B2B Marketing: 5 Tips to Start 2019
Marketing can be challenging.
Especially if you're competing for a limited number of eyeballs in a competitive space like business to business marketing.
If you want to stay on top of your marketing game in 2019, keep reading for a few timely B2B marketing tips.
Revisit Your Digital Presence
Despite the constantly shifting tides of marketing trends, your website should still be the hub of your marketing efforts.
If you haven't updated your brand's website in a while, now is a good time to look it over and explore how you could optimize the design and content.
Are you clearly conveying your story?
Can customers easily engage with and understand your company?
These are just a few of the questions you should be asking as you reassess your website in 2019.
Content is Still King
In the digital marketing space, content is not dead.
If your business relies on your website and a strong digital presence, you need strong content now more than ever. While the competition has increased in this area, the necessity has not decreased.
Stay active on your website by producing good actionable content that your business to business clients and prospects will find useful.
Stay Social
Whether you're running a B2B or a B2C operation, social media is still one of the best ways to connect with your customers.
With over 500 million users now on LinkedIn and another 2 billion on Facebook, there is no shortage of potential customers to connect with.
For B2B marketing, LinkedIn is a very tool. It allows you to directly connect with others in specific fields and jobs. This makes it very easy for you to track down exactly who you need to get in touch with to make a sale.
Don't count Facebook and Twitter out either. Facebook ads generally have a very high ROI, even for B2B marketers.
Automate, Automate, Automate
In 2019, if you're not automating your marketing, you're missing out ... big time.
The tools for marketing automation are more powerful than ever and easier to use than ever before. From email to your website to social media, you can track and interact with leads without lifting a finger.
Use the power of inbound marketing in 2019 and automate your marketing cycle with powerful email and other marketing tools.
What About Search?
Although it's now more competitive than ever, SEO is still one of the most important pieces in a successful marketing strategy.
With trillions of searches made on Google every year, it's clear that individuals are using search to find everything from new shoes, to local restaurants, to solutions providers for their business.
Don't let your search optimization slip in 2019.
Putting It All Together
B2B Marketing doesn't have to be difficult.
If you can be consistent with a few simple principles, you'll continue to reach more customers and expand the reach of your organization.
But, if you're having trouble gaining traction, you're not alone. Get in touch with us today to learn how we can help optimize your marketing efforts.
Inbound Marketing: Defining How it Can Work in the B2B Industry
At one time, the B2B industry seemed to treat inbound marketing almost like it was a foreign concept that only applied to B2C. While it is partly true, it doesn't discount the possibilities of using this technique with those selling to other businesses.
There is abundant evidence that inbound marketing works for both the B2B and B2C industries. Marketing to businesses is no different from marketing to a consumer.
In both instances, marketing supports the sales of a solution or commodity that can address a market problem or demand. Even if the resolution or the end product varies, pain points are the same.
With a well-crafted inbound marketing plan, clients will come to you rather than you to them.
Creating Valuable Marketing Content
Statistics show that B2B businesses that blog bring in 67% more leads than those who don't. But the blog won't matter if you don't target the content to the right demographic. Create personas first, to get an idea of what the customers may want to read, see, or hear.
The more compelling your content is to help solve pain points, the more apt businesses are going to find you when searching for information. Using proper SEO to aid you in Google placement, it is worth remembering quality content never gets ignored.
Even if you curate some blog content, make sure it's up to industry standards.
Using Email to Reach Customer Leads
Even with marketing automation becoming more and more popular, far too many B2B companies don't use it enough. Sending automated marketing emails to leads is a perfect way to combine reaching out to people while still attracting them with the content you provide.
The key is to entice them first so they'll visit your website to see more. Using video in your marketing emails with some element of storytelling helps considerably. Try to wrap a narrative around a problem and how your business products bring solutions.
Using Social Media to Attract Businesses
Using hashtags on social media as you post content works well to attract more business on a daily basis. Try to find out what keywords the industry use. Incorporate those regularly and apply as hashtags on Twitter.
One way to do quick research is looking for those keywords on Twitter or Facebook to see what conversations are taking place. Starting conversations on social media to prove your expertise is a technique you can use.
