In the US, over 30.2 million small businesses open shop each morning in hopes that they'll make the profits essential to remain in operation. As one of these businesses, it's clear that you'll need to put in the work to rise above the vast competition within your market. While this may sound like a daunting task, it really isn't that difficult- all you need to do is learn about and implement the best B2B marketing strategies that your competitors are using and put an innovative and more effective spin on them.
B2B is simply an acronym for business-to-business, which is the type of marketing that you'll need to engage with if other businesses are your target customer. Here, we're going to talk about some of the most important things you can do to show organizations that could use your product that you're the best in the industry.
Read on to make sure that your B2B company continues to thrive in an increasingly cutthroat business world!
Video Marketing
You've likely been told that having videos on your webpage is an essential part of engaging your target audience. But did you know that 73% of consumers state that they're more likely to purchase a product after viewing a video about it? Well, it's true!
Having a video of a person talking into a camera about the services that you provide is a surefire way to make more sales. Since a human being like yourself is behind every one of the businesses that you're marketing to, establishing a human connection is essential to B2B marketing. People who see a video of another human being speaking about a service that they've enjoyed establishes a human-to-human connection between your brand and theirs, making them more likely to take the leap and purchase your services since they trust another person.
If you want to go another route, you can use computerized animations to show the ways that your product matters. These are basically moving infographics, and they're a great way that you can present numeric data on why you're effective to your audience. Fun animations make people laugh and establish a level of interest in the product that wouldn't otherwise exist, so this is definitely an option to consider.
Using Chatbots
Another great way to engage people is to use chatbots on your website and social media pages. Chatbots are basically AIs made for conversation between your business and the person you're trying to get to purchase your services. They're virtual customer service representatives that answer FAQ about products, redirect them to important parts of your webpage, and generally engage the consumer.
Chatbots not only provide fast and efficient customer service (no wait times!), but they're also a lot of fun to talk to. Giving your chatbot a name and a personality will provide the businesses buying your product with a character that makes them laugh and engages them. They're likely to empathize with and enjoy the character you've created, leading them to purchase services out of loyalty to your chatbot.
Social Media Marketing
In addition to putting chatbots on your official website, they can be used on your social media pages to interact with others.
However, chatbots aren't the only way that you should be using social media. You'll want up-to-date pages that people can like and message as well. On these pages, you can post various promotions that you'll be having as well as coupons exclusive to those that follow you. This is a great incentive that will get other businesses to like or follow your page.
To make these pages even more engaging and interact with business owners on a human level, you'll also want to share funny memes related to the services that you offer and interesting fun facts.
However, there's another way that you can use social media. Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms all offer specific advertising services intended to show your ads to the businesses that you want to see them. You can enter specific demographics (age, gender, occupation, type of business owned) into these pages and target ads toward your target demographics.
Furthermore, you can use these advertising services to send ads to those who search for specific keywords related to your services into the social media platform. Even better, you can show advertisements to those business pages that already like or follow the pages of your direct competitors. This will get the word about your services to those who may be looking for them as well as to those who may be looking to switch providers away from your competitors.
Promotions and Campaigns
We've already touched upon the fact that you should be running promotions on your social media pages, so let's dive into that a little further.
There's a huge distinction in branding vs marketing, but you can't have one without the other. An effective promotion means that you should be trying to get the word of your brand out there to the businesses that most need to know about it. This means showing off your logo, name, catchphrase, and other interesting aspects of business unique to you.
You can promote your business by offering free demos of your services, trial runs, and coupons for a percentage off their purchase. While all of these are great things to offer, they're not the only effective type of marketing.
Some of the most effective campaigns are those that raffle off business swag such as t-shirts, flash drives, and coffee cups. When other business owners win these items (which is a fun thing in and of itself,) they'll be viewing your logo every day as they use your item. This is likely to establish some brand loyalty and inspire them to buy from you over competitors.
Implement Top B2B Marketing Strategies
There are a lot of amazing ways to market your business, but you can't go wrong with direct and engaging communications with the businesses that you're marketing to.
Now that you know the best B2B marketing strategies that you'll need to use in order to keep up with the competition, it's time to get more tips that will help your organization thrive. Check out the Digital Marketing section of the Bootstrap Business Blog for more creative B2B marketing strategies. Here, you'll get more information on how to allocate funds, develop leadership skills, and create innovative marketing campaigns for your startup.
