7 top SME digital marketing strategies for B2B
If you're operating in the B2B space, an effective digital marketing strategy is essential. SMEs have small budgets so knowing the best strategies to use can help you to drive success for your business.
If you want to grow your business in 2023, it’s essential to have digital marketing strategies in place. In fact, according to research, 70% of B2B buyers do their research online.
The B2B sales process is transforming. There are more decision makers involved than ever before and the number of touchpoints required before a buyer contacts the sales team has increased significantly.
To meet the new and changing needs of B2B means prioritising your digital marketing strategy for 2023 and building an online presence. But what are the strategies you should employ to drive effective results for your business?
We’ll explore more in this blog…
Before we take a look at the strategies you can employ to reach your target customers online and drive sales for your business, let’s have a look at how B2B marketing compares with B2C.
Marketing for both B2C and B2B follows a similar concept but there are a few key differences to think about.
When it comes to B2C marketing, you are directly targeting direct consumers. However, in B2B marketing, the target audience is other companies and organisations along with the stakeholders within it. Remember that there can be a number of stakeholders and decision makers within a company, all of them with different roles, so you’ll need to factor this into your marketing strategies.
The B2C market is full of customers. On the other hand, the B2B market is more limited and more focused. This is good news because there is less competition but it means your marketing strategy needs to be more focused.
The B2C sales cycle is much shorter than the B2B cycle. In fact, according to McKinsey, the buying cycle for B2B businesses has become even longer since the pandemic.
For B2C, unless it’s a high value product or service, the sales cycle is usually quite short and the buyer researches and purchases either online or offline. In B2B, business transactions require more consideration and the research process can take longer. In addition, there can be multiple decision makers involved which can prolong the decision making process further.
📕If you’d like to know more about the changing needs of B2B buyers, download our new ebook for free: Digital Marketing and Today’s B2B buyer: New Rules of Digital Marketing.
Now that you can see the importance of digital marketing for your SME and how the B2B buying process has changed, let’s have a look at the tried and tested strategies that will help you to drive ROI and grow your business.
For your digital marketing strategy to be successful, you need to know exactly who your target audience is and what their pain points are.
Knowing what they’re looking for and the information they want to know when they’re researching your products or services will allow you to tailor your marketing messages and drive results for your business.
Analyse your existing customers and prospects, learn more about the channels they use to find out information about your business and use it to target your strategies effectively, making sure you meet your customers in the places they’re searching at each stage of their buying journey.
If you don’t have an informative, user friendly website that makes it easy for potential customers to find out more about your business is essential for a successful digital marketing strategy.
The typical B2B sales cycle often involves a number of different decision makers and stakeholders so your website provides a great way for influencers within a business to share information about your product or service.
Your website is a great way to build trust with your prospective customers so many sure it’s responsive, works well and is informative. Make it easy for customers to take action on your site such as signing up for your newsletter or filling out a form.
Paid Search (or PPC, pay per click), helps you to get your brand in front of your target customers on search engines and other platforms through paid ads.
PPC allows you to use paid advertising techniques appear at the top of the search results when your B2B customers are researching online. You can also use remarketing to reach them while they’re browsing online and remind them of your brand until they’re ready to make a purchase.
To make sure you get the best ROI from your campaigns and to optimise your marketing budget, use your buyer persona data to select the correct targeting options and provide prospects with content that they can relate to and which informs their buying decisions,
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is an essential part of any digital marketing strategy. It means that customers will find you online during their research.
Modern B2B buyers are researching online. Research shows that when B2B buyers are considering a purchase, they spend 27% of their time researching online and only 17% of their time meeting with potential suppliers.
So, being found when they’re researching is key to driving sales for your business.
B2B buyers are not yet ready to buy so having content that ranks at every stage of their journey can help you to make sure you’re meeting them at the right times, in the right places. This allows you to support their research process and remain top of mind until they’re ready to buy from you.
A successful SEO strategy allows you to ensure that your website appears at the top of the search engines for the keywords related to your business, allowing potential customers to find you when they’re searching for your products or services.
As we have already mentioned, the B2B buying cycle is long and buyers take time to carefully consider their purchase. These buyers are focused on expertise and want to be educated about their decision.
80% of business decision makers prefer to get their information from a piece of content, rather than an ad.
Content marketing is another important part of marketing to B2B buyers.
Why?
A well thought-out content strategy provides your customers with educational and informative content - exactly what your B2B customers are looking for. In addition, your content marketing supports your SEO strategy. Thinking about what your customers want to know, what they’re searching for and optimising your content, will allow customers to find you online and help you to convert them into paying customers.
Email marketing allows you to build a list of engaged customers that you can continue to keep in touch with until they’re ready to buy from.
Newsletters and lead nurturing allows you to understand who the valuable contacts within your database are and send them targeted and personalised messages to help them inform other decision makers about your company and provide them with the information they need at every stage of their journey.
If you want any of the above digital marketing strategies to be successful, you will need to measure the results of each of your digital channels effectively, and keep an eye on what’s working and what isn’t.
Having the right tools in place will help you to collect accurate data and an overall picture of how your B2B digital marketing strategy is performing. Google Analytics is the best tool fro measuring and analysing where the traffic to your website is coming from. And, it’s free to use.
Understanding which of your marketing efforts are working and which aren’t will help you to continually improve your strategy and drive the best results for your business.
👉 For more information on measuring your campaign, read our blog: B2B Digital Marketing Strategy: The best methods for measuring effectiveness.
Understanding your target audience and implementing the right digital marketing strategies for your business is essential for business growth in 2023.
Making sure your brand is seen by the right customers, in the right places, at the right time will help you to drive traffic to your website and boost sales for your business.
If you’d like to find out more about digital marketing that can get results for your business, please get in touch on hello@logica-digital.co.uk.
Or, why not request a free digital marketing audit?
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At Logica Digital, we take the time to understand your business and customers to create a bespoke marketing plan that will deliver the best return on investment for your business. We always get results.
Call: 0114 551 1534
hello@logica-digital.co.ukWhatsApp: 07822011623
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Sheffield,
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