What kind of digital marketing should B2B pursue? With advertising efficiency declining and outbound marketing performance lagging these days, B2B content marketing is emerging as the most effective strategy.
Today, for those of you who find B2B marketing difficult, I will introduce the most effective marketing strategies for B2B.
💡 What you can gain after reading this!
You can think about what marketing action our company should take first.
✅ Summary!
- How is B2B marketing different from B2C? B2B marketing is an activity of building relationships!
- Types and Methods of B2B Marketing? Inbound and Outbound Marketing Strategies.
- What is the most effective way to generate inbound leads?
- How to Add a Growth Perspective to B2B Marketing
B2C vs. B2B Digital Marketing Strategies: What's the Difference?
B2C marketing about gaining the attention of individual customers,
– Definition of Elifunt's B2C and B2B Marketing
B2B marketing the process of building relationships with corporate clients!
B2B involves providing products or services to businesses rather than individuals. Since the transaction structure differs from B2C, understanding the characteristics of B2B transactions is essential to formulating specific marketing strategies. B2B transactions are characterized by 1) the provision of specialized services, 2) the need to persuade various stakeholders, and 3) a very long purchasing journey. Marketing messages must be tailored to these transaction characteristics.
1. Effectively delivering professional services.
B2B provides specialized products or services to help corporate clients achieve their goals. Since these services are tailored to specific industries or job functions, somewhat complex terminology or technical concepts may be involved. Therefore, a persuasive message is required that logically explains, in the client's language, how our services help achieve their corporate objectives.
2. Persuading various stakeholders.
In B2B marketing, you do not need to persuade just one person. It is a process of persuading various stakeholders within the company, ranging from operational staff and accountants to department heads and executives. Because decision-making involves multiple stakeholders, the purchasing journey is long and complex. Of course, depending on the characteristics of the company, it can take anywhere from a minimum of one month to several years.
3. Building relationships beyond interest.
B2B marketing is a process of building relationships, not just gaining attention. B2B transactions are long-term projects that take several months to complete. By consistently communicating our company's expertise to potential customers, we can contribute to the final purchase and contract conversion.
B2B Digital Marketing Strategies and Types
Now that you have grasped the structural characteristics of B2B, you need to consider what marketing actions to take. Earlier, we defined B2B marketing as a process of building "relationships" beyond customer interest. How can you build relationships with potential customers?
B2B Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing
Marketing can be broadly classified into two categories based on how potential customers are met. Activities that involve visiting customers directly are classified as outbound marketing, while marketing activities where customers come to you are classified as inbound marketing.
- Outbound
- Cold call
- cold email
- PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising (search ads, social media ads, etc.)
- seminar
- Attending exhibitions and trade fairs
- Inbound
- Content marketing (blog, social media management)
- Sending newsletters
- Community Management
Factors that make B2B digital marketing difficult
While I have introduced various marketing activities, there are also situations that make B2B marketing increasingly difficult.
- Low ROI Outbound Marketing: Outbound marketing makes it relatively difficult to expect results relative to the resources invested. It is difficult to expect replies to cold calls and cold emails, and sales efforts that involve visiting potential customers individually to persuade them also have their limitations.
- Declining Ad Efficiency: Ads are often described as "burning out." This is because the effectiveness of advertising ceases if costs are not invested. In the days when potential customers could be identified by their interests, location, and age, targeted advertising was still somewhat effective. However, the introduction of Apple's ATT policy and Google's announcement to discontinue third-party cookie provision, we are transitioning into a "cookie-less" era. It has become difficult to obtain customer data through advertising platforms, which means that targeting strategies aimed at specific customers are becoming more challenging.
The most effective B2B marketing strategy, content marketing
So, what kind of marketing should we focus on now? We should concentrate on 'inbound marketing,' where real customers seek us out first. Search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing are the most effective inbound strategies for generating leads naturally.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Marketing Starting with Search Journey Analysis
The customer search journey is the purchase journey!
When customers encounter a problem, they look for solutions in 'search results.' A customer's search experience is essentially their question and the problem they are facing. Therefore, it is essential to optimize your website for search engines so that your service can be discovered in the "search results," the first step of the customer's search journey. If you would like to optimize your company website for search engines (SEO), please refer to this article !
➡️ How to Create SEO-Optimized Sites and Blogs That Google Likes
B2B Content Marketing for Generating Inbound Leads
Content marketing refers to a strategy of acquiring potential customers by 'answering' their 'questions' with our company's content. By resolving their questions and problem situations through our content, we can build relationships with them.
A well-designed content marketing strategy acts as an inbound system that continuously attracts “real” customers. If the content is persuasive and the services provided by your company directly solve customers’ problems, it leads to purchase conversions. It is a way to acquire potential customers without spending on advertising. Not to mention, the content builds up as corporate brand equity.
- Exposure: To ensure our products/services are the first to be discovered during customer searches → Search Engine Optimization (Technical SEO Basics + Core Keyword Strategy)
- Traffic: Content strategy to ensure a continuous influx of customers → OnSERP SEO (Title, Meta, Slug) + Content strategy
- Conversion: Need a content strategy that drives action from incoming customers → Content strategy (insight reports, newsletter delivery, encouraging quote inquiries, etc.)
Content marketing does not get 'burned' away; instead, it 'accumulates' as brand equity, generating a compounding effect. However, alignment between business goals, sales strategies, and marketing strategies is crucial, and the journey to planning and producing content is arduous. (Of course! It becomes much easier with Elifunt.)
Find out more about why content marketing is the most effective marketing strategy in this article !
The most important thing is content 'growth' analysis.
All marketing activities be analyzed. No matter how well content marketing is designed as an inbound strategy, it is a failure if a final purchase does not occur. For an inbound strategy to succeed, it is essential to analyze marketing performance using data and continuously improve it. This is also why Elifunt emphasizes 'Content Growth Marketing' rather than just 'Content Marketing.'
How to Do Content Growth Analysis?
- Elifunt maintains an index to measure content-driven conversion performance. Key metrics include which content customers who submit a 'quote inquiry' read an average of N times and N0% of the content, and whether they click the CTA to submit the form.
- For content with a high conversion rate, you can increase it by planning additional content using long-tail keywords, or through methods such as social media advertising or newsletter publishing.
- For content with a low conversion rate, you can try improvements such as enhancing existing content or planning new content with different keywords.
Today, I introduced effective inbound strategies for B2B companies. Due to the nature of B2B transactions, the alignment of business goals with sales and marketing strategies is paramount. Therefore, after executing marketing efforts, it is essential to analyze whether results are aligning with objectives and to make improvements.
Elifunt offers the most effective inbound strategy: a 'Content Growth Marketing' partnership. If you find it difficult to handle marketing planning, execution, and analysis within your team, try working with Elifunt.🙂
