B2B Marketing

How to Develop a Successful and Smart Business to Business (B2B) Marketing Strategy

B2B is a term short for business-to-business companies. These entities sell a product or service to other companies that need their parts or services to get stuff to customers.  For example, microchip manufacturers sell chips to smart refrigerator manufacturers. Stores buy lights from lighting companies. Security companies sell alarms to retail stores and commercial properties. 

b2b marketing

According to one study, the global B2B e-commerce market is five times bigger than the business-to-consumer (B2C) market. If you are a B2B company, the way you market your services and products should be slightly different than the way other people market their services and goods to “regular” people. In this post, we’ll describe some of the best B2B marketing strategies. 

How Is B2B Marketing Separate from B2C Sales and Ads?

When you’re putting together a B2B marketing strategy, there’s one major rule to keep in mind: your customers know industry-related terminology or jargon. You’re not talking to beginners. For example, we assume our readers know the term SEO. We know some customers know what Google Analytics 4 is. We know everyone is familiar with ROI. So the first step is to think about your customers, and how much experience they have in the industry. Use words and images that people with those many years in the field will understand. 

If you over explain, you risk coming off as having goods or services that experts don’t need. But if you assume they know everything you know, then why would they need you? 

So you want to think long and hard about word choice. 

Another thing to keep at the forefront of every marketing move is that your customers also need your services or goods. It’s just that you’re not the only player selling those goods and services. So you need to constantly bring every webpage, blog post, social media content, email newsletter, and more back to this concept: We’re better than the competition. Using some of the examples we mentioned earlier, a brick and mortar business needs an alarm. But they can get alarms from many companies. What makes your alarms the best ones? The price? The services that are triggered when an alarm goes off? The quality? The look of your alarms?  The speed at which you can install alarms? The ease of use of your alarms? 

Once you know what sets you apart, you want to constantly reinforce that idea in every word, image, and action. Here are some marketing tips and tools you need to know about.

Building Your B2B Marketing Strategy: A Framework

Developing an effective B2B marketing strategy requires a systematic approach:

Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Before creating any marketing materials, clearly define the types of businesses that would benefit most from your product or service. Consider:
– Company size (employees, revenue)
– Industry/vertical
– Geographic location
– Technology stack
– Business challenges they face
– Decision-making structure

Map the B2B Buyer’s Journey

Unlike B2C purchases, B2B buying decisions typically involve multiple stakeholders and a longer consideration process:
**Awareness Stage:** Prospects recognize they have a problem or opportunity
– Content needed: Thought leadership articles, industry reports, educational blog posts
**Consideration Stage:** Prospects evaluate different approaches to solving their problem
– Content needed: Comparison guides, webinars, case studies, detailed solution pages
**Decision Stage:** Prospects select a specific vendor or solution
– Content needed: Product demos, free trials, implementation guides, ROI calculators, customer testimonials

Develop Clear Value Propositions

Articulate what makes your offering unique compared to competitors. Focus on:
– Specific pain points you solve
– Quantifiable benefits (time saved, cost reduction, productivity gains)
– Why your approach is superior to alternatives

Budget Allocation

Determine how to distribute your marketing resources across:
– Digital advertising
– Content creation
– Events and sponsorships
– Sales enablement
– Marketing technology
Remember, effective B2B marketing strategies are not static. Plan to regularly review performance data and adjust your approach based on what’s working.

Create SEO-Friendly Web Pages

When looking for a new B2B business, or making sure that they have the best company providing B2B products or services, companies turn to Google to find information, reviews and contact information. So, you want to get your website to surface on the first few pages of Google search engine results pages (SERP). To do this, you’ll need to learn how to make your content search engine friendly.  This process is called search engine optimization or SEO. A few of the key parts of every B2B marketing plan we develop include:

SEO-Friendly Web Page

Lead Generation and Nurturing for B2B

Generating and nurturing high-quality leads is arguably the most important function of B2B marketing. Here’s how to create a comprehensive lead management process:

Lead Generation Tactics

– **Gated Content:** Offer valuable resources (white papers, industry reports, toolkits) in exchange for contact information
– **Webinars and Events:** Host educational webinars or in-person events to attract potential buyers
– **Referral Programs:** Implement formal programs that incentivize existing customers to refer new prospects
– **Strategic Partnerships:** Form alliances with complementary (non-competing) service providers
– **Interactive Tools:** Create assessments, calculators, or configurators that provide value while capturing leads

