7 Essential B2B Marketing Strategies
Summary
TLDRIn this informative session, Tim from Exposure Ninja shares seven effective B2B marketing strategies, emphasizing the importance of standing out in a competitive market. He challenges the notion that B2B marketing must be boring, highlighting the need for a clear value proposition and the power of storytelling. Tim also covers the nuances of B2B SEO, the surprising role of social media, the growing trend of video marketing, and the underestimated potential of email marketing. He concludes with a bonus tip on leveraging case studies to offer valuable insights rather than just showcasing client success stories.
Takeaways
- 🌟 Don't be boring - Just because competitors are, doesn't mean you have to be. Embrace creativity in your marketing approach.
- 💡 Understand your audience - Remember, you're selling to individuals, not faceless businesses. Tailor your marketing to appeal to their personal interests and needs.
- 📈 Clarify your value proposition - Be clear about what you do and who you do it for. A strong, compelling message can differentiate you from competitors.
- 🔍 Optimize B2B SEO - Target informational terms and create long-form content to guide potential customers through the longer B2B buying cycle.
- 📱 Leverage social media - Even B2B companies should be active on social platforms, as decision-makers use social media for purchasing insights.
- 🎥 Utilize video content - Video is a powerful tool for B2B marketing, allowing you to showcase your products, services, and company culture in an engaging way.
- 📝 Invest in content marketing - Blogging and knowledge bases are crucial for educating B2B buyers and establishing your brand as a thought leader.
- 💌 Embrace email marketing - Segment your audience and tailor your emails to provide value, maintain relationships, and encourage repeat business.
- 🚀 Adapt PPC strategies for B2B - Be mindful of the language used by your target B2B customers and ensure your ads are tailored to exclude B2C traffic.
- 📊 Use case studies effectively - Frame case studies as actionable tips or guides that offer broad appeal and demonstrate your solution's effectiveness.
Q & A
What is the primary goal of Exposure Ninja's digital marketing agency?
-The primary goal of Exposure Ninja is to help clients generate more leads and sales from the internet.
What misconception does Tim want to challenge about marketing?
-Tim wants to challenge the misconception that just because competitors are boring, you also have to be boring in your marketing approach.
What is a key mindset hack for B2B marketing?
-A key mindset hack for B2B marketing is understanding that you are always selling to a person, not just a business.
How does the B2B sales cycle typically differ from B2C?
-The B2B sales cycle typically involves more decision-makers and is often longer, requiring more focus on training and education to help potential customers learn how to buy.
What is the importance of being clear about what you do and who you do it for in B2B marketing?
-Being clear about your offerings and target audience is crucial as it helps differentiate your business from competitors and makes it easier for potential customers to understand why they should choose you.
How does MailChimp differentiate itself in the email marketing space?
-MailChimp differentiates itself by focusing on building brands and integrating marketing and commerce tools, rather than just improving deliverability or automating sequences like its competitors.
What is a strategic consideration for B2B SEO compared to B2C SEO?
-B2B SEO often targets more informational terms due to the longer sales cycle and the need to educate potential customers about the product or service.
Why is social media important for B2B marketing?
-Social media is important for B2B marketing because it allows businesses to connect with decision-makers on a more personal level and provides an opportunity to share stories and information that can influence buying decisions.
How can B2B companies effectively use video marketing?
-B2B companies can effectively use video marketing by showcasing their passion, expertise, and the interesting aspects of their business, turning potentially dry information into engaging and relatable content.
What is the role of content marketing in B2B strategies?
-Content marketing in B2B strategies helps educate and inform potential customers, answering their questions, and guiding them through the buying process with valuable and relevant information.
How should B2B businesses approach email marketing?
-B2B businesses should approach email marketing by segmenting their audience and tailoring content to specific groups, such as previous customers or those who have shown interest in certain products or services, and using automations to keep them engaged.
Outlines
🚀 Introduction to B2B Marketing Strategies
Tim from Exposure Ninja introduces the video, discussing the seven B2B marketing strategies that can be applied by anyone, even B2C businesses. He emphasizes the importance of not being boring just because competitors are and highlights the misconception that B2B marketing is too different from B2C. Tim also introduces the idea that B2B businesses are selling to people, not just businesses, and that understanding the decision-making process is crucial.
