What is B2B marketing and why marketers should care

The B2B sector is the part of the economy where businesses sell to other businesses. While the term “B2B marketing” is increasingly used as a synonym for “B2B technology marketing,” businesses sell all sorts of things to other businesses, including commercial cleaning services, uniforms and, yes, technology like software applications and computer hardware.

B2B marketing is evolving at a rapid pace because it is responding to how B2B buyers purchase goods and services. In the past 25 years, the world of B2B has turned upside down.

Prior to the widespread adoption of the internet, the sellers in B2B held all of the power. If you wanted product details or pricing, you had to go to the vendor (or an authorized seller or partner) to get it. Today, B2B buyers have most of the world’s information at their fingertips. As a result, a journey that once required vendor outreach now takes place in the shadows, on social media platforms like LinkedIn and in Slack groups of like-minded professionals. Today, the B2B buyers have all of the power in their relationship with buyers.  

B2B vendors and their marketing teams need to respond to this change in the balance of power. This B2B marketing guide will discuss various marketing strategies vendors use to each their target business audiences and discuss some of the latest trends in the industry. Key points covered include:

• What is B2B marketing?
• Types of B2B marketing.
• Frequently asked questions about B2B marketing.
• The future of B2B digital marketing.
• Resources for learning more about B2B marketing.

What is B2B marketing?

B2B marketing refers to the marketing strategies employed by firms selling their products and services to other businesses. In B2C marketing, companies sell directly to the end customers. These sales are more transactional, with a higher volume but a generally lower price per sale.

In addition to the price of the goods and services, the major differences between B2B and B2C marketing include:

• B2B buying decisions are often made by buying committees, not a single consumer. 
• B2B has a longer sales cycle because of the people and processes involved in a purchase.
• B2C marketing tends to rely more on emotion, influencers and creative designed to initiate immediate action by the consumer.
• B2C products are often easier to explain to the audience, making the value proposition relatively straightforward.
• B2B pricing tends to be much more complicated than B2C because it’s based on a number of factors.
• Many B2C purchases can be easily completed online with a few clicks and little to no human interaction. 

Because B2B purchases involve more complexity, more people and more time, B2B marketers need to educate their audience of prospects in a number of ways. 

The first part of educating the market is ensuring prospects are aware they have a problem and that there is a solution. Many businesses rely on manual processes when automation is available, for example. They need to become aware of alternative approaches to what they’re currently doing..

Next comes brand awareness. Once B2B prospects understand the problem and the existence of solutions, they need to associate your B2B brand with a solution. Brand awareness was strictly a B2C play for decades, but B2B marketers are beginning to understand that brand investments are a requirement for B2B marketing success.

As B2B buyers get closer to a purchase and narrow down potential vendors and products, it’s time to get specific. The product features, costs, roadmap and support will all play a part in the prospects’ decision, so marketing to these bottom-of-the-funnel prospects needs to answer the important questions. 

And remember: All of this needs to be done across a buying committee of about three to 10 people, each of whom have their own goals and preferences that play a part in the process.

Unlike many B2C purchases, B2B marketers need to identify leads that meet their ideal customer profile (ICP). Educating leads that have no need for a solution is a waste of resources. Most B2B marketers are looking for prospects with some purchase authority (i.e., they can sign off on purchases) and that are in the market for a solution (i.e., they’re actively shopping for a product). 

There are two problems with this approach, however:

• By the time many B2B buyers are in the market for a solution, they already have a short list of around three vendors in mind. 
• Prospects with purchase authority aren’t always involved in the actual product research. Their teams bring the problem-solution case to them for approval. In  many cases, B2B marketers are better off targeting the executive’s team than the executives themselves. 

Types of B2B marketing

B2B marketers employ a number of different B2B marketing strategies. While companies tend to focus on B2B marketing channels that produce more leads, it may make sense to prioritize the ones that produce the highest ROI for your company. The following strategies can help B2B marketers meet their specific needs and target audience.

Email marketing

Email marketing is one of the mainstays of B2B marketing. It is a cost-effective and efficient way to reach potential clients and, as a rule of thumb, has the highest return on investment (ROI) in B2B marketing. It is this simplicity and high ROI that makes email marketing the cornerstone of any marketing operation. 

With email marketing, B2B marketers get direct access to buyers without relying on any intermediate party, as is the case with search and social media. Email marketing is also an essential tactic for maintaining contact with leads and prospects as they navigate a sometimes-lengthy customer journey.

