B2B Marketing: It’s different now.
Sometimes we need reminding of the ways in which trends of all kinds have made the landscape for B2B marketing different from what it once was.
You needn’t be a sociologist to have a growing awareness of the ways in which trends in media, population, and business behavior have changed in the last few decades, rendering the landscape for B2B marketers a complicated one.
In case you need a refresher, here’s a partial list of the hurdles that Master Strategy, a B2B marketing agency specializing in service providers, is helping our clients to surmount—through creative, high-engagement B2B marketing strategies; intelligent targeting and messaging; innovative internal marketing communications that enlist everyone on the in-house team; and by the intelligent use of outsourced marketing services.
Media proliferation. The sheer number and volume of messages being delivered to both consumers and businesses serve to make each individual message less effective. We’re way beyond “clutter” at this point. Breaking through the noise, even marketing to a niche B2B audience, is daunting.
Endless choice. The array of options among products and services seems an infinite and ever-expanding one, making each sale more challenging, and the notion of brand or product loyalty, even in the B2B arena, an arguably outdated one.
The triumph of technology. Technology is a no longer just a tool—today technology rules all media, and all communication. Complex technology is, increasingly, also the foundation of most new B2B products and services—making the marketing of such products and services correspondingly complex.
The current business