B2B Marketing Services
What is B2B Marketing?
Fundamentally, B2B (or business-to-business) marketing is one company marketing its products or services to another company. Typically, in the scenario, one business offers a product or service that is purchased by another business either for use in broader production, manufacturing, or resale. The companies which sell to other businesses use a B2B marketing approach. Businesses that buy the products or services of another business then are the customers in the relationship.
While B2B sounds straightforward, it involves a large network of decision-makers and requires adept navigation of multiple marketing channels. Services offered by B2B marketing agencies help clients navigate marketing channels, develop marketing and advertising content, reach target audiences, and convert leads to buyers.
Since B2B marketing requires businesses to appeal and sell to other businesses, the transactions are deliberate, well-researched, and are always an investment. Unlike one-off or often impulsive consumer purchases, B2B is a business decision. B2B marketing demands extensive knowledge of its industry market and application of strategies that target logic, emotion, and ethics. From sustainability and cost to ingenuity and reputation, a company must market its comprehensive value to target a breadth of decision-makers. For B2B customers, ROI and financial incentives matter. But so do expertise and relationships between businesses. B2B transactions take place within the supply chain. Since many decision-makers influence B2B purchases, navigating the challenges of channel conflict is critical in successful B2B business and marketing.
B2B marketing agencies are adept at understanding the concerns and positions of various influencers within the supply chain, and can help companies employ marketing strategies that appeal to the needs of various target audiences. Ultimately, there are a lot of moving pieces that B2B marketing agencies must take into consideration: the pain points of an organization’s purchaser as well as the end user—and everyone in-between on the chain of command.
What is B2B Marketing by Definition?
B2B marketing involves a network of intricate channels which demand professional creative, social media, analytics, public relations, account strategy, production, and operations. A full-service B2B agency houses all the right crew members to support your business’s marketing initiatives.
The cornerstone of B2B marketing is establishing your brand. Whether your company is already established, or still in its ideation stages, a B2B agency can help you hone and craft your brand. They will help clarify your vision by sorting through everything that matters, to get to what matters most. Developing a recognizable—and memorable—brand helps ensure that your company grows into what you envision, and reaches and resonates with the intended target audiences. Brand development and strategy is paramount to establishing a memorable, and ultimately successful business. B2B agencies help develop and implement brand strategies that are impactful from a company’s inception through its evolution.
Branding often begins with a name and logo, but it’s important to have a solid brand foundation before jumping into even these first steps. A brand strategy takes into consideration a business’s identity, goals, and holistic perspective to inform each forward-facing piece of branding. B2B agency creatives include professional researchers and logophiles, aka copywriters, capable of not just naming, but identifying and christening your brand. Additionally, designers and art directors are dedicated to depicting a modern and distinctive logo that will signify and set your brand apart. Of course, branding doesn’t end there. Brand guidelines, which your B2B agency can help you establish and draw up, set standards and rules you will use to maintain brand consistency across channels. From the history and values of your business to the color palette, typeface, and iconography you use—brand guidelines are crucial to building, sustaining, and growing your business. If your brand is already established, a team of B2B agency experts can be enlisted to help you refine, rebrand, or adhere to your brand guidelines. With the soundness of your brand in mind, each marketing initiative will reiterate the tone of your brand.
As you know, marketing is more than just advertising, trade shows and social media posts. But the breadth of marketing channels is extensive, and navigating its intricacies requires the experience and knowledge of a qualified B2B agency. Digital marketing, PR, social media, search engine optimization and marketing, traffic and lead generation, events, trade shows, videos, infographics, case studies, white papers, content marketing, and creative production all strengthen the presence of your brand across multiple channels. A B2B agency assists with creating and publishing all marketing tactics. Full-service B2B agencies can skillfully co-pilot your marketing initiatives from the conception of your brand to the execution of advertising, through maintaining the flow of your marketing presence and sales for your business.
B2B agencies understand that your customers have customers. Understanding the needs and market of your business and the ones you serve is paramount to developing marketing content and strategies that will cast the largest—and strongest—net. Who you market to, and how you do it, is the compass of channels you must navigate in B2B marketing. Those dynamic channels of B2B marketing require us to understand the sales cycle and depths of the B2B industries. To this end, B2B agencies develop messaging that can reach multiple audiences, without being watered down. Diligent research and keen understanding of market industries ensure a B2B agency may connect with each of the audiences within a channel.
What are B2B Marketing Strategies?
Content marketing & marketing content
Content marketing is effective toward reaching and converting potential leads. Digital content includes a variety of assets such as articles, blog posts, infographics, white papers, e-books, videos, and case studies. B2B digital marketing agencies will learn the details of your industry and business to help you archive and create digital content. Content creation comes in many forms and requires extensive knowledge of digital marketing channels. Taking your valuable assets, such as testimonials and case studies, and housing them on your website or social media is a great way to share positive responses and reviews of your products and/or services. Creating evocative and informative infographics and writing knowledgeable and persuasive articles are also services your B2B digital marketing agency will offer your business. Partnering with a B2B digital marketing agency helps you successfully reach your target audiences.
Within marketing channels is the marketing content a brand posts, publishes, or otherwise shares. Producing content generates traffic, leads, and sales. Successful marketing content derives high ROI. And no one is better suited to deliver consistently creative and proficient content than a B2B agency. For your business, publishing original research and industry content is a great way to launch content marketing. Assets including white papers, blogs boasting thought leadership, and case studies strengthen your library of marketing content. High-quality content not only helps your business gain credibility, it also gets traction with search engine traffic which generates more leads.
Infographics
Infographics are a great way to cut through information clutter and concisely (and creatively) share attention-grabbing content. As the name suggests, they are informational. But when it comes to content marketing, pairing information with creative graphics is a formula for success.