🎯 Clear Positioning and Differentiation
The paragraph discusses the importance of having a clear and compelling positioning statement for B2B businesses. It emphasizes that even if a product or service seems identical to others, there are ways to differentiate, such as using credibility and awards to persuade potential customers. The example of CHAS is provided to illustrate how they differentiate themselves through credibility and client logos.
🔍 B2B SEO Strategy
This section delves into the nuances of B2B SEO, highlighting the similarities and differences with B2C SEO. It stresses the importance of targeting informational terms due to the longer sales cycle in B2B and the need to provide in-depth information to attract potential customers. The paragraph also discusses the intent behind searches and how to turn informational searchers into customers through content and email signups.
📱 B2B Social Media Marketing
The paragraph addresses the misconception that B2B marketing doesn't belong on social media. It cites research showing that a significant percentage of C-level and VP level buyers turn to social media when purchasing. The importance of storytelling and personal connection on social platforms is emphasized, with examples from HubSpot and the presenter's own style of video to illustrate how B2B companies can succeed on social media.
🎥 Leveraging Video for B2B
This section discusses the increasing use of video in B2B marketing, with examples from Adobe and Caterpillar. It highlights the power of video to showcase the cool aspects of B2B businesses and to engage audiences with storytelling. The paragraph encourages B2B companies to find their unique selling points and to present them in an entertaining and informative way through video content.
📚 Content Marketing for B2B
The paragraph focuses on the role of content marketing in B2B, particularly the importance of blogs and knowledge bases. It explains that B2B buyers often need to be educated before making a purchase, making informative content crucial. The section provides examples from Shopify and Salesforce, showing how these companies use content to attract and educate potential customers at various stages of the buying process.
💌 Effective Email Marketing for B2B
This section dispels the myth that email marketing is not effective for B2B companies. It stresses the importance of segmenting the audience and tailoring email content to specific groups, such as those who have purchased certain products or services. The paragraph encourages B2B businesses to invest in email marketing, citing the potential for low hanging fruit and the opportunity to build automations that remind customers to repurchase or leave reviews.
📈 Case Study Optimization
The final tip focuses on the strategic use of case studies in B2B marketing. It criticizes the traditional approach of presenting case studies as specific examples and instead suggests framing them as actionable tips or guides that offer broad appeal and clear benefits. The example of a chatbot improving customer service scores is used to illustrate how to reframe case studies to increase engagement and relevance to potential customers.
🎉 Conclusion and Call to Action
Tim concludes the video by recapping the main points covered in the strategies and providing a final secret tip on using case studies effectively. He encourages viewers to engage with the content, ask questions, and request a free website and marketing review from Exposure Ninja, reiterating the company's commitment to helping businesses generate more leads and sales.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Digital Marketing
💡B2B Marketing Strategies
💡Mindset Hacks
💡Leads and Sales
💡SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
💡Social Media Marketing
💡Content Marketing
💡Email Marketing
💡PPC (Pay-Per-Click Advertising)
💡Case Studies
Highlights
Exposure Ninja is a digital marketing agency that helps clients generate leads and sales online.
Seven B2B marketing strategies are discussed, applicable even for B2C businesses.
Marketing should not be boring; businesses often copy competitors leading to repetitive, unoriginal strategies.
Misconception busting: selling to a business doesn't mean you're not selling to a person.
B2B marketing differs from B2C mainly in targeting a smaller audience and having more specific messages.
B2B sales cycles are often longer, requiring more focus on education and training for potential customers.
Exposure Ninja offers a free website and marketing review for businesses looking to improve their online presence.
Clarity in marketing messages is crucial; B2B clients should not assume their audience understands the nuances of their products.
Differentiation is key; businesses should stand out from competitors, even if the audience perceives products as identical.
SEO is important for B2B; targeting informational terms and understanding the buyer's journey is essential.
Social media is a powerful tool for B2B, as 84% of C-level and VP level buyers use it in the purchasing process.
Video marketing is on the rise for B2B, with platforms like YouTube dominating because of people's love for video content.
Content marketing for B2B should focus on blogs and knowledge bases, educating the audience and attracting their attention.
