Have you ever taken a moment to think about how some of the most successful companies in the world purchase products for their business?
Perhaps you’ve even been in a position before yourself where you’ve wanted to buy something, and didn’t know where to start.
The truth is, business managers aren’t going to be visiting the same technology shops as ordinary consumers when they’re looking to upgrade their products and make a new investment.
The most important difference, however, is that businesses are not interested in the same information as consumers are.
They want to know that their investment is going to be worthwhile for their business, which isn’t information they’re going to find out from a store clerk at an ordinary tech shop.
These businesses are more likely to turn towards other businesses that they have previously networked with who they know will be more likely to accommodate their demands with data to back up reasoning behind these purchases.
This move doesn’t happen overnight, however, and businesses that broadcast their products, services and solutions towards other businesses have to work hard to make these connections and stand out in the industry they are targeting towards.
This is where a marketing method known as B2B marketing gets involved.
Using this method, B2B businesses will make the target customer of their products, services and solutions other organizations, companies and government entities within their niche.
Although the foundations of this marketing method are very similar to buyer to consumer methods, what ultimately cements the sale does differ.
In buyer to customer (B2C) marketing, companies are going to focus on emotional triggers that make an ordinary citizen market their products. This includes things like status and popularity of the item within larger society.
Other businesses aren’t interested in being persuaded to make a sale by how popular it might be, or what others think of it. Instead, they rely on statistics, and the more data a company has about their product the better.
One of the big things to focus on when engaging in B2B marketing is return on investment (ROI).
Without going into too much detail, this simply means that the company wants to know how much profit they will make by investing in your products, services and solutions.
You can’t just make up figures about the return on investment if you want to do B2B marketing successfully, however.
You need to convince the customer that you know what you’re talking about.
Convincing a customer that they’re going to get a return on interest from your product is only part of the battle of B2B marketing, however.
Before then, you need to make sure that other businesses within your niche know about your business, what it does, and what it can offer them.
In short, you need to make your products, services, and solutions key parts of the niche you are targeting.
There are several ways that you can do this and make B2B marketing work for your business.
The things you must do to make B2B work includes:
Building Trust With Other Businesses In Your Niche
Business owners and executives may not be drawn in by emotional triggers, but they do want to know that they can trust the business they’re making an investment from. An essential part of B2B marketing is, therefore, making sure that other businesses know that you know what you’re talking about.
You might think it’s difficult when you’re trying to market your products, services and solutions, but it doesn’t have to be.
One way to build trust could be through providing free information on websites that other business owners and executives regularly engage on.
LinkedIn is a big one for this.
If you’re working in any industry and want to engage in B2B marketing, you need to have a content strategy on the LinkedIn platform.
Share information that others within your niche may not know about important things.
Tell them why your products and services are the perfect solution to common problems within your niche, and how you know that.
Write reports with data to back up your findings, and draw people in with your success stories.
If you don’t have them, use statistics that already exist from reports that have already been published that favour the solutions your products and services solve.
Network In Your Niche
One of the most important things as a B2B company is that you are constantly building up your target audience.
This is the pool you will target when selling your products, services and solutions.
It’s important to remember that networking within your niche isn’t just good for selling things, though.
Even if you don’t manage to make a sale with a specific business, they may recommend you on to others within your industry if they think your services are a solution for a problem they are currently experiencing.
Word of mouth will be an essential part of selling your services, so making sure there are people who know about your service to spread their advice is absolutely vital.
Be Active On Social Media
Like we mentioned earlier in this article, being active within your niche is an essential.
You need to let your potential clients know that you are out there by constantly engaging with relevant information, and discussions that are happening.
Social media is also a great source of pushing and promoting your products, but don’t use them primarily for this as people won’t be receiving value out of what you’re posting and won’t see engaging with you as a worthwhile use of their own time.
This could also put them off engaging or investing with your services in future.