Only a few years ago, it was pretty easy to beat the competition at B2B digital marketing — because B2B companies weren’t doing much digital marketing at all. Today, everything has changed.
- Competition for organic and paid keywords in the B2B space has intensified.
- Formerly wide-open digital marketing platforms like LinkedIn and YouTube are now crowded with B2B marketers.
- Your audience’s email inboxes, social media feeds, and search results are flooded with B2B marketing content — much of it saying the same thing.
That means B2B marketers need to work a little harder — and a lot smarter — to support their business’ growth through digital marketing. In this post, we’ll be covering the most effective B2B digital marketing strategies with in-depth insights, real-world case studies, and a focus on outperforming competitors.
What Is B2B Digital Marketing?
B2B digital marketing refers to the strategies and practices used by businesses to market their products or services to other businesses via digital channels (for example, wholesale suppliers, SaaS businesses, and IT services to name a few). Unlike B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing, which targets individual consumers, B2B marketing focuses on meeting the needs of other companies. This involves understanding the unique challenges, demands, and decision-making processes of businesses.
In the realm of digital marketing, this approach utilizes a variety of online platforms and tools to reach and engage professional audiences. Some of the key components of B2B digital marketing include:
- Website and SEO: A well-designed, user-friendly website optimized for search engines is crucial for B2B companies. It serves as the hub of all digital marketing efforts, hosting valuable content, product information, and company details.
- Content Marketing: Providing valuable, relevant content targeted at business clients helps establish authority and trust. This might include blogs, white papers, case studies, and videos that address specific industry problems or questions.
- Social Media Marketing: Platforms like LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and sometimes Facebook can be effective for B2B marketers to build brand awareness, share content, and engage with industry leaders and potential clients.
- Email Marketing: Personalized and segment-focused email campaigns can nurture leads through the sales funnel by providing tailored information and offers to potential business clients.
- Paid Digital Advertising: Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, display ads, and sponsored content on social media and other platforms can increase visibility and drive targeted traffic.
- Analytics and Measurement: Using tools to measure the effectiveness of digital marketing efforts is crucial in understanding performance, optimizing strategies, and improving return on investment (ROI).
By leveraging these and other digital marketing tactics, B2B marketers aim to create meaningful connections, generate leads, and ultimately drive sales and growth by appealing directly to the businesses that require their products or services.
B2B vs. B2C Digital Marketing: Understanding the Key Differences
While the core principles of marketing remain constant, the strategies, channels, and messaging used in B2B and B2C digital marketing vary significantly due to the fundamental differences in their target audiences, sales processes, content requirements, lead generation methods, and transactional values.
Target Audience
Since B2B marketing aims at other businesses (and the professionals within those entities), its focus is on addressing the needs, challenges, and objectives of the business as a whole. B2C Marketing, on the other hand, targets individual consumers who are making purchases for personal use. In this case, the messaging is crafted to appeal directly to the end consumer’s desires, preferences, and lifestyle.
Complexity of the Sales Process
The B2B sales cycle is often lengthier and involves a more intricate decision-making process. It usually encompasses multiple stakeholders, departments, and sometimes, a series of negotiations before a purchase decision is made. Most B2C sales processes are comparatively straightforward, swift, and involve a single decision-maker — the consumer. The goal is to move the consumer quickly from interest to purchase.
Content Type & Depth
To market to other businesses, you’ll need content that is in-depth, technical, and tailored to the industry. The goal is to be helpful and educational by addressing specific business pain points and showcasing solutions. Formats like whitepapers, case studies, and detailed industry reports are common in B2B digital marketing. In contrast, B2C marketing leverages content that is consumer-friendly, often focusing on emotional engagement. It includes easily digestible product descriptions, reviews, and visual storytelling to highlight product benefits and features.
At Vital, we like to steal a few pages from the B2C marketing playbook for our B2B clients. After all, businesses are made up of people, and all people (even C-suite executives) are prone to emotional decision-making (even when they’re buying a B2B software solution). Applying traditional B2C tactics to B2B marketing is one way to stand out from your competitors — especially if their messaging is steeped in jargon and focused exclusively on cut-and-dry features and functionality.
