B2B marketing generates demand from other businesses for their products and services. It helps you reach beyond the sales motives and create deeper values. Amidst market uncertainty, proactive and agile marketing campaigns achieve desired outcomes.  Read on to check the critical factors for running successful B2B marketing campaigns.

B2B Marketing Framework

The stages for creating a successful B2B marketing framework are as follows:

Click to enlarge the image

×

 

1. Market Segmentation and focus on Target Segment

Each market segment is different. While some fetch good ROI, others may not. So, various proposals must be created to cater to the specific needs of each segment.

2. Creating an Ideal Customer Profile for the Target Market Segments

An ideal customer profile or ICP helps attract high-quality leads and represents the key customers. The marketing team will customise ads, emails, proposals, and sales pages to attract suitable leads. 

3. Competitor Analysis

Analysing your competitor helps you identify weak points and stay ahead in the game. Ahrefs, Similarweb, SEMrush and BuzzSumo are tools that help you keep an eye on channels that fetch the most traffic for the competitors

Using such tools is crucial as analysing the available tools and marketing channels to check which one works best is tedious and time-consuming. 

4. Identifying USPs for a Target Market

Unique selling points (USPs) make a company stand out among its competitors and build brand identity. The term represents the distinctive line of messaging brands adopt to promote and sell products and services.

Defining the company’s USPs compellingly to reach the right prospects forms the primary strategic goal of B2B marketing campaigns. 

5. Attracting Prospects

Only a tiny percentage of your majority of prospects will buy the products and services. Hence, targeting at every stage of the sales funnel can be helpful.

6. Identifying the Correct Channels

While implementing the B2B marketing strategies, clear goals must be set to stand out amidst the competition. Identify resources by considering the budget and ROI. Finally, the marketing channel needs to be carefully identified, as not all are suitable for various market segments. 

B2B Marketing Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

• Easy to Convince the End Customer

In this marketing form, a firm deals with another firm instead of the end customer. With shared knowledge and background in business, convincing them about a product/service becomes somewhat more manageable.

• Better Returns

Returns are huge in B2B marketing. Rather than selling products to many customers, you are pitching to a company, which is equivalent to selling to multiple customers in a single transaction.

• Builds Brand Loyalty

With impressive service, your tie-up with another company can continue for an extended period. Essentially, B2B marketing creates strong loyalty for the brand. 

Disadvantages

• Limited Target Market

Unlike a wide array of individual customers in a B2C model, in this marketing form, the target markets are fixed.

• Caps Bargaining Power

A B2B marketing often results in another company placing a bulk order for your products and services. In most cases, discounts are invariably offered, lowering your bargaining power.

• Conversions Less Likely

Much as the returns are higher in B2B Marketing campaigns, low conversion rates are also likely. An example of an effective campaign that led to quick sales is hard to come by. 

Types of B2B Marketing Campaigns

1. Social media

Social media is vital for businesses to remain competitive and enhance their image. Instagram and LinkedIn are primary B2B platforms for the target audience.  

Types of content for B2B marketing campaigns on social media platforms include industry-relevant news and customer testimonials. In addition, you can also post educational material in the form of blogs and address customer pain points.

2. Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaigns

PPC campaigns allow your business to reach a set target audience with greater accuracy. Facebook and Google Ads are two top tools offering in-depth segmentation features.

PPC even provides access to analytics which helps a business check what works best in digital ad campaigns. Effective utilisation of PPC can enhance brand awareness and generate leads for the business.  

3. Advocate Marketing

It involves leveraging the current network for new lead generation. Since people are more inclined to listen to someone they trust, advocate marketing can prove more effective than other marketing types. 

4. Podcasts

Podcasts allow you to communicate and captivate your audience. 82% of marketers use podcasts.  It creates value for listeners because they are often informative and educational.

5. Gated educational content

B2B marketing campaigns revolve around content. It’s the reason why 41% of marketing professionals say that content is their top efficiency driver.

