Last March 2019, I had the opportunity to visit London and the B2B Marketing Expo 2019.
I attended many seminars presented by Creation agency, Cognism, PushON, Protocol Global, and Exposure Ninja.
Below I will present you my takeaways and notes on how to market to Businesses in 2019.
You will learn: - What is B2B - Who is buying BtoB products and services? - How clients do they find you? - How do they find you? - How do they learn about you? - Why should you care? - What content should I create? - Where should I publish and promote my content? - How to create this content?
What Is Business to Business (B2B)?
"Business to business also called B to B or B2B, is a form of transaction between businesses, such as one involving a manufacturer and wholesaler, or a wholesaler and a retailer. Business to business refers to business that is conducted between companies, rather than between a company and individual consumers. Business to business stands in contrast to business to consumer (B2C) and business to government (B2G) transactions." - Investopedia
For instance, Visuality is a software house that builds Web development applications for other businesses, not for consumers.
Read more about it here
Who is buying BtoB products and services?
- 46% of all B2B researchers are millennials.
- None C-level employees have the most influence on their company purchases.
How do they find you?
- 90% of B2B researchers who are online use search specifically to research business purchases.
- 71% of purchases start with a generic search - not a call.
- 12 is the average number of searches conducted prior to engagement.
- 75% of BtoB buyers studied social media to support purchase decisions.
- The B2B buying process are already 57% of the way down the path to a decision before they'll actually perform an action on your site.
SEO optimization is a must.
How do they learn about you?
- Content marketing
- Video - Youtube
- Reviews
Why should you care?
- 57% of purchases process is completed without direct supplier contact.
- 47% of buyers consume between 3 and 5 pieces of content before talking to a sales rep.
- 70% of B2B buyers and researchers are watching videos throughout their path to purchase.
What content should I create?
Some examples:
Top of the Funnel: Give without asking!
- Video interviews (1min)
- Quotes (incorporate influencers)
- High-end data-driven blog content
- Podcasts (keep them coming back)
- Curated square videos (webinars)
Middle of the Funnel: Build enough value to earn the right to ask.
- Ebooks
- Guide
- Checklist
- Webinars
- Free Course
Bottom of the Funnel: Have I seen you enough times to trust you and buy?
- Purchase
- Book an appointment (demo)
- Send you referral
- Tell my friends about you
How to create this content?
Before buying, the client needs to know you, like you and trust you. Moreover, it has to happen at the right time.
Assuming you have a nice buyer persona and you know well your clients' pain points and customer journey.
- Check out Hubspot buyer persona generator
Create at least 6* different content. It has to be SUPER valuable for your buyer persona when looking to purchase your product (help him make an informed decision), solve his pain points — for instance, 2 for the top of the funnel, 2 for the middle of the funnel and 2 for the bottom of the funnel.
*According to Protocol, 6 is the magic number.
Where should I publish and promote my content?
Although a multichannel communication approach is the best way to go, according to Creative Agency Facebook is still the best option to generate BtoB leads comparing to other platforms.
It makes sense...
- 69% of Millennial Business Decision Makers in the US agree that social media provides them important information for business decision making.
- 71% of Millennial Business Decision Makers1 in the US agree that social media is an important source of business news.
- By 2020, Millennials will make up 50% of the global workforce.
Verify if your audience is on Facebook using Facebook audience insights tool.
Exposure Ninja's way:
Create content for authoritative source against a backlink. Create great content that responds to our clients questions and pain points, or about a subject that is trending and related to our business. Their next step is to ask authoritative websites to publish their content with a backlink to our website.
Results: You get traffic to your website, brand awareness and improve your backlink list from a targeted audience.
**Optimize your content for featured Google snippet** It will increase your CTR and visibility
Thank you Creation agency, Cognism, PushON, Protocol Global, and Exposure Ninja for your presentations.
Those were my takeaways from the Marketing BtoB expo 2019 of London.
If you have learned something, please subscribe to our channel! There will be more soon!
In the main time, I invite you to read my last article about "Marketing hacks #01: How to Track off-line conversions".
Additional Sources:
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/the-changing-face-b2b-marketing/
https://www.facebook.com/iq/insights-to-go?tags[0]=millenials&tags[1]=b2b
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