Business to Business (B2B) Marketing

What is Business to Business?

Business to business (B2B) refers to a situation where one business sells to another business, as opposed to an end user customer. If your customers are also businesses, you are in a business to business industry.

B2B marketing requires a slightly different approach to consumer marketing. B2B audience are more targeted and most of the business relationships are not linear. In a B2C (business to consumer) environment, you communicate mostly only with the end buyer. In the B2B environment there are often various decision makers and influencers that need to be taken into account.

Business to Business (B2B) Marketing Can Be More Complex

Many B2B products and services are more complex, which requires communications on the technical and intricate to be easily understood. The distinct differentiation of your product (your unique selling proposition, USP, or value proposition) needs to be articulated in a clear and concise manner to support rational buying decisions.

This does not mean that B2B marketing has to be boring or free from emotion. In fact B2B customers are motivated by a different set of emotions from that of B2C customers. B2B customers are unlikely to be motivated by impulse or status, but your B2B marketing can speak to other emotions such as the fear of making the wrong decision, not getting the right return on investment on the purchase.

Plan for ZMOT, Buyers Research

In today’s environment, most B2B buyers research the available products and suppliers even before the actual contact is made. This is called the ZMOT, Zero Moment of Truth, coined by Google. So your number one tool to capture these “unknown” customers is a well-designed and regularly updated website.

Content Marketing

The use of content marketing is popular particularly in the B2B environment. Content marketing is the creation and distribution of relevant content to engage and retain potential and current customers, and ultimately drive customer action.

The creation of precious content, whether it is an article, a product guide, spec sheet, product comparison sheet, case study, or white paper*, takes expertise, time and energy to create. The sharing of industry specific (sometimes more technical) information requires planning to maximise reach and engagement.

* A white paper is a report on a specific issue and presents a solution to help readers understand the problem or make a decision. It tends to be highly detailed and informative and written by industry experts.

We can help with the planning and implementation of your B2B marketing plan to reach your customers before they approach you, and to qualify leads for the sales funnel.

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