How to Fuel Your B2B Sales with Strategy and Content

Do you enjoy passing the time by reading beneficial insights? Or is it just me?

I thought about postponing this issue, as I noticed the engagement slowdown across LinkedIn during Ramadan. But then I decided why not offer some edutainment to my B2B folk?

In this issue, we're zooming in on B2B sales, content, and aligning both to supercharge your growth.

What Media Insights Guide B2B Marketing Strategies?

Digizone, a digital advertising agency, published in Feb their 2024 B2B Marketing Report , based on a survey of 1,500 B2B marketers in large companies (with a team <750 employees). Here are the key takeaways.

• 48% use insights from their social media pages to develop their marketing strategies
• 43% utilize data from their email marketing campaigns
• 40% include both insights from their website activity and reports by research houses
• Only 34% of marketers consider the previous buying habits of their customers when building their marketing strategies

Are Marketers Using AI When Developing B2B Strategies?

The short answer is yes.

• 48% use it for pattern recognition
• 42% for predictive analytics
• 37% for natural language processing (NLP)

5 Strategies for Supercharging Your B2B Sales Pipeline

If you're struggling to hit your B2B sales goals, a leaky pipeline might be to blame! Here are 5 battle-tested content-based strategies to build a powerful pipeline.

1- Redefine your ideal customer: Yes, you've defined your ideal customer a while back. But it's time to revise your sales history, the common profile of your loyal customers, and how you are choosing to target them. Chances are you need to make some amendments.

2- Use Multiple Lead Generating Tools: How many tools are you using to attract and convert leads? Examples include Newsletters, free reports, consultation calls, live events, master classes, and more.

3-Develop Compelling Value Propositions: Easier said than done!

But here's a good equation to follow:

1 message + proof of trust – reading effort = persuasive writing

Read the breakdown explanation of this article here

4- Nurture Mid-Funnel Leads With Content

Share content that educates and addresses your main audience's pain points. LinkedIn, email marketing, and your website's blog are excellent tools for B2Bs.

Check out: Why content marketing isn’t working for you…and how to fix it

5- Align Sales Goals with Content Marketing

Sales teams have exceptional insights into what your customers want and what tends to seal the deal.

Lack of alignment between what sales focus on—whether features, terms, concerns, or other—and what marketing is creating content about results in a leaky sales funnel.

B2B buyers don’t engage with sellers directly until they’re almost 70% of the way through their buying process...

That's according to the 2023 B2B Buyer Report from 6Sense , a Marketing SaaS provider. Here are their key takeaways:

• 78% of B2B buyers have either completely or mostly established their requirements before making contact
• B2B buyers initiate that contact 83% of the time
• While B2B buyers consider an average of 4 suppliers, 84% of the time, the vendor they contact first is the one that ultimately wins their business

This means that it’s crucial to be the first name that comes to the buyer's mind when it's time to begin the buying journey. To ensure that, nothing beats thought leadership content.

• 43% of buyers consumed the seller's content before initiating contact
• 55% favored virtual sales meetings. However, buyers favored in-person meetings and considered them as more helpful

Which B2B Content Will Seal the Deal at Each Stage

This one is by MarketingProfs , an educational website, where it offers a simplified take on a simplified and beneficial take on the effectiveness of B2B content at different buyer stages.

1. Educational Content for Awareness: At the awareness stage, your potential clients are just discovering their problem. Introduce yourself as a trusted and knowledgeable resource on the issue. Offer free webinars, tutorials, and guides. Focus on industry issues, not just your product, and subtly show how you're the solution they need.

2. Figure-Rich Content for Interest Stage: Guides, reports, and well-researched content will showcase your expertise and strength in your field.

3. Product-Focused Content for Desire and Comparison Stage: Case studies about your clients are an excellent tool here. Other options are comparison blog posts of your service or product in comparison with a few others in the market (i.e 5 top budgeting apps)

4. Seal the Deal with Social Proof: Your potential client has read your content, seen demos of your product, and explored alternatives, now is the time to showcase reviews, testimonials, and your big-name clients.

Need help with your B2B content? We've got your back, contact us to discuss your needs and see samples of our work.