Strategy

The B2B Marketing Mix - How to reach your customers

Digital marketing measures have also become increasingly important in the B2B sector in recent years. This is because a large proportion of B2B buyers now also search for suppliers on the Internet and look for information even before the first contact. Many companies from the B2B sector still rely on their good reputation as a service provider or producer and are being left behind by the competition more and more quickly. In this article, I would therefore like to tell you the most important tips for your strategic B2B marketing mix.

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The conception of your B2B marketing mix

The term marketing mix originally included the four P's:

  • Product
  • Price
  • Promotion
  • Place

As the market is constantly changing, three more P's are added to the four classic ones. These concern the executing personnel, who are important for customer satisfaction. Also included are the processes involved in the creation of products and services and the equipment of the premises used.

  • People
  • Process
  • Physical Facilities

For companies from the B2B sector, it is necessary to consider all seven aspects of the marketing mix for a high-revenue marketing strategy. The goal is not only an appealing offer that can keep up with the competition in terms of price. The priority is to optimize all processes from production to long-term customer loyalty. At the same time, your company needs to establish itself in the market, increase its reach, and win the trust of customers.

All this only works with a well-planned marketing strategy. That's why I'll give you the most important tips for the successful implementation of your marketing mix.

In the B2B sector, too, you have to tailor your marketing measures precisely to your customers. The Internet has become the most important research tool for B2B buyers. Again and again, I see that entrepreneurs don't properly exploit their potential because they only do one-sided marketing. By covering diverse channels, customers can be reached at more touchpoints in the customer journey, which ultimately leads to successful marketing. Accordingly, you should choose the appropriate online marketing channels for your B2B marketing mix.

For planning, you should first focus on what your company is all about. The marketing strategy should always be tailored to the company and its customers. This is the only way to achieve a consistent effect with which you can convince potential B2B customers.

Important indicators for the selection of marketing instruments are the target group, the industry and the product. The products or services offered are always at the center of the B2B marketing mix.

The following questions arise:

  • What do you offer?
  • What values make up your company?
  • How is your company positioned in the market?
  • How does the company stand out from the competition?
  • What's your budget for marketing efforts?
  • How much time can you invest in the marketing mix?

The target group - using the book "The 4-Hour Week" as an example

One aspect plays the decisive role for the marketing concept: Where do you best reach the target group? It's not enough just to offer great products or services. Potential customers must be reached and addressed on the right channels.

Research has shown that the book cover and the title are crucial for the sales success of a book. Therefore, before publishing his book "The 4-Hour Week", Timothy Ferriss tested several titles available for selection with Google AdWords ads to find out which title aroused more interest. The title with the most clicks is now on the book cover and his book became a bestseller.

This example shows how important the right target group approach is for marketing products and services. It is not only crucial that a company offers great services or products, but also hits the nerve of the target group with the right triggers.

The choice of marketing channels

Again and again, I observe how small or medium-sized companies want too much at once, but then unfortunately can only implement everything half-heartedly. There is usually a lack of resources here, such as time and money. That's why I always recommend my clients to focus on fewer online marketing channels and then implement them one hundred percent. When planning the marketing channels, you should proceed strategically. Which channel fits the target group? Which channel offers the best ROI? How time-consuming is the support of the individual channels? And what opportunities does the channel offer for presenting my company, products or services?

My tip: It is advantageous to start the customer journey backwards with the last touchpoints. These are most likely to be in the purchase phase, which means that an increase in sales can be achieved more quickly here.

Adding your own website to the marketing mix is the common step to begin with. This has many advantages. Owned media offers great design freedom, so that your company can present itself perfectly. Here, interested parties not only receive the most important information, but can also contact you directly. Depending on your capacities, it may also be worthwhile to create your own blog to demonstrate expertise and offer interested parties added value.

I also recommend never relying on just one channel. If this should collapse for various reasons, you need a second mainstay. Social media, for example, offers great marketing opportunities, as high-quality posts spread quickly through likes and shares. But newsletter marketing also offers some advantages and speaks directly to your customers. Another advantage of these two marketing channels is that their success can be measured directly. This allows you to quickly determine how well you are reaching your target groups with the content you use.

In addition, you should take a look at the topic of search marketing. It is an effective tool that helps companies to become visible on the web. You can actively influence the success of your company through measures from the areas of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Paid Advertising, Content Creation and Content Outreach (online PR work / spreading your own web content through active seeding). Web analytics also offers the opportunity here to analyze and evaluate the measures taken. How to develop the right search marketing strategy in B2B and achieve your goals is shown in this whitepaper "B2B Online Marketing - Strategies for more visibility in the digital age".

There is no one right solution. Which marketing channels you use depends on the size of the company, the target group and resources such as time and budget. Everyone has to find their own way to reach their B2B customers efficiently.

My tip: The goal is to use the channels that contribute most effectively to customer loyalty. At the beginning, you should therefore test different channels and compare their effect with each other. This is how you determine the most efficient channels.

Example of the right choice of online marketing channels

A great example from the B2C sector is the Kasseler Sushi Restaurant Wasabi. Wasabi even deliberately does without its own website and instead focuses entirely on marketing via Facebook and Instagram. This allows them to perfectly reach the target group with comparatively little effort. So prioritizing is an important factor in planning the marketing mix.

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Why B2B companies should invest more in social media

The great advantages of social media marketing are actually well known. They can be used to strengthen corporate branding and reach the target group particularly well. Through likes and shares, good contributions distribute themselves. Nevertheless, many companies do not use social networks at all or only sporadically.

That's why it's time for a rethink. Especially in the B2B sector, it is worthwhile to include social networks such as LinkedIn, Xing or Quora in the marketing mix. They offer companies or employees the opportunity to demonstrate expertise and establish important business contacts. Social networks also have a lot to offer in the area of e-recruiting. Which social media channels you use depends on your target group, but also on the time you want to invest. Here, too, it's better to use fewer channels, but preferably on a daily basis or at least several times a week.

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Content marketing - an important discipline in the B2B marketing mix

Content is King! This saying has long been established in online marketing. Without content it simply doesn't work. Many underestimate the effect of good content. But content can not only be used everywhere, it also strengthens branding. A corporate blog, for example, can strengthen your company's position as an expert. How to do this, you will learn in the contentbird whitepaper that you can download here for free can:

contentbird Whitepaper

With great content, you not only directly market products or services, but also establish them on the market. Content on your own website should always be optimized for search engines. This includes a clear structure through subheadings and good readability. In general, the content must always be adapted to the platform used. On Instagram, for example, the focus is on well-prepared photos, while on Quora the focus is on expert opinions.

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The marketing mix - more customers with the right marketing strategy

Only companies that know their business inside out and plan their marketing strategically can generate more sales and thus more revenue in the long term with their B2B marketing mix. If marketing strategies are not well thought out or if the selected channels are not used adequately, B2B companies will quickly fall behind. While online marketing gained a foothold primarily in the B2C sector for many years, it failed to gain a foothold with some B2B

94% of B2B buyers use the Internet for research and 71% of B2B buyers search for suppliers online before contacting them. So now it's time for a change, even for B2B companies that have been relying on old marketing methods. So ask yourself: are you covering all seven aspects of the marketing mix? And how do you derive your marketing strategy to really reach your customers? Make sure your marketing is perfectly aligned with your business and your customers. This is a process. Only by constantly measuring KPI's will you find the right marketing channels to reach your customers at all important touchpoints in the long run. This is the only way you can keep up with the competition in the long term.

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