The B2B market is huge, much larger than many would think, research pegs the B2B somewhere between 1.5-2 times the size of the B2C market. While often you won’t recognize the names of B2B firms quite as much as you might B2C firms, they are a massive part of the global economy, and sales between firms is a major factor financially.
B2B marketing can be quite different than B2C, with a different model for sales, customer interaction, visibility, and often longer sales cycles.
What’s the best way to market and grow sales for a B2B firms?
Let’s take a look at the topmost effective B2B marketing strategies in 2021. This will be a quick guide to some of the most effective B2B marketing strategies for 2021.
B2B Video Content and B2B Video Marketing
Video content has moved from being an optional extra in marketing plans to a central necessity to generate sales and inbound leads. It boils down to video being so much more engaging and interesting than simply reading something. Everyone has become so into streaming, watching web series, youtube channels, and podcasts, that this carries over to the business world as well.
Pageviews, CTR, email open and click-through rates, digital spend and presentation all will be greatly improved by video content. The rich combination of sound and video presents problems and solutions in a way that static content simply can’t compete.
For B2B businesses, video content is used in many ways. Explainer video content is a great way to explain a product or brand launch. Promo video content is a powerful way to answer the “why should we care about your company?” question. Case study videos go a long way to closing clients or generating leads from firms that have a similar problem to the one you just demonstrated solving.
Many B2B firms are even turning to vlog, web series, and channel style video content as a way to boost SEO and inbound traffic.
All in all- video content is no longer optional in the B2B space and is a major differentiator between competitors. Keep in mind, one video can often be used for more than a year and in a variety of ways. Particularly for paid channels such as digital and email marketing, a video is a powerful tool to heavily boost ROI, as it essentially multiples your CTR and open rate by a factor of 1.5 -2x.
Don’t miss out on lead generation and conversion you’ll gain from using video content. If your competitors are using video and you aren’t… well you need to catch up or get left behind.
Volan Media is a top Knoxville Tennessee video production company that provides explainer videos, broadcast tv production, corporate style video production, VR 360 video content, and interview style video production.
Industry Recognition
Speaking at industry associations and events is a powerful way to cement your firm as a leader in the industry. It creates weight and level of authority within your field that can be hard to replicate. Many of the most successful and long-time incumbents in various industries are heavily involved in the associations and even in lobbying on behalf of the industry. The networking, connections, and credibility your company gain will be worth the time.
Tradeshows and Tradeshow Video Content
Tradeshows are hugely important, while covid-19 put a major damper on the tradeshow scene, look towards late 2021 or early 2022 for the tradeshow world to reignite. Tradeshow gives your brand attention, one on one interactions, and exposure that can be hard to find otherwise. Much focus has been on consumer electronics or automotive tradeshows as a place to release and show off new products. Even for less glamourous industries, the product demonstrations, speaking and demo opportunities, and potential networking are critical pieces to B2B strategy.
Tradeshows, especially when you have a booth, are not at all cheap to attend and send your team to. Make sure you are maximizing this ROI with a sharp-looking booth, great giveaway items, and media content.
We’ve been to a ton of trade shows over the years and the brands that have sharp-looking booth design, large TVs with a great video or VR 360 content are the booths that ALWAYS have a bunch of visitors. Once you’ve spent $40,000-$100,000 to be at a trade show, spending $5,000-$30,000 more for great content that can be used multiple years that will increase booth visitors 4-10X is well worth it.
PR for B2B
PR can be tough to properly manage, and many companies aren’t great at managing their PR coverage. For the most part, developing relationships directly with a number of industry reporters is the long-term way to build a PR funnel that doesn’t solely rely on a PR firm. That being said, a great PR firm or consultant can be a major boost to your inbound leads and traffic, landing you media spots that you wouldn’t be able to get otherwise. B2B PR is important is there are publications and news sites for every industry imaginable, so make sure to think through press releases, tease new product or service launches and spend the time necessary to craft accompanying media to make your press release really stick.
Constant Contact
For most B2B firms, the sales cycle is not as short as it is for B2C products or services. B2B sales cycles can literally last years. For example, if you are a paper processing plan looking to upgrade your log processing equipment you will spend years in a bidding and comparative analysis phase as your investment is a major capital expenditure of 1 million or more.
Developing the right level of contact with your prospective customers is really important, and can be tough to get right. But in general, as long as you aren’t annoying your prospects, the more contact the better. Staying in front of customers lets you build a relationship with them, better understand their needs and limitations, and keeps you in front of your competitors. Keep in mind, this largely comes down to the actual person you are working with at a customer’s firm and can vary quite a lot.
All sorts of media can and should be used to stay in front of customers, often a mix of newsletters, email marketing, video content, case studies, and webinars are used.
Outbound Sales in B2B
While the trend in recent years has been a focus on inbound sales, the truth is, outbound sales is a critical function to building deal flow that cannot be overlooked. The differences between industries should be taken into account, but an experienced sales manager can be the difference between winning significant business. Marketing and sales teams should work closely, with a focus on the type of communication and questions a customer might have. Unique value proposition, pros and cons of your product, conversations with prior customers and of course- pricing, should all be considered carefully when building a sales process and funnel. B2B sales take many forms, but in a post-Covid world, emails, phone calls, zoom calls, and webinars are important sales tools any B2B firm needs to consider.
B2B Email Marketing
Email is one of the single most important tools in your B2B marketing arsenal. Email can deliver a huge range of content directly to anyone without buffers. Building an email list of leads, then segmenting the list overtime is a key component of any good B2B marketing plan. Make sure email marketing best practices are used along with a good email marketing automation tool that can provide email marketing analytics. We’ll go into more detail below on analytics, but for emails, analytics is a major contributor to overall success.
B2B Digital Marketing
How much should you budget for digital marketing 2021? The answer from many is around 25-50% of the overall marketing budget depending on industry and product. The higher range of that are often e-commerce firms selling B2C products, but for B2B firms which rely on a lot of offline sales channels, the lower end is more typical. Digital marketing spend will continue to rise over time as social media, and services like google AdWords are only becoming more integral to marketing plans.
Our recommendation is to work with your marketing partner to target specific keywords then optimize your digital spend over time.
B2B Marketing Website Tips
In 2021 there is really no excuse to have a terrible circa 2005 looking website. Your website is your online presence and more often than not the first impression your prospects have of your company. You should clearly lay out your products, services, have a blog for SEO and educational purpose, incorporate video content, and have several areas to collect email or contact requests. Don’t let your website hold you back, for many companies in the B2B space they absolutely do!
B2B Business Marketing Analytics
Data analytics are like your compass in marketing. Using data analysis to optimize campaigns and marketing spend will not only make your marketing more effective but also increase overall ROI. Knowing what works and what doesn’t work is hugely important as you plan for next year’s marketing plan. Compiling data analytics is often the first step towards making improvements to your marketing plan on a yearly or quarterly basis, and can help you more accurately split total marketing budgets amongst the different marketing categories.
Volan Media is a top Knoxville, Tennessee video production and marketing agency with years of experience working on a range of projects, everything from 1800s steam railway locomotives to the most cutting-edge cancer treatments. If you turn on the tv in East Tennessee, chances are you’ll see one of our ads! We are a top Knoxville, Tennessee video production firm, with projects commonly being used for explainer videos, broadcast/cable tv ads, digital ads, recruitment. Volan Media also is a top Knoxville Tennessee virtual Reality video production firm, having made a large number of 360 videos and VR productions across a range of industries, including various tradeshow VR 360 videos, treatment and branding VR videos, and VR experiences.
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