Business to Business or B2B marketing refers to marketing products or services to other organizations. Research shows that it had a market size of about 6.64 trillion USD in 2020 in the USA alone. Marketing to a business is entirely different from individual customers since you don’t enjoy the advantage of familiarity.
If you have no previous experience with B2B marketing, you should know what it is, how it works, its benefits, and other helpful information. Continue reading to understand what they are.
What is Business to Business marketing?
As mentioned earlier, B2B marketing is a strategy that can help you sell your product or service to a company, business, or organization. It has several objectives, one of which is to make other businesses familiar with your brand name to turn them into potential customers in the future.
Usually, the two companies involved in the transaction are related to the same industry. Business to Business is different from Business to Consumer or B2C because the organization is the customer rather than the individual. Also, Customers for B2B are more concerned with return on investment, efficiency, expertise and are motivated by monetary profits.
Types of B2B marketing
There are mainly three types of B2B marketing strategies that you can utilize for your business. Even though each of these is useful in its way, you should research your customers simultaneously to see how they will benefit your company.
Digital marketing
There are plenty of digital marketing strategies to attract new customers or retain existing ones. These are SEO or search engine optimization, email, affiliate, paid, content, and social media marketing. However, You can seamlessly track return on investment with this type of marketing campaign and effectively reach decision-makers.
Traditional marketing
Traditional marketing refers to any marketing campaign that does not require the extensive use of online media. It enjoys significant popularity even in the digital age because it helps build brand equity and generate leads. You can also use print, television, and radio to grab your customers’ attention.
Among these, you should give the first preference to print marketing, as the buyers are likely to come across your company’s ad in magazines, journals, posters, brochures, and billboards, among others. Businesses also have a higher chance of trusting the content they receive in print rather than radio, television, or other forms of marketing.
Personal selling
Personally selling is one of the oldest, and some believe the most effective B2B marketing strategies. It involves direct or face-to-face communication between you or a salesperson and the potential customer.
Video call, phone, or in-person are the three ways it is done. Besides being used in business-to-business strategies, it’s also used in trade and retail selling. Even though it is less scalable than other kinds of campaigns, it has a high conversion rate.
What is a B2B buyer’s journey?
It is vital to have the correct information about a B2B buyer’s journey, as it will play a critical role in the outcome. The buyer’s journey consists of three steps: awareness, consideration, and decision, and each of these have been explained below.
Awareness
Awareness is the first step of the buyer’s journey and begins with them realizing the existence of a problem or “pain points.” They will identify and define the problem by doing some research about it.
Your job at this stage is to make the buyer aware of your company and its products and services. Although, Your marketing team, sales, and customer success team will work together towards this objective.
Consideration
In this stage, the buyer has identified the problem and considers the available approaches and methods towards resolving it. They do this by researching and understanding all the available options. They might eliminate certain vendors who don’t provide the service they want and significantly narrow their search.
It would be helpful to have informative content like analyst reports, industry surveys, and whitepapers on your website when the buyer visits it during their quest for vendors. They should know that you have the solutions to their pain points.
Decision stage
The buyer has decided on their approach, method, or solution at this stage. They will compile a list of all the available vendors with the products and services. After considering various factors, they will make a final decision.
When they contact your company, the sales and marketing teams should work together to showcase your product through demos, testimonials, and reviews.
B2B marketing is an effective and result-oriented way of expanding your brand’s presence, selling your services, and attracting potential customers. Even though it involves several steps and processes and can be challenging at times, the return on investment is high if you adopt the proper practices.