"Personally, I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms."

~ Dale Carnegie

As B2B marketers, we sometimes unconsciously put ourselves in the place of our targets without even realising. Our B2B marketing strategies often consist of communicating the same way we like to consume digital media. And that might not be the way that appeals most to our target fish.

It seems harder and harder to get two people in a room to agree on a particular topic these days, so why should we expect business consumers to like what we do, or to react to marketing outreach attempts in the same way?

In the blinding array of options we have available to reach our audience today, it can be even more challenging to find the elusive B2B customer. So we target and research, develop buyer personas, and create marketing campaigns with hopes of making the most of our marketing budget. In a multi-channel, attention-deficit era, our goal is to create a seamless stream of unified messaging across all potential digital communication channels and integrate them with significant in-person communication points.

Marketing and branding for B2B products or services now requires an approach that takes all forms of digital media into consideration. Not only do marketers have to find those in charge of the decision-making process, but we must also communicate to those who can influence the decision as it moves through the corporate hierarchy. Creating marketing opportunities means understanding the prospects' decision-making processes and developing an intensive strategy to turn the interest of potential customers into buyers.

Potential B2B consumers demand better digital experiences from potential B2B partners. Their experience needs to be seamless to cut through the online clutter and provide the essential piece of information at precisely the right time. Curating the B2B customer experience also encompasses much more than just delivering information. It also incorporates a website design that promotes usability and consistency, a communication structure that efficiently handles requests and enquiries, and an onboarding process that delivers on promises made on the journey to achieving a sale. The forward-thinking company must strive to create a personalised, multi-channel digital experience that facilitates building lasting interpersonal relationships.

Biggest B2B Marketing Challenges Online

"Engagement versus page views is a new way of thinking about marketing, one that requires a complete mind shift. But I really believe that if you want to bring value to your clients or your company, it's a shift you have to make — like now."

~ Dianna Huff

Marketing to B2B businesses online can present unique challenges that need to be understood and overcome. It requires a careful combination of technology and creativity to achieve the company's goals. Difficulties which may be encountered on the road to B2B success include:

Generating Quality Content Consistently

B2B digital marketing requires a constant stream of communications that need to address varied audiences across a wide range of platforms. Each campaign might require website pages, videos, blog posts, white papers, emails and social media messages, so the first challenge is merely producing enough quality content that will hit a consistent posting schedule for each outlet. The second challenge is to ensure this content has a consistent voice across all platforms but remains optimised to perform on each. Another layer of challenge is added with personalisation, so that your content speaks to, and connects with, individual audience members. Since it cannot be assumed that a prospect starts at Point A and moves neatly through the marketing funnel, content must be able to fully engage potential consumers at whatever point they choose to join the conversation.

Data Management

The best tool in the B2B marketing kit is information, but gathering, analysing and using that data efficiently can be fraught with difficulty. It is challenging to find agile tools and platforms which provide meaningful data that can be easily translated into effective strategies. Once launched, an online campaign's data must be gathered quickly so that changes can be made on the go. Data to be tracked should include click-throughs, time spent, opens, lead quality, and repeat visits. It should also show which messages and channels are reaching their target and eliciting the desired response.

Data Privacy and Data Ethics

Consumers are concerned about data privacy and trust, and governing bodies are responding with beefed-up data regulations that protect the privacy of online users. In the EU, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has fundamentally reshaped the way we need to think about managing and protecting data. Other territories are following suit.

Quality Lead Generation

Bad leads cost just as much to generate as good ones. The challenge is to create more good leads than bad. A campaign that generates ten good leads from quality prospects should be considered more effective than one generating one hundred leads from those with only a passing interest in your product or service. Having a clear understanding of what constitutes a quality lead is the foundation to better content creation, more informed message placement, and an improved customer experience.

Campaign Management

Digital marketing has given rise to the need for better campaign management approaches. When there once might have been one overreaching strategy with a few subsets, now there are multiple strategies ongoing simultaneously, each taking interested prospects down a different path to the same conclusion. Marketing managers need powerful support tools to oversee and track these tentacles as they reach out and attempt to draw desired prospects into the fold.