PPC advertising requires careful consideration for B2B, ensuring the right audience is targeted and consumer keywords are excluded.
Email marketing is a misconception for B2B businesses; it's a powerful tool that should not be overlooked.
Case studies should be framed in a way that appeals broadly to potential customers, not just as promotions for specific businesses.
Transcripts
My name's Tim.
I run a digital marketing agency called Exposure Ninja
and we help our clients generate more leads
and sales from the internet.
In this episode we're going to be looking at seven
B2B marketing strategies that anyone can use.
And by the way, you can even use these if you're B2C,
but that's going to get a little bit confusing.
So let's just get straight into the strategies.
Actually, before we do that though
we do need to cover a couple of things.
You can call these mindset hacks or whatever,
but these are really important to give context to everything
that we're going to be looking at today.
The first of those is that just because your competitors
are boring, doesn't mean that you have to be.
A lot of what goes on in marketing in a particular market
is because people copy each other.
You get one business doing things one way, they grow,
and then everyone copies them
and you get this kind of perpetual cycle of in many cases,
boring marketing that is copied over
and over and over again.
People make the assumption that just because other
competitors are playing it safe that they have to as well.
Now I want to challenge you on this.
Exposure Ninja is B2B.
This is Exposure Ninja marketing.
Most of our competitors are well boring
and I've been called loads of things,
but boring so far, touch wood, hasn't been one of them.
So you don't have to be boring either.
Misconception mindset hack number two
is that you are selling to a business.
You are never selling to a business.
You are always selling to a person.
And sometimes people buy on behalf of themselves.
Sometimes people buy on behalf of their company.
So when they're going home, they're buying Gymshark stuff.
They're buying workout supplements.
They're buying food and drink.
They're buying fast moving consumer goods.
So they're acting as a B2C target some of the time
and a B2B target some of the time.
And alongside these fun, cool things they might be buying
your waste management services when they're at work.
But they are the same people.
And how we make decisions is basically the same.
We are tapping into what makes people buy
and what attracts them to certain businesses.
They only have one brain
and they only know one way to make decisions.
So whilst there are definitely some subtleties
and some major differences between B2B and B2C sales cycles,
actually how we market to people doesn't need to be
as different as most B2B businesses think it needs to.
Most of the difference with B2B marketing is because you're
targeting a smaller audience and you have much more specific
messages that you need to give them because you're offering
working to a longer sales cycle.
But in terms of the things that actually make people buy
and get their interest,
much more similar than people give them credit.
Another key difference from B2B and B2C is that there are
often more decision-makers involved.
And like I said you might be working with people that have
a much longer sales cycle so you might need to focus more
on training and education to help them learn how to buy
before you actually sell to them.
And that can have implications for some of
the marketing channels and the strategies that you
might gravitate towards,
but we'll cover those in today's show.
By the way, if you're enjoying this,
here's something else that you might also enjoy.
Our company Exposure Ninja helps our clients generate more
leads and sales from their website.
You might not be a client of Exposure Ninja.
In fact statistically speaking
the majority of the world still isn't a client
of Exposure Ninja, much to our intense disappointment.
But we still want to help you.
So if you want to help generating more leads
and sales through your website,
then what you can do is request a free website
and marketing review from the team here
at Exposure Ninja.
All you need to do is go to our website.
Yes, it's really that simple.
We just go to ExposureNinja.com.
We'll then ask you a few questions about your business.
Once you've answered those,
we will then prepare a review of your website,
your digital marketing, and your competitors.
We'll take a look at what you're doing well,
what you could be doing more of.
We'll also find the low hanging fruit,
the stuff that you could improve in order to
generate more leads and sales through your website.
We'll do the same for your competitors.
Seeing what's working well in the space,
which you could exploit, and what's working poorly,
which you probably wanna stay away from.
We'll put all of this information into a 15 minute video,
which we send over to you by email,
usually within two to three working days.
It's fantastic.
So go to ExposureNinja.com,
click the big button to request your free website
and digital marketing review today.
Okay, so thing number one is to get super clear
about what you do and who you do it for.
There is a misconception that we've noticed amongst
a lot of our B2B clients that because they're selling
to a more experienced audience
or they're selling to people who they perceive
know what they want more because they are professional
in that area that they can afford to somehow dial down the
clarity of their marketing message.