Lead Generation & Nurturing
B2B Marketing strategies often focus on capturing leads at various stages of the sales funnel and nurturing them over time through personalized, informative content and email marketing. This is crucial because of the longer decision-making timeline in B2B transactions. For example, sharing the top digital business cards with your B2B prospects in any event, webinar, or even online is a part of pushing the prospects in the B2B sales funnel. The idea is not about converting them immediately.
B2C Marketing strategies aim for immediate conversion, emphasizing quick decision-making through compelling offers and seamless purchasing processes.
Purchase Volume & Value
B2B transactions are characterized by higher purchase volumes and values. They often involve contracts, subscriptions, or bulk purchases, which may entail detailed negotiations and tailored pricing strategies.
B2C transactions generally see lower individual purchase values and volumes, with consumers making purchases based on personal need or desire without lengthy deliberation or negotiation.
Understanding these differences is crucial for marketers as it influences the choice of digital marketing strategies, channels, and content. Tailoring your approach to fit the unique requirements of B2B or B2C audiences can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, ensuring that your messages resonate and lead to successful outcomes.
The Challenges & Benefits of B2B Digital Marketing
In the evolving landscape of digital marketing, B2B companies face unique challenges that stem from the nature of their target audience and the complexity of their transactions. Despite these hurdles, B2B digital marketing also brings a host of benefits, leveraging the power of the internet to generate leads, build brand awareness, and drive growth.
4 Challenges of B2B Digital Marketing
- Longer Sales Cycles: The B2B buying process involves a series of deliberations and approvals, making the sales cycle inherently longer and more complex. This prolongs the period from initial contact to final purchase, requiring sustained marketing efforts and resources.
- Multiple Stakeholders: B2B purchasing decisions typically involve a group of stakeholders, each bringing their unique needs, questions, and reservations to the table. Catering to their varied perspectives and convincing all parties involved adds a layer of complexity to the marketing and sales efforts.
- Competition: The digital space is increasingly crowded, with numerous companies vying for the attention of a similar audience. Standing out in this competitive environment demands innovative strategies and clear differentiation.
- ROI Measurement: The multifaceted nature of B2B transactions, coupled with longer sales cycles, makes tracking and measuring the ROI of digital marketing campaigns more challenging. Identifying which efforts lead to conversions requires sophisticated tracking and analytics.
4 Benefits of B2B Digital Marketing
- Precision Targeting: One of the most significant advantages of digital marketing is the ability to target prospects with incredible precision. Using data on demographics, firmographics, and online behavior, B2B marketers can tailor their efforts to reach the individuals most likely to engage with their offerings, enhancing the efficiency of their campaigns.
- Lead Generation: Through tactics like content marketing, SEO, and paid advertising, B2B digital marketing excels at generating leads. These strategies help attract potential buyers to a company’s digital platforms, filling the sales pipeline with high-quality leads.
- Measurable Results: The real-time nature of digital analytics tools allows B2B marketers to track the performance of their campaigns accurately. This data-driven approach enables continuous monitoring and optimization of strategies based on what’s working, ensuring a higher success rate and better allocation of resources.
- Cost Efficiency: Compared to traditional marketing methods, digital marketing offers a more cost-effective solution for reaching a broad audience. With lower overhead and the potential for highly targeted campaigns, B2B companies can achieve significant market penetration without the hefty price tag of offline methods.
While B2B digital marketing presents certain challenges, including navigating longer sales cycles and a crowded competitive landscape, the targeted precision, lead generation capabilities, measurable analytics, and cost efficiency it offers make it an indispensable tool for B2B companies looking to thrive in today’s business environment. By understanding and leveraging these benefits, businesses can overcome the inherent challenges, driving successful marketing outcomes.
Why is a B2B Digital Marketing Strategy Important?
In today’s digital marketing world, it’s not enough to simply have an online presence and hope your customers come to you. A well-defined B2B digital marketing strategy ensures that all your digital marketing efforts work together to help you achieve your broader business objectives. Here’s why you should take the time to develop your strategy:
Clear Objectives
A digital marketing strategy establishes clear, measurable objectives and goals. This clarity ensures that all marketing initiatives are purpose-driven, aiming toward specific outcomes. Whether the goal is lead generation, brand awareness, or customer retention, a strategy provides the roadmap to success, ensuring that every action contributes to the overarching business objectives.
