Due to increased competition in all areas of business, the stakes that entrepreneurs place on advertising are increasing. Today, the Internet is the fastest growing platform for advertising and commerce. Old-school manufacturers and distributors may often overlook this.
It is not only because of the growing turnover of internet commerce that the online sphere needs to develop: consumers use the web to search for information about a product, compare it with an alternative product or service. Internet advertising is an extremely powerful tool for attracting new customers and increasing revenue for businesses.
The benefits of online advertising for B2B:
- a handy tool for finding your target audience;
- ease of collecting statistics;
- Investment performance and ability to capture costs;
- A good opportunity to build branding;
- contextual placement (ads are organically integrated into the pages of websites).
Traditional advertising
Traditional advertising can be useful for B2B marketing, although it is generally no longer used as a solo brand recognition mechanism. By applying conventional advertising in combination with search engine optimization (SEO), online advertising, a strong content strategy, and other inbound marketing techniques, an organization can develop an advanced suite of online advertising for B2B.
To improve consumer contact, it makes sense to utilize all internet channels such as:
- paid search;
- social media;
- SEO / Website;
- e-mail marketing;
- affiliate marketing;
- webinars / online events.
E-mail marketing
E-mail marketing became a popular means of delivering advertising in the nineties. Today, email marketing remains the most effective marketing tactic in the B2B arsenal. The main problem with email is the inability to build your target lists, which is due to the possibility of emails falling into the “spam” category with the customer.
However, a personalized mailing from company managers works great.
Advertising site
A website plays an important role in modern B2B marketing and is the foundation for all offline and online marketing initiatives. A website should detail about the company, its products, features and current offerings. With a well-planned, designed and constructed website, businesses can increase conversion rates and turn visitors into customers.
Good content is another important driver of success. Interesting corporate blog, expert media commentary, training materials, attract customers and stakeholders.
The website of a B2B company is focused on point work with visitors. There are far fewer visitors on B2B sites, which is why it is worth emphasizing communication with the client, understanding his motivation and desires.
The purpose of a B2B website:
- to increase sales;
- improve the company’s image;
- show company information;
- reduce the load on call centers and customer departments.
Search engine
Search engine visibility is a very effective way to connect with your target audience. The website should be registered in Google, Yandex, Bing, and the content should be optimized so that your services can be easily found using popular keywords.
Social media as an advertising platform
Social media can be a powerful tool for building closer relationships with valued customers. When using social media, you need to be part of the community, you need to maintain a dialog with the consumer. Avoid using social media for one-off promotions.
Many businesses and potential customers use social media to get questions answered, learn more about subjects, get help and updates on future company products, share ideas and provide feedback.
If you look at who uses social media, you’ll see that most companies have a presence in at least a few places, with Vkontakte, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter being the most popular. According to Pew Research Research, 82% of adults between the ages of 18 and 29 use Facebook, and 79% of those between the ages of 30 and 49. This age range likely makes up a portion of the target audience that regularly makes purchases in the B2B sector.
Vkontakte, Facebook and LinkedIn have very active user groups that create communities and interact within them. Many active communities and industry groups are rife with opportunities to connect to audiences that may be searching for your product or service. Ordering ads in themed groups with your CA is a good way to reach customers.
Social media advertising campaigns allow advertisers to be more specific about who to show their ads to. Even though most people get on Facebook, for example, for entertainment and personal use, it doesn’t stop them from noticing your ad by looking at friends’ updates or recommended articles.
As with paid search, it’s worth experimenting with the offer, graphics, and wording to determine what catches your audience’s attention the most.
YouTube advertising
One great thing about YouTube is that this network is well used both on computer and mobile devices. According to YouTube’s official statistics, the number of YouTube videos viewed via mobile devices has increased by 100 percent compared to last year, and the total viewing time has increased by 60 percent. A study conducted by ReelSEO showed that 76 percent of respondents choose YouTube to publish product advertisements.
This format involves the veiled or explicit presence of the company’s products in popular bloggers’ videos, pre-rolls or in the descriptions under the videos.
https://youtube.com/embed/9d2VTS4J-QM
B2B marketing trends
1. Customer Experience Balance
There is an increasing focus on improving the customer experience. Companies are trying to get to know their customers better – their preferences, age, income structure. Knowing this helps to improve services and make offers that are difficult to refuse.
2. Executive Branding
Over the past decade, the Internet, mobility and social media have surpassed traditional “command and control” marketing. The pendulum has swung dramatically to individuals as customers and individuals as the voice of their companies. Conventional digital marketing efforts are no longer enough. The need for corporate branding is now seen as particularly specific to B2B.
3. artificial intelligence / machine learning
The integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning into the B2B marketing sector is growing. Through the use of cognitive interfaces in complex systems, advanced analytics and machine learning technologies, many vendors are already implementing real benefits. It’s not just technology for technology’s sake. Faster business decisions are being made in marketing, e-commerce, product management and other business areas that help reduce decision-making time.
4. Visual content marketing
Content is becoming more and more attractive than plain text materials with primitive illustrations. The most common forms of visual content are videos (including 360-degree VR videos), infographics, author images in blogs and social media posts.
5. Influencer Experiences from B2C
Following the trend set by their B2C brethren, B2B marketers continue to partner with influencers but are increasingly focusing on social channels such as Vkontakte, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
6. Pure advertising
Pure advertising refers to material in online publications that resembles editorial content but is paid for by the advertiser and is designed to promote the advertiser’s products or services. It is an interesting alternative to traditional banner and interstitial advertising. Pure advertising blurs the lines between advertising and content.
It’s much less intrusive, can provide educational benefits for the reader, and will be cost-effective for the advertiser. A number of leading B2B companies have already figured out how to successfully utilize native advertising. These include IBM, Teradata, Deluxe, Dell and Intel.
7. Agile Marketing
Originally developed by software engineers and now a pretty hot trend in the marketing space. The goal of agile marketing is to enable you to do the right thing at the right time.
For most B2B organizations, implementing agile marketing means abandoning traditional barriers between departments and adopting a much more collaborative approach, both internally and with customers. While adjusting corporate culture to accommodate the agile model can be challenging, its benefits go far beyond sales.
8. Social Media
In 2016, 39% of marketers reported significant ROI from social media marketing, up from just 9% in 2015. While this data suggests that challenges still exist, the year-over-year growth indicates that B2B marketers are becoming more successful in converting social media projects into sales leads and ultimately revenue.
9. Mobile Marketing
Back in mid-2014, we reached a tipping point regarding website access. At that time, mobile devices officially overtook desktops as the preferred method of browsing and downloading content online. According to the Gorilla Group, by Q4 2016, 50% of all B2B companies had implemented responsive design for their websites. (Responsive design makes it easy to view a website on smartphones, tablets, and laptops.) That’s nearly double the number of websites with responsive design in 2015 (26%).
10. Automation
The adoption of marketing automation technologies continues to be one of the fastest growing trends in marketing today. These include out-of-the-box tools for launching ad campaigns, social media delayed posting systems, and teaser networks.
Results
B2B marketing targets the representative or business owner who is looking for opportunities to grow their company.
B2B website promotion often goes unclaimed as most interested parties use the internet to search for the right information, affordable and quality offerings.
The optimal option for attracting the target audience and turning them into customers is content marketing, email newsletters, webinars and other online events, demo access to products or services, online consultations. For B2B promotion, bragging about projects and awards is one of the fundamental elements of success.
A quality advertising strategy from KOLORO is the key to the success of your business. Order from us and you will be on top of success!
