Let’s get one thing straight – B2B marketing is not about telling prospects about all the great things your company does.
It’s about conveying the value of your services and the benefits of being a customer. Even in our efforts at Bop Design, we can forget this sometime. It’s easy to get caught up in a new feature or a cool thing your company has done.
However, if your B2B marketing efforts don’t answer one question, then they are worthless. You should always be able to answer this question:
Why does this matter to my potential client?
Other questions you can ask are: why do prospects care about this? Does this provide value to my prospects? Is this going to make a prospect want to do business with us? Is this just a feature listing?
This is the secret to successful B2B marketing – a focus on what the potential client values.
Know Your Audience
What’s the best way to make sure you are following this logic in your marketing strategy? Having a clear understanding of your audience, what they value and what they care about will help you to create a customer-centric B2B marketing plan.
Who Are They?
We’ve talked about creating buyer personas before, but we can’t talk about how important this really is for a successful marketing plan. It’s essential to know who you are trying to market to and what drives them. Who is your ideal client? What do you know about them?
What Do They Do?
Knowing a job title or titles for your ideal clients is not only helpful for your B2B marketing efforts, it’s essential for targeting the right audience using different ad networks, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or any Account-Based Marketing platform. In addition to knowing their title, understand what they do on an everyday basis. Are they making decisions or gathering information? Do they have to report to a Director, President, Owner, etc?
When Do They Need You?
When do your clients need your products or services? Is it an urgent need or is it something they think they need but aren’t sure about? Also, ask yourself questions about when they are going to connect with you? Do many of your prospects reach out to you at the beginning of the year, or when their budget is finalized, or at the end of the quarter?
Where Are They?
Be sure to answer several questions about location. Where are your prospects located geographically? Also, ask: Where are they online? Should you be connecting with them on LinkedIn (for B2B marketing – this is usually a yes), Facebook, Yelp, search engines, industry websites, at conferences, tradeshows, in their offices? Where they are located will impact the targeting that you do for your inbound and outbound marketing. Where they want to connect with you will also impact your marketing efforts. For example, it’s no use advertising on Facebook if all your prospects are on Twitter.
Why Do They Care About Your Services?
Again, this should be the main driver for a successful B2B marketing strategy. Why do prospects care about your services? Do they have an issue that your services solve for them? Do your products or services make it easier for them to do their jobs? Do you save them time, money, resources?
There you have it, the secret behind any successful B2B marketing strategy. A customer-centric approach to marketing your firm’s products or services will enable you to connect with prospects and provide them with a valuable partnership.
Want to know the secret to great web design? Check out our blog, The Secret to Great B2B Web Design.
