B2B Marketing Basics: Tips and Tricks to Improve Your Marketing Plan

So you’re interested in B2B marketing basics? That makes two of us! B2B marketing is unique and interesting to explore, the options are limitless. However, with so many options it can be difficult to start out or enhance your current marketing plan. That’s why I’m here to help. Keep reading for the best tips and tricks to enhance your B2B marketing plan.

What Makes B2B and B2C Marketing Different?

This is a common question that we hear as B2B marketers. But in reality, there are a ton of reasons why B2B and B2C marketing are different, and should be treated as such. B2B refers to business to business, while B2C refers to business to consumer. This means B2B companies are selling to other companies instead of an end consumer. Companies like Adobe sell to both businesses and consumers, but typically companies focus on one or the other. This can make a big difference in terms of where you spend your marketing dollars. Now, let’s dive into the marketing tips and tricks that your company should be using to improve your B2B marketing plan.

Social Media – Organic

So many B2B companies push organic social media to the side, but it is just as important as sponsored social media content. Use your organic content to tell a story, and show your followers why they are important to you. A lot of companies will share their new blog content, behind the scenes, announcements, new product launches, and more. It’s important to provide your followers with a benefit for following you. That could include information from blog posts, tips on how to use your software, or holiday posts that bring them joy. Now, let’s talk about how to share organic content on various social media platforms.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the most important social media platforms for a B2B company to use. Since LinkedIn is strictly business professionals, it’s important to keep your content professional. But it doesn’t have to be boring! Blog content and company updates are great examples of what content to share. It’s also pretty easy to generate traction and followers based on the algorithm LinkedIn uses, in comparison to other platforms. If you’re looking to increase the number of followers you have, check out this guide. I just want to mention that in order to schedule future posts you will need to use a CRM. If not, you have to physically post every time. 

Facebook

Facebook is different from LinkedIn because you can post more casual content. It’s typically used outside of working hours (lunch breaks, after 5pm, etc), so if your content is formal it might not get as much engagement. Video content and images often have the best engagement rates on Facebook. When creating video content, it’s best to keep it short and sweet since users have short attention spans.

Twitter

Twitter can be a tricky platform for companies to use. That’s because it is difficult to grow on Twitter. Twitter is starting to plateau in terms of daily and new users, and it’s likely that this trend will continue. But this doesn’t mean that your business shouldn’t be on Twitter! Twitter can still be used to share your content. Twitter content is a mix between Facebook and LinkedIn, where it’s less formal than LinkedIn, but not quite as casual as Facebook. Images and blog content does well in terms of engagement. Plus, it’s easy to schedule posts for the future without a CRM.

Social Media – Paid

A lot of B2B companies do not take advantage of social media advertising on multiple platforms. It’s a great idea to use at least two different platforms for paid content. Advertising on social media has a lot of benefits including how easy it is to set up, monitor, and track using analytics. On the other hand, if your ads are not set up correctly, you can lose out on a lot of money. When you are learning about social media ads, it’s best to do your research before committing to a platform. But, you can also have the option to set a strict budget for your first time and see where it goes! Let’s talk about the best social media platforms for B2B companies to advertise on.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the best platform for B2B advertising. That’s because LinkedIn users belong to a very specific demographic compared to other platforms like Facebook, which is extremely diverse. Since LinkedIn has such a specific user base, it can get pretty expensive to advertise on. However, the clicks and engagement you do receive will be of higher quality and can lead to more conversions. LinkedIn also has message ads that drive great engagement and success, and are unique to LinkedIn. In fact, you can use LinkedIn message ads to reach out to your previous website visitors! If this sounds like something your company is interested in, check out this video for more information.

Facebook

Facebook is a great platform to advertise on because of its affordability and broad reach. However, if your company is very niche, it might be a little harder to drive results. A great way to narrow down your audience is to use remarketing. Remarketing is used to target your previous website visitors with specific ads that are extremely relevant to what they were interested in. Remarketing campaigns are 70% more effective than other types of advertising campaigns. 

Twitter

Again, Twitter is tricky because engagement and views can be so low. The best thing about advertising on Twitter is how affordable it is compared to other platforms, so it can be easy to experiment and find out what works the best. You can also use remarketing tactics on Twitter, which will help narrow down your target audience, but that will reduce the number of people viewing your ad. If you decide to advertise on Twitter, give it more time than other platforms to see results.