A More Effective, More Targeted Approach
Compared to traditional marketing, a digital marketing strategy will enable more precise targeting and personalized messaging. This targeted approach ensures that marketing efforts resonate deeply with potential clients, addressing their specific needs, challenges, and decision-making processes. Personalized, relevant messaging increases engagement and conversion rates.
Resource Allocation
An effective digital marketing strategy helps your team allocate resources, including budget, time, and workforce. By identifying the channels and tactics most likely to yield results, businesses can optimize their ROI, concentrating resources on high-impact activities and avoiding wasteful spending on efforts that don’t align with their strategic goals.
Consistency
Consistency in branding, messaging, and content across all digital channels is vital for building a strong brand identity. A unified strategy ensures that regardless of the platform — be it social media, email, or website — your brand’s voice and image remain coherent and recognizable. This consistency strengthens brand recognition and fosters trust with your audience.
Data-Driven Decision Making
A strategy grounded in data enables businesses to make informed, effective decisions. By continuously analyzing performance metrics and KPIs, companies can identify what’s working, pinpoint areas for improvement, and adapt strategies for better outcomes.
Alignment with Sales
One of the most important purposes of a B2B digital marketing strategy is getting everyone on the same page — especially your sales and marketing teams. By coordinating marketing and sales efforts, your business can create a seamless funnel that nurtures leads effectively from the initial contact to the closing of a deal.
Efficient Content Creation
Content is at the heart of digital marketing. A strategic approach guides the creation of content that not only resonates with your target audience but also addresses their pain points and positions your company as a thought leader in the industry. With a strategy in place, content creation becomes more intentional and impactful, contributing directly to achieving specific marketing objectives.
How to Get Started with a B2B Digital Marketing Strategy
If you’ve never taken a particularly strategic approach to digital marketing — or if your current strategy could use a facelift — here is a back-to-basics approach that will help ensure that you’re starting out from a solid foundation.
Know Your Audience
Effective marketing relies on a deep understanding of your audience. Who are they? What do they want to achieve and what problems are they facing that your business can help them with? Where do they spend time online? Who and what influences their behavior and decisions? When it comes to B2B digital marketing, it’s essential to create detailed buyer personas to guide everything from your website’s information architecture to your content strategy and even your paid digital advertising methods. Download our free buyer persona template for inspiration.
Know What Makes You Different
Many B2B businesses skip this step without even realizing it. If you think you know what makes your business unique, but you’ve never formally defined a brand positioning or messaging strategy, chances are good that you’ve got a dozen different people telling a dozen different stories about why to choose you over the competition — and you don’t know which story (if any) is the one your customers care about. The good news is that B2B digital marketing today sets the bar for brand differentiation pretty low, so if you put the effort into understanding and communicating what sets you apart and why your audience should care, you can establish a strong competitive advantage and drive down your overall marketing costs. Get started with this brand messaging template.
Know Your Competition
Depending on the size of your market, you probably already know quite a bit about the other businesses you’re up against. One of the early steps in creating your B2B digital marketing strategy is to compile that knowledge in one document that details your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and brand position (or what they’re known for in the market). Since you’re going to be investing in digital marketing, you should also do your research on what your competitors are up to in this space. That means checking out their websites, messaging, SEO content and organic rankings, social profiles, and paid media strategies. At Vital, we use tools like SpyFu to uncover competitors’ digital marketing strategies so we can find opportunities to outsmart them.
Know Your Market
To nail your B2B digital marketing strategy, getting to know your market category inside and out is key. This means keeping an eye on the latest industry trends, understanding how big the market is, where it’s headed, and who else is playing in the same space. It’s also about figuring out how changes in laws or the economy might shake things up. By being in the know, you can spot new opportunities, stand out from the crowd, and tailor your strategies to stay ahead of the game.
