B2B marketing: how to choose the right customers for your business step by step

Identify the right customers for your B2B business and start with them for your marketing strategies

Marketing, in your case B2B marketing, is the strategy by which you get the right message to the right market segment.

A perfect strategy succeeds in differentiating you from the competition, highlights your value proposition and shows your target customers why they should choose you over competitors (or instead of doing nothing by staying in the comfort zone as is often the case).

By definition, your business must achieve results in the presence of scarce resources. It is therefore critical that you focus on one market at a time and identify the right customers to target right away so that you avoid wasting your efforts unnecessarily.

Today we are going to talk to you about the thoughts necessary to choose the perfect customer segments so that your marketing strategies will be successful.

Take 3 minutes to concentrate and go on to the next lines.

Spoiler: market research cannot be missed!

Step 1 for choosing customers to channel your B2B marketing efforts to: ask the right questions to find the right segment

Before you start planning B2B marketing strategies, you need to figure out which market segment to invest your energies in (until, step by step, you get to defining your list of potential customers).

Here are a series of questions to ask yourself to figure out which market segment is most in line with your company:

• Among the various customer segments you might target, which one benefits more than others from your product/service?
• Which do you value most highly?
• What type of customer leaves you with the most marginality?

To answer these questions you can do self-studies or, even better, ask for one of our ad hoc market research studies, which allow you to get hard data without relying on hunches (which can be good or bad at 50/50 chance).

Your choice!

Once you find the right answers, you need to figure out whether you should invest time and money to conquer that niche.

Read also: B2B marketing: here’s why knowing your target customers helps you develop a winning strategy

Step 2 for targeting the right customers if you operate in B2B: size up your chosen niche market

Have you identified the characteristics of your customer niche?

Then you can start to dig deeper: figure out how many and which companies have the characteristics you are looking for in your area of interest and how much of a potential market for your products/services.

To do this, and to definitively choose which customers to target your B2B marketing strategies to, you must have a report that includes both the list of company names and numerous other items. Here are which ones:

• Category of products/services
• Type of company
• ATECO Code (with description)
• Geographical area (city and region)
• Turnover class
• Risk Classes
• Sales trend and profit trend
• Export activities
• Economic results
• Number of employees
• Contacts (including employees)

Knowing this data allows you to focus your B2B marketing strategies only on the most beneficial, most profitable potential customers that are most in line with your business goals.

Getting this information is not impossible, in fact: the web is an inexhaustible source of data , and we at Central Marketing Intelligence specialize in making the most of Big data online!

Here you will find an example of our interactive report for B2B companies, called Market Company Detector (you can open it either from your computer or from mobile devices, but we suggest the first option so you can use all the functions faster).

Go ahead and interact with the various graphs, apply as many filters as you wish, and imagine all the information you could gain about your prospects!

Once you have identified the category of companies that fall within your niche market, you need to further skim those that will be your customers.

Step 3 for a perfect choice: further select the companies from which you would benefit most

Use the report to apply appropriate filters and choose clients with a certain range of turnover, but don’t just focus on the numbers!

If you want to build a client base that will last (and we imagine it will) you should analyze which companies among them make the most profit and which have had the greatest growth in recent years.

It then segments between manufacturers/brands and between distributors/third parties.

Read also: How to do B2B marketing? Here’s what you need to start off with a bang!

Step 4 for choosing the perfect customers to target with your marketing strategy: segmentation between Manufacturers/Brands, Distributors and Subcontractors

Of course, the choice depends on your needs, but working directly with the brand without intermediaries gives you more leeway, gives you more control over the final demand, and allows you to innovate faster.

Having only distributors or subcontractors as customers could also harm your future sustainability because of their less defensible business model.

Another factor you may want to look at is export activities.

Step 5 for a perfect choice: prefer companies that also operate internationally

If you want to make a really good choice of companies to which to target your B2B marketing strategy, we suggest you prefer those that not only meet all the requirements you seek well but also have significant export quotas.

By doing so, the supply risk is well distributed because your customer base does not have a single target market.

Do you want to receive within 48 hours the information you need to choose the right customers?

Click here to watch a preview of the information we can return to you and request the Market Company Detector interactive report now: within 48 hours you can have the final list of target companies to grow your business.

We are waiting for you!