B2B marketing is becoming more about hard data than ever before. Forget the vanity metrics – the content marketing that you invoke should be cost and time efficient, focused on the data, and directed by modern standards. Here are some of the best marketing ideas for your business to take you through 2017.
Help Customers Instead of Selling Them
You are already dealing with a longer sales cycle when it comes to B2B. Lead nurturing is essential to success, so don’t even try to close any deals on initial interaction. This is the time to showcase your self as an expert in your field. Eventually, your target customers will convince themselves they need you.
In the first stages of your sales funnel, focus on giving value to the most important buyer types in your profiles. Make sure that you are putting yourself forward as a transparent individual and your business as an authoritative solutions provider. This will make your customers more likely to convert when it is actually time to put all cards on the table.
Pick Up on Long Tail Keyword Variants
There is no need to jostle for the top spot on Google with your industry’s leader. They likely have a marketing budget that dwarfs yours, and they will be able to simply buy you out of any position for generic keywords. Use your industry niche to focus your keyword ranking efforts in a more specific direction.
The advantages of longtail keywords are numerous and immense. However, you must be sure that you are looking for the appropriate kind of results. You will generate less overall search volume, but the volume that you do generate will be more qualified.
Focus on Interactive Content
Making sure that your blogs rank, even with longtail keywords can be difficult if you are not using interactive content. This may cost a bit more, and you may not be able to spread the word to as many prospects, but that is exactly the point. You will have to focus your buyer’s profiles and fixate your efforts on specific customers, which will give you better results in the end.
Interactive content also ensures more personalized content to more qualified leads. You will be able to promote your content directly to those accounts rather than trying to come up with marketing slogans that fit everyone. Believe it or not, the former is easier than the latter.
Focus Your CTAs on Information Grabs
One of the most important aspects of any B2B marketing campaign is the notion of customers opting in. At some point, you must convince your customers that it’s their decision to choose you rather than the other way around. One of the best ways to do this is to gradually take your customers step-by-step through gradually more in-depth information grabs.
Although all you really need is an email to start, from there, you can continue to provide value through newsletters, viral videos and other exclusive content. Properly deployed, these tactics will have your prospects looking forward to your emails. They may eventually forget how they got in touch with you – all they know is that right now, you are an essential part of their world. This is where sales come from.
The tips above will certainly give your marketing campaign a boost if employed in tandem. Keep your ear to the street for new marketing techniques that will show themselves as the B2B market evolves.