This could not be further from the truth.
In fact, let me talk through an example.
So MailChimp is an email marketing platform
and they sell to businesses.
There are so many email marketing platforms out there.
They are 10 a penny,
and there's very little to choose between a lot of them.
But the messaging that MailChimp uses,
and we can see this very clearly
when we look at the headline which says build your brand,
sell online, all in one place,
our marketing and commerce tools work together to help you
run your business.
This is very different positioning
to where their competitors are,
which is basically we help you improve your deliverability.
We help you get your emails throughout to people.
We help you automate the sequences.
MailChimp is about building your brand and selling,
integrating the marketing and commerce tools.
So this is a B2B space, but they have carved out their own
niche within this.
How much of this is about having a differentiated product
can be argued, but that doesn't really matter.
This is about making sure that when customers say,
why should I choose you rather than one of your competitors,
you have a clear and compelling answer.
If you need more help with this,
we have another video all about how to build
your positioning statement.
This is what this is really all about.
Well, what if you're selling something that is literally
identical to other people or that your audience perceives
as being identical?
Well, you can still differentiate and you really should.
Here is one of our fantastic clients CHAS.
So how do they differentiate given that their customers
might not be as educated as knowing the differences between
what CHAS is offering and competitors?
So what they do is they rely on credibility
to persuade the visitor to use them rather than competitors.
So notice how there's allsorts going on here.
From their headline saying we are the UK's award-winning
and leading, from the use of the Feefo platinum awards
and the number of reviews that they've got.
And also the logos and names of the reputable clients
that they've worked with.
So what they're doing here and what we're doing when we
built this site was helping them to differentiate themselves
from their competitors.
This is really important in a B2B setting.
And so many companies don't give it the time it deserves
because they think, well our audience is educated.
So they're going to understand the differences
between the options.
Not so.
Your audience is just as busy as you are
and any help you can give them to choose you
is gonna work in your favour.
Strategy numero two is to get your B2B SEO strategy nailed.
Now, there are loads of similarities between B2B SEO
and B2C SEO.
Don't get me wrong.
Content, links, relevance.
These are still really important.
In fact, this is the fundamentals of whatever
SEO you're going to be doing.
SEO is all about ranking pages of information with links.
This is what SEO is,
but there are some important subtleties with the targeting
and the strategy that you're following with
B2B SEO versus B2C.
Consideration number one is that you're often going to be
selling to a smaller audience.
For many of our B2B clients that small search volume
isn't necessarily an issue because they have
a high average order value.
So it's still worth targeting those phrases
to get those people onto the site.
The other main consideration with B2B SEO
is the sales cycle.
Like we said in the intro,
the sales cycle tends to be longer
for a lot of B2B businesses,
which means that they're helping the potential customer
go through more of a journey from awareness, interest,
desire, all the way through to action.
So what this often means for B2B SEO is that you're
targeting more informational terms.
And even some of the terms that you think might be
commercial, i.e. might immediately lead to a purchase,
actually you'll often see there are informational pages
showing up in the search results.
What are you talking about Tim?
Let me explain.
So let's say for example that you were looking for
a chat bot for customer service
and you go onto Google and you type in chat bot
for customer service.
You might reasonably expect that this is going to show you
a page of chat bots and all of these pages have been
optimised for chat bots for customer service.
And there are going to be people trying to sell
you a chat bot.
You'd be wrong.
What you're going to see instead is that the majority of the
search results on that page are informational.
These are articles, they are blog pages,
they're knowledge-based pages,
they're information about chat bots for customer service.
So what's going on here?
Has Google completely lost its mind,
and it's showing the wrong sorts of search results?
Possibly, unlikely.
What's actually happened here is that the people searching
for these terms have clicked on these sorts of pages
over and over and over again.
So Google has got the picture that actually what people are
really looking for is information in this scenario.
So if you're trying to build visibility
for a term like this,
what you want to do is you want to play the information,
you want to play the long form content game.
You'll want to provide some really in-depth information
about this topic.
And then if you want to sell your chat bot
for customer service,
what you need to do then is either get someone to sign up
for some sort of email thing from your article,
or link your article through to the pages where they can
actually sign up for the service, or both.
