6 of the Best Digital Marketing Strategies for B2B Business

The digital age has changed the way B2B communication is handled. That includes how you can successfully market your products. With technology constantly evolving, digital marketing requires a more ‘fluid’ approach.

You have to be ready to adapt to changes in order to meet the expectations of your audience. There are certain digital marketing strategies every company should incorporate into their digital marketing plans.

The influence of technology over how businesses run is not new. It has always been that way. However, what differs today is the speed at which technology is changing.

With the ever-evolving development of new technology, it is essential to make sure you are communicating with customers in the way they expect.

Here are 6 successful strategies you will need to adapt to if you wish to reach today’s clients.

A website is not a revelation by any means. Websites for business are a given. However, changing trends means you have to change your set-it-and-forget-it attitude for your site. Websites today are practically living, breathing entities and need nurturing. You have to make sure it is showcasing your expertise while providing solutions to potential clients.

Your company website should be an industry resource that engages clients and provides them with an informative and entertaining experience. That allows them to get the info they need easily. It should also provide you with a tool that collects data including sales leads.

A B2B website must:

• Be suited to your target audience
• Be mobile responsive
• Have calls-to-action to get pricing, schedule a demo, request a white paper, and so on
• Showcase up-to-date testimonials
• Feature all your social media pages
• Have usable industry information
• Be assessed and updated on a regular basis

B2B research tends to be a long process with little emotion involved. Your website will make the discovery process easier by outlining how you can resolve pain points better than the competition.

Without SEO, it is impossible to get new visitors to your site. Without visitors, you cannot grow your business. SEO helps search engines find you and raises you higher in the rankings. SEO is complicated, and it is in your best interests to either hire someone to assist in improving your SEO or work with a company that can do it for you. They can provide and apply the most effective keyword phrases to help search engines find your site.

You also want to look at other marketing tactics to improve SEO. Creating a blog on your website is a must as this not only helps improve SEO but also helps to set you up as a thought leader in your industry. Your expertise provides a world of knowledge to your own clients while helping you to draw new clients to your site. Keep in mind that the B2B cycle tends to drag on. If you can lure clients back to your site with strong content, you are more likely to forge trust, which can, in turn, lead them to the end of the conversion funnel.

You can also consider looking for outside engagement and guest article opportunities that can link back to your blog and websites. This technique works to increase awareness of your own content and is an effective digital marketing strategy.

Video is also a huge component of content with many opportunities to engage and even educate your audience. People react positively to video because it puts a face to your brand. Other types of content can include  infographics, e-books, white papers, and case studies.

To get the most bang for your marketing buck, integrating your online and offline marketing efforts is a must. You can tie the two together seamlessly with a focus on superior customer service.

Ensuring there is always a way to reach you provides the offline support people still crave. You can send people to your website, social media, and landing pages through print ads, radio, and television.

As well, landing pages are an excellent resource for measuring the success of offline promotions.

It might be tempting to avoid using social media as part of your B2B digital marketing strategy. It is labor intensive and requires thought to ensure you are keeping visitors engaged. However, social media isn’t going away, and new platforms such as Instagram are becoming more popular than the old standby Facebook.

For B2B, Instagram reigns supreme, but Facebook continues to offer value. One of the easiest ways to use social media is to leverage your blog content. Posts directing them to useful content provides relevant information while also assisting with your SEO efforts. You can also cross-promote across all your social media platforms.

Good use of social media can include engaging visuals and helpful info such as:

• Industry tips
• Industry news
• Pain point solutions
• Updates to your products/services
• Happy client stories
• Links to case studies and white papers on your website
• Video testimonials
• Links to instructional videos made by your company

An excellent example of Instagram posts is WeWork. Their creative approach keeps followers engaged while never straying from their brand. Everything they do encourages sharing and creates a business culture that is inspiring for potential clients.

The one thing to avoid on social media is overt sales pitches. You want to inform and engage, and therefore spike curiosity and lead people to your services.

If your budget allows, consider including a pay-per-click campaign in your digital marketing efforts.

The beauty of SEO and content is that it is relatively inexpensive, or even free if you have the talent to do it yourself. However, if you are not currently seeing the results you want, PPC campaigns are an excellent option, with easy budgeting to suit your needs. With PPC, you pay for ad clicks.

Some platforms will also charge you for engagement or impressions or offer you the choice of how you wish to pay. They provide excellent segmentation to reach your exact target and can be the number one tool to drive lead generations and raise brand awareness.

The beauty of digital marketing is that it has improved reach exponentially. The ability to define target demographics with great precision means you can invest in campaigns that are far more effective.

These campaigns are available through Google searches, but can also be applied through social media platforms. You can even refine your targets mid-campaign in most cases.

Combining this with easy access to results-based analytics, you can continue to fine-tune your campaigns to see the best results and with the least amount of investment for failed initiatives. Free tools such as Google Analytics help you understand how effective your marketing is and how it is affecting your targets.

The easiest way to begin your strategy is to list all the digital assets you own including websites, blogs, and social media pages. If you have access to analytics look for successful assets that helped generate leads or close sales. If you haven’t followed up with this type of research, look at the assets that received the most visits, clicks, or shares. That will provide insight into what has been working well for you.

Next, determine where you might build on your assets such as more social media pages or trying out a PPC campaign. Consider your budget and decide where you wish to invest money and refer to your analytics to see where you are most likely to see the best ROI.

Once you’ve determined the digital marketing tactics that your company needs to use, create a content calendar, so you have a plan in place. This plan should include:

• Title/Topic
• Where it will be posted
• When it will be published
• Crossover opportunities for links
• PPC ads
• Content provider

It is never too late for your business to start using digital marketing tactics. These strategies will provide you with an easy way to incorporate digital marketing into your plan.