Rethinking the B2B Marketing Approach

B2B marketing has historically been largely driven by trade shows and sales dinners. This was largely brought to a halt by the pandemic. This caused many marketers to have to consider alternative methods to building connections apart from the way things have “always been done.” However, marketers who are looking to push the bounds of convention and have already identified more budget-friendly and effective ways to reach your best buyers and prime them for a conversation: digital.?

Digital advertising is not only a more efficient method for reaching consumers, but it's where B2B buyers and sellers are naturally moving as time spent online continues to increase. Activities ranging from networking to product demos and training are now occurring virtually. So putting in a place a strong digital marketing and sales strategy is pivotal for B2B brands moving forward.?

How to digitally target B2B audiences

Lead with your own CRM data to identify customers with the greatest lifetime value to optimize your marketing expenditure. From there, create AI-based lookalike models to find new consumers that behave like your best customers. With a cookieless future in sight, it’s critical to find a balance between leveraging non-cookie based second and third-party prospecting audiences and creating digital touchpoints with your CRM contacts. Use tactics like lead form ads and custom landing pages to build up your customer database and build a bridge to the future.

I also recommend using consumer intelligence tools to create highly specific personas and target them with personalized messaging and unique channel strategies. By taking this more segmented targeting approach focused on high quality leads, you will achieve a much higher ROI than using mass market tactics.?

Humanize your B2B audience?

B2B marketers tend to forget that their audiences are people, not businesses, at the end of the day. You must treat them like humans to win their trust and score a sale. They are living full lives outside of the workplace, so there’s ample opportunity to reach them using cost-effective digital media.?

To humanize your marketing, dive beyond the demographics to understand motivations, values, and media consumption to inform audience activation and channel execution. Research where these individuals spend time and where they are most engaged to create a starting point for your media mix.?

Reaching the person behind the professional

To further humanize your strategy, don’t limit yourself to traditional “B2B” strategies. If a buried (and costly) InMail message on LinkedIn was your only attempt to reach someone, you’re likely to miss out on other critical touchpoints.

Instead, expand your media mix to test new channels, especially channels that may be more in-use while people are working from home, like programmatic audio. At the same time, don’t overlook non-working hours. Examine your audience’s full media consumption habits throughout the day and identify if there are other times/settings in which you can reach them outside of the 8-5.?

What are the best channels for B2B brands to advertise on?

Some of the most highly effective and rapidly growing channels we’ve seen for the B2B brands we work with at Coegi include social, display, search, CTV and audio. Coegi has a full B2B Digital Marketing Playbook outlining why each of these channels are impactful and how to activate them effectively. Download that here to read more.?

Online video, across social, display and CTV, stands out in particular as a top marketing medium. B2B buyers engage heavily with video content across the consumer journey, perhaps to the surprise of the more traditional B2B marketers. Product demos, tutorials, webinars, and culture-based content all have an impact on engaging and informing buyers.?

To understand why video is a key component for driving sales, watch this quick video with Coegi’s Director of Marketing, Elise Stieferman:?

How to measure B2B digital marketing results

First and foremost, measure more than leads. Qualified leads and sales will always be important, but to gain more of them, you must understand everything that happens PRIOR to that conversion. Make your sales funnel shorter and ad spend more effective by tracking the cross-channel customer journey using advanced modeling and meaningful measurement. In our B2B Playbook mentioned above, we also outline five key steps to successful measurement, so be sure to check that out if you have further questions.?

What do you think B2B brands need to do to future-proof their strategies? Let me know in the comments!

Sean