Lead Qualification

Not all leads are created equal. Implement a lead scoring system based on:
– **Demographic Fit:** How well the prospect matches your ideal customer profile
– **Engagement Level:** How the prospect has interacted with your content and website
– **BANT Criteria:** Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline
– **Intent Signals:** Actions that indicate active buying interest

Lead Nurturing

Once leads are in your system, nurture them with targeted content:
– Segment leads based on industry, role, and stage in the buying process
– Create automated email sequences tailored to each segment
– Provide increasingly specific information as leads progress through the funnel
– Use retargeting ads to stay visible during the research phase
– Schedule strategic sales touchpoints when engagement reaches certain thresholds

Sales and Marketing Alignment

For B2B lead generation to be effective, sales and marketing teams must be tightly aligned:
– Establish a formal lead handoff process
– Create service level agreements (SLAs) for lead follow-up
– Implement closed-loop reporting to track which marketing activities generate the most valuable leads
– Hold regular meetings to review lead quality and conversion rates
With a structured approach to lead generation and nurturing, you can create a predictable pipeline of qualified opportunities for your sales team.

Posting Content Regularly 

Websites should be posting new content, ideally a page of around 1500 words, on a regular basis. One good idea is to start a blog. They are easy to update, and maintain, and aren’t technically “new pages” that can clog up the dashboard of your content management system.  The more new content a website has,  the higher it ranks in SERP. 

Building Internal and External Links

Websites should also have working hyperlinks to other pages on their own website as well as other websites. This is a step called link building. Those links must be working, i.e. not leading to pages that include a 404 error code. Google penalizes companies that have a lot of hyperlinks to sites (including pages on their own sites) that are “broken.”

Our marketing strategy includes getting other sites to link to your site, linking to other sites that aren’t your competitors, linking internally, and regularly checking all of these links to make sure none of them are broken. If we find a broken link, we fix it with a redirect. 

Including Keywords in the Right Places on Every Page

Keywords or key phrases are the words people enter into search engines to get their desired results. You can use Google’s Keyword Planner tool to see what keywords people you cater to in the B2B world tend to use, or just think like your customers do. For example, store owners might type, “Alarms for clothing stores” into a search engine.

Use those keywords in your page titles, and a lot on your website if this is a product you sell. You also want to tag all images on your website with those keywords. We can teach you more about keywords or create content for you based on keywords.

Making Sure Your Website Design Is Cool, Fast and Mobile Friendly 

One problem B2B businesses have is that they’re too confident that their current clients won’t leave them. But the truth is, especially during times of high interest rates, people are always looking for cheaper deals. So you want to make sure you’re proving to your existing and new clients that you’re not yesterday’s model of a good B2B business.

Google ranks businesses with fast, mobile-friendly websites higher in SERP. 

Make sure you update your website to reflect current web design styles. Design changes over time. A website that looked cool ten years ago probably looks outdated now. Is this really that important? Yes! According to one study, 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is unattractive.

Ensuring Your Website Loads Quickly

How quickly a web page loads is one of the most important factors that people consider (perhaps unconsciously) when making decisions about your company. More importantly, it matters to Google. They ding websites if images, text, and Flash take too long to load.

Unless you have tech skills, compressing images, removing bad JavaScript, and fixing Flash is hard.  This is another situation when you might want to reach out to an experienced team to help you.

At SEO Design Chicago, we know a ton of ways to improve your website’s page load times. Reach out to us to get more information on how we can fix your website so it loads faster, maintain your site, or offer you more in-depth training on maximizing website performance. 

Bidding on and Creating Strong Google Ads

You’re probably most familiar with the Google Ads that appear at the top of search engine results pages after a person enters certain words into the search bar. They also offer other types of ads, including:

  • Showing your ad with a corresponding image when people check their Gmail
  • Displaying any products you may sell when people search in Google Shopping
  • Playing video ads in the middle of or at the beginning of a video someone clicks on through Google videos

The cost of a Google ad works like this: You bid on keywords that people search for that are related to your business. There’s a chance (which we’ll get to later) that your ads will appear in Google search results. Then you pay whatever you bid if – and only if – the user clicks your ad to visit your website. This is called a pay-per-click ad (PPC). 

In 2023, the average cost of a PPC ad was $1 to $2 for the Google Search Network and $1 for the Google Display Network (that’s the websites, apps, and Google-owned properties like YouTube and Gmail). But that price varies by industry and keywords. We’re skilled in getting you the best ROI in your ad budget. 

Account-Based Marketing (ABM): Targeting High-Value Accounts

Account-based marketing has emerged as a powerful B2B strategy that focuses resources on a set of targeted accounts. Unlike traditional marketing that casts a wide net, ABM is a focused approach that treats individual accounts as markets of one.

When to Use ABM

– Your product/service has a high average contract value
– Your sales cycle involves multiple decision-makers
– You can identify ideal target accounts in advance
– You have resources to create personalized marketing materials

Implementing an ABM Strategy

Identify Target Accounts – Use data analysis to select companies that match your ideal customer profile and have high potential lifetime value

Research Key Stakeholders – Map the decision-making unit within each account, including roles, priorities, and potential objections

Create Personalized Content – Develop customized materials addressing the specific challenges and opportunities of each target account

Coordinate Multi-Channel Outreach – Orchestrate personalized touches across:

   – Customized landing pages
   – Direct mail
   – Executive-to-executive outreach
   – LinkedIn advertising targeting specific companies
   – Industry events
   – Personalized demos and presentations

marketer is creating Google Ads

Measure Account-Level Engagement -Track how targeted accounts interact with your brand across channels

ABM Technology Tools

Several platforms can support your ABM efforts:
– 6sense
– Demandbase
– Terminus
– RollWorks
– LinkedIn Advertising (Account Targeting)
ABM requires greater upfront investment but typically delivers higher ROI for complex B2B sales by focusing resources on the accounts most likely to convert and become valuable customers.

Measuring Success: B2B Marketing Analytics

 

Effective B2B marketing requires robust measurement frameworks that account for longer sales cycles and multiple touchpoints.

Key B2B Marketing Metrics

Beyond basic website analytics, track these critical B2B metrics:

  • Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) – Leads that meet your qualification criteria
  • Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) – MQLs that sales has accepted as viable opportunities
  • Marketing Influenced Pipeline – Total value of opportunities where marketing played a role
  • Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) – Total sales and marketing cost divided by number of new customers
  • Time to Conversion – Average time from first touch to closed deal
  • Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) – Projected revenue from a customer relationship
  • CAC:CLV Ratio – Relationship between acquisition cost and customer value (aim for 1:3 or better)
  • Win Rate – Percentage of opportunities that convert to customers
  • Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) – Revenue attributed to marketing divided by marketing cost

Attribution Models for B2B

Given the complexity of B2B buying, consider these attribution approaches:

  • Multi-touch Attribution – Distributes credit across all marketing touchpoints
  • Position-based Attribution – Weights first touch, lead conversion, and deal closure more heavily
  • Time-decay Attribution – Gives more credit to touchpoints closer to the purchase
  • Custom Attribution – Develops models specific to your sales cycle and buying process

Reporting and Dashboards

Create dashboards that align with your key stakeholders’ priorities:

– Executive dashboards showing ROI and business impact

– Tactical dashboards for campaign optimization

– Sales dashboards showing pipeline and lead quality

– Regular review cadence to identify insights and optimize campaigns

 

Remember, the goal of B2B marketing analytics isn’t just to collect data, but to derive actionable insights that improve future marketing decisions.

Current B2B Marketing Trends and Innovations

To stay competitive, B2B marketers must keep pace with evolving strategies and technologies:

AI and Automation

– AI-powered content generation for personalization at scale

– Predictive analytics to identify high-potential prospects

– Conversational marketing through advanced chatbots

– Automated meeting scheduling and follow-up

Customer Experience Focus

– Seamless omnichannel experiences across digital and physical touchpoints

– Self-service buying options for straightforward purchases

– Interactive product demos and virtual experiences

– Customer success programs integrated with marketing initiatives

Digital-First Events

– Hybrid event formats combining in-person and virtual components

– On-demand content libraries from past events

– Interactive virtual networking opportunities

– Personalized event agendas and content recommendations

Privacy-Conscious Marketing

– First-party data strategies as cookies phase out

– Zero-party data collection through preference centers

– Data clean rooms for privacy-compliant targeting

– Contextual targeting returning to prominence

Content Evolution

– Interactive and experiential content replacing static formats

– User-generated content in B2B contexts

– Short-form video gaining traction in professional settings

– Audio content including podcasts and social audio

By incorporating these trends into your B2B marketing strategy, you can differentiate your brand and connect with potential buyers through channels and formats they increasingly prefer.

 

Nick Antonopoulos

Nick Antonopoulos is the Chief Marketing officer of SEO Design Chicago. Nick has over a decade of experience in Content Creation, SEO and Digital Marketing working with small businesses all the way up to Enterprise level clients.

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