Business to business (B2B) marketing, as opposed to Business to Customer (B2C) marketing, involves selling a product or service to other existing businesses. A successful business to business (B2B) marketing has one basic thing at its foundations: Understand your target market and get a certification of incorporation.

If your B2B marketing plan doesn’t seem to be working out for you, there are 3 things you could do to help set you back on track:

Incorporate inbound marketing tactics into your plan.

An inbound marketing tactic involves reaching out to your potential customers through content marketing. It involves putting more focus on educating potential customers with content aimed at building trust and creating a lasting relationship, rather than focusing on traditional marketing methods such as cold calling, media adverts, and trade shows to make a sales pitch. To be able to get content marketing to work, a business needs to relate to and capture the attention of potential customers by:

  • Making use of competitive advantage: find out the qualities that set your business apart, and create a supportive content that goes on to reflect those aspects of your business to potential customers. Ensure that the content is simplified and accessible to the audience. Avoid using technical words and do not assume that the audience, though educated, should have any knowledge at all on what you are talking about.
  • Keeping in mind that the decision to buy your product will often be made by more than one person in the establishment you are marketing to. Therefore, ensure that you carry everyone along with a good content that reaches out to each person occupying a different stage of the buyer’s journey. Your content should be able to answer any question anyone at all might have. This would ensure your ability to connect and gain trust with each and every one involved in the purchase decision.
  • Making use of social media marketing, call-to-actions, CRM integration, marketing automations, blogging, downloadable content, SEO, etc.

Inbound marketing tactics increase your visibility and brand awareness, educates your target market, creates trust and credibility, and helps you generate quality leads and traffic. Here’s a couple of pointers to help drum up new business;

  1. Set actionable goals

For your marketing plan to be actionable, you need to be able to set clear, actionable goals. Have a clear understanding of what you wish to achieve and ensure that your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time bound). Be sure to be able to have a method of effectively analyzing your marketing performance so as to be able to find ways to accurately align your marketing plan to industry benchmarks and fit the demands of the target market.

  1. Breathe life into your brand

Influence the way your brand is perceived by potential customers in the target market. This can be achieved by providing the people with a story that they could relate to and motivate them to identify with you. Strive to stir up the emotions of your potential customers. This is often the tactic used by B2C markers. It works with B2B marketing as well.

You need to think of your marketing plan as being like the shop front into your whole business. It is the first glimpse that many businesses will have, and you should see it as such. And while many businesses will have appropriate protection for their shop, you must use your marketing strategy to protect the reputation and future of your business.