And that's how you're going to turn that informational
searcher into a customer.
But you've got to recognise the intent behind the search
and what people actually want according to where they're at
in the buying cycle.
Tip twa, social media.
Yes, even for B2B.
Social media.
Now let me get this quote right.
IDG research shows that 84% of C-level and VP level buyers
turn to social media when purchasing.
Now to be honest that's worded in a way
that I don't really understand.
And I definitely don't understand how that was put together.
But what I do know is this,
that big boss person that you're trying to sell to
is taking their phone into the toilet.
And when they do that, they are scrolling social.
Everyone is doing it.
And that means if they are there, you need to be there too.
I mean obviously not there, but you know.
That connection with your audience is really important.
You know you might imagine that B2B buyer is somehow kind of
disconnected from what they're buying.
They're just kind of doing this on behalf of work
and they don't really care.
Actually, according to Google,
B2B buyers have a significantly higher emotional connection
with their vendors than B2C customers.
Now the trouble with social if you're a B2B,
you've tried social and you're just like, ah,
there's no way to talk about waste management that is fun.
The trouble is that a lot of B2B companies tend towards
facts and stats.
Yes they go straight for the logical argument.
This approach doesn't tend to work that well on social
because on social people are typically heading there
for stories, they're heading there for personal.
Now this great example from HubSpot shows that actually
there are ways of winning on social
even if you're a B to B company.
You'll notice for example that in this video,
a lot of it is kind of personality led, like me.
I'm not trying to bombard you with facts and stats
and read from our latest white paper,
because that is dry as you like.
And people just aren't into that stuff.
Now not to get all inception on you,
but the video that you're watching now is B2B marketing.
And we've intentionally made this in a way that's a little
bit more like entertainment,
a bit more like vlogger style than it is some kind of
traditional white paper presentation with me stood in front
of a big white wall with a lectern and slides.
And you're probably watching or listening to this
on a platform, which is B2C predominantly,
whether it's a podcast or video.
Most of our audience are bored
and confused by marketing information
so we're trying to do the opposite and you can do this too.
Even if your audience understands what they're buying,
you can still educate.
You can still educate and interest them and you should.
So don't be afraid to be the personality oasis
in the desert of boring.
Your audience might be craving it.
They probably are.
Tip number four, video.
We're seeing a lot more B2Bs using video.
You've even got companies like Adobe doing things like this,
where they're actually using vloggers.
Now if you look at the time spent on each platform,
YouTube is killing everyone.
Everyone.
People think Tik Tok's hot.
YouTube is crushing it.
Instagram, YouTube is crushing it.
Why is YouTube crushing everyone?
Because people love video.
It gives us the opportunity to move from the channels
that we have on our TVs,
where they're programmed by someone who doesn't know us,
we can build our own TV channels on YouTube.
This is amazing.
And you can do exactly this as well, even though you're B2B.
So whilst Adobe's using vloggers,
you've got videos like this one,
which I've filmed in a sort of lager style
rather than a typical corporate style.
You can also really mix things up just like Caterpillar
have done in this video.
(dramatic music)
(machines beeping) (machines rumbling)
(gentle music)
That guy kind of looks like, he's saying,
what am I doing here right?
And by the way my own personal highlight from this
was in the YouTube comments where BinkieMcFartnuggets
says great, just what the internet needs, another cat video.
Lol, great one BinkieMcFartnuggets.
And here's the thing about video.
Most B2B companies either do something really, really cool.
They just don't realise it because it's so normal to them.
Or they enable something that is really, really cool,
which you can show people.
People are interested in the most crazy things aren't they?
And often B2B is just thinking yeah,
but you know we're really boring because we just make
these little widgets.
And then you find that the little widgets are like
built into the wings of NASA space shuttles
and you're like, hold on,
you have something that every teenager is fascinated in.
Let's just show more of that.
Let's talk to your engineers about the tolerances
of working in outer space.
Let's showcase a bit more about what makes you cool because
in every company there are people that are
seriously passionate about what they do.
Some people don't think that pay-per-click advertising
is that sexy. (cricket chirping)
We do, we think it's awesome.
Some people think that a website is just a website.
