4 Essential B2B Marketing Strategies to Improve Your Digital Presence

August 27, 2020
Contributor: Rupal Bhandari

Online research is the first thing consumers do these days before they make up their minds about buying anything. The B2B segment is no different.

Four essential B2B marketing strategies to put your best digital foot forward

B2B buyers spend about 27% of their buying process independently researching online. This number keeps dropping as the process gets more personal — 18% when researching offline, 17% when meeting potential suppliers and maybe only 5% or 6% when meeting a sales rep.

These preferences stretch marketing efforts, as it becomes important to capture the interest of a potential buyer on digital channels (such as email marketing, content marketing and social media marketing). Software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors must put their best digital foot forward to make a strong impression on potential B2B buyers and stay on their radar.  

Digital marketing strategies carry even greater importance in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when 46% of B2B software buyers say they have accelerated their software purchase/implementation timelines. However, this stimulus to software sales experiences a headwind from budget cuts and shrinking resources that are taking away the time and money a B2B marketer could have invested in digital marketing.  

In such situations, prioritizing impactful and low-cost inbound marketing channels with effective B2B marketing strategies can be a boon to a SaaS provider’s marketing efforts. 

We discuss four B2B marketing strategies that can help teams improve their digital presence and increase the overall effectiveness of marketing efforts.
[B2B Marketing Strategies]
Strategy No. 1: Include a clear value proposition on the website homepage.

Every time a potential customer lands on a business website, they very quickly make a judgment as to whether the site’s content is worth further evaluation based on what they see right away. So it’s critical to provide a clear value proposition that tells that customer what the software solution does, who it’s for and how it’s different from other tools on the market. 
Marketing tactics that optimize your homepage and boost your B2B marketing plan:
 
  • Content marketing is not just about the text — images and videos are just as important, if not more so. Mix and match those ingredients to capture visitors’ interest and to demonstrate how your offering could address their pain points. 

  • Include a primary call to action (CTA) within the first fold of the homepage, and embed secondary CTAs further down the page to give visitors multiple opportunities to jump to the pages you want them to see. This will increase your lead generation opportunities.

  • Add social proof to highlight how your software has positively impacted users. Instances of success stories, positive testimonials, industry awards and recognitions, and ratings from top platforms are good examples to support your lead nurturing efforts. 
Strategy No. 2: Use product pages to highlight use cases and ideal buyers.

Do you have a project management tool that is ideal for construction contractors or a time-tracking tool designed for retailers? Highlight such salient features on the product page, along with detailed information on how your software solves some of the pressing challenges of an industry. 

This will enable you to connect with your target audience and buyer persona while gently filtering out visitors who don’t fit your desired customer profile, thus helping you avoid receiving bad reviews of your software from disgruntled users.
Marketing tactics that optimize your product page and boost your B2B marketing plan:
 

  • Provide visitors with a clear information hierarchy instead of confusing them with scattered information about the software. A good pattern for a B2B business looks like this: Product description > features > prominent use cases > integrations > tool setup and running experience.

  • Highlight user experiences and customer journeys with pictures and videos of the product in action. This is similar to the “after” version of customer photos at a fitness center. Your version could show a buyer’s work life after they’ve implemented your software and how it meets the desired business goals.
Strategy No. 3: Optimize landing pages for lead nurturing.

Landing pages are usually created for a target audience directed to them via social media and email marketing. This means certain promises have already been made in the content they’ve consumed so far. 

Landing pages can help SaaS providers follow up on those promises and nurture leads with relevant, more specific or more detailed information. Landing pages can also help marketers better understand a visitor’s unique requirements through forms, which can further help them qualify leads. 
Marketing tactics that optimize your landing page and boost your B2B marketing plan:
 

  • Create a buyer persona and use it to tailor your content. Remember, landing page visitors have already been targeted by outbound marketing campaigns; this is your opportunity to show how your software fits their specific use case.

  • Keep registration forms short to avoid intimidating visitors with lengthy information requirements. To request more than five data points, break down the form into two or three steps.
Strategy No. 4: Create buyer-specific content for social media marketing.

Nearly 46% of buyers use social media in the early stages of their journey for tasks such as creating product/vendor shortlists, and 40% use social media in the middle stages to learn about pricing and to consult current users (full information available to Gartner clients only). 

That makes effective social media integral to any B2B marketing strategy. Use the platforms your target buyers prefer, to build credibility and foster trust. Relevant content that addresses specific business needs and solves immediate problems is crucial in that regard. 
Marketing tactics that can boost your social media strategy and performance:
 

  • Conduct a detailed audit of your social media profiles and ensure all images and descriptions align with the platform’s requirements for computer and mobile screens.

  • Take stock of key performance indicators (KPIs) such as engagement metrics, publishing metrics, audience demographics, referral traffic and channel-specific metrics to select two or three platforms to focus on. 
The bottom line: Focus on marketing channels where you have publishing control

Establishing or enhancing your digital marketing plan can easily feel overwhelming given the vast number of websites and platforms you need to research and navigate. The list of popular social media handles, niche commentary forums and third-party user review sites is seemingly endless, and creating the one strategy that targets every available marketing channel is not viable. 

When working with a fixed or limited budget, focus on marketing channels that give you the most publishing control. These include your website, product pages, landing pages and social media profiles. Optimizing these channels with effective B2B marketing strategies will help you dramatically improve your digital presence and meet marketing goals.   

 

Guide customers through the sales funnel with increased velocity while creating a positive brand experience with a customer engagement strategy.

 

Rupal Bhandari
Rupal Bhandari covers sales and account management markets. She received her master’s degree from the University of Delhi, India, and has created content for some of the world’s leading technology products and companies. Connect with Rupal on LinkedIn.
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