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

B2B marketing strategies: here’s where to start when studying a winning tactic

So many entrepreneurs, including probably you, wonder how to do B2B marketing by adopting a winning strategy so as to outperform the competition, attract increasingly profitable customers and grow exponentially in the market.

Nobody likes to fail, that’s for sure! So you should focus precisely on your competitors and differentiate yourself from them, understand what your customers want, and plan how you will move to succeed.

For this purpose you need market research that includes the careful study of online data andcompetitor analysis, so that you can immediately identify winning B2B strategies (by improving them) and discard unsuccessful ones.

Maybe we anticipated you too much? That’s likely, but this way you already have an idea of what you need to do B2B marketing: valuable data, a strategy, and useful tips that we will give you in the next few lines.

1. How to do B2B Marketing: start by differentiating yourself from all competitors

Your competitors are no longer in your neighborhood or city-they are everywhere, all over the country and the world, and they are active mostly online.

In fact, most of them know that entrepreneurs who are potential customers hang out on the Web as everyone does: they are flesh and blood people, no longer companies seen as abstract entities!

So to start getting serious, you should differentiate yourself from your competition so that your potential customers will notice you and choose you.

How to do it? Start by studying competitor strategies and then move on to studying your target clientele…but don’t rely on chance or your hunches (which, however brilliant, are still hunches). Rely on data-driven market analysis!

If you want real information that is the result of in-depth analysis of the web and processed into clear, interactive and customized reports, then you can turn to us at CMI right away.

Here, for example, is an example of an interactive report dedicated to competitor analysis (you can click on the link to open it from both mobile devices and PCs, but we suggest you view it from your computer so you can better verify how it works).

The report, which we will customize according to your target market, includes data concerning:

• traffic to competitors’ sites (section that includes overall results, visit trends over time, competitors driving more traffic to their sites, most visited pages, and much more information)
• Competitor visibility on Google (both organic and paid), which even includes backlinks, i.e., inbound links to competitor sites
• The results of your competitors on social media, including YouTube

After you’ve done a careful analysis of your competition-and figured out which strategies to emulate, improving them, and which to avoid-it’s time to move on to analyzing your potential customers.

Read also: How to acquire B2B customers by leveraging the web as a resource

2. Analyze your target customers and understand who they are, what they want, and what they love

As we anticipated, your customers’ decision-making processes start online, where the people you need to target begin to build their own evaluation criteria among the many alternatives available. Whether you want it or not, even in B2B it works this way.

Here, for example, are the places where your prospects prepare to make an informed decision in their best interest:

• industry forums
• social pages
• specialized blogs
• discussion groups
• YouTube video
• websites
• review portals
• online magazine

And you name it.

Based on this knowledge, you need to ask yourself some questions to really reach the right customers and attract more and more of them.

Where are your potential customers found online? Which people do they follow and consider authoritative? What channels makes sense to preside over in your case? 

Data-based market analyses, such as those you can request from us at CMI, help you answer these and other questions so that you can understand how to intercept the problems, needs, requirements but also the emotions of potential customers.

Having analyzed the clients, we move toward the third step.

3. Figure out where and how much to invest in B2B marketing

Where do you start in relation to existing competitors? How quickly and at what cost can you occupy a prominent position within that channel?

To find these and other fundamental answers, you need to start with an analysis of the competitive arena so that you are clear about where and how much you should invest (and what to prioritize).

Ask yourself how you distribute the budget between:

• Paid Campaigns: Search, Display, Social
• SEO
• Digital PR
• Content marketing and Social
• Newsletter

Does it make sense to do so? Can that channel help you achieve your goals, in the time and budget you have? What is the predictable ROI based on your budget?

Thanks to market research based on the study of data everything will be clear to you: you will know how to optimize your budget so that you avoid wasting time and money unnecessarily.

Read also: Searching for companies by ATECO code: an essential tool for your B2B strategy

4. What about the media? Let’s not forget about them!

Every day we talk to companies that have invested tens of thousands in online marketing with poor results.

Most of them have a common cause: the rush to get going, to be featured on this or that social, to want to get results quickly.

This is the perfect way NOT to get results.

Today there is less and less space online, competition has increased, and advertising costs have multiplied in the past 5 years. The risk of investing budgets and giving away money to biggies like Google, Facebook and Instagram is very high.

Don’t make the same mistake yourself.

Having identified the right target audience to which to convey your marketing activities, your competitors’ strategies, and optimized your budget, ask yourself what are the right media to use to attract customers.

Not only that: in addition to channels, you need to figure out what format is preferred by your buyer personas (video, audio, text, images, whitepaper?) and the best day and time to publish that type of content.

Again, you can find out through online market research, such as with our interactive competitive report!

Final Conclusions.

Now you know what the main points of B2B marketing are, so where to start to make a success in your target market.

Do you have all the tools at your disposal to implement an excellent strategy?

If you haven’t requested one or more data-driven market surveys–then no, you still don’t have everything your business needs.

We at Central Marketing Intelligence have three solutions for you: comprehensive market research, Academy CMI (a market analysis training course dedicated to you and your employees) or the new interactive market reports, which give you instant solutions to your problems.

Feel free to contact us and we will help you figure out which solution best fits your goals! We are here to help you and your business.