We don't think that, we think that the difference between
a website that's rubbish and a website that's awesome
is an absolute gulf and a game changer
and the single most important thing in the entire world.
And it's that passion,
it's that interest which keeps people hooked,
not necessarily the topic.
So show it off and do some videos.
And yes you could be shouting into a camera in your office.
B2B turbo level up booster number five
is B2B content marketing.
Now for B2Bs content marketing is not king,
but it's really important.
And the particular part of content marketing that is
important for B2Bs our blogs and knowledge bases.
We've already talked about the fact that you're often
gonna be targeting informational terms.
You're going to be targeting buyers that needs to go through
an education process in order to buy.
That makes your blog
or your knowledge base really important.
This is understanding the questions that your customers
or clients might have prior to their purchase
and providing information that helps
to answer those questions.
Now you can take this to whatever level you want.
On the Shopify website for example
you'll see that they are teaching people how to build
a business, they're teaching people about e-commerce.
Obviously Shopify is an e-commerce platform
that people can use.
So they've got stuff about how to use Shopify,
but they've also got stuff about how to build a bigger
business and what are they doing here?
They're trying to attract people who are in the process of
setting up a business.
They're trying to track them to get them on the Shopify
site because if they can do that,
then when they come to choose an e-commerce platform,
they're more likely to choose Shopify.
You can do exactly this yourself.
Now, you don't necessarily have to get loads of celebrities
in this space and compile these free courses
that people can sign up for and stuff like that.
This is more about understanding what's going on
in your customer's head.
Whether it's specifically about the thing that you sell
or whether it's about the step before that,
or even the step after that,
how can you provide information?
How can you collect the expertise that you have
inside your business,
and also that you have throughout your customer base
and provide this in a way that gets more customers
onto your site, whether they're ready to purchase or not.
Another B2B example, Salesforce.
And by the way if you're watching the video of this
on YouTube, check out this site.
This is full of cartoons.
It looks so B2C it's not even funny.
This looks like fricking the cartoon page on Netflix, right?
But what Salesforce has done is they've built a blog
on their site which is full of information.
It's basically a magazine for people
that are their potential customers.
They've got things like how to reopen your business,
a guide to reopening.
They've got stories to inspire you
from some of their trailblazing customers.
They've got testimonials and case studies from businesses
that they've worked with where they share tips
and strategies that they've used to grow their business.
This is basically a magazine for business growth.
They provide this to get people on their site
in the first place,
but also to have the Salesforce customers
come onto this site and get this level of information
and entertainment and advice shows that Salesforce cares
about their growth.
So this is a really mature and high investment approach
to content marketing.
Now you might not want to go all the way through to setting
up a full magazine.
Our client Mint Formations here has a knowledge base
on their site all about how to set up a company
because they sell company formation services.
And by the way if you need a company set up
mintformations.co.uk, great option.
So they are restricting their content marketing to people
that are likely to become a customer in the sort of
short to medium term,
which is a great way to get started with this
if you don't want to go full in to running basically
a media property designed for your target customers.
So think, what are people into and what sort of information
can we give them?
And this is a pure B2C strategy, right?
We see this all day from massive e-commerce brands,
but this is something that works
fantastically well for B2Bs.
And by the way if you're getting the impression
that the key to great B2B marketing
is actually to be a little bit more B2C, you're not wrong.
Hey, you may have picked up a little secret there.
Tip number six is B2B pay-per-click also requires
some important considerations.
Now yes, pay-per-click advertising,
Google search advertising on Google ads is remarkably
similar for any business because you're basically
bidding on certain keywords, you're running ads,
you're driving people through to a landing page.
But for B2B there are some really important considerations.
Firstly, the language that your target customers are using.
Now sometimes we'll have a B2B client that sells something
specific to B2B but actually there is a B2C version of this.
For example, let's say that you're selling
waste management service.
Your B2B customers will call this waste management.
Your B 2C may call it rubbish collection or trash collection
or something like that.
So it's really important that if you're only serving the B2B
side of this market, you exclude the B2C audience.
You can do this through the keywords that you target,
the keywords that you don't target,
i.e. the keywords that you add as negatives,
but also through the copy in your ads.
It's important that you differentiate and disqualify people
from clicking on your ads.