The combination of marketing automation tools and email help B2B marketers nurture leads across their buying journey and track their movement toward a purchase decision. Nurture campaigns can become quite complex, delivering emails with helpful, relevant content and using the action of the prospect to dictate what comes next. 

But there is such a thing as too much email from a vendor, though it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where that line is for different prospects. Many experts recommend combining email marketing with an account-based marketing (ABM) strategy. With ABM, marketing and sales work together to create a list of specific accounts to target. Then, using one-to-one or one-to-many ABM strategies, marketing creates campaigns targeting prospects at those companies.  

Regardless of the approach to email marketing, most B2B marketers will agree that relevant, helpful content is the key to success. A relatively small amount (usually about 5% or less) of B2B prospects are in the market for a solution at any given time. Delivering value for those out-of-market prospects helps put a brand on the short list when those prospects move in market.   

Social media marketing

Most successful businesses today have an online presence on at least one of the top social media platforms. In B2B marketing, LinkedIn and Facebook are the most commonly used social media platforms, according to survey data from Databox.

Typically, firms use these platforms to achieve the same goals they seek to achieve through other forms of digital marketing — high engagement and advertising. However, to be successful on social media, B2B companies need to find a middle ground between creating engaging content and ensuring they don’t ruin their audience’s experience on the platform. To do this, marketers should identify the kind of content their target audience wants to see on social media platforms.

While developing and posting social media content, firms need to consider what their buyers’ collectives are after. Buyers’ collectives are groups of important stakeholders whose approval is mandatory if the company is to make any business purchases. They are an important audience that should not be overlooked while planning your social media marketing strategy.

Your social media content should also project values that align with the concerns of your target firms. Create content that is relevant to their needs and speaks the language of their industries.

You should also track your competitor’s social media marketing strategies and measure their success. However, while keeping tabs on your competitors is crucial, it doesn’t mean a parting of ways with original content. In order to catch buyers’ attention, your social media content needs to offer them something they haven’t seen before.

Dig deeper: From capturing leads to generating demand: Breaking down B2B marketing’s pivot

Content marketing

Content marketing strategies are consistently among the most reliable tools at a B2B marketer’s disposal.

The goal of a B2B content marketing strategy is to be seen as a source of top-quality industry content and thought leadership. This will help build trust with prospects and customers and attract new audiences through search engine optimization efforts and by distributing the content via email and social media channels.

Many B2B marketers equate content marketing with blog posts, but a solid content marketing strategy extends to different formats to tackle different topics and to appeal to readers with different preferences. E-books, white papers, images, infographics, GIFs, podcasts and videos can all be shared with a B2B audience using a number of distribution channels. Webinars and online events are popular B2B content marketing tactics, and excerpts of longer events can always be re-utilized on websites and landing pages or as shorter social media clips.

Account-based marketing (ABM)

Advocates of account-based marketing (ABM) see an ABM strategy as the solution of an age-old problem” sales-marketing alignment.

With ABM, marketing and sales ideally work together to create a target account list that contains the businesses most likely to be interested in the organization’s product or service. The list could be determined by factors like industry, employee count, revenue, installed technology and more. This will make marketing outreach more efficient, because the companies on the list are considered “good fits” for outreach by both marketing and sales.

Once the list is developed, two types of ABM are used.

One-to-one ABM. With one-to-one ABM, the marketing organization creates campaigns specific to a certain company or even a specific executive. The hyper-targeted tactic is focused on how the product or service will help the prospect and is highly personalized using information gleaned from a number of sources, including databases and social media.

One-to-many ABM. With one-to-many ABM, the marketing is focused on a group of companies on the list. If a subset of organizations on the ABM list are in the financial services sector, for example, the marketing aimed at these companies focuses on the needs of the sector and how the vendor’s products and services can help. In this case, the same message appeals to a broader subset of target accounts than with one-to-one ABM.

Lead generation vs demand generation in B2B marketing

For a number of years, B2B marketers focused on lead generation as their primary tactic. B2B marketers often generate leads by putting content assets like whitepapers and webinars behind registration forms. By gating these assets, the audience needs to supply contact information in order to access the content.

The problem with lead generation is that it emphasizes metrics that may or may not positively impact the business. Marketers held to goals like MQLs can always meet their goals by creating and distributing more gated content, thereby reaching the MQL goal but not always growing revenue.

