Introduction
What drives business? It’s a simple question. And the simple answer is marketing. But marketing itself is no longer just the act of putting in an ad for discounts on shoes or buying a commercial for your bedding emporium. It is that and so much more.
It doesn’t matter what business you are in; the process is pretty much the same. Take an internet casino for instance. They have online slots and offer a free slots no deposit offer to their new members. But unless those new members know about it, the casino doesn’t receive any new traffic. And new traffic is the point.
Tech Marketing In 2020
For the ever-changing digital marketing landscape, businesses have more opportunity than ever to get their brand out there. But what about businesses that are only interested in connecting with other businesses? The answer doesn’t change. B2B marketing is still selling something to a client, it just happens to be a business instead of a consumer.
The goal of marketing is to let the world know what is happening in your business. And it doesn’t matter if it’s email marketing, social marketing, or online marketing, as long as it induces traffic. For your tech business, traffic is life. It is the blood constantly pumping through your veins.
Where To Start
B2B tech marketing is fairly simple in theory, but it has to be done correctly and in the right progression of events. In other words, do it in the right order. If you skip a step you might still come out on top, but you might also miss out on some significant bonuses your competition is taking advantage of that you missed.
1. Step One: Building Your Business
There is a fallacy in the entrepreneurial world that you use marketing to make your business thrive, and that is simply not true. You can install a fantastic marketing campaign that might drive traffic, and by extension, increase market share, but if your business is poorly designed, poorly run, and kind of a money pit, you are directing tours of the Titanic.
Having a worthwhile business first with everything set up, then opening the doors, is better. If your infrastructure is weak, a soft opening will work, but by the time you get really under way, fat must be cut. The quality of your business directly reflects confidence, which affects your worth to other businesses.
Before you try B2B marketing to improve your personal stake, get all your ducks in a row. They need to know you are competent at commanding your own ship. To prove yourself otherwise puts into the world two options: you are not worth the effort, or you are easy prey to be picked off.
2. Step Two: Pick Your Clients
If you are working for a marketing agency, then choosing who to work for is a big decision. Will they have enough work for you? Will they appreciate the marketing strategies I have in mind to promote their interest? Will my marketing efforts be rebuffed by upper management who know nothing about how to promote a business?
Ok, that last one is highly unlikely, but since nepotism still exists, it is possible that a senior vice president was only promoted because he married the boss’s daughter. And while he might know a thing or two about how to promote a business, he isn’t the professional here. You are.
Decide what type you want to do, then find the right business to offer those services to. For business to business, the options are vast, but they are also specific. In tech marketing, even more specific. Look at how their individual promotional ideals work before landing on just one choice.
3. Step Three: Sending a Message
In everything we do, effective communication is critical to maintaining any semblance of continuity. Be it a marriage or a business, an open line of communication is vital to the effective and efficient exchange of information, both good and bad. And marketing messages work with this same goal in mind.
An effective chain of contact between businesses, or between business and customer, is the only way that everyone is properly kept in the loop. To keep the status quo, a marketer must strive to include everyone who needs the information. If someone important to the whole falls through the cracks, it can be devastating for your business.
Let everyone know everything in detail. That way no one feels left out, and everyone is always on the same page. If there is an issue, it is now a group concern. If there is something to celebrate, then everyone is at the party. Continuity is easiest when communication is given the respect it deserves.
4. Step Four: Share With The Right People
Marketing channels were designed to give information to the right people at the right time. A lot of businesses jump to this step, skipping the first three, and they do ok. But not having a firm grasp on who will do the best job to make your business reach the heights you desire is tantamount to a fool’s errand.
Without a quality business, proper client generation and an effective messaging system, sharing with your customers, or other business, is not going to work as well as a person might hope. It is graffiti on an overpass. No one can read it, and no one cares to try.
To get leads for effective B2B marketing, you have to have a firm foundation, with an already generated traffic stream, and a well-designed marketing funnel to keep that traffic going. If done right, it is self-sustaining.
Ways to Inspire New Traffic
● ABM
Account Based Marketing is all about going to find your quarry, not waiting for them to find you. It is a much more aggressive tactic, in that often, money exchanges hands for a list of potential clients.
This is where the adage “you must spend money to make money” takes a different spin. A company wanted to get in contact with to secure a new account. They did the research and discovered the person in charge loved wine and chocolate.
They sent this individual some Cadbury cream eggs, a bottle of wine, customized content, and a note that simply said, “Cadbury and wine, for five minutes of your time.” It got the clients attention.
● Paid Ads
For B2B tech marketing, the simplest answer is the direct approach. This is essentially paying for an ad that drives traffic to your landing page. Then pepper in some display ads that drive traffic to sister sites if they don’t convert at the initial site.
These work best on social platforms like Facebook and Instagram. For example, the writer of this article is running four paid ads on Facebook with ties to Instagram to promote his own e-commerce business, and it works. He is seeing significant traffic.
● Work With Others
What’s gonna work? Teamwork. Collaboration with PR firms, affiliate firms, agencies, and so forth can spread your interest around more effectively than just doing it yourself.
You can witness this dynamic in the collaboration of Uber and Spotify. Apart, they are fantastic companies with very popular apps, but what if you could order an uber, then link your Spotify account to that uber and hear your own music. That is possible with affiliated teamwork.
This is coat-tailing, sure, but it works. You are driving traffic by profiting from already successful PR campaigns, essentially trying to add their customers to your own interest.
You Aren’t Done Yet
There is one more step once all of these have been successful. And that is improving conversions. Sure, you have traffic. But they come in, look around, and have no intention of spending a dime. And they are antagonistic to your conversion ratios.
Maybe your approach lacks punch. Maybe the visitors stall at your site with nowhere to go but out the door. Whatever the reason is, figure it out by being a visitor yourself, unbiased and marginally interested. You may find the flaw right away, or after an hour, but you must find it. Your livelihood depends on those conversions.
Conclusion
B2B is not a riddle to be solved, but it can be a puzzle. But like most puzzles, the answer is right in front of you if you look at it in just the right way. It can be as simple as poor search engine placement, to as complex as terrible promotional practices. You have the power to find it and fix it. Have you had any successes, or failures, in B2B promotions that can be shared to help a struggling company?
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