A core component of producing a humanized or relatable B2B marketing strategy is to first measure that strategy, correctly. Recently, business-to-business (B2B) marketing has focused on content marketing, marketing automation, and social media management to grow a business’ return on investment (ROI). While measuring ROI is an effective way to measure success, it’s about time we shift our mindset to think more about return on ad spend (ROAS).
Focusing on the the individual advertising tactics rather than the strategy as a whole allows you to more precisely analyze the results of your marketing efforts – including advertising campaigns. This also helps you to humanize our B2B marketing initiatives by understanding exactly what kind of marketing efforts work. These include behavior-based tactics such as:
- Responsive web designs
- Unique and helpful content
- Consistent interactions on social media
- Personalized and attentive client relationships.
Although you’re prospecting another business rather than an individual (B2C), we cannot forget the fact that the decision-makers are still “normal” customers. How are you going to speak to them to build the relationship between their company and yours?
Commit to Responsive Web Design
When we envision a person in upper management, we typically see them sitting at his or her desk all day long. This is never the case. Business decision-makers are on the move and will most likely visit your website through a mobile phone to find more information about you.
Your website must be mobile friendly in order for them to clearly review your products or services and understand how your business is different from the competition. The mobile experience must quickly provide that information. It must be easily read by the most popular smartphones of your target audience. In fact: 62% of B2B marketers planned to invest in responsive web design in 2016. Invest now to be ahead of your competitors in the rest of 2017.
Attract New Customers with Unique Content
Craft your copywriting, design, and imagery to appeal to your potential customers while enforcing your brand on every page. Not only must the content be written in the most common languages of your target audience, but it must also be accessible with Google and Bing.
To market your written content and business, it’s recommended to assist your content marketing efforts with SEO and Paid Search (PPC) advertising to increase awareness of products and services. Follow the SEO best practices and work with a Google AdWords partner for optimal results.
Socialize with Business to Business Customers
Friends, family, and customers all use social media for leisure and business purposes. With the growth of social media management, potential customers are looking for your business to provide helpful information about your industry along with being someone they can talk to. Socializing with them provides you with an opportunity to demonstrate expertise and reinforce your brand’s value.
Dedicate time to sharing content on your personal and business social media accounts. This will prove your expertise and help you to stay top-of-mind. You can also advertise products and services on targeted social media networks. Facebook and LinkedIn ads have shown the best value for B2B social marketers.
Nurture Individual Accounts with Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
Lastly, marketing automation can create consistent interactions with potential customers and provide you with the ability to nurture existing clients when executed appropriately. Take a look at this annual trends report from Econsultancy and Adobe for quantitative evidence.
For example, the use of account-based marketing brings several departments together to keep your current business while obtaining new prospects simultaneously. ABM is a business-to-business strategy to drive collaboration between business marketing and sales teams by focusing on building individual client accounts to drive revenue. Pardot and Marketo have templates to help you to nurture individual accounts and grow your revenues.
Your Business is Made Up of Hard-Working Humans. Show It.
There are many tactics to attract new customers for any business, no matter if you’re B2B or B2C. It’s just important to keep in mind that when marketing to other companies, there is still an actual person on the other end, not just another business. Be relatable to the people at those other companies and understand their behavior and motivations to see profits on your own end.
