Top 7 B2B Marketing Tips during COVID-19 Times

COVID-19 has undoubtedly hit global business hard and that is bound to create a knock-on effect on your marketing activity.  

Even in normal times, effective marketing is difficult to get right. Between creative demands, budget limits, channel decisions, and the compounding effects of COVID 19, industry marketers have a lot to juggle when developing their marketing strategy.

The good news about B2B marketing is there are plenty of ways to reach your target audience as we will discuss below.

In my opinion, the biggest determinant of effective marketing is your audience research. 

Before we dive in, let's make sure you understand the B2B buyers’ journey.

1) Research

Research is the bedrock of any modern-marketing effort. Marketplace research, brand research, customer research, and detailed scientific studies will all help you make more informed decisions. They’ll give you an objective basis for your marketing and provide you with valuable baselines for measuring your results and understanding your audience. 

By conducting research, you’ll know your clients better — which puts you in a position to serve them better. Statistics on the impact of research is clear. Studies have shown that firms that conduct systematic research on their prospects and clients grow three to ten times faster and are up to two times more profitable than peers that don’t pursue research.

2) Content is king

I can’t stress enough the importance of a content marketing strategy which adds valuable information and informs the consumer — which is precisely what B2B customers are looking for. 

The question I get asked the most is, “Where, specifically, do I need to be putting up new content?”

The first place I would recommend keeping content updated is the blog on your website ( If you don’t have a blog on your website… you should). Not only do search engines prefer this longer-form content style, your website visitors do too. Getting people to visit your site is one thing but getting them to stick around is an entirely different challenge.

A blog that is updated on a regular basis creates a reason for your visitors to return to your site. Your blog is also a great place for you to show off how well you know your industry. Not to mention that content marketing supports SEO efforts. 

One way to spread your business’s name around is by putting together materials that can be downloaded (and shared) free of charge. It might sound counterintuitive to give things of value away for free, but if potential customers are frequently referencing your content, it’s likely it could lead to sales in the future.

What exactly does free content look like? Some tried and true examples include e-books that cover industry updates, infographics that share valuable insights that others may have overlooked, and recorded webinars that can be downloaded straight from your website.

3) A High-Performance Website

In B2B marketing, things aren’t quite as black and white as in B2C. Because the people viewing your ad are unlikely to make a purchase right on the spot, the goal should be to have your audience learn why your company is better than the others in your industry. In digital marketing terms, this means driving more traffic to your website.

Research paints a clear picture of the importance of a professional services firm’s website. In fact, 80% of people look at websites when checking out potential new service providers.

4)PPC & SEO 

It’s not enough to just have a website, you have to optimize by implementing on-page SEO and technical SEO tactics. These include everything from image alt-text and meta descriptions, to structured data, and even site speed Off-page SEO is also at play here, which refers to external linking strategies and social sharing.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising allows you to get your content and brand in front of new audiences via search engines and other advertising platforms. I recommend maximizing your PPC investment by advertising more than your specific products or services — such as your brand personality, blog or social media content, or company tagline.

The best way to see an ROI from your paid ads is by first incorporating your buyer persona data, and second boosting content they can relate to.

5) Marketing Automation 

Marketing Automation replaces high-touch, repetitive manual processes with automated ones supported by technology solutions. This brings together all of your online marketing channels into one centralized system for creating, managing, and measuring programs and campaigns.

CRM is an essential software you need. Your CRM serves as the database for all the information you collect about opportunities and clients, including specific interactions with them.

6)Reassess your channel mix

Throughout the course of a normal year, your traffic channel mix will remain largely consistent, notwithstanding any huge changes in strategy or budget. However, COVID-19 has caused a shift in the way traffic is hitting websites. You should start off analyzing your channel report and then drill down into source/medium to find any changes in where your traffic is coming from.  

It is worth digging into your Google Search Console data and your Search Query Reports in any paid advertising you are doing to see if there are any changes in the amount of brand and non-brand traffic your site is seeing.

It may also be worth looking into new channels you could utilize to bridge the gap. For instance, if you find your Google Ads are not getting as much visibility and you have the budget available, maybe it is a good time to try some paid social activity. It could even be worthwhile to spend your time creating compelling email campaigns and hitting your audience from this direction.

7)Focus on website conversions

CRO should be a priority every day of every month of every year. 

In an environment where the intent is changing and search interest for many services is down, it becomes much more important for your website to work hard to convert traffic into leads and sales. Moreover, something that worked in early March may not be as effective as the new normal is constantly changing.  

First, you should review your Google Analytics data to see how users are interacting with your site. Look at whether your top landing pages are changing, whether your conversion rates are shifting, or the lead sources are different. Couple this with heatmap analysis from tools like HotJar to see how users are interacting with your site.  

Once you have the data in front of you, it’s time to start coming up with test hypotheses. These can be as simple or as complex as you like, but you should ALWAYS be testing something. 

Some CRO tests you could look at in these times are:

1. Change the USPs you promote 
2. Test new CTAs 
3. Try new response methods 
4. Pricing offers  
5. Free products

In conclusion

While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution that can be applied across all industries, B2B marketing needs to be treated as something different than a traditional campaign aimed at individual consumers.

Above all, proving your value should be the number one priority in this particular space. Make sure your marketing campaigns reflect positively on your brand and don’t be afraid to show off when past customers have seen results from using your company.