Otherwise you're going to waste that ad spend
and potentially if they end up converting
because they don't really understand what they're
requesting information about you end up potentially
informing Google's advertising algorithms
that this is more of the person that you want
when you really don't want that person.
So trim out the B2C stuff through the keywords
and the ad copy disqualification.
Often people searching for a B2B solution will ask
for things like supplier or agency
or solution or management.
And there are often those little keyword modifiers
that they use which signal that they are a business customer
rather than a customer customer,
rather than a person at the pub customer.
Consumer I think is the word I was looking for there.
The final tip before the bonus tip.
Email marketing for B2B.
Again, this is something that a lot of B2Bs
completely write off because they think, well,
we're not Amazon.
We don't need to send out emails to our customers.
No, no, no, terrible misconception.
Wash your mouth out with soap and battery acid.
That's a little harsh, Tim.
It's a bad misconception.
Every B2B can be using email marketing.
Now, when we get an email marketing client
we find loads and loads of low hanging fruit.
The first thing that we'll do is go
and have a look at the emails they're sending.
Often they're just kind of generic broadcast stuff.
It's just about the business, about you know,
the waste management company has changed the sewer pipe
in the warehouse.
Nobody cares.
The much better to take with your email marketing
is to segment your audience into people
who have bought from you,
people who have bought particular products
or services from you,
and then you can tailor the stuff that they're getting.
So we'll build automations for example for people that have
purchased something to remind them when it's time
to repurchase and to remind them to leave a review
and that type of thing.
We'll build automations based on particular articles that
people have visited or whatever it might be okay.
So take a mature approach to email marketing.
And don't just say that email marketing isn't gonna work for
us just because we have a relatively small number of
customers or whatever.
There is so much opportunity inside email marketing.
We've got loads of videos on email marketing with
the fantastic Abby from Exposure Ninja
so go and check them out.
I'm not gonna duplicate all of that stuff here,
but trust me, the email marketing for B2Bs is amazing.
And you want to invest the proper attention there.
Okay, so there you have it.
Seven B2B marketing strategies that can use.
Quick recap, don't mind if I do.
And then your bonus tip.
Don't worry, I haven't forgotten.
By the way, if you're enjoying this,
here's something else that you might also enjoy.
Our company Exposure Ninja helps our clients generate
more leads and sales from their website.
You might not be a client of Exposure Ninja.
In fact statistically speaking the majority of the world
still isn't a client of Exposure Ninja,
much to our intense disappointment.
But we still want to help you.
So if you want to help generating more leads
and sales through your website
then what you can do is request a free website
and marketing review from the team here at Exposure Ninja.
All you need to do is go to our website.
Yes, it's really that simple.
We just go to ExposureNinja.com.
We'll then ask you a few questions about your business.
Once you've answered those,
we will then prepare a review of your website,
your digital marketing, and your competitors.
We'll take a look at what you're doing well,
which you could be doing more of.
We'll also find the low hanging fruit,
the stuff that you could improve in order to generate more
leads and sales through your website.
We'll do the same for your competitors.
Seeing what's working well in the space,
which you could exploit, and what's working poorly,
which you probably want to stay away from.
We'll put all of this information into a 15 minute video,
which we send over to you by email,
usually within two to three working days.
It's fantastic.
So go to ExposureNinja.com,
click the big button to request your free website
and digital marketing review today.
So first principle we said, don't be boring.
Just 'cause your competitors are doesn't mean
that you have to be.
Second thing, don't overthink this.
We all buy as businesses as well as consumers.
The process that we go through and the marketing stuff that
works is actually remarkably similar for B2B to B2C.
Number one, make it compelling.
Make sure you understand your positioning clearly,
and you can communicate it to potential customers.
Think of the MailChimp example.
Any way that you can differentiate yourself from your
competitors you're doing something good.
Number two, B2B SEO requires some important tweaks,
namely to target information or content being
much more top of funnel a lot of the time,
knowing that we're going to have a longer buying cycle,
usually in B2B than B2C.
Also, don't be afraid of those keywords
which have lower search volume if you have a very high
average order value.
Number three, B2B social.
Again, don't be boring.
Just because you're B2B doesn't mean that you can talk facts
and stats and have people interested in your social feeds.
