As a busy business owner, you know that marketing is one pathway to drive your sales, but with so many options available, how do you know what is worth your investment of time and money?
The most accomplished B2B marketers do not just throw money at a problem and sit back and relax as the sales come in.
Instead, they create targeted marketing strategies that are aligned with their business objectives. They also constantly evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies and recalibrate as necessary.
B2B marketing requires a much more deliberate and careful plan to be successful than a B2C model. Here are some ideas to help you implement new marketing strategies that will drive sales to your business.
1. Analyze your website
Start by seeing how effective your current website is. Start by evaluating the effectiveness of your website for mobile users.
Research shows that 78% of consumers made a purchase from their mobile device in 2016, so it is important that your potential customers can do the same on your site.
You can perform this test by simply typing your site’s address from a mobile-friendly tool and clicking the “Run Test” button. This lets you see how your site will appear on a mobile device.
Also, review your site as an objective viewer. Does your site clearly state what your product or service is? Does it differentiate you from the competition? Have compelling pictures and content that quickly communicate this information to visitors.
Test how quickly your site loads. If your site takes too long, you may lose potential clients. This is especially true of B2B clients who are busy business owners themselves. You can test the loading speed for computers, as well as mobile devices.
Finally, include a way to get information from visitors. They may be doing research at this point and may not be ready to make a purchase. However, you can collect the users’ contact information and follow up with them later.
2. Find pain points through market research
An effective B2B marketing strategy is to establish yourself as an authority in your industry.
When potential clients see you as a helpful resource, they will be more likely to visit your website, open your emails, and listen to what you have to say.
You can do this by learning about your potential customers’ challenges and providing them with a solution. Pay attention to the personalization of emails and customers’ special needs.
You may want to create separate buyer personas for each type of client you may encounter – along with their individual needs and pain points. You can then develop a separate marketing strategy for each type of client.
You can then target each type of client with rich content that is targeted to their needs. You may use different types of digital marketing channels, including:
- Your website
- Your blog
- Email marketing
- Social media
- Online ads
- Search marketing
Use each channel to explain the value of your product or service to attract a wide audience of your target buyer.
3. Explore alternate B2B SaaS marketing tools
It is important that you be able to reach your target customers, so you may need to explore alternative tools when marketing for SaaS businesses.
For example, you may wish to use public records search tools to get important contact information.
You can also use email lookup to get a direct method of communication. Email marketing is a highly effective marketing strategy and 93% of B2B marketers report using email to distribute content.
Additionally, email marketing has a great return on investment: for every $1 spent for this purpose, email generates $38 in return.
You can use email marketing effectively by creating relevant email drip campaigns that expand on a message in a short series of messages. You can also send automated emails if a person leaves an item in a cart.
Additionally, you can send emails about your latest product lines and promotions. Your CRM software can help you automate this process so that it is effective without taking up too much of your own valuable time.
4. Create a B2B Saas marketing strategy that drives sales
To create an effective B2B marketing strategy, you must have a plan.
Your plan should consist of the following items.
Smart goals
Use the effective SMART goal framework to establish objectives that are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-sensitive
Progression
Your B2B marketing strategy should be realistic and not expect instant sales. You should be able to take the customer on the journey from awareness, to becoming a lead, to finally becoming a sale.
Evaluation
You need to see how effective your marketing plan is so that you can adjust it as necessary. B2B marketing should be constantly evolving.
Learn which marketing channels and digital marketing tools are bringing in the most business and then spend more time on these areas.
Customer feedback
Learn about your customer and what they like and do not like.
They are probably not alone in the opinions they share. Use this valuable insight to adapt your marketing strategy.
Budget
With marketing, there is always another program or tool that you can add to your arsenal. However, as a savvy business owner, you know you have to be more careful with your money and not throw it at every possible marketing use.
Set an overall marketing budget and then determine how much of this budget to use on each channel.
Reevaluate each quarter to determine if your budget is necessary or if you need to make changes in your allocation. Find out alternative tools to do marketing on a budget.
Deadlines
Establish hard deadlines that you will respect. This will prevent you from treating marketing as something in the back of your mind that never gets implemented.
These deadlines should be reasonable. You should have deadlines for each quarter, as well as each month, week, and day. Marketing should be an ongoing effort and part of your routine day.
As a business owner, you likely want to be a Jack or Jill of all trades. However, you will not be perfect at everything, so it’s best to accept this now.
By carefully setting up a plan and tweaking it as you go, you can meet your B2B clients where they are so that you can better scale your business.
