Marketing trends are no different than any other trends in that, by definition, they are constantly changing. Business-to-business marketing trends often get overlooked as long as the influx of leads doesn’t stop, but it’s important to look at the clients you are losing as well and improve your B2B marketing strategy to retain them. Implementing these B2B marketing trends will help you improve your customer retention and acquisition, and ultimately, build a successful business.
SEM
Search marketing, or SEM as it’s more commonly known, makes the seemingly impossible task of reaching all of your potential clients tangible. If you’re looking for business partners, it’s safe to assume that other businesses are looking for partners like you as well. Businesses are no different than regular consumers, in the sense that they rely on search engines to find goods and services, and if you want to engage with them, they need to be able to find you easily. Optimizing your site for search results will ensure that all of the potential clients you didn’t have the means or ability to reach out to can find you instead.
Google Display Ads
Most B2B advertisers use Search Engines like Google as their main traffic source, but if you aren’t, you should start with the Google Display Network on Google Ads if you truly want to enhance your B2B marketing strategy. If you aren’t familiar with it, the Google Display Network is a system that is designed to reach your audience with strategic messaging and branding at optimal times on popular platforms like Gmail, YouTube, news outlets and blogs. You can utilize display ads to create advertisements using text, images, interactive features, and video ads to reach potential clients on the platforms that interest them the most.
In the past, the argument has been made that display ads come across as spammy to viewers, but Google has begun to combat this by creating Responsive Display ad formats. These formats allow you to enter your images, text, and logo, and then Google will optimize your ads for peak performance. If you’re at all skeptical of the impact Google can have on your business, consider the fact that the Google Display Network reaches 90% of internet users around the world.
Content Marketing
If there were ever to be a compilation of B2B’s greatest hits, content marketing would be at the top of the list. Although it’s been around for a while, it can still improve your B2B marketing strategy. Content relevancy will always be important because potential clients will always do their research before deciding to give you their business and B2B isn’t exempt from that. That being said, simply having content isn’t enough anymore, it needs to be relevant, current, and constantly updated. You should also consider adjusting your content to meet current trends as well, like using images, interactive features, and videos.
Social Media
Having a strong social media presence is a vital component of any successful marketing strategy, and utilizing it will help you improve your B2B marketing strategy. Social media allows you to showcase your brand to the intended audience on a high-traffic platform that’s relatively low engagement cost. You can share your story with prospective customers on a global stage or local “geofenced” area, who otherwise may not have known you existed and direct them to your website or engage with them directly on the given platform. LinkedIn and Instagram are the two platforms that every B2B company should be using to improve their marketing strategy, utilizing easily digestible video content for both educational and brand awareness purposes.
One-to-One Marketing
One-to-one marketing is a customer relationship management strategy that is centered around personalized interactions with existing clients. Building a long-term and sustainable relationship is at the heart of this marketing strategy. Undoubtedly, the customer management and sales cycle in B2B is a longer process where efforts must be made over a longer period of time.
However, as we move towards a business environment that prioritizes relationships and value-adding propensity of a business organization, B2B companies success will depend on their ability to deepen relationships with their customers. The earlier they adopt the one-to-one marketing strategy, the more successful they will be at meeting their collective business goals.
Integration Strategy
Bringing each of the above elements all together through a focused, clearly executed, and integrated approach is fundamentally important and the key to success for businesses in the B2B market.
Looking to improve your B2B marketing results?
Contact idig marketing to learn more about how our B2B services can drive leads and increase client retention for your business.
idig Marketing is a full-service digital agency that generates meaningful website traffic and drives high value leads to your organization. By optimizing organic content with paid advertising our custom methodology is adapted to meet your requirements and exceed your objectives.
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