Review Sites

Listing your business on review sites like G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot is a great way to show relevant consumers your competitive advantage, especially if you are a SaaS (software as a service) company. On a site like G2, you can list all of your company’s information including pricing, services you offer, and more. Your users can leave you text or video reviews that you can use to your advantage. You can use positive reviews on your website, create social media posts, and more. On the other hand, if you receive a negative review or constructive criticism, you can take that and implement changes to your company. G2 will also compare your company to your competitors for users to see which company will meet their needs. It’s important to note that your company should reply to all of the reviews that you receive, positive or negative. This will show your customers that you value their opinion and will make them feel heard.

SEO

I’m sure we are all familiar with the term SEO or search engine optimization. But there are so many companies out there that do not implement SEO strategies to improve their organic website traffic. There are a ton of different ways that your company can enhance your website and in turn, increase your website traffic. Creating a blog that shares content that aligns with your business is one of the best ways to drive high-quality website traffic. Creating a blog can seem intimidating, but I promise it’s pretty easy once you get going! Another great way to optimize your website for search engines is to exchange indirect links with other companies. This means you would both add links to your website or blog that link to the other. It has to be an indirect link exchange though because the search engine may catch on that you are just trying to swap links to get better results.

SEM

On the other hand of SEO, we have SEM or search engine marketing. As the name implies, SEM is paid advertising done on a search engine. Google Ads is the most popular platform, but every search engine has its own version. Since you can only rank so high with SEO, SEM can be a great option for your company. Below is an example of this, where all of the top search results for “CRM” are advertisements. Luckily, Google Ads are pretty easy to set up and maintain, and they’re quite affordable. If you are new to Google Ads, Google has courses and other resources that can help you get started. 

Email Campaigns

If your company is not using an email strategy, you’re missing out! Sending emails to your subscribers is an easy way to keep them up-to-date with your company. You can include content, news, new features, and so much more. When you are ready to begin emailing, you should set up a schedule to send out an email at least once a month. If you’re having a hard time creating the actual email, a software like Mailchimp can help. Mailchimp is very easy to use, and you don’t need to have any coding experience. If you’re interested in using Mailchimp to create your emails, this guide can help you learn how to use it.

Gated Content

If you’re struggling to get new email contacts and leads, then creating gated content might be the perfect solution. Gated content is when you create an ebook, guide, or another kind of content that is only accessible after your lead inputs their name and email address. Then, you can add their email address to an email campaign that is specific to your gated content subscribers. The first time you email them it’s best to keep it related to the gated content and not jump into selling them on your business, or else your unsubscribe rate will be high.

Software That Will Help

Creating a strong B2B marketing plan is hard no matter your skill level. Which is why there are so many options out there for software that will help. When looking into a software solution, you really want to identify exactly what areas you need help in. It’s also a good idea to research software on a review site like G2 so you can compare different options.

CRM

When you are starting to enhance your marketing plan, it can get confusing, unorganized, and outright chaotic. That’s what a CRM is here for. CRM, or customer relationship management software is a great way to keep your marketing and sales teams organized and on the same page. You can track how your social media is doing, SEO, SEM, and where your clients are in their buyer’s journey. Hubspot, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 are all great options. If you’re looking for a CRM that is less expensive and doesn’t come with all of the bells and whistles, Agile CRM is another great option.

Visitor Queue

Visitor Queue is a B2B lead generation software that identifies the companies visiting your website. Learn about the size, demographics, and history of the businesses so you can perfectly frame your pitch. Along with that, we are able to identify key employees that work at those websites and provide you with their contact information including email addresses, phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, and much more. With Visitor Queue, you can generate 10-20% more revenue. Start your free trial today!

Wrap Up

Let’s face it, creating a successful B2B marketing plan is hard. It’s especially hard because every company has such different goals that they are aiming for, so no two businesses will have the same strategies. However, there are so many options out there that can help you enhance your B2B marketing plan. I hope you were able to find some helpful tips and tricks to improve your B2B marketing plan. As always, if you have any questions about Visitor Queue, we are happy to help!