In an increasingly digital society, it feels like everything is a marketing opportunity. After all, who hasn’t been talking to their spouse about a product and then gotten a pop-up video on their phone for that product a few minutes later? While this type of capture of data is central to most consumer-facing marketing in 2023, it is not necessarily the best approach when it comes time to optimize your B2B marketing.
True, successful B2B companies will undoubtedly find creative ways to leverage automation and collect/analyze data as efficiently as possible. However, the best B2B marketing concepts will be decidedly more informational and less transactional than those employed in B2C campaigns. To dig further into this topic, keep reading for 5 ways to optimize your B2B marketing.
Optimize Your Website
It might be cliche at this point, but the fact remains that your business is only as good as its website in 2023. However, website optimization looks a bit different for companies in the B2B sector than it does for those concerned primarily with B2C.
Yes, all of the basics of UX – such as fast-loading pages, robust images, and active links–remain very much in play for B2B websites. However, quality B2B websites need to provide more depth of information than their B2C peers.
A quality B2B company survives by addressing an acute need within an industry at large. For example, many lumber manufacturers never have to deal directly with customers because the need for lumber in the construction industry is so large that they can sell directly to contractors. Likewise, producers of educational software can sell directly to schools and bypass marketing to end users.
Therefore, highly optimized B2B websites should accomplish a few things:
- Highlight a need that currently exists in the industry
- Explain how this need is causing a problem or suboptimal performance for businesses
- Demonstrate how its business is uniquely positioned to solve this problem for the long haul
Sourcing managers and procurement agents for commercial buyers will be decidedly more discerning than the average retail customer. Therefore, the content on your website must be robust and technical, the photos must be highly illustrative of your product in action, and video content has to be credible enough to gain the trust of key decision-makers.
Invest In an Asset Management Tool
One of the great challenges of marketing in the digital era is creating content that is consistent and cohesive across all channels. The problem is so acute that some sources estimate that B2B companies waste roughly $50 billion each year in unused, duplicate, or just flat-out bad marketing content.
To help avoid this pitfall, it is worthwhile to invest in a modern marketing asset management tool for your company. This type of software allows all pertinent parties to collaborate on marketing content and access key marketing resources as necessary. This helps keep all branding efforts unified, with in-person and remote agents and affiliates all pulling from the same content located in the most up-to-date digital repository.
Leverage the Power of Email Marketing
Email marketing can get a bit of a bad rap in 2023. Yes, procurement agents are flooded with hundreds of email solicitations each day. However, as it is their job to constantly be on the lookout for better business solutions, the chances of your marketing emails getting opened are a lot higher than you may think.
The key to successful B2B email marketing is understanding that like website optimization, business recipients will be less emotional and more discerning than B2C readers. As a result, consider eschewing the holiday promotions, flashy emojis in the subject lines, and click-to-buy icons in the body. Instead, focus on value-adding subject lines, limit your CTAs to one per email, and focus on segmenting your email lists to deliver the most relevant content to the right leads and clients.
Perform a SWOT Analysis
A SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is pretty standard in the business world. However, the firm’s marketing strategy is often just one part of a larger SWOT analysis, when it is often advisable to perform a SWOT analysis on the marketing strategy itself.
When it comes to strengths and weaknesses, it’s really all about self-assessment. Crunch your numbers and see how much you have spent on marketing and analyze how that has impacted revenue. Identify why certain campaigns have worked and why others have burned through cash. Remember, it can often be more cost-effective to leverage strengths and turn them into even greater strengths than it can be to fix a weakness and bring it up to par. It can be better to double down on what is working and cut out what is not.
As far as opportunities and threats, it is extremely beneficial to take an outside-in approach. Dig deep into the industry and see what competitors are doing well and see if you can efficiently add similar concepts to your marketing model. Likewise, get a clear picture of if there are any new products or technologies on the market that could severely undermine your business in the future and position yourself accordingly.
Focus on Developing Relationships
Although it may sound contradictory to the previous points that stress the importance of discernment and rationality in the realm of B2B marketing, there is a fundamental aspect of B2B marketing that is highly relational. It can take a lot to win the trust of a B2B client, but when you do, it typically results in a lucrative, ongoing relationship. Many businesses are willing to pay more to source from a vendor that they know will deliver products on time and provide customer service above-and-beyond the call of duty. Therefore, while it is important to leverage technology to the fullest, don’t overlook hiring the right people that are skilled in developing meaningful relationships with clients.
Go the Extra Mile to Optimize B2B Marketing
Businesses in all sectors are finding creative ways to use digital platforms and automation to help improve their marketing campaigns. While this certainly applies to B2B firms, they need to be a bit more meticulous and profound in their approach. To help you optimize your B2B marketing strategy, choose from any of the 5 ideas listed above and see revenues increase in the process!
About Millennium Agency
Millennium Agency is a nationally recognized, top woman led B2B branding, positioning, and digital marketing firm who creates value that builds emotionally impactful brands that influences your customer’s buying decision, giving you the competitive advantage. As your industry partner for B2B pharma/biotech, technology and manufacturing, our proprietary research-based framework makes a strong impact and accelerates your brand growth. While you focus on what you do best – running your business successfully – our team will build your brand, and drive leads. For more information, call 877-873-7445 or schedule time here.
George is a freelance writer that loves sharing his experience and knowledge on website development and SEO. His work can be found on Building Product Advisor, a new construction industry resource.
