Understated Tactics to Drive B2B Business Success
In this post, we discuss B2B marketing tactics that will boost your business performance in this ultra-competitive business scenario.
The B2B realm has been consistently facing media fragmentation, channel diversification, and the underperformance of conventional advertising channels. For instance, poses challenges like low ROAS, poor analytics, and high cost of testing new channels.
Besides, in B2B it’s not always obvious who the competition is. B2B buyers are switching between end-to-end, platform-based, and point solutions. And several factors from implementation concerns to the tone of sales interactions can influence purchase decisions. All this makes it difficult for marketers to highlight differentiators that matter.
No wonder, several B2B brands are unsure about the right method to achieve their business goals.
In such a changing and competitive business environment, replicating routine business tactics will fetch average results. Hence, B2B marketers should focus on foolproof and understated tactics like adding value to their audience through effective content marketing, tracking B2B marketing KPIs, and others to attract leads and improve conversions.
1. Drive Value for Your Audience
When it comes to persuading B2B buyers to act, it all boils down to creating value in the form of convenience, integration, or relevant information. They are constantly evaluating brands based on -
- Response - How quickly someone understands their challenge and shows interest to help them overcome it.
- Service - How a business handles service-related customer needs.
- Quality - It encompasses everything from well-made products to value-adding content - everything that allows customers to achieve their goals.
- Price - The price of a product or service is a clear and practical differentiator.
- Time - What’s the learning curve for the product? A shorter curve is surely perceived as a great return on investment.
So, with this information in mind, your business is more than just a product. In fact, focusing too much on your product or service will impact the value offered to customers.
For instance, a company may choose to organize routine customer focus groups to brainstorm new features in an existing product.
Or a B2B SaaS firm may invest in content marketing to share educational content that addresses their pain points.
These are examples of adding value to customers. Businesses investing in these will find it easy to justify their offerings along with the price they offer.
2. Leverage the Right Marketing Channels
B2B sales cycles are typically long because the purchase process is complex and involves multiple decision-makers. Reports reveal that the average B2B sales cycle is between 1-6 months. Hence, it is important to be strategic about the marketing channel leveraged to cater to the target audience.
Some of the best channels that work best for B2B are -
Emails allow you to stay on the top of the prospect’s mind because they can be read at any time and offer unparalleled opportunities for nurturing leads. However, it’s important to be customer-centric when planning your approach in your email marketing campaigns.
For instance, a fresh lead will not receive the same communication as a repeat customer.
So, invest in tools that can help categorize your contacts based on their persona. Customer relationship management software can help you segment your customers and share content based on the buyer stage they are at.
- Content marketing and SEO
Content marketing along with SEO offers ample opportunities to bring in organic traffic to your website. Proper keyword research will help you narrow down what your target audience is looking for. Include these keywords in your titles, URLs, meta descriptions, titles, alt text, and central copy to boost your online ranking.
Secondly, link to reputable sources to tell Google that you are offering reliable material. This will improve your online authority and trustworthiness.
- Conversion rate optimization
CRO is about increasing the number of people taking the desired action like getting them to subscribe to your newsletter, sign up for a demo, or enroll in a webinar. The process starts with thorough market research, building accurate buyer personas, A/B testing your marketing efforts, and tracking the top KPIs.
LinkedIn is the go-to platform for B2B lead generation and acquisition. With a strong community of over 830 million active members, LinkedIn is an efficient tool to connect with and nurture prospective buyers through their buying journey. It is also ideal for professionals wanting to connect with high-level B2B decision-makers like C-suite executives, vice presidents, and directors.
3. Invest in Marketing Automation for Lead Nurturing
Lead generation and nurturing are crucial when building a robust B2B lead pipeline. Marketing automation enhances these lead-generation efforts by offering advanced insights that allow marketers to connect with high-quality prospects.
When done right, marketing automation can save time and resources and improve productivity. Let’s say a B2B firm is hosting a webinar that’s advertised on authority publications and prospects start filling out the form to register for the webinar. The form-filling triggers automation, adding prospect information to your database. This aids in follow-up and leads nurturing.
It doesn’t stop here. These prospects receive regular emails carrying relevant content, case studies, and white papers for continued engagement. Recipients who download these lead magnets are further filtered as qualified prospects and the sales team can take it from there.
Automating such processes saves time and creates personalized experiences for B2B buyers. Further, automation empowers marketers with unified data for improved segmentation, AI-powered customer relationship tools, and reports that enable performance tracking.
4. Run a PPC Campaign
Over 70% of B2B buyers use search engines to research before making a purchase. Hence, pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns are central to driving B2B success. They do not just help businesses reach potential customers but also help in converting them into leads.
Here are a few tips to get the most out of your B2B PPC campaigns.
- Spot high-value keywords using keyword research tools like Google Trends, Semrush, or KeywordTool.io. Google Ads Keyword Planner tool can help you compile keyword suggestions and forecast their search volume.
- Consider factors like budget, audience, landing page, and bid when creating your B2B PPC campaign.
- Create a compelling copy with clear headlines and descriptions. Emphasize product benefits, discounts, and promotions. Include a strong CTA to guide users through the next step. Don’t forget to share social proof like testimonials to build trust.
- Design a great landing page. It should be relevant and build off your ad copy. For instance, if you’ve shared a free software trial in your ad, your landing page should offer information on how users can straightforwardly start the trial.
Further, the landing page should be fast, intuitive, relevant, and responsive.
- Measure your results. Track your campaign performance in Google Ads and Google Analytics. Before introducing your campaign, link the two accounts to access major KPIs and additional campaign performance data.
5. Track the Right KPIs
When managing a B2B campaign, one can track hundreds of metrics. However, we have a few must-track metrics that can help you get the most out of your marketing efforts.
- Website Traffic - People browsing your website can be potential leads that can be converted into loyal customers.
- Clickthrough rate (organic CTR) - This KPI substantiates whether enough impressions are served to prospects. It also makes sure that the traffic is worth converting.
- Landing page conversion rate - This KPI determines your page efficiency. If your conversion rate is merely one percent, you know there’s a conversion issue.
- Email sign-ups - This is a leading indicator of how much your branding message resonates with your audience.
- Leads - Leads are critical in B2B. Count on lead management tools like HubSpot Sales and Zendesk to track your leads.
- Sales close rate - This is a true sales metric that helps you optimize for qualified leads and then closed deals.
- Customer satisfaction - This KPI gives you a reality check on whether your customers are happy with your service and marketing efforts.
- Customer acquisition cost - This is the cost of acquiring a customer. Reducing CAC is a huge priority for all B2B marketers as it affects a business’s revenue.
- Customer lifetime value - It tells you how much a customer can potentially spend while being associated with your business.
- Return on investment - It shows you the revenue generated per dollar spent.
Summing Up
The online B2B marketing environment is evolving at a faster pace than ever before. Hence, to remain competitive and ensure consistent growth, B2B firms need to get creative with their marketing efforts and find ways to innovate. Use the tactics shared in this post to get ahead in today’s hypercompetitive B2B scenario.