B2B marketing can be tricky for firms trying to break into a competitive marketplace with niche goods and services.
Your offering might be practical and useful, but the product itself may seem mundane.
So here are four hacks to help you rise to the challenge and convince a business client that you’re the go-to guys with the best solutions.
Get creative
If you’re passionate about your product then use a little imagination to get the message across creatively to potential customers.
This is an indirect way of getting buyers on board and displaying your expertise and authority.
Pharmaceutical brand Novartis created a Beautiful Medicine campaign that takes potential customers on an inspirational journey explaining how nature has shaped culture and medicine throughout human history.
An approach like this works well to convince new customers that you‘re committed to what you do and can be trusted.
Blog
Writing a regular website blog can work wonders for engaging business customers in any specialist niche — from ph testing to agricultural equipment.
You can create posts about the latest developments in your industry or innovative products you’re developing.
And it can bring personality to your brand by humanising your business with photos and videos of staff and community events you may be involved with.
Your regularly refreshed content can also contain keywords that keep you on top of search engine results rankings — so blogging has many varied benefits.
Testimonials
Trust is a big issue for businesspeople — if they’re parting with a substantial amount of cash for your offering they want to know they’ll get their money’s worth.
And traditionally, word of mouth recommendations went a long way in the B2B community.
The digital version equivalents are testimonials — and 53 per cent of B2B buyers rely on peer recommendations before parting with their cash.
So if any of your existing customers are willing to provide a brief quote and a photo of them using your products, place this prominently on your website with a great call to action attached.
This method engages and convinces customers quickly and drives them towards making a purchase or seeking more information.
If you’re plugged into the Google Local network then good reviews can appear next to your business listing on Google Maps and Search — so customers immediately get a good grasp of your high service quality.
Social Media
Getting to grips with social media is a great way to engage with customers and eventually creates a community of online advocates who’ll help grow your business.
Using Facebook Business services along with LinkedIn, Twitter and any other platforms that appeal to your target demographic allows you to post interactive content that’s shared in an instant.
And as long as your content’s optimised for mobile then buyers can access it when they’re on the move.
Social media is another way to inject personality into brands in highly technical sectors — it might not drive sales immediately but it’ll increase awareness and is inexpensive to use.
Your B2B business can boom if you approach marketing from a slightly different angle — these four hacks should help you spread the word about your brilliance.
Do you have any B2B marketing tips? Share your advice in the comments section.