Contact us to learn more about how inbound marketing can work to make your B2B company grow.
7 Tips To Follow Up With Convention and Trade Show Leads
So you and your team committed the time and financial resources to prepare and attend a convention or tradeshow. You met many interesting prospects that are a perfect fit for your product or service. If you have done this before, then you know how important it is to remember every detail of that conversation to personalize your follow-up. Unfortunately, this is something that many salespeople ignore or put off until the details have faded from memory. It is those details that allow a salesperson to personalize the subsequent exchanges following the show. Don’t you just hate those cold post-event emails with no personalized context? Read on for a few tips on how to follow up with leads.
BE ORGANIZED
Gathering business cards is better than nothing, but it may not be enough of a trigger to remind you of who a future customer is and why you want to follow up with them. Before the trade show, create a Twitter list for the event, and add all of your new contacts to the list by following their Twitter account. Search for hashtags related to the show and follow people you may not have met, but would like to. Also, take pictures of the people you meet at the show (with their permission, of course) when the opportunity allows. Later, you can add the photo to your CRM, and it will help you remember who they are and what you talked about.
FOLLOW-UP
Prepare your new contacts for future connection by telling them that you’ll follow up. Give them a date and a time of when they can expect a call or an email from you. It could be something as simple as “When I get back to the office, I’ll make sure and get that information to you.” This will make you accountable!
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media is a great low-pressure platform to nurture your new business relationships slowly. Say you met someone that you would like to stay connected to, but during the conversation you didn’t get a chance to set a time for follow up. Social media is the most natural medium to keep up with that contact and continue the conversation. Going back to the Twitter list. Hopefully, you’ve already added your contacts. Send out a message saying, “It was so nice meeting you; I can’t wait to continue our conversation on XYZ!” Now they are expecting your follow-up.
Another good low-pressure platform is LinkedIn. Invite them to connect on LinkedIn, and making sure to send a personalized invitation that includes a reminder of how you met. Also, make sure to interact with their activity on LinkedIn, Twitter and elsewhere. Share their company’s content when possible, and tag them to make them aware (and appreciative).
Facebook, on the other hand, is a bit more personal. If you are not able to find a contact on LinkedIn or Twitter, send them an email and invite them to connect with you through your personal Facebook profile. If they have a Facebook business page (most companies do), follow them and engage with their content on there. Instagram is also a perfect place to nurture a relationship. Before the event, search for applicable hashtags targeting the show or the industries as well as the businesses that will be at the event. Follow their account, and make sure to also comment and like their content shared on the platform.
Send an email a day or two after the conference. You don’t want to wait too long. During these events, you meet a lot of people in a short period. So you want to make sure that your name and company are not forgotten after the show. Remind your contact how you met and mention a key highlight or two from your conversation. If you can think of anything that might help them (a tool, app, blog post, ebook, or even an article on a 3rd party periodical), make sure to pass that along. You can even ask them about that trip they mentioned or about that school event their child was attending. The more personal you get, the closer the relationship feels. People appreciate it when you show them that you care by remembering details of your conversation.
CALL
If a contact gave you their phone number, and you mentioned that you would be following up with a call then do it. They are expecting you to. If you catch them at a busy time, make sure to schedule another call before you hang up. Also, don’t follow up first thing on Monday, give you contact some room to breathe after the show.
IN-PERSON
If you’re in the same geographic area, and your contact is aware that you will be stopping by, visit them and drop off additional information and maybe an invitation for coffee or lunch for another day. Respect their busy schedules, but show some initiative and take advantage of your proximity if you want to connect. They will not forget that you stopped by the office.
FOLLOW-UP SOME MORE
If you tried all the above and you were not able to get a hold of someone, don’t give up that easily. There are two possibilities: They are uninterested in continuing the conversation at this time because of a lack of a current need for your product or service, or they are busy and could not find a chance to talk. Make sure to create a monthly, rhythmic follow up with these contacts and remind them of you and your business. Eventually, your business will be on their mind whenever they need your services or product. At this point, your name and your contact info will be easy to reach, and they will turn into a customer when the time is right.