5 Key Signs You Need Help With B2B Marketing
Marketing is often broken down as either business to business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C). If you’re selling products or services directly from your business to the end-user, B2C marketing would be your priority. However if you’re keen to share your products or services with other businesses and organisations, B2B marketing is where it’s at.
B2B marketing is used to help other businesses become familiar with your brand and the value of your product or service for their business. This means understanding what pain points you support your target market in overcoming and communicating that effectively. This is easier said than done. If any of these 5 points below resonate with you, chances are it’s time to get some help with your B2B marketing.
1. You’re not on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the B2B capital of the internet. It’s like a 24/7 networking event you don’t need to wear pants for. So why aren’t you there yet?
LinkedIn personal profiles are simple to set up and should put your best foot forward with a professional headshot, a convincing bio and a showreel of your career achievements. Add in a good dash of relevant keywords too for maximum search worthiness.
From there you can go ahead and create a LinkedIn company page too. This is where your brand voice can shine and you can bring your team together to showcase what an excellent business you are running and how much you have to offer your B2B target audience.
2. Relationship building is not on your to-do list
The journey to committing to work with another business is just that — a journey. Even when the service sounds spot on and the price is right for everyone, building a relationship is often still vital. Especially if you want a long-standing customer.
It might feel frustrating but keeping up conversations and creating meaningful touch points with your prospects is crucial to your B2B marketing strategy. Connect with them on socials (professionally — no personal Facebook friend requests), engage with their content, check in with them via email and organise to meet up for coffee.
The benefits: you will gain an in-depth insight into exactly what this business’s challenges are and how you can support them and add incredible value.
3. You’re all over the shop
Whenever you carve out time to work on your B2B marketing, you jump online and just kind of click around. You might send out an email to some prospects. You might put a post up on your socials — heck, you might even throw some money behind it to reach a bigger audience. But it’s all on the fly. You’re not measuring what works and what doesn’t, you don’t have a plan for next week and you’re definitely feeling a bit overwhelmed.
Consistency is a key element of B2B marketing but it can be difficult to achieve — especially when you’re busy working in your business and with no time to work on your business.
If you’re seeking growth for your business, this fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach is not the way.
4. You don’t have a B2B marketing strategy
Let’s be honest. If the previous four points ring true, then this one almost certainly will.
If you haven’t got a B2B marketing strategy in place, you are flying blind. Your marketing strategy is where you can be clear on exactly what you want to achieve (goals) and plot out your route to achieving it.
It will cover who you’re target audience is, the value of the marketplace, where you currently sit in the marketplace, your B2B marketing budget, what channels you will use to market your business and a timeline.
Best of all, a strategy keeps you accountable. Getting some help to put together a thoughtful and thorough B2B marketing strategy can save you time, money and stress while offering the chance to build something amazing.
5. Results are nowhere to be seen
This one is the clincher. If you aren’t getting the results you are after in the B2B space, you are probably in need of some help with your B2B marketing.
This is where we come in. Our role in the B2B landscape is to ensure you are tackling your B2B marketing effectively and achieving your desired outcomes. And we help you do it on budget and consistently. We know that many businesses simply don’t have the time or expertise to do the marketing work that needs to be done.
But that’s exactly what B2B relationships are all about — knowing how we can each step in to overcome another business’s challenges and help them to reach their full potential.
Over to you
Not sure where to start?
Started and hit a rut?
Put #2 into action and let’s catch up for a coffee.