Marketing to businesses may use some of the same tools that marketing directly to consumers does. Still, marketers should remain aware of both similarities and differences. Megan Conley, a content producer for HubSpot, said that some marketers may find inspiration from B2C campaigns. At the same time, B2B marketers should remember that business buyers tend to base decisions less on emotion, are working on the clock, and may require a shorter sales funnel. These differences require business marketers to adjust their marketing tactics to increase ROI and sales.
Five Tactics to Improve Your B2B Marketing ROI
Here's how you can use tested marketing tools to improve your B2B ROI:
- B2B Blogging
Always offering value has a different meaning for businesses than it does for consumers. When you market to business buyers, you can keep readers engaged by using your content to introduce your value proposition and build credibility.
For example:
- B2C marketers tend to focus on benefits. B2B buyers already tend to understand the benefits. They want to know if your product or service offers the features that will provide them with the benefits they are looking for. Consumer marketing for a new hammer might emphasize how well it helps pound nails in; however, a business advertisement might focus more on specifications and ergonomic features.
- Business buyers want to solve problems with their purchases, but you don't always have to "sell" to establish your company as a helpful resource. To engage readers, you might produce content that discusses solutions to typical pain points.
- Adwords
When business buyers search for suppliers, Google's PPC advertising service provides many B2B companies with a way to get found. On the other hand, Search Engine Land observed how competitive this market is for many B2B sellers because of competition for rank and low volume on relevant search terms.
Good suggestions to improve your ROI from Adwords include:
- Focus upon negative keywords: Disqualify searchers that may come from searchers who probably aren't your target customers.
- Try retargeting campaigns: Hopefully, you track conversions well enough to know where you lost your customer. If so, you should try to retarget based upon that point in the buyer's journey. For instance, if your customer exited a shopping cart before completing the order, you might try offering a shipping discount or other promotion.
- Premium Content
Premium content offers you a fantastic way to gather leads and establish your credibility. Think about the kinds of problems that your product or service can solve for your business customers. Then try creating a white paper, video webinar that explains the solutions.
- Email Automation
With B2B marketing, you usually have a longer buyer's journey. You also face the likelihood that multiple people must provide input into a buying decision. For this to work, you should use email automation to set up workflows for companies at different stages. For new subscribers, you might first focus on simply welcoming them to your brand. Later, you may hope to address their pain points by sending an offer for premium content, or even a free audit or trial offer, if they pick up the phone and call.
- Sales Enablement
Sales enablement refers to activities that can save time and improve efficiency, so additional effort goes towards actively selling. In turn, this helps companies grow by improving returns. You might achieve these benefits through better marketing, sales, and customer service alignment, sharing data, and building brand credibility.
You Can Still Exercise Your Creativity With B2B Marketing
Business buyers are people. And during their time off, they're consumers like any other. You can work to attract attention with creative – and even emotional – marketing content. However, just as you hope to justify your marketing activities through improved ROI, your marketing customers will want to understand the returns they will get by working with your company.
