Adapting to this change is a necessity for any business reality, but building a B2B marketing strategy that keeps up with the times is not always easy. Let's see what mistakes to avoid and some useful advice to go in the right direction .
Searching for information online about products and services is part of our daily routine. Until a few years ago, before making a purchase, there were two options: relying on the opinion of relatives and friends, or putting yourself in the hands of an expert seller trusting in his good faith. Today the scenario has changed radically.
The Internet has become our window to the world, new zealand whatsapp number data 5 million the main source of information, reviews, opinions and so on. Even in the B2B field the research phase takes place mainly online and the use of mobile devices is becoming increasingly popular.
While B2C has adapted more easily, B2B companies are still resisting, often victims of practices consolidated over decades or preconceptions that they struggle to eradicate. But we must face the facts: traditional (outbound) marketing techniques no longer work . Or rather, they don't always work and they don't work for everyone.
Customers are more aware and no longer want to be bothered by unwanted advertising or inappropriate phone calls. How can you interact with such an audience? Inbound Marketing can be the solution to building stable and long-lasting relationships with prospects.
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The 3 Most Common Mistakes in B2B
When approaching the creation of a B2B marketing strategy, the risk of falling victim to habits is just around the corner. Many brands still tend to have an old-school vision of marketing, in which the company and its products were at the center of all communication and potential customers were nothing more than passive spectators .
Do you recognize yourself in this pattern? Then maybe it's time to do some self-analysis and implement some necessary changes. Admitting your mistakes is always a good start: here are 3 common practices to abandon as soon as possible.
1. Create self-referential content
“Me, me, me,...” Too many companies still talk only and exclusively about themselves, about how expert, competent, “industry leaders” they are, etc.
The paradigm, however, has changed: today we must put the customer at the center, trying to establish a relationship based on mutual trust . It doesn't matter how good we are or how many years we have been in business. If we are unable to intercept the real needs of the public we are addressing, there is a high probability of failing.
What to do? Create a B2B content strategy that includes useful and interesting content for the public and promotes it on the channels they frequent. We need to understand what kind of people our audience is made up of, what virtual places they are in, how they communicate and what kind of problems they face . In a word: we need to develop buyer personas.
From here, we will be able to understand what topics to address to produce content in line with their needs.
2. Underestimating social channels
In B2B, social media is still viewed with a certain amount of suspicion. In many B2B marketing strategies, it still plays a secondary role, relegated to the back of other activities considered (sometimes rightly, sometimes wrongly) to be priorities.
When managed strategically, social media is a huge source of leads, relationships, and ultimately, business . So it’s time to carefully develop your B2B social media strategy.
Our potential customers are certainly on at least one of the main platforms. We must identify the channels to be monitored and create content that generates interest and curiosity , without forgetting that social media marketing requires investments.
If we want to do business through social media we cannot ignore a minimum budget to be used for advertising campaigns. Showing the right content to the right people at the right time has a cost.
3. Neglecting analysis and monitoring
The traditional marketing techniques that B2B is struggling to move away from were not as technologically advanced as those offered by digital. Today we can monitor every action implemented in real time , obtaining updated data on the performance of each individual campaign in an increasingly simple way, thanks also to marketing automation software.
From the number of visitors to the site to the views of a post on Facebook, from the opening rate of an email to the clicks on a call-to-action, we can analyze practically everything. And this data is extremely valuable for optimizing and possibly correcting our B2B marketing strategy. Ignoring it would be naive.
