The way to Lead B2B Marketing Strategies to Success for Small Businesses
What is the best B2B marketing strategy for small businesses? Originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
What Is B2B Marketing Strategy?
B2B marketing is the marketing of products to businesses or other organizations for use in the production of goods or general business operations. Products in this kind of marketing may be as familiar as coffee or and office supplies, or as complex as electronic accessories and computer systems, others offer services such as logistics.
When doing marketing, B2B firms focus on creating leads generation in the field’s players, including manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, construction firms, service industry, and non-profit organizations.
When it comes to B2B marketing strategy, many firms firstly think of direct and outbound techniques that you send messages directly to clients or potential buyers. This kind of marketing somehow still has a position in your marketing journey. However, the B2B marketing landscape has expanded, and the purchasing behavior of buyers also changed. Before making a purchase, they will do a Google search to find out information and evaluate your company, even compare with others. They prefer searching on their own rather than reading from direct personal references. That’s why information that gives readers the best understanding of your firm, products and turns them into your buyers is what B2B businesses need to focus on now.
Understanding B2B Buyers’ Journey
The buyers’ journey is the research and decision-making process, leading buyers to a final purchase. It also includes the prospect of symptoms and problems that create a need for a product or service.
Take time to understand customers first, then sell your products. If you take a walk into B2B buyers’ shoes, you’ll identify which challenges they are facing with before making a purchase: better understanding customers’ mindset, easier supporting them in the purchasing journey. At the end of the day, solving customers’ problems is imperatively your job.
Usually, B2B buyers might go through a more complicated process than B2C buyers.
Be Aware of The Problem
At this stage, buyers are unaware of two things: your company and their problem that needs your help. A problem might exist inside a firm, but until it’s called out by the identifying party, it’s considered a problem, and they start searching for solutions.
As a marketer, your job right now is to build public awareness of your company and your product. Let buyers know how you can help them and why they should choose you, not others. It’s time to focus on their pain point, not your brand or products.
Search for Solutions
Once buyers figure out a problem and realize that a product or service can solve it, they’ll do research. At this stage, 72% of buyers usually search on Google and visit relevant websites. However, there are different kinds of ways to discover solutions. They collect information via discussing with colleagues, B2B partners, or online forums, social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit. 42% of B2B researchers are using mobile during their purchasing process; it’s critical to provide them with rich mobile experiences.
At first, buyers will usually search for educational material, reviews, and product testimonials. So make sure these documents are available on your website. After that, buyers begin to narrow down their search and focus only on which firms and criteria that meet their needs. Importantly, creating an incredible source of information, building trust in buyers.
Take into Consideration
After having narrowed down just a few companies, buyers will dive deeper into each company’s specific offerings through research again. They will make in-depth comparisons of each company in their consideration circle. Unlike B2C buyers, making a purchasing decision themselves, B2B buyers need to go through the consideration and agreement of stakeholders, sales team, or any members who involve in the research process.
At this stage, buyers are interested in contents that make vendors outstanding and different from others. They also prefer directly interacting with the sales team to acquire more information and understand more profoundly about what the vendor is offering.
Make a Purchase Decision
After having an agreement on a vendor from upper management, the almost final stage is to make a purchase. Now, buyers start thinking about product preparation, costs, customer support services, and implementation. These factors determine the final choice of which firms and products or services best fit their needs and budgets.
At this point, you already raise your brand awareness successfully. It’s finally time to create and expand your brand-specific with your content. People are more likely to believe in what is already verified, so making your offerings trustworthy and worth-to-use is imperative. In this case, nothing speaks louder than the real case studies, and testimonials are done by your customers. Show buyers the positive outcomes that others get when choosing you. It is much more persuasive than anything else.