Demand generation is often seen as an alternative to lead generation by certain B2B marketers. Demand generation focuses on distributing content and educational information without requiring registration. Demand generation is closer to brand marketing than it is to lead generation.

Instead of seeing leads when the content is distributed, B2B demand gen marketers aim to make their product or brand top of mind among their audience. When their prospects enter a buying cycle, successful demand gen marketers will see an increase in inbound leads from educated prospects who are familiar with their brand.

Dig deeper: Demand gen vs. lead gen: Have we reached a final verdict?

New features are making marketing automation platforms more powerful than ever. Learn about trends and capabilities of marketing automation software in the latest edition of this MarTech Intelligence Report.

Click here to download!

Frequently asked questions about B2B marketing

B2B marketing is a straightforward concept, but marketers still may have some reservations about the process. Here are some of the most popular questions marketers have about B2B marketing.

What are the key differences between B2B and B2C marketing?

One of the main differences between these two forms of marketing is the target audience. B2C marketers seek buy-in from individual consumers while B2B marketers engage with decision-making teams’ brands.

Another difference is that B2B marketing tends to focus more on providing educational resources to customers to help them become better leaders in their respective industries.

What are the benefits of B2B marketing?

B2B marketing programs meet executive-level buyer needs via highly targeted promotions. These tactics can help marketers increase customer lifetime value and overall brand loyalty by speaking more effectively to their needs. This helps brands craft better customer experiences and reduce churn.

Brands who practice B2B marketing also get to engage with a growing market — one that’s expected to hit $18.57 trillion by 2026.

What are the types of B2B marketing platforms and software available?

Most B2B marketing platforms use automation technology to help professionals better scale their efforts. These platforms offer features such as AI-based predictive lead scoring, product recommendations and ABM and social media campaign integration. Some of the biggest names in this sphere include Marketo, HubSpot and Salesforce.

What are the top brands in the B2B marketing space?

Many of the top B2B brands have been around for decades, helping pave the way for others in the space. However, several newer companies have become big players as well. Today, the B2B space is led by brands such as Adobe (which owns Marketo), HubSpot, Oracle and Salesforce, with many other leaders in the mix as well. Top platforms specializing in ABM capabilities include Demandbase, 6Sense, Terminus and Triblio.

The future of B2B digital marketing

The growing number of brands in B2B suggests a bright future for marketers in the space. Yet, as we’ve seen over the past few years, a combination of societal factors has transformed the ways B2B marketing engages with customers.

Leveraging AI in B2B marketing

Artificial intelligence has the potential to be used in several stages of the marketing process, making it an invaluable asset for marketers in many ways.

Integrating customer data. Most brands interact with their clients both digitally and physically. AI can bridge the gap between these two modes of interaction and help you get a bird’s eye view of all customer preferences.

You can use AI-powered nurture campaigns to send personalized emails to individuals who may have visited the company’s website. AI can also be used to keep track of intent data, which enables marketers to understand a customer’s actions. This is preferred over clicks and download statistics since it gives you a better idea of whether the customer is willing to buy.

More efficient programmatic advertising. AI can also aid B2B marketers in segmenting channels to identify the most effective way to engage with potential buyers. Artificial intelligence completely revamps media buying and programmatic advertising through this process. This is essential for personalizing your advertisements.

Resources for learning more about B2B marketing

The B2B sector represents a compelling yet constantly shifting market for marketers. The proliferation of digital channels increasingly puts pressure on marketers to generate engaging content that can drive leads.

Here are some B2B marketing resources to help you choose the best solution for your brand:

• B2B Marketing Automation Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide: This 51-page report examines the market for marketing automation platforms and the considerations involved in implementation. It also reviews the growing market for B2B marketing automation platforms, plus the latest trends, opportunities and challenges.
• 5 strategies to become a more impactful, buyer-driven marketing org: B2B marketing is going through a significant shift in requirements, responsibilities, and expectations. Now is the time to project out to what the world will look like in two to three years and develop a strategy and roadmap.
• How to align B2B sales and marketing teams: Misalignment between marketing and sales teams is a trillion-dollar problem for B2B revenue teams. Here’s how marketers can help align their processes.

Stop forcing your B2B marketing org structure on your buyer’s journey: This article details why we need to break down siloed marketing structures by connecting the data and the channels.

Additional reporting by Kim Davis and Akshat Biyani.

More B2B marketers are adopting account-based marketing than ever before. Find out why and explore the ABM platforms making it possible in the latest edition of this MarTech Intelligence Report.

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