B2B Marketing Agency

How is B2B different to B2C?

• All B2B markets are niches with relatively few customers (100s /1000s not 1,000,000s). You must speak the language and know their world

• Businesses buy a long term relationship with a product – both the contract and the sales cycle will take time

• B2B customers want to be educated (tactfully) and will consume masses of information about your product – make it easy to find

• The procurement process has been set up to prevent disruption to normal business, remove risk, to ensure all (customers) feel consulted and prevent corruption

• Consensual decision making and risk aversion means that you must convince all customers that you are the right choice

B2B buying practice - key issues

• Aims – to build– Authority – are you the leading player ?

– Trust – should you be believed ?

– Credibility – can you /now will you do it for a big organisation ?

• B2B Decision Making Team is now ‘very’ inclusive

• Research is done online and the decision is almost made when procurement starts - procurement is a sanity check

• Approaches– Authority Building / Thought Leadership

– Relationship Building / Trust Building

Content Marketing

• Content marketing is about placing useful content under the desired audience’s online nose. It is an extension of White Paper marketing

• B2B marketers should seek to influence how potential customers see the problem so as to position yourself for a sale

• Content needs to be produced for all who may be involved in the decision making and for all stages of the procurement decision

• Content must be – High quality – though leading, trust building, etc

– High production quality – it needs to look authoritative and trustworthy

Social Media marketing

Do

• Choose the right social media networks

• Find the chosen audience

• Create a Group, Manage a Page, Promote them

• Engage with the audience, give, give and give

• Draw them into your group and your email lists

• Invite them to private things – give better value

• Then Market to them

Don’t

• Market or (especially) Sell (on Social Media)

Video Marketing

• The world of internet Video is about 1 % of the Internet’s content, so the market is much less competitive

• Video is much more engaging than text – the non-verbal elements of communication are present

• Trust and Authority can be built by video

• Video can be published widely (no search engine penalty yet!)

Webinar Marketing

• Web seminars or webinars are nearly as good as offline seminars

• They are more convenient, but as an event, the customer still must make time (Videos can be watched later!)

• A webinar registrant thinks you’re An Authority (prospect), an attendee may think you are The Authority (lead) - leads are captured as part of the process

• Webinars are two way or interactive – it is easier to build a relationship of trust. Customer can take part if desired

• Webinars have long reach – many can attend

• Recordings can be re-run (as events or as online content)

Podcast Marketing

• Podcasts are pretty unusual in B2B marketing

• This means they are easy for customers to find.

• Some people like to learn by listening – podcasts can be used between meetings or whilst travelling for example

• Podcasts are easy to promote

Email Marketing

• Great for – Long term relationship building !

– Addressing different segments or roles in the organisation

– Signposting other published content

• Can address different stages of buying lifecycle but takes time to build the sequence

• May be blocked by firewalls and spam filters

How a B2B agency can help your B2B online lead generation

B2B Agency tasks• Market Segmentation

• Market Positioning

• Content Marketing Strategy / Planning support

• Video Production support / promotion

• Social Media planning / monitoring & Group/Page admin

• Webinar Anchor

• Webinar Production

• Podcast Production support

• Email marketing support

Home team tasks

• Content Authoring

• Social Media engagement

• Video Presenting

• Webinar Expert /Panel member

• Podcaster

• Email sequence authoring

For more information, contact SMEsOnline

James Gunn

james.gunn@smesonline.co

+44 7855 406652