B2B companies are starting to understand the importance of digital marketing for their business growth. Research says that online marketing is the top area of marketing spending for more than half of B2B marketers in 2020 and beyond. Therefore, if you do not build a solid B2B marketing strategy, you may start lagging behind your competition.

Here are some essential tips on how to boost your online presence in the fierce digital marketing arena.

Build a Website that Stands Out

Just because you have a website does not mean you will attract customers and inspire them to make purchases. Research says that half of all B2B customers expect your website to be helpful. If it does not meet their expectations, most of your customers will return to Googling and never visit your site again.

Precisely because of that, you should build an engaging, informative, and user-centric website. Make it:

Fast: Improve your site’s speed by compressing images, investing in a better hosting plan, or using a CDN.
Don’t settle for an entry level package, but instead invest in an enterprise hosting solution that can accommodate the needs of your site today, and expand along with it as it grows.
Secure: With the rise of sophisticated cyberattacks, customers do not want to browse unsecured websites. To build trust with them, invest in an SSL certificate, and display security badges.
Mobile-friendly: Mobile searches have surpassed desktop ones. To appeal to your mobile buyers, you should keep your B2B site design responsive – provide exceptional and consistent browsing experiences across all devices your customers use.
Actionable: To point customers to the right pages and convert them, create unique and persuasive CTAs and optimise your contact and subscription forms.
Navigable: Complex navigation will only frustrate visitors and discourage them from purchasing from you. Keep your website menu bar navigable, provide a search box, and simplify your overall website’s user experience and content architecture.
On-brand – a website should reflect your brand personality and values. Before hiring a designer, create a brand style guide that will dictate the use of your brand assets across all digital channels.

Optimise for Search Engines

Google says that 71% of B2B customers start their research with a Google search. Therefore, to improve your B2B website’s visibility and get noticed by the right audiences, you need to invest in SEO.

Now, SEO is a complex field of digital marketing, consisting of a wide range of practices, from technical SEO and on-page SEO to keyword research, off-page SEO, and website analytics. When combined, these techniques will give your site authority and help you rank higher. As such, they need to be implemented strategically.

When hiring an SEO professional, always make sure they have already worked with the businesses in your niche and that they understand your specific goals. As the Only SEO Gold Coast agency puts it, customising SEO strategies is critical. They ask each client numerous questions about their objectives and insist on continuous communication with them to create SEO campaigns that reflect clients’ goals.

Create Killer Content

Content marketing nurtures relationships with customers and builds trust with them, giving them a reason to come back to your website or sign up for your email newsletter list. Stats say that 62% of B2B customers decided to purchase a product based on the digital content they consumed.

Now, there are many content types that may work for your B2B customers, including:

blog articles
infographics
eBooks
white papers
case studies
video marketing
guides
webinars

No matter what type of content you create, always keep your content valuable. It should users something new, engage them, and help them solve real-life problems.

Helpful content, such as guides or eBooks, can also serve as a solid lead magnet – powerful content types your customers can get for free in exchange for their email addresses.

Automate Email Marketing

Once you capture your customers’ emails via your website, exclusive content, or search engines, it is time to start engaging them. Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to deepen customer relationships and boost brand awareness.

To get the most out of your email marketing campaigns, write catchy subject lines, create high-quality and relevant content, and always use a single CTA that will inspire users to take action. Most importantly, keep your emails is highly relevant and personalised. Segment business customers by their locations, professions, industry, preferences, or previous purchases and create a mailing list for each segment. Furthermore, perform email verification to remove the invalid email addresses from the mailing list.

Those are just some of the numerous examples of mail marketing:

blog newsletters
monthly newsletters
notifications about new product offerings
welcome emails
thank you emails
content announcements
culture-building emails

Humanize your Brand on Social Networks

Given that the B2B sales cycles are usually lengthier, B2B companies find it difficult to connect with customers via social networks. While social media marketing will not help you generate loads of B2B leads, it may help you boost brand awareness and build stronger customer relationships.

MailChimp’s Instagram account is an example of a perfectly-targeted B2B social media campaign. They use this channel to humanise their brand by featuring customer stories and creating gorgeous, on-brand animations.

Wrapping up

B2B marketing is not all about boosting conversions. It should communicate your brand’s values and build trust with business customers, emphasising how your brand can help them. Most importantly, you should keep user experiences relevant, consistent, and personalised.

Jolene Rutherford is a marketing specialist – turned blogger. Interested in digital marketing and new technology trends. Love sharing content that can help and inform people.