Write Your Marketing Plan
Now that you’ve done your research, it’s time to put it all together in a detailed digital marketing plan. Writing your marketing plan gives you clarity on where you’re headed and ensures your whole team is on the same page. It also helps you focus your efforts, spend your budget wisely, and measure what works best. If you need some help, read this post about how to write a marketing plan, and download our free marketing plan templates to get started.
5 Proven B2B Digital Marketing Strategies
Now, for the moment we’ve all been waiting for: Here are five actionable digital marketing strategies your business should include in your marketing plan, with examples and case studies for some real-world context.
1. Optimize Your Website
We say this all the time at Vital, but in case you’re new here: Your website is the foundation of your digital marketing efforts. What does that mean? Well, you can create all the search-optimized content you want and run as many paid digital ads as you can afford — but if your website suffers from one or more of the common issues we come across every day, it’s like trying to cross the Atlantic in a leaky boat.
How to patch the holes? Start with a well-designed, informative, and mobile-friendly site built on a content management system (CMS) that makes it easy to manage and scale. (We like WordPress.) You’ll need intuitive, task-based navigation, responsive design, and fast-loading pages. Add social validation to build empathy with your audience (think reviews, awards, statistics, partner logos, etc.). Make sure your information architecture and UX/UI supports simple user journeys. Follow conversion-rate-optimization (CRO) best practices with clear, persuasive calls to action (CTAs) and well-designed lead-generation forms.
And we’re not even getting into the technical details. Suffice it to say, there are a lot of very nerdy things to know about optimizing your website for SEO and conversions from the backend. If you want to get into it, we offer digital marketing website audits that run your site through a grueling checklist of on- and off-page factors to determine exactly what needs fixing and how to fix it, in order of priority.
Case Study or It Didn’t Happen
Payments orchestration software leader ACI Worldwide had a CMS problem that was causing headaches and throttling leads. We built a new site that set them up for digital marketing success (and they’ve been a happy B2B digital marketing client ever since).
2. Focus on Key Pages to Drive Traffic with SEO
Let’s start with the basics: SEO is all about making your website more visible in search engine results, which means more traffic, more leads, and ultimately, more sales. Start with keyword research; think like your clients and figure out what phrases they’re typing into Google when they’re looking for the solutions you offer. Don’t just go broad — also look for specific, niche terms that match your products and services.
That’s good general advice, and you’re probably already on it. To take your B2B SEO strategy up a notch, pay special attention to your product and service pages. First order of business: Make sure you have individual pages for each of your products or services, rather than lumping them together on one top-level page. Why? Because these pages are where the SEO magic happens — they’re where website visitors become leads and customers.
Unlike your blog, where you can (and should) optimize for top-of-funnel keywords, your product or service pages should be optimized for specific, granular bottom-of-the-funnel keywords. For example, if you manufacture widgets, you want to optimize your widget pages to include the technical specifications, materials, and other details people search for when they’re looking to buy a specific product.
With that in mind, don’t skimp on the details on product and service pages. Include specs, prices, reviews, FAQs, and even comparison guides that help nudge the buyer toward making a decision. Visual content can be a game-changer here. High-quality images, videos, and diagrams can help convey the value of your offer more effectively than text alone.
Pro-tip: Make sure you include clear, compelling CTAs on each product page to make it as easy as possible for visitors to take the next step, whether that’s requesting a demo, signing up for a free trial, or making a purchase.
Example, Please.
You got it. Vital created keyword-rich, search-optimized product pages for our client, industrial services provider GWY. As a result, they consistently rank high on Google’s Search Engine Results page for high-intent, product-specific searches, like this one:
Search Query: P300A Manual Torque Multiplier
Position: 1
3. Lead the Conversation (and Generate Leads) with Content Marketing
Content is the cornerstone of B2B digital marketing. A well-thought-out content strategy should:
- Address specific needs: Create content that solves problems, answers questions, and addresses the specific needs of your target businesses.
- Be diverse and engaging: Utilize various content formats like blogs, infographics, whitepapers, e-books, and videos to engage different segments of your audience.
- Focus on value and thought leadership: Establish your brand as a leader in your industry by creating insightful, authoritative content that adds real value.
In addition to these basics, your content marketing strategy should account for every step in your buyers’ journey. Map it out — what questions do your prospects need answered when they’re aware of a problem and actively seeking out solutions like yours? How about when they’re evaluating different solutions? When they’re ready to buy?
