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B2B Digital Marketing Best Practices in 2020

Every business, whether B2B (business-to-business) or B2C (business-to-consumer) should have a digital presence, comprising of first and foremost – a website, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, paid ads and any other platforms an organization is active online. In this article, we will focus on B2B digital marketing that targets the needs, interests and challenges of individuals who are making purchases on behalf of, or for their organization.

By 2022, executives predict that nearly half of their revenue will be driven by digital marketing while 56% of CEOs have seen their digital initiatives improve profit – Forrester & Gartner

 

The efficacy of your digital marketing strategy is dependent on how well acquainted you are with your customers’ needs. To do so, you need to understand the buyer’s journey and their purchasing focus areas. From there, you can strategize and craft your digital marketing mix according to your business objectives. Here are some highlights of the industry’s digital best practices and our prediction for marketing trends in 2020: 


Digital Marketing Best Practices for B2B

1.  Website 

Your company website should be an industry resource that engages clients and provides them with an informative and entertaining experience. 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 call-to-action(s) to get pricing, schedule a demo, request a white paper etcetera 


2.   SEO and Content 

Without SEO, it is impossible to get new visitors to your site. SEO helps search engines find you and raise you higher in the rankings. Creating a blog on your website helps to improve SEO and set you as a thought leader in your industry. Your expertise provides a world of knowledge to your own clients while drawing new ones to your site. With strong content, you can attract clients back to your site, forge trust and lead them to the end of the conversion funnel. Consider looking for outside engagement and guest article opportunities that can link back to your blogs and websites. This increases awareness of your own content and is an effective marketing strategy. Video is another popular content type with many opportunities to engage and educate your audience. People react positively to videos because they put a face to your brand. 


3.   Integrating Online and Offline Marketing Strategy 

Integrate your online and offline marketing efforts. Tie the two together seamlessly with a focus on superior customer service. There is a huge benefit in providing the offline support that people still crave (where in this digital age, companies tend to overlook and minimize its importance). Send people to your website, social media and landing pages through print ads, radio and television. Landing pages are an excellent resource for measuring the success of offline promotions.  


4.   Social Media

B2B companies often overlook social media marketing as a viable way of finding new customers because the industries that they operate in have complex sales cycles. This is not to say that Facebook and Instagram are not useful for your business. By including these platforms in your marketing strategy, you can build better brand recognition and solidify authority in your niche. Have defined objectives for your social presence – do you want to generate better-targeted leads, promote your brand or enhance your customer service? The key is finding a suitable social media channel where most, if not all, of your target audience, is already present in your area of expertise. For the B2B industry, this usually means LinkedIn – where 80% of business leads originate and 94% of marketers use it to publish content2. 


5.   Redefining Targets 

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 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. Combine 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.

Watch for our next blog post on B2B Digital Marketing Trends in 2022


References:

Image Credit : Getty Image
https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2017-04-24-gartner-survey-shows-42-percent-of-ceos-have-begun-digital-business-transformation
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/b2b-marketing
https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/6-of-the-best-digital-marketing-strategies-for-b2b-business-corporate
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/05/28/the-future-of-digital-marketing-in-b2b-lies-in-these-three-ideas/#259d5bef3f8b
https://www.bloomreach.com/en/blog/2019/11/b2b-marketing-strategy-guide.html
https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics
https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2019/10/success-differentiators-b2b-research/

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