When it comes to promoting your business or cause, there are many different strategies that you can employ. Taking a business directly to the consumer with promotions for clients and potential clients is one way to market. Another equally important but often overlooked marketing strategy involves directly promoting to other businesses. Business to Business Marketing—more commonly called B2B—has value and it has worth in both profitability and in name recognition.
To get you started in building this portion of your marketing strategy, the following are four B2B marketing tips that you can use for your business.
1. Be Consistent
Consistency is an important part of any marketing strategy. You want to ensure that you are sending the same message across all platforms through which you are promoting your products or services. That is to say that on social media, on your website, and in other promotional representations of your business, you need to be stating the same mission, values, or goals. Even if you may state it in a slightly different way, this thematic consistency is important and will eliminate confusion for your consumer.
2. Stay Informative
Marketing, especially when doing so to other businesses, needs to be valuable to your consumer. Businesses do not want to see the same information over and over again. Whether it is on your website or via other outlets, you need to provide some type of informational relevance when sharing about your business. Other owners, entrepreneurs, and marketing experts will not only come to expect this from you, but they will look to your business for the latest information. This helps to promote your business by showing it is an authority in the field.
3. Do Your Research
B2B marketing is enhanced through networking and contacts. You and your team need to know the important players in the business game, the enterprises and organizations that can help your business grow, and who the big names are. This requires research and becoming involved in gathering data well before you ever begin planning your marketing strategies. One of the best B2B marketing tips that you can focus on is for your team to research and really know the field and hierarchy of contacts before they begin marketing to them.
4. Do Not Be Afraid of Feedback
Feedback from other businesses is not something that should come by randomly. It should be fought for. You need to know how your business is stacking up in relation to others in your field, where you are succeeding, and where you are failing. One way to do this is to actually ask for compliments and for criticisms. Talk to businesses and ask them what they know about your business, if the marketing and promotions are working, and where your plan needs improved – the responses may not always be easy to hear, but will help you to adjust and build a better plan in the future. Don’t be complacent and think of criticisms as great indicators of how to build, meet, and expand your B2B marketing goals.
In hand with feedback is asking for testimonials, when appropriate. As my own business is a B2B one (because my team and I write content for other businesses) I’m never hesitant to ask for testimonials to add to this site. My testimonials page is one of the most visited here – you can see it HERE.
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