It’s absolutely true that B2B and B2C marketing are similar in a number of different ways. Your success as a business still depends on your ability to get the right message in front of the right person at exactly the right time and to get to that point you still need to learn as much as you can about who those people actually are.
But at the same time, these two concepts are also very different in a number of striking ways. Getting ahead with B2C marketing is all about getting your message across to the widest possible audience in the most effective way that you can. You need a steady stream of new leads coming right to your door all day, every day, no exceptions.
B2B marketing, on the other hand, places a much heavier emphasis on winning customer loyalty. If you can strike a chord with a key decision-maker within a business, you, therefore, win the loyalty of the business itself – and that’s how long-term success is born.
Thankfully, this process isn’t nearly as difficult as you might think it to be – but it’s also nothing if not precise. Therefore, if you truly want to improve your long-term efforts as a B2B organization, there are a few key things you’ll want to keep in mind.
Improving Your B2B Business, One Step at a Time
By far, one of the most important ways to meaningfully improve your B2B business involves research – and lots of it.
Every day (or, at the very least, as frequently as you can manage), you should be using a service like Respona to make sure that your “finger on the pulse” of your industry, so to speak. Pay attention to the types of topics that the people you’ve dedicated yourself to serving actually care about. Then, almost, more importantly, check out your competitors and see how they’re addressing those ideas.
If there’s a particularly hot button topic that has everyone’s attention at the moment, see what your competitors did in response. Did they write a blog post about it? Can you write a better one? Can you eschew the blog post entirely and cover the same topic by way of a stunning piece of visual collateral? Maybe you can convey your authority on the topic more effectively with a Venn diagram maker like Visme (which I founded) and create something that leads to an all-around better experience (and thus, a better impression of your brand and what it stands for).
Indeed, so much of your success in terms of improving your B2B business involves establishing yourself as a true authority in your industry whenever possible. That’s not to say that B2C customers don’t do an incredible amount of research before they make a purchase – they do, and in fact they’re doing more of it than ever.
It’s just that a B2B audience is naturally more savvy than a B2C one and you need to acknowledge that and let it inform a lot of the decisions you’re making in regard to what content you’re creating and, more critically, how you’re choosing to create it.
Another great way to improve your B2B business again involves researching your competitors but from a slightly different angle. Never forget that every organization is essentially unique unto itself. There may be a lot of other companies out there who do exactly what you do, but none of them does it exactly how you do it.
Whatever that special quality is – the thing that makes you unique – needs to be the element that you double down on with your B2B marketing.
Don’t forget that you’re not just trying to motivate someone to make a purchase. You want them to make that purchase from you. Therefore, who is doing the selling in this context is ultimately just as important as what is being sold. Never assume that you’ve “done enough” to make people understand why you’re an authority that should be taken seriously in this field because as soon as you do, you’ll quickly find yourself surpassed by your savvier competitors.
Finally, one of the best ways to improve your B2B business involves coming to a better understanding of exactly how a B2B customer differs from a B2C one. Generally speaking, B2C customers have all the time in the world – they may want to make a purchase, but they also want to guarantee they get it right. They’re willing to research televisions or computers or whatever else they’re thinking of buying for a tremendous amount of time, all in an effort to make sure their hard-earned money is going to the right place. This is the luxury of your average, everyday consumer.
B2B customers, on the other hand, are almost the opposite of this. You’re reaching out to someone in a professional capacity and in that context, time is money. They don’t just want the right solution to their problems or something that will help them accomplish their goals – they want to find a solution as quickly as humanly possible so that they can get on with their day.
Because of this, you need to cut to the chase. Don’t “wine and dine” someone with reams of content like you would with a B2C customer. Instead, make every effort to shorten the buyer’s journey as much as you can. Someone working for a Fortune 500 company doesn’t have time to listen to long speeches or wade through 100-page white papers. They want to know how you’re going to solve their issue, and they want to know it now.
Every piece of collateral you create should be designed with an eye towards this idea – sell your brand and sell your product as quickly as you’re able to. This is why using a scatter plot maker or a similar tool to lean heavily on visual communication works wonderfully in this case – you’re respecting someone’s time and are breaking down even complicated ideas as fast as a person wants you to.
Finally, understand that improving your B2B business is not something that you “do once and forget about.” In truth, it’s not a process that is ever really “over” in a literal sense. The minute that you stop being proactive about getting new customers, improving your marketing message or empowering your relationships with the organizations you’ve already done so much to serve is the minute that you’ve lost sight on the factor that matters most of all:
Your future
You should always be looking for new opportunities to take advantage of in terms of improving your B2B business. That’s how you separate yourself from your competitors and that’s how you make sure that yours is the brand that will absolutely stand the test of time.