Want some inspiration? Check out these specific ideas for B2B content marketing.
The beauty of a solid B2B content marketing strategy is that, if you create useful content and promote it in the right channels, you can accomplish multiple goals, including driving organic traffic to your website, generating leads, and building trust and credibility.
Prove It.
One of our long-term clients, Consolidated Sterilizer Systems, has been killing the content marketing game for over 20 years. Here’s one example of a blog post, Sterilizing Medical Equipment, that both helps the company establish itself as an expert in the healthcare market, and generates an impressive amount of organic traffic.
Check out the post’s organic search rankings:
This post performs well on the first page of Google’s search engine results page (SERP).
And, it shows up in three featured snippets, like this one:
4. Improve PPC Results with Video
According to a recent study by VIB, 33% of B2B marketers have increased their video marketing budgets this year. Considering that the same study shows that 92% of marketers overall say they see a positive ROI from video marketing, that number could (and probably should) be a lot higher.
Video marketing has many effective uses across many digital marketing channels — and one of the strategies that’s driven great results for our B2B clients is using video in paid digital media campaigns (or PPC).
Learn more about PPC basics for B2B companies here. And get the lowdown on how video improves PPC results here.
One Real-life Example of Video PPC Success
One of our clients spends tens of thousands of dollars on video ads every year. Last year, that video ad spend resulted in 1.3 million brand impressions and over 14,000 clicks to their site. Even better, of those tens of thousands of clicks, 120+ led directly to a sale, with a total cost per conversion of $169. Considering that this particular business has an average value per customer of more than $10,000, the ROI suddenly looks very impressive.
5. Nurture Leads with Email Marketing
So far we’ve focused primarily on strategies to boost traffic and generate leads. Once your CRM starts filling up with marketing-qualified leads (MQLs), you’ll need a strong email marketing strategy to help nurture those leads until they’re ready to talk to sales and make a purchase.
At Vital, we use automated lead-nurture campaigns to help our clients get the most out of their email lists. These campaigns are highly effective as a way to stay in touch and top-of-mind with prospects who have downloaded an online content resource (or filled out any online lead-nurture form for that matter).
When crafting emails for a lead-nurture campaign, ask yourself a few questions:
- What does someone who filled out this specific form need to know to help them solve their challenges?
- What other types of content would they be interested in?
- Are there any secondary conversion offers that this prospect may be ready for? (E.g. a product demo, an audit or evaluation, or a conversation with sales?)
Aim for at least three follow-up lead-nurture emails per lead source — and depending on the depth of your content library, you can stretch your lead-nurture campaign for as long as you want.
B2B Email Marketing Case Study
One of our clients manufactures a high-value furniture product which they sell to retailers as well as directly to consumers. We created a downloadable eBook with practical considerations for anyone considering purchasing a product. Once someone downloads the eBook, an automated lead-nurture campaign kicks in, sending emails filled with helpful, non-salesy information.
The results? Thanks to email marketing, 7.8% of people who download the eBook end up purchasing a product in an average of 39 days.
Conclusion
In the dynamic world of B2B digital marketing, having a solid strategy is non-negotiable. From understanding the nuances of SEO to fine-tuning your product pages for those ready-to-buy customers, the aim is to drive traffic, generate leads, and convert those leads into loyal clients. Remember, success in digital marketing doesn’t happen by chance; it’s the result of strategic planning, deep understanding of your market, and delivering valuable content pitched perfectly to meet your audience’s needs.
Speaking of strategic plans, if you haven’t written your business’ marketing plan yet, that’s a great next step. Get started with our free downloadable marketing plan template and planning worksheet. Once your plan is in place, get in touch. We’d love to take a look, give you feedback, and talk about how we can help move the needle on your business’ digital marketing goals.
Download Your Digital Marketing Plan Template
Ready to create your own digital marketing plan? Let us save you some work! We’ve created this comprehensive template — including all of the components listed above — so you can spend less time planning and more time executing a winning digital marketing strategy.
No need to reinvent the wheel — simply download your copy and edit as needed.
