In the B2B marketing strategy, having a well-developed marketing strategy framework is a key differentiator for success. A successful business will have a strong and comprehensive plan to create leads through various channels of communication. In this blog post, we will outline how you can develop an effective integrated marketing strategy that drives leads and sales. We’ll also give you seven tips to get started with developing your own custom-fit integrated marketing program.
Importance of a B2B Strategy
Having an integrated marketing strategy for B2B is important due to the sheer volume of competition in the market. Consumers are on their phones, on social media, on websites, and on TV channels at any given time.
They’re constantly being marketed to by brands they’ve never heard of. Today’s businesses must provide an excellent customer experience with their products or services, or they will be left behind. Having a strategy allows you to plan ahead and make sure that your marketing is on target.
Having an integrated marketing strategy allows a business to create campaigns across various channels of communication with their target audience in mind. With this approach, the company will have a better chance at engaging new audiences while also turning them into leads for future sales opportunities.
A strong campaign designed around a solid integrated marketing strategy gives businesses the best opportunity to capture more market share from competitors by standing out through creative messaging and content strategies. Partnering with a specialized B2B marketing agency can help amplify these efforts, taking advantage of their expertise in targeting niche markets and optimizing outreach channels.
How do I get started? Strategy development isn’t something that should be taken lightly. Developing an effective strategy takes time and planning, so it’s important not to start until you’ve got all the pieces together.
Start with Market Research on Your ClientsÂ
When enforcing marketing strategy for B2B companies, marketing should be tailored for each customer group or segment. If you’re trying to find an audience for a new product, using risk management software and doing market research will help you figure out the best way to reach them.
The first step is understanding your target demographic, which means asking yourself who are these potential customers? What are their demographics? How old are they? What are their likes and dislikes? For example, if you’re targeting millennials, it’s important to know that they have different preferences than boomers when it comes to what type of information they want about your business.
Leverage Reviews, Testimonials, and Case Studies
A part of a successful integrated marketing strategy is leveraging testimonials from your clients, reviews from your target audience, and case studies as well as marketing automation tools. This helps to show the world what your company can do for them.
You can leverage these things by asking your clients and customers to tell their stories and share them with the world. It can be as simple as asking them via email or social media, but you could also create a customer success story page on your website for this purpose.
Leverage can be advantageous, too, as it allows potential clients to see what their peers are saying about your company. It creates trust and ease of mind for the consumer who may be considering whether or not to work with you. This will be a huge contributor to B2B lead generation.
Have a Developed, SEO Optimized Website
A successful website is, of course, also important for your marketing strategy. It’s the vehicle that will carry your messages to the world. You’ll want to make sure that it’s well-designed and easy to navigate. For example, when B2B prospecting or if you’re targeting millennials, you’ll want a site that’s visually appealing with plenty of pictures and videos.
You’ll also want to make sure you have advanced network access control and that your website is optimized for search engines. This means using keywords in your content that are relevant to your target customers’ queries. It also means giving visitors an easy way to find what they’re looking for by navigating through menus or tabs on the page.
To have a website that is SEO optimized means that you have a website that can rank on the first page of search engines, which is extremely important for driving traffic to your site.
Advertising on Social Media
You can also leverage social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and LinkedIn to offer your messages. Ads are an effective way of targeting people who may be interested in what you have to say about a particular topic or subject matter.
Social media ads allow businesses the opportunity to target specific users based on their interests. For example, if you’re trying to reach out to millennials with the message that your brand is hip and cool, it would make sense for them to see posts from your company showing up on their news feed because they’ve indicated via previous activity that this audience aligns with their interests. Social media is a powerful tool because it can help you connect with your target audience at a low cost.
Referral Marketing
Referral marketing is a powerful way to attract new customers and grow your business. There are two types of referral marketing: active and passive. Active refers to getting people to actively refer others who they think would like your product or service, such as in a contest with monetary rewards (usually for the person who gets the most customers). Passive represents giving away discounts or other inducements when someone you’ve referred makes a purchase.
Active
- Ask friends/family about their favorite stores, then offer them an incentive if they register with you.
- You can also offer exclusive access to content or use social media platforms to ignite conversations that motivate your campaign, such as Reddit.
- Give registrants prizes – usually something that is of high value to the customer (e.g., a vacation).
Passive
- Offer discounts/incentives to your customers when they refer others.
- You can make a proposal of free services or products as well – but make sure you have enough inventory so you don’t run out before giving everyone what they want.
Email Marketing
One of the most effective ways to communicate new services or products is via email. Email campaigns are extremely targeted and allow companies to reach specific customers while they’re interested in their product/service area.
Emails also have high conversion rates when compared to other forms of digital marketing (social media ads, for example), which means more people will take action on what they see in their inboxes than, say, online advertising banners that appear everywhere across the web.
A good way of creating an email campaign is by taking all this information about your potential customer’s demographics and interests into account before sending out emails to different areas within your business, like sales or customer service. You can then include links that are relevant to what the person is looking for in your email campaign, which will increase engagement and conversions.
Using reliable CRM providers is another effective way of communicating new services or products to your customers. It is a database that contains all the information you have about each individual person who has contacted your company over email, via phone call, etc.
You can also use it like an organized list of people interested in what you do – which means they are likely to be future consumers too. It’s important not just because it allows companies to keep track of their contacts but, more importantly, to make sure nothing falls through the cracks when working with multiple clients/customers at once.
Key Takeaways
In conclusion, having an integrated marketing strategy and an effective marketing dashboard is crucial to creating successful campaigns for your B2B company. By using the right tools, you’ll be able to reach more potential customers at a lower cost than traditional forms of advertising like TV or radio ads. Digital platforms are becoming more and more popular with each passing day, which means that companies who can come up with strong strategies will reap huge benefits by reaching their target audiences on social media networks like YouTube & Facebook, among others. By implementing a strong strategy, you are setting yourself up for success with your B2B company.
