Getting started with B2B marketing can be overwhelming at first. With so many channels to choose from, it's hard to tell which will be effective for your specific business niche. Each company needs a marketing strategy to ensure that you get the right leads that can be converted into customers. B2B marketing is divided into two categories; inbound and outbound marketing. Below we discuss these two methods and how they can help you attract more potential customers.
Inbound Marketing
The goal of inbound marketing is to draw in audiences and aim their attention towards your products and services. Whether they're already searching about your brand, comparing yours to other competitors, or in the middle of their decision-making process, your job is to pull them into your business.
But, success in inbound marketing depends on the strategies you’ll make. By creating and sharing relevant and helpful content that will guide potential customers throughout the buying process. It should not all be bragging about how great your products and services are; rather align with their interests.
Types of Inbound Marketing
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the most important focus used for inbound marketing. It is the creation and distribution of relevant, helpful, and interesting content that will attract and make visitors stay on your site for possible transactions or inquiries. Content production aims to offer solutions to the problems that potential customers will experience.
In addition to trying to sell your products and services to them, your content needs to be informative enough to make them realize why they need to engage in your business. Basically, your website must present the right content to the right customer at the right time.
Social Media Marketing
If you're not using any social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to promote your brand, you're missing out on a lot of opportunities. Posting and sharing content via social media channels is faster and easier than ever. You can easily answer their questions in the comments section or directly message them when they respond.
Social media marketing is a great way to raise awareness about your products and services. It is also effective in reaching out to potential and loyal customers. It is important to build a strong brand presence on social media to gather people's questions, comments, suggestions, recommendations, and objections. Once you have mastered social media marketing, you can generate more customers and sales that will lead your company to success.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO simply means improving the visibility of your website for significant searches. The better visibility you get for your page means a higher chance of attracting potential customers. High-quality content with optimized keywords and a mobile-friendly format are some of the key ranking factors.
Some search engines, such as Google, use bots to crawl to different pages on your website to gather important information that will determine what and which word(s) should appear in the search results. Optimizing your website not only puts you in higher search rankings but also provides an efficient search experience for viewers. Be sure to fill out the alt tags on your pictures and photos!
Podcasts and Video Marketing
54% of B2B marketers expect to spend more money on creating podcasts in 2021. Shifts in B2B marketing are commonplace and creating podcasts relevant to your industry is going to be the next crucial thing. It growing year on year.
Video creation is also a great way to build an audience and start interacting with the right clientele. Start small and build confidence with just a youtube video to learn the basics. Be sure to get a decent microphone and watch videos on how to work your lighting!
Email Marketing
Another digital marketing strategy is through e-mail. With all the efforts you should be offering a sign-up to your newsletters. Once you have done all of the above (and below) you should start receiving email addresses from potential clients. What's great about sending emails is that it allows you to reach your customers and prospects directly. It's a one-on-one communication that can be automated or customized. It's an effective way to turn new prospects into long-term customers.
Email marketing is useful in building up your brand and building the trust of your customers. It's also a great opportunity to upsell or cross-sell existing customers. By nurturing and engaging customers with informative and attractive email content, you will naturally start to convert them into sales. Sometimes a custom email has more impact on someone than a social media post. You can ensure, at least in emails that the message is delivered precisely and directly to the customer.
Event Marketing
Companies have always used event marketing to promote their brand and even to participate as hosts or sponsors. Seminars, trade shows, and product launches are the best ways to engage with customers, educate your products and services, and generate leads and sales.
Face-to-face contact has obviously been put on hold for a while. But online seminars are cropping up which can be used to broadcast your knowledge if you manage to host a section. Event marketing was one of the best ways to engage with prospects and customers and as it is one of the most effective forms of marketing, it will be back as soon as it is safe.
Identifying potential customers is easier in event marketing whether it is virtual or face to face. The fact that they attended the event means that they are already interested in your industry. All you need to do is convince them why they should invest in your brand and then focus on how you can make them long-lasting customers!
Outbound Marketing
Outbound marketing is the traditional way to directly promote your brand to potential customers. It uses continuous advertising, public relations, offline and online marketing that pushes the message to the audience in the hope of a response. Companies that expect fast results depend on outbound marketing, such as Google advertising campaigns.
However, these marketing strategies can be erratic due to constant interruptions in advertising and competitors using almost the same advert with higher budgets. Investment returns will be low with a poorly targeted audience, which usually leads to few leads of sales. But instead of moving away, a lot of marketers combine inbound and outbound marketing to iterate their adverts to get better results.
Types of Outbound Marketing
Direct Mail Marketing
In today's generation, where the marketing world is mostly digital, direct mailing seems to be an inappropriate way to reach out to customers. But do not let that stop you, direct mail marketing can work well with other channels and can help make your business stand out. If you are a SaaS company why not offer them a coffee voucher from the big named brand along with your product demonstration.
Before you send out those postcards, flyers, and catalogs that talk about your brand and your business, think about what you can do to make it personal. Don't forget to include a call-to-action so they can get in touch with you. Remember that the success of direct mailing depends on how you write it well.
Telemarketing
Telemarketing is a direct marketing activity for the promotion of your brand by telephone through telemarketers or automated calls. It has been the most common sales technique used by many companies for generations and is too often overlooked.
Due to its intrusive nature, scam reports, and fraud activities, there is a lot of criticism and doubts about the effectiveness of cold calls. It has become more difficult to make an impact and convince customers of what has happened. As much as you can, you should focus on spending time researching your prospect and always calling hot leads to better your results.
TV, Radio, and Print Advertising
TV and radio advertising must be aired multiple times to capture the attention of the customer. But more than the frequency of the ad, the message has to be delivered clearly and effectively just by listening to it. In addition, the advertisement should be tailored to the medium as well as the correct product placemen to attract customers.
The same rule applies to print advertisements, such as newspapers, magazines, and journals. Tailor your message by using the buyer persona to get more qualified leads. Finally, be creative with the visual, make it as eye-catching as possible to make someone stop, watch, listen or read until the end of the advertisement.
Network Marketing
A network marketing business is a person-to-person sales that can even work from home. Companies follow this networking business model to create tiers of salespeople that use their network to generate leads and sales. Their earnings can depend on the recruitment of others as well as product sales, which means that the people at the top will earn the most.
Having a strong network has a greater opportunity to meet new potential customers, which can be converted into sales. Although it depends on how good you are to engage and convince your customers. Successful network marketing appeals to people who are proactive, energetic, and have strong sales skills that can easily make a business profitable.
Brand Marketing
The best way to promote your products and services that will establish strong connections and long-term relationships with your customers is through brand marketing. It highlights your brand as a whole by presenting your identity, personality, and credibility to the audience and performing activities that will make you stand out from other competitors. It starts with choosing a logo for your brand, then a catchy and memorable slogan that you can put on different products.
Most companies that use this branding method look forward to long-term recognition with positive results. However, many marketers have overlooked the importance of marketing brands because they focus on generating sales. Building your brand takes time to support long-term goals that will have a greater impact on your business.
Conclusion
There are advantages and disadvantages to both inbound and outbound marketing. You can experiment as much as you want to find new ways to improve your marketing strategy. Ultimately, whether you use inbound or outbound marketing, the best strategy for your business is the one that works.
Also, try to use a B2B lead generation software like Dynamic Leads, and see the changes for yourself. Good luck!
