Tiga – An Experienced B2b Marketing Agency

What is B2B marketing and how does it differ from B2C?

When we think of marketing, we often think about an engaging Facebook post from our favourite brand or the John Lewis Christmas adverts. These are great examples of how businesses market their brand or products to end consumers. They’re designed to lead you towards a purchase that is usually a one-time purchase of a consumable product. However, when a business communicates its services to another business, there are many more complexities and nuances to understand and take into consideration. We don't always need to create award-winning campaigns but as a B2B marketing agency, it's important for us to educate our clients on these nuances and discover how we can take them forward.

There are several key factors that make B2B marketing different from its B2C counterpart. For starters, good B2B communications tend to be more informational – focusing on the benefits offered to the business they’re selling to. For example, a B2B solution may save the customer money, increase profits, increase productivity or save time. Or perhaps you have a quality product but offer a better level of service than your competitors. More often than not, the sale is determined by whether your solution will benefit the business you’re selling to – and offers value in doing so.

A Business to business marketing team often faces unique challenges in the quest to gain visibility in their chosen marketplace in comparison to B2C marketing. For example:

Lead times
The sales cycle of a Business to Business solution is more often than not much longer than that of a B2C sale. Also, once a sale is made or completed, businesses have a harder time attributing the sale to the original channel that led to a purchase.

The number of touchpoints
Due to the longer sales cycle, B2B companies often need to engage with prospective buyers across a number of platforms and have numerous conversations before a purchase is made.

Consultative sales
B2B sales tend to be more consultative and based on the knowledge, experience and expertise of the business you’re purchasing from.

Higher value sales
B2B transactions are often of higher monetary value and so the purchase is much more of a ‘considered’ one. Larger businesses may have purchasing departments that engage in long-term contracts with their vendors who are vetted rigorously before engaging in business.

Cultural fit
More so than B2C transactions, you’ll often have a lot more interaction (face-to-face or via phone calls) with a person when it comes to the B2B sales cycle. You could have the best product on the market, but may not be a cultural fit for the company you’re selling to. ‘People’ have much more of an influence on the final sale in comparison to a B2C transaction which can happen without speaking to a single person.

Legal requirements
Many businesses, particularly in construction or in education, have strict requirements for their vendors or products needed (as outlined by governing bodies).

Who is Involved in B2B Marketing?

Any business that sells to other businesses is engaged in marketing. This could include companies that handle anything from security solutions to office supplies. When a B2B marketing agency or company creates a campaign it’s typically directed at those who are in charge of purchasing decisions for that company. The person who is responsible for purchasing will essentially be a type of ‘persona’ and have shared traits with others in a similar position. This helps the marketing department to establish who their target audience is, where they spend their time and the best channels to use to reach them and deliver their message.

What Should a B2B Marketing Strategy Look Like?

Depending on the industry, your marketplace can be a crowded place. It’s essential to have a well-thought-out, measurable strategy in place in order to stand out among your competitors and communicate why your target audience should work with you. With that being said, a solid marketing strategy should include the following:

• Measurable business objectives and how you plan to achieve them
• A definition of who you are trying to target
• Research to learn and define your buyer persona
• Usage of channels and technologies in which your target audience spends their time
• Measurable activities to decipher the ROI of your strategy
• The ability to pivot and make necessary changes

Common B2B Channels

One difference between B2B marketing and B2C marketing, is the various channels and types of content used to reach their prospective audiences. Some of the most common types of B2B communication efforts include:

Blogs and knowledge-based articles
Blogs are great for introducing a variety of content, from infographics to videos. They add relevant content to websites (read more about B2B website design), which will boost SEO efforts but mainly they can be used to educate and offer value to potential clients, showing that you are consistently updating your site with new content and continually investing in what you do. Clients are also looking to learn from agencies so investing in education-based content is a great way to do this.

SEO or PPC
While best practices remain the same, there are always improvements and tweaks to Google's Algorithm to enhance the search results. B2B companies often invest in B2B SEO to ensure they are visible when another company is looking for their goods and services.

LinkedIn
Whilst B2C social media efforts are often focused on Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn is predominantly used for business or professional-related interaction. LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network on the internet and is the go-to place to find and connect with prospective customers in the B2B world.

Email
Though it’s important to be careful with email in this age of SPAM filters, it is still a viable and respected channel to communicate your message with other businesses.

How to Find Success in B2B Marketing

Business to Business marketing is all about communicating and educating your target audience. There are several ways in which businesses can achieve success with their marketing efforts. As a B2B marketing agency, we will help you to: 

Show Your Human Side
More often than not, companies, or individuals within that company, don’t want to be sold to. They want to have a conversation about how you can help them. They want to be able to trust the people within the business to meet a particular business need or goal. As a result, businesses that let people in and show their more personal qualities have found success. Remember that people do business with people and that your attitudes and services offered will often be the dealbreaker in a crowded marketplace.

Define Your Audience Clearly
You’ll have a much easier time finding success if you hone in on certain targeted, segmented audiences. Sweeping campaigns can waste your time and resources. You know who you want to market to, so focus on that and save yourself some time and energy in the process.

Deliver the Right Content
Content is king for any business, but it’s also important to deliver it in the right context. Think about where you’re “speaking” and how it will fit with the platform you’re using. For example, you probably wouldn’t write a blog post on Instagram or Facebook. But, a short, snappy video works great for those platforms. Create a variety of content using different mediums, and showcase it appropriately where it belongs to catch the attention of other businesses.

The B2B Breakdown
One of the most important things to remember is that even though you’re marketing to businesses, there are still people behind that business running the show. So, you’re still marketing to human beings, and having a personal touch to your approach will be helpful. Thought leadership should be at the top of your priority list when it comes to your marketing efforts. Be conversational, be targeted, and make sure the context you’re using is relevant and useful to other businesses. While B2B marketing has its differences from B2C marketing, thinking about things on a greater scale doesn’t have to be over-complicated. In summary the more a business functions like a helpful individual who is interested in mutual benefit, the more everyone will accomplish. Want to find out more? Get in touch with B2B marketing agency Tiga to discuss how we move your business forward.