Think of the big boss person on their phone
while they're on the toilet.
What's getting their attention is probably not
a percentage cost saving that your waste management service
gives them over dumping it into the sea.
You don't need to be filming dance Tik Toks.
That's horrible, nobody wants to see that,
but you do need to be interesting
and you do need to play on stories
and entertainment a little bit more
than you would otherwise.
Number four, videos.
Think about the sort of videos that people actually
like to watch.
How can you tell a story about what your business does well
Just because you're B2B doesn't mean that it's boring.
You have passion inside your business.
You need a way of letting that out.
Number five, content marketing.
Think about those blogs and knowledge bases.
How can you give your target customers information which is
useful and relevant to them?
Educate your audience,
attract their attention, keep their attention.
That is basically the formula for content marketing success.
Then we talked about B2B PPC and the difference,
the important subtle differences sometimes between
the PPC keywords that we're targeting for B2B versus B2C.
The use of those words like solutions, management, agency,
and making sure we're not casting too wide a net
and picking up some consumer keywords
just because they have higher search volumes.
Also don't forget that you should be disqualifying consumers
in your ad copy if there's any risk that you're going to be
picking them up through the keywords that you're targeting.
Final tip was email.
It's just a no brainer for everyone.
So check out our related videos all about email
if you're interested in more information about this.
Alright, final super top secret tip.
You remember I said at the start
I'll give you a free tip about how to use case studies.
Well, here's how most businesses use case studies.
And for B2Bs case studies are really important.
So a lot of B2Bs will use case studies like ChatBot
and ChatBot have a case study on their website
which says Valley Driving School reaches 94% customer
satisfaction with ChatBot.
And they will publish these on their website.
Now I can only assume that they have some sort of deal with
Valley Driving School where they are trying to
promote their business,
or they're trying to attract lots of other driving schools.
Because other than that, from a marketing perspective,
this sort of case study presentation is supremely suboptimal
as we would say.
Why is it suboptimal?
Well, unless I'm a driving school,
I might look at this case study and say,
not relevant for me.
I'm not a driving school.
Also, reaches 94% customer satisfaction.
Well, in fact in our business
we have a more than 94% customer satisfaction actually.
So reaching 94% will be a wash out for us.
Or we might not care about customer satisfaction.
In which case I don't care about this case study.
So what they've done is they've taken one specific situation
and they framed it in a way that there's a high percentage
chance that people won't care.
Or even if they do care they might assume it's not relevant
for them because they are not in the same business
as this company,
or they're not in the same territory or whatever.
So there is a better way to frame this case study.
And that is to turn it into tips,
to turn it into important information.
So let's say that your chat bot helps people
improve their customer service.
What you might do is you might write a guide
on how to improve your customer service score by 15%.
Five ways to improve your customer service score
to get customers to give you five-star reviews.
Right, this is something which has broad appeal.
People are interested in that sort of topic.
And there is a clear perceived benefit to them
of reading that case study,
rather than reading about some random driving school
in a place they've never heard of
who has used your service to do something
they may or may not care about.
So let's say that you write the guide on how to get
customers to leave you five star reviews.
Well, one of the tips might be you want to improve
the speed of communication once someone gets in contact
with you to when they get a resolution to their question.
This is something that a chat bot would do.
And in fact here's an example of a business that used
the chat bot to do exactly that.
Another tip might be you might want to make sure that people
can contact you from any device that suits them.
And by the way this is something that a chat bot can do.
So you see how you can take the same information,
but present it in a way that actually means something to
potential customers and get a much higher click through
and engagement rate with it than if you just
stick something up that seems like a thinly veiled promotion
for the business that you're talking about.
So there you have it, the secret tip,
and don't forget the other secret tip I gave you.
Licorice allsorts of conferences.
So I hope you've enjoyed today's show.
If you have please like comment, subscribe,
engage with this.
If you're listening to the podcast leave us a review,
subscribe to the show.
If you're watching this on YouTube, then leave us a comment.
What's your favourite takeaway?
What's the best B2B marketing that you've ever seen?
And if you've got any questions, please do ping us.
We are happy to answer them.
Until next time, see you soon.
Oh, by the way don't forget to request your free website
and marketing review if you haven't no already.
Later. (dramatic music)
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