Our Blog: Bright Ideas & Strategies for Improving Business Websites
5 Best Practices for Successful B2B Marketing Strategies
Create a strategy that builds customer relationships
Your B2B marketing strategy has many factors:
- Your industry
- Your brand
- Your buyer persona(s)
- And more...
And because of this, no 2 strategies ever turn out the same.
Sorry, you can’t copy someone else’s marketing strategy and expect the same success. But you can borrow best practices, the timeless fundamentals they all share.
All the best B2B marketing strategies convert prospects, nurture leads, and delight customers, all while strengthen outsiders’ trust in their company.
Here are 5 best practices that will help every B2B marketing strategy succeed:
Build trust with your leads
In modern B2B marketing, you need to give your prospects a reason to trust you. No prospect will convert on your landing page, let alone become a customer, without trusting your offer. Building trust should be a top priority for all marketing interactions, from in-person meetings to your web pages.
For example, when it comes to web content, buyers have little patience for obstructions and don’t trust websites full of distractions such as:
- Poorly written content or useless content
- Poor design, or sites that don’t “look the part”
- Intrusive or ugly Calls to Action
- Lack of contact info or contact forms/messaging
But, building trust with your leads dives deeper than useful web content or helpful sales calls.
It deals with principles.
If you want to be seen as credible, you have to serve up authentic messages that genuinely empathize with your audience's pain points, and put the spotlight on what solution you offer. Then your audience will be more willing to trust you. Only then will the next 4 best practices work.
Speak your audience's language
Successful marketers don’t just nod their heads and say “I understand” in response to their target audience’s pain points; they speak their audience’s language. This shows empathy.
Example: Which message do you think shows a better understanding of the challenge a controller is facing when it comes to inventory?
Let’s keep it simple and just hone in on the verb usage:
- Control gets the point across. The message explains how the software helps a controller get a handle on their day-to-day job. They know this product is useful and you understand how it will help them, all from the simple language you chose with them in mind.
- Track dives into specifics accounting for materials, which is something the vendor cares about, not the prospect. After all, their product does the tracking. It reminds the audience they don’t understand how the product helps them, and you don’t either because you wrote confusing copy. Intrigue, gone. Trust, out the window. You lost the prospect.
When you write up your buyer persona profiles or content writing guide, create a section on the language your prospects use. You can begin to develop guidelines on brand voice and style, industry jargon, and even take nationality into account (German buyers prefer to be referred to formally, i.e. Mr. Last Name, while American buyers tend to dive right into first-name territory).
How you use the language with your audience will minimize friction. Remember, people are always changing, so always reassess your personas and adjust the guidelines when needed.
Share your expertise with your leads
If you’ve learned a lot from your industry experience and now have high-level knowledge, talk about it. Sharing your expertise builds trust and can generate leads (think webinar registrations). Successful strategies embrace opportunities to showcase industry knowledge by:
- Publishing blog posts
- Recording podcasts
- Hosting webinars
- Posting LinkedIn articles
Among B2B buyers, web and email content tend to rank among the most successful channels, but webinars are not far behind. Look for opportunities to share content that allows your audience to engage and get in touch with you.
But don’t boast about your expertise. Puffed up claims only damage your credibility (remember, trust is everything). Simply share your expertise in helpful ways through more than one medium.
Make realistic promises & over-deliver
Making a big promise may get your content clicked, but under delivering could do irreparable damage to attracting customers next time. Few tactics kill your B2B marketing efforts more than clickbait.
Yes, clickbait applies to B2B marketing! I am sure at one point you downloaded an ‘Everything You Need to Know Guide’ only to open a2-page company brochure. Their deceiving content isn’t the only thing you’ll drag into your trash bin; your respect for them will go along with it.
The reason is simple: Your audience expects what you’ve promised them. If you don’t deliver they’ll have conflicting emotions about your brand, and you may lose valuable prospects.
Throughout the sales funnel, you should only promise the benefits you can actually deliver (or over-deliver). Promote your content and offers honestly.
Always be interesting to customers
Just because you need integrity in your promises doesn’t mean you have to deliver a boring message. You need to keep your audience's attention. So stay interesting.
Catching your audience's interest may be easy at first, but it’s harder over time. The longer you publish blog posts and send emails, the more likely you are to recycle the same old content, topics, and phrases.
Resist that urge. Focus instead on copy and visuals that are new and intriguing to your audience.
- Think of new angles for your blog posts
- Cover industry topics that no other expert has touched
- Start reaching out to prospects personally
Go outside of your comfort zone all while keeping content relevant. Whatever you do, make sure your audience is watching closely.
Adjusting Your Marketing Strategy For Success
Successful marketers focus on building relationships with their audience. They share their expertise in a helpful way catered to their audience, boost their credibility, and keep their audience engaged over long periods of time.
Is your marketing strategy up to pace with these best practices? If not, it may be time for you to analyze your current marketing efforts and see where improvements can be made. To help you, be sure to check out this list of marketing strategy tools. Track your progress, then let us know if these 5 tips have made a difference!
Be a Bright Marketer
Improve your website & online marketing strategy with resources, tips, and insights delivered to your inbox 1-2 times per week.
Subscribe to the Bright Orange Thread Content Library today for instant access to these resources!