and valuable resources, while building and sustaining long-lasting relationships with their target audience. As readers progress through the sales funnel, email content can be modified to focus on how the organisation can help them solve specific problems or achieve certain goals.
B2B organisations can create virtual events, demonstrations, and instructional/educational content as part of their digital marketing strategy. Webinars, podcasts, and videos can provide prospective clients and existing customers with immersive and valuable content on a range of issues. These might include, for example, how to use your products or services to solve specific problems, demonstrations of your latest offerings, and in-depth looks at trending issues affecting your industry and customer base.
Managing and exploiting these various B2B marketing channels can be a challenge for any marketing team or sales team. As such, your best bet is to utilise the expertise of a specialist marketing agency.
Here at Incisive Edge, we’ll help you attract and connect with B2B buyers, and design custom strategies to deliver high-quality leads that convert more customers. We’ll quickly discover what makes you remarkable and how you can emotionally connect with your audience and engage them. We’ll tell your story in a way that showcases the value you deliver so you become the only real choice.
Whether you’re looking to use a single channel or create a fully integrated approach, we’ll build a strategy specifically for you – one that makes you stand out and delivers results.
To find out more about how Incisive Edge can help you get the most out of your B2B marketing channels, get in touch with us.