In fact, 67% of B2B marketing professionals have used lead-gated content to generate website traffic, generate leads, and improve sales opportunities. However, in doing so, they’ve overlooked another valuable technique they can use to drive results – ungated content.

6. Case studies

Case studies help explain how a particular strategy or tactic was employed to accomplish a goal or desired outcome. Case studies are useful in explaining how a client’s problem was solved and how that approach can be applied to other situations. Case studies are great for getting you closer to prospective clients. They’re a good way to show them the value you can provide with your product or service.

7. Newsletters

Newsletters are one of the most effective and underused B2B marketing campaigns. There’s a lack of understanding by marketers about how powerful email marketing is. Email can help you nurture leads, foster relationships and grow your business. You can subscribe to our newsletter here.

If you are looking for up-to-date industry insights, tips on b2b marketing and brand strategy insights, subscribe to our newsletter here.

Steps to Create B2B Marketing Campaigns

1. Goal Setting

Setting clear goals before starting a B2B marketing campaign is essential. There must be clarity in understanding the goals you are trying to accomplish, success metrics, and potential failure points. These goals must be specific, relevant, measurable, time-bound and achievable.  

2. Design a Campaign Workflow

The workflow in a B2B marketing campaign is a visual representation of user behaviour for the campaign’s length, from initial engagement to conversion. 

The ads must be primarily on the platforms where the target customers are active. Sponsorships, Google-based digital advertising, print ads and demand side platforms can reach prospects.

3. Tailored Messages for Your Marketplace

Tailoring messages for the target marketplaces requires understanding the latter. A high-return B2B marketing campaign needs clarity on some primary points like:

• The target segment for the product or service, e.g. SMBs/ whole industry or the larger firms.
•  Key decision-makers in the target companies.
• General prospects who have turned out to be the best customers.
• Their pain areas

4. Testing and Measuring the Campaign Outcome

Consistently testing and optimisation is a crucial part of a B2B marketing campaign; designing a campaign and expecting it to yield desired results automatically does not work. Below are some campaign elements that may require constant monitoring.

• Your marketing team must consistently conduct tech checks on the landing page.
• If you have used an ad that fails to fetch required views, you must replace it with something more interesting.
• Make the subject line more catchy for emails that mostly go unopened.

Observe everything closely without getting demotivated by small failures. Instead, consider them as learning lessons.  

5. Quantum Marketing

Quantum marketing embraces uncertainty in its strategy. It involves reaching out to anyone who could buy the product/service in the short or long term.

Creatives are designed that are relevant to a set of customers rather than specific buyers.  

The marketing plan must be flexible enough to protect the core objective. While designing a campaign around specific goals, you should also have a backup plan; careful planning will help you avoid going off track in an uncertain situation.

6. Strategy Diversification

Diversifying strategy is a way to ensure that others can balance the underperformance of anyone. This way, the whole B2B marketing campaign won’t lose momentum.

It is essential to subject followers to paid and organic content; such diversification in strategy will result in 61% more conversion than just relying on paid content. 

Similarly, brand and demand marketing results in excellent outcomes when used in tandem. Demand marketing is tempting because it fulfils short-term metrics. Coupled with brand awareness campaigns, it can lead to sustainable growth. 

When it comes to running successful b2b marketing campaigns, sometimes the sheer amount of available information can be overwhelming. This makes it difficult to decide what to focus on and when. With this in mind, Pixelmattic created a growth system that takes care of all the heavy lifting for you. It’s a systematic approach designed to grow your business through intentional digital marketing strategies that drive real results.

Conclusion

Besides goal setting, brainstorming, content creation and the sales team’s effort alignment, it is crucial to determine the measurable parameters before starting the B2B marketing campaign. 

Regular measuring and analytics can play a significant role in identifying whether the efforts are fruitful and reduce the chances of failures. For a successful B2B marketing campaign, follow the steps mentioned above.