How to Improve Your B2B Marketing Strategy
Times are changing, and you must keep up. People’s trust in advertising continuously decreases as they ask for innovation, more authenticity, and brand transparency than ever before. You’re not a product “pusher” anymore, but an insight provider as you add value through your marketing strategy by listening to your audience.
Your target audience is informed, connected, and busy. And there is a good chance your prospects found you long before they even got in touch with you, as they surf corporate websites to identify and qualify vendors, or to learn more about their needs and potential solutions or providers. This is not bad news—it just means your audience is qualified and you speak the same language.
To diversify your lead generation strategy, you need to work on your marketing communication integration, provide relevant content and strengthen multi-channel analytics. Where to start? You need to be very strategic in how you develop campaigns and interact with leads.
Educate, Not Interrupt
Today’s buyers don’t want to be sold to. Rather, they want to be educated about how they can do their jobs better, and that’s where you come into play. You need to create content and campaigns that educate your prospects to make informed buying decisions and add value for your target audience. Doing so will not only keep them coming back for more, but it will also help you build trust with them as you become a subject matter expert in their eyes.
Lead With the “Why”
Similarly, because modern B2B buyers are primarily concerned with doing their jobs better and smarter, you need to lead with the “why” and let the “how” and “what” follow. For example, “10 Reasons to Introduce Marketing Automation” doesn’t necessarily pull you in the same way “Convert More Leads: 10 Ways Marketing Automation Can Help” does.
Personalize the Experience
The more you can personalize the experience for B2B buyers, the better your chances to convert them. This personalization comes down to delivering the right message to the right person at the right time based on their persona and stage in the buyer’s journey. To further improve your chances of getting your messages read and clicked on, you may also want to look at who is most likely to engage. For example, Sugar Market leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze your leads’ and contacts’ actions and uncover how likely they are to engage with your content, and ultimately convert.
Personalizing content and messages based on these criteria is essential because it demonstrates that you know who you’re talking to and their needs.
Tap Influencers and Advocates
When doing their research, your prospects look for what the people they respect and trust have to say. As a result, it pays off to develop a relationship with influencers like industry publications and other leaders who may then share your content and speak positively about your services. Besides, with 9 out of 10 consumers reading online reviews before buying, you should also tap customers to advocate on your behalf, as a vote of confidence from a peer can go a very long way for B2B buyers.
Case studies can be compelling if they start with the problem and continue with the solution you offer and your impressive results.
Go Multi-Channel
Finally, you need to be where your customers are, and that means going multi-channel. You’ll have to be able to expose your brand to more decision-makers and drive new top-of-the-funnel relationships.
The new B2B buyers do their research across all channels, and the more you can follow their paths, the better your chances are to influence them and build trust.
Closing Thoughts
As you explore your options to improve your B2B marketing strategy, marketing automation could be a good starting point because it enables you to streamline your marketing processes to deploy successful campaigns and improve ROI.
Additionally, marketing automation platforms, such as Sugar Market, provide you with perspective and help you understand your customers’ needs. If you would like to learn more, please request a demo today.