White papers
White papers, though less creative than infographics, are staples of B2B marketing. Businesses educate their target audiences by offering well-crafted white papers that provide evidence of credibility and expertise. Professionals in your industry looking to continue their education can benefit from your published white papers. On one hand, they may use your white papers to learn about a product, system, or service. And on the other hand, when they use your white paper for such education, they may then look to your business for partnership and solutions from a sales perspective.
Case studies
Case studies are testimonials, essentially, for B2B marketing content. They have a high success rate for converting leads to buyers since they work to demonstrate quantifiable and real-life application—and success—of products and services. B2B agencies can help you contact interviews, research, craft and publish case studies that do your business the justice it deserves.
B2B Digital Marketing Examples
Your website
For most businesses, the epicenter of their brand is their website. An appealing, easy-to-use, secure, and aesthetically pleasing website helps convert traffic to sales. A website is more than a landing page—it is a living marketing device that will be accessed from search engines by potential customers keying in pains that your business can uniquely address. SEO and PPC strategies can help drive traffic to your website and generate more qualified leads. Improving search engine visibility bolsters brand recognition and memorability, while clicks help convert leads to sales. Channeling website visitors to products and services through your website is an essential way to garner sales. A B2B agency employs media, creative, and account experts capable of designing a website that works as its own marketing powerhouse.
Email marketing
Tried and true, email marketing is an effective method to reach and convert leads. B2B digital marketing agencies will help craft informed copy, design email graphics and templates that stand out to viewers and build brand awareness with recipients.
Email newsletters are another smart way to share your company’s products and services with leads while building credibility and brand awareness. Industry news, company updates, and CTAs can be included in regular, enjoyable e-newsletters.
Social media
Digital marketing increasingly turns to social media to generate leads and reach target audiences. B2B digital marketing agencies offer services that help clients allocate marketing budgets to social media platforms with the highest, relevant usage, as well as create marketing and advertising content to post on social media.
Many of the most popular social media platforms are used in B2B digital marketing. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are among platforms that digital marketers use to promote B2B advertising. Each platform has its unique benefits and post etiquette, which B2B digital marketing agency account managers and creatives can help your company navigate.
Creating a strong social media presence is a great tool for building brand awareness and gaining advertising exposure with target audiences. From C-suite executives to end users, social media reaches each audience considered in the B2B buying journey.
Video
Video content is great for social media and B2B branding generally. Audiences in B2B markets are familiar with blogs and report content, but are also inclined to engage with video content as a useful and personable source of information—and marketing content. Videos can be shared to social media, sent in newsletters and emails, and housed on your website to help convert traffic to leads.
B2B Marketing Campaigns
Multichannel digital marketing campaigns engage high volumes of audiences, generate brand awareness, and improve a company’s conversion rate. This is accomplished by combining brand-aligned messaging with a product and/or service advertisement that can be featured on multiple digital marketing channels simultaneously, over a period of time. A digital marketing campaign connects a singular message across channels to generate leads and increase conversation about the company.
B2B digital marketing agencies will use their technology and research skills to identify and gain insights into target audiences. Next, creative will develop a digital marketing campaign that encompasses both a central message and a direct or indirect, but influential call to action.
The success of a digital marketing campaign is quantifiable. Website traffic and engagement, search actions, and purchasing decisions are measurable results of a digital marketing campaign. B2B digital marketing agencies will use analytics to track lead and customer behavior before, during, and post-digital marketing campaign to determine how well the campaign performed.
Creative Digital Marketing
When we define B2B marketing, we typically discuss businesses selling to other businesses. And that is true. But we also note that B2B marketing is distinctive because of its longer and more populated buying journey. That’s because a business isn’t really doing the buying or selling. Humans are. Successful B2B digital marketing agencies know that target audiences are real people with real pain points, careers, and lives. B2B marketing may be different—but it shouldn’t be boring.
In the same ways that it is important to develop clear yet unique branding, that same stand-out mentality is applied to marketing and advertising. The internet, social media, and the nature of being plugged-in in the modern era demands that each marketing tactic grab the attention of its audience. B2B may involve the sale of logistical products or services, in some instances, but the people in need of making that purchase are as bombarded with media professionally as they are personally. And that means that B2B digital marketing must execute high-quality creative with each deliverable.
While creative B2B digital marketing isn’t dull or forgettable, it does not need to be gimmicky or over-the-top to be successful. B2B digital marketing agencies are pros at making sure that digital marketing content and ads remain true to a company’s brand, clearly convey messaging, and engage audiences where they live, work, and play.
Research, Media, Data & Analytics
B2B marketing requires adept targeting of multiple decision-makers by applying a variety of precise techniques simultaneously. Learning about each audience’s specific pains and desired solutions is aided using data, analytics, and AI technologies by B2B agencies. Diving into owned data helps in targeting current and prospective customers based on client records. From there, B2B marketers can deliver personalized advertising campaigns and marketing content to leverage conversions of prospects to purchasers.
Maintaining customer relationships leans on continuous application of technology. Applying data gleaned from channels that prospective clients have interacted with can lead to product improvements, for instance. And using AI can help create tailored messaging that both reaches and appeals to qualified customers. B2B agencies work in partnership with technology. Digital advertising algorithms help create relevant content quicker, and then AI can help funnel that information to experts in the industry moving toward sales conversions. The best part is that while this part of marketing may seem murky to some, an adept data department helps B2B agencies make it look easy.
Your B2B Marketing Agency
B2B marketing agencies employ an arsenal of creatives, account service professionals, PR experts, and operations gurus to support businesses through each part of the B2B marketing process. From brand development to campaign success analytics and each step in-between, B2B marketing agencies provide both tried-and-true and contemporary tools and strategies to deliver marketing success.