The Synergy Between B2B and Digital Marketing
85% of B2B marketers say lead generation is their most important digital marketing goal. At the end of the day, there are many different results that B2B companies look for from a digital marketing campaign. Digital Marketing helps in both acquisition of new business and customer retention which is vital to any growing business. Before we go into the top 5 reasons why B2B companies should be using digital marketing, I’d like to mention that without identifying the right audience, the rest of the article can be thrown in the garbage. B2B companies have incredibly specific requirements. It’s a very specific niche that is difficult in identifying. Notwithstanding, if you really take the time to understand what problems your customers are having, you can target them with specific educational, data driven, and decision supporting marketing strategies that will solve their issues.
Now, onto the benefits of using digital marketing for your B2B company:
1. Lower Advertising Cost
Generally speaking, traditional marketing costs can be a significantly higher investment that may or may not give a good ROI. The issue is whether or not, your local ad for example, will be seen by the right people at the right time, yielding in significantly more variables that can affect your ROI. Digital also lasts. Printing multiple flyers only gives you one-time exposure, however creating a website or an awesome article will last for a long time.
2. More Business Opportunity
With the click of a button, you now have the ability to get exposure not only to your customers, but their vendors, suppliers and other partners affiliated to them, which yields for a higher possibility of a customer coming into the door…online door if you will. These potential customers might even be leads that you can nurture into actual customers through awesome Digital Marketing strategies like SEO focused content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing etc.
3. Testimonials
Through testimonials you get to build significant rapport with any potential customers. With digital marketing, you can leverage videos, case study’s and various review outlets to drive leads to your business. You’re only as good as your customers say you are.
4. Data
In God we trust, everyone else bring data. Who’s engaging with your content? What ways are they interacting? You can learn from each campaign you implement and target each individual customer in a unique and customized way. Customer Journey is incredibly important, and data will help you make the right decisions in creating a strategy for it.
5. Brand Awareness
You need to stand out. No matter whether your industry is price based or not, and your company brand doesn’t matter, you still need to stand out. You need to create awareness and constantly show evolvement. If you’re the cheapest option, great, keep on pushing for brand awareness so you can stay on top of mind for appropriate channels as the cheapest option.
Now remember, no matter how well these 5 categories are leveraged, nothing will work if the wrong audience is targeted. Figure out who your target is, understand their problems, how you can fix them and whether your company is the right fit. We’ve put together a diagram below showing what you can share for each ask your customer has. Best of luck and happy marketing!
