B2C marketing (Business to Customer) and B2B marketing (Business to Business) are worlds apart. In B2b marketing, offerings are more expensive, and the time frame from lead-to-close time is very long compared to B2C, that’s why you need to approach it in a very strategic manner in order to succeed. You will need to reach out to users in every point and not focus on a specific point of the funnel, all this will educating them on every step of the way.
We will be talking about how to generate new demand, and also take advantage of the intent that you already have acquired.
Use both search and social to get in front of the right audiences
The two most efficient ways in order to reach your intended audience are paid social and paid search.
Paid social will allow you to reach your intended audience and let them know about your services/exist. This is a demand generation play, which will allow you to get in front of highly targeted audience that are more likely to purchase your product/services, so you will be able to guide them to your website, so you will be able to guide them through the funnel.
Paid search is taking advantage of intent from users that already exist. There will be people that are looking for what you have to offer, so by using paid search, you will be serving your product/service in front of the audience in order to ensure that you capture their interest.
Here are some platforms and strategies to utilize paid social.
- Instead of uploading your entire customer list, you should subdivide them, and take your top customers with the highest LTV (lifetime value) and then create lookalike groups based on the top segment. This is called lookalike targeting.
- Facebook has native targeting capabilities where you are able to segment and address different types of audiences based on different titles, the companies they work for, and other criteria.
- Make use of 3rd party data companies which can help you target business based on different size, specific roles, decision makers, and other criteria.
LinkedIn is a great way for you to really hone in on your intended audience by using just the right mix right industries, functions within those industries, seniority type, and company size.
The CPC (Cost Per Click) in LinkedIn are significantly much higher when compared to other channels, so you should be willing to pay the high price for the first click to bring in users to your website. But the high cost is worth it so you will be able to introduce the user to your brand and then you will be able to educate them about the products/services that you offer.
After using LinkedIn to lead users into the funnel, you can then use other platforms which are considerably cheaper than to use when compared to LinkedIn, in order to market to them and push them through the funnel,
Twitter is another social media platform you can use to get in front of your target audience. Even though Twitter doesn’t have as much volume compared to other social media platforms, you will still make enough of an impact to get your content in from of the relevant audience.
- Use lookalike targeting just like the strategy used on Facebook.
- Targeting by followers:
- You can target users following your competitors in order to try and get them onto your side.
- You can target followers of industry thought leaders and publications in order to gain more followers and push them through the sales funnel.
Paid search may be expensive but it is extremely effective so it justifies the cost. Since users that are searching for your brand or product/service already have intent, it puts them into a closer position to sale, so you must do put effort in targeting these users.
There are two main components in a paid search strategy; first is to implement the Alpha Beta campaign structure. This type of campaign is based on single-keyword ad groups and also a mix of negative, exact, and broad match that will also allow you control your top keywords while you are testing out new keywords.
The second is to establish a competitor conquest campaign. This type of campaign is capitalizing on the intent your competitors have acquired and taking it for yourself. This may seem a little sneaky, but you know what they say, ‘all is fare in love and war.’
Use landing pages strategically
Paid search and paid social both require you to divide the audience and keywords in order for you to send the appropriate keywords and appropriate group of audience to the most relevant content/landing page.
When on a campaign where you are searching for new audience, you must understand what each audience is looking for so you will be able to give them content that will give them an insight into your business. You can do this by using a multiple of ways such as whitepaper, a demonstration, etc.
Take into account the keyword and the type of audience you are targeting. If you are targeting the audience from a specific industry, then you should send them to landing pages that are specific to the particular industry.
You will also need to target senior/high level executives at some point, so you should be careful and think about the content that you intent to deliver to them. It should be high-level that discusses the key impacts to the business, value props, etc., that your product/services would benefit them.
When targeting someone that will directly impact his job, you should highlight the more technical specifics since he will be able to understand it even if it’s technical, and it will give him a more in-depth understanding of what you have to offer.
The point is to produce content that will cater to a specific type of audience you are targeting, which will make your campaign more effective.
Now if you don’t have a team that will do this for you, then look no further. We at The Fields Agency are a group of highly trained professional marketing specialist that can help your business reach even greater heights. This article has given you an idea, but letting a professional do it is still a much more cost efficient option and we can guarantee that hiring us is worth the investment.