Mobile Strategies

Mobile has been this decade's big game-changer. In 2017, a report from Google and its partner, The Boston Consulting Group, revealed that "mobile drives, or influences, an average of more than 40% of revenue in leading B2B organisations." Martech Advisor stated that in 2019 B2B mobile marketing trends to watch include mobile content, mobile apps, mobile paid ads, visual content, videos, AI, and mobile email. All strategy and content decisions need to be made with the mobile consumer in mind.

Controlling the Sales Funnel

Because leads come from multiple sources and at varying stages of interest, better control mechanisms are needed to funnel these leads through the sales process. Marketing and sales must be on the same page to ensure each lead receives appropriate messaging that will further spark their interest. Marketing must provide sales with information about the stage of interest, and sales will need to communicate with marketing about the need to provide additional messaging if the prospect appears to be faltering.

Forward Thinking Solutions for Successful B2B Digital Marketing

"It's important to slow down our marketing to get the basics right."

~ Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs

Instead of just looking at better strategies for Search Engine Optimisation and social media interactions (although these are very important), let's do as Ann Handley suggests and slow down for just a moment to make sure we get the basics right for our B2B digital marketing. Some forward-thinking solutions for successful strategies include:

Quality Content

In an age of information overload and attention deficit, how can content creators make their message stand out? Business marketers can no longer rely on merely churning out content anymore. Thought must first be given to how it fits into the entire brand strategy, and whether it serves the customer's needs as well as that of the business. Show how your brand solves business problems. Demonstrate time and cost advantages you have over the competition. Use compelling facts and figures to make your case.

Improving Lead Quality

Lead scoring allows marketers to organise and prioritise leads based on information a lead has provided, or a critical event or activity in which the lead has taken part. Use a marketing automation platform to track interactions for every contact, including site visits, emails, webinars and social events. Be sure to track overall engagement and conversion for websites, microsites, landing pages, emails, forms, campaign activities, and devices. Assign scores which detail how a lead or contact is interacting with your business. Those that are not engaging can be targeted with different messaging, so they will obtain a deeper understanding of how your company's features and benefits can meet and support their needs.

Managing Lead Flow

Powerful marketing automation tools are available that allow you to spontaneously spring into action based on your lead's behaviour. Automations comprised of workflows and action groups, which themselves are comprised of various actions or events, trigger responses and filter leads to help to sort through the wealth of variables to point the way to the exact right reaction at the pivotal awareness moment. For example, automations can trigger email sequences or add the prospect to a list to receive existing campaign materials for additional contact and messaging. If a prospect hasn't viewed a particular page or media channel, they can be prompted to do so.

Refocusing the Customer Journey

Empowered by modern-day technology, potential business customers can find out more about your company and your product than ever before. They are more likely to begin the customer journey by finding and processing the information on their own. The company must try to obtain a more robust understanding of how that journey proceeds, so it can insert appropriate messages at each step. Mapping a customer journey provides knowledge about what happens at each point so that it reveals opportunities for meaningful communication.

Changing the Sales Force Mentality

In many organisations, marketing seems to be at odds with sales. But, in the age of automation and digital marketing, sales and marketing alignment is the new paradigm. Marketing teams need to move beyond the process of creating in a vacuum and communicate the breadth and scope of their targeted messaging to the sales team. They can also ask sales representatives to participate in the campaign creation process and share information they receive from customers in the field. A closer sense of integration between marketing and sales builds teams where both share data while moving forward together to achieve shared company goals.

New Ideas for Campaign Creation and Management

Campaign creation can no longer take place in closed conference rooms. B2B digital marketers need to be open to input from all stakeholders and have better systems for processing and incorporating that valuable information. Fresh content can be drawn from outside the inner circle by accessing a worldwide network of creative talent. Bring the best people together internally and externally to create innovative, content-rich campaigns which build a story that gently draws the prospect into the conversation, and builds momentum towards a long-term relationship.

Find out what kind of worms your fish prefer, and develop marketing campaigns that speak directly to their tastes. 1827 Marketing has gathered a broad network of talent who can help your company create beautifully modern B2B digital marketing strategies. Our marketing automation platform, network and expertise give clients the tools to create campaigns and experiences that catch the fish and deliver results.