Five Key Secrets of Creating a B2B Digital Marketing Approach

As the world goes digital, advertisers are augmenting events, shows and other traditional marketing methods with a more binary approach. In fact, in its recent study, Sagefrog Marketing Group discovered that digital marketing is among the top leading areas of salability spending. Moreover, sales and marketing are bridging their divide to work in conjunction to serve prospects/clients along their purchases.

It's an enormous transition as leaders are more concerned with generating revenue and success for their brand. However, what we ought to appreciate as marketers is that approach always determines results.

So, which channels are excellent for your brand/business?

Note, you do not lack digital options: blog, website, email marketing, content marketing, influencer marketing, SEO, social media advertising, white papers, videos… The list can go on and on. Nevertheless, this overwhelming number can leave you baffled or worse, exhausted striving to (unrealistically) use all channels there are _dabbling.

Either scenario will leave you unproductive and worse stuck hence the need for a better approach.

Here is what we mean…

1: Develop a B2B digital marketing strategy

Having a marketing plan is key, as it will help you remain focused giving a competitive advantage. To get started, have a clear target audience. These prospects can be identified easily at a higher level, however, in most cases, the product can appeal to multiple users all with different needs.

The latter call for a more granular approach for a focused marketing strategy. Start by observing the group that influences the purchase, their needs, problems, goals, and budgets? Then, consider how you can make them successful, and you'll be good to go.

After that, prioritize your marketing channels. Start by developing a comprehensive SWOT analysis of your salability technics so far. Research too, to see what's trending, what your colleagues/competitors are doing, and what survey groups are concluding.

Read here: 20+ SWOT Analysis Templates, Examples & Best Practices

Then, develop a brand case using LTV (lifetime value) models and sale funnels after which, you'll finalize the strategy with the actual plan. Be sure to use frameworks like the 5s, 5Ps or RACE to organize your thinking.

2: Have effective websites

Online catalogs and websites are rated as number 1 decision advertising touch point by customers. In that light, you should make the site count. Create a customer-centric B2B website that you'll use to test and refine your approaches.  It has to be enduring, meet visitors' needs alongside achieving leads, standout, and favorability for the brand/business.

While designing the site, consider the first impression. It's this site that's set to give your business the much-needed credibility. The site should, therefore, convey stability, honesty, integrity, and physicality of the business.

Optimize customer journeys. Use western T&F formats and (user experience) (UX) driven landing pages. In short, use B2B buyer personas with an excellent user experience. Don't forget to set up funnels, google analytic goals and event tracking.

Again, be sure to update the site content frequently. While at it, go the extra mile of ensuring the content being published is search engine optimized for whatever keywords selected.

Consider working with a professional but for those with a running site, consider these: is it credible and trustworthy? Does the site make prospects feel welcome, answer their questions? Does it portray your business as being stable and professional? The answer to these questions should be a YES!

3: Optimize search marketing

It's established that 55% of B2B marketers do not concentrate on pay-per-click (PPC) strategy while 30% rarely invest in SEO (search engine optimization). However, those individuals are missing out on the full potential of SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and SEO.  The latter yield evergreen traffic at the top of the funnel while SEM drive conversions at the bottom of the funnel in a cost-effective manner.

First, come up with keyphrases focusing the target audience/prospects. Use keyword tools to decipher keywords relevant to your brand/business and what prospective buyers are likely to search for. Be keen to exclude negative keywords/terms – those unlikely to yield conversions.

The key here is using commercial intent keywords. Words such as buy, free shipping, discounts, coupon, deals, etc.

With the keywords, craft key brand messages/content or ads for search engine result pages (SERPs). The content needs to grab attention from the web surfers, be informative as it strives to answer their questions and give solution presented in your product. Most importantly, however, ensure landing pages are as relevant as the ads themselves.

While at it, use PR (public relations) and outreach marketing strategy to establish quality backlinks. Yes! You’ve to add value to someone to get value in return.

It’ll be worth noting that, for you to achieve your set conversions or traffic goals; you ought to set a geographic target and employ localized Metadata for international advertising.

Finally, Don't forget you're in it for profit hence, set up a PPC and SEO budget lest risk breaking your bank accounts.

4: Practice content and inbound marketing

Most businesses are adopting content and inbound marketing. Smart!

Sharing content/blogs far and wide is as effective as those banners. However, do you provide short and less content or vice versa? It's no doubt that the discussion regarding content quality, quantity and frequency is here to stay.

A successful inbound methodology undergoes the following phases: it attracts, converts, closes, and delights. When creating content, always aim at attracting the right prospects. This can’t be emphasized enough. To do this, provide relevant content at the right time. I.e., when the buyers are searching for it.

Create educational blogs, enhance your online presence/visibility with tools that rhyme with your content technology; then share, share, share!

In the second step, convert the attracted traffic into leads. How? Well, implement whatever conversation means they are comfortable with from messages to meetings. Once in touch, answer their questions, clear any doubts, provide relevant content that's valuable to each. Don't forget to continue the conversation making it more fun each time.

Conversion starts with visitors filling out forms, therefore, customize these forms making the process way easy for them. Again, keep track of your conversions. Very important! It`ll help you gauge the success of every engagement providing bases for future improvements.

Closing a deal means transforming your prospective leads to customers. Make use of sale tools; they`ll help ensure you close the intended leads at the right time, easier and faster. Also, try pipeline management, lead nurturing, emails and predictive lead scoring. For a more developed business, with numerous leads; try personalized marketing automation as it will save both time and labor.

Note, every opportunity comes with some level of competition and with that on price becoming expensive, It`ll be wise to maximize customer satisfaction. That's right! In fact, It's after this that you are likely to have repeat customers and referrals. So, engage the buyers with delight leaving them as satisfied as you can manage.

For a successful engagement with your buyers, try out customer hub, smart content and meaningful customer conversations.

5: Incorporate social media marketing (SMM) strategy

This step has been mentioned above, after all, social media platforms are the quickest means of connecting with prospective buyers. A recent study shows that 44% of inbound marketers are likely to obtain leads from Twitter, 52% from Facebook and 57% from LinkedIn.

Are you maximizing this methodology? Well,

Start with a plan. Lay out your goals, establish your target audience, and decipher their preferred platform. Then, think of the message you want to put across, how you're going to share it: is it as an ad, plain text, video, GIF, or image?

This call for thorough research. Consider competitive research and key phrase search to help figure out content ideas that might interest your audience. Once done, craft the content making it as concise and shareable as possible.

Also, be sure to share with the audience regularly always maintaining your brand image. You can also try tracking your competitors as you're likely to learn valuable strategies.

Note, determining what platform to use is more of a continued research but, you can base your starting point on current data from research companies. Later, use Google analytics to determine your most triumphant SMM technique alongside trailing strategies and implement accordingly.

Note, when it comes to SMM, options are limitless from Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn to Yelp, Level up and FourSquare. So, share, share and share some more.

And oh, Don't hesitate trying out influencer marketing, invest in that celebrity with a huge social media following for more prospects that hopefully will turn into leads/conversions.

Conclusion

It's worth noting that no strategy is perfect. You’ve to keep trying and trying some more. Test, test, test! In fact, a successful leader or marketer is a keen observer, they study, observe the trend and make predictions which see them stay ahead of the curve.

However, no pressure, besides, we all require a starting point, right? And what better way to kick-start your incorporation with B2B digital marketing approach? We’ll tell you, just practicing the tips above above and you'll be good to go.

Well, it's time to hear from your end. How do you mix digital in B2B marketing approach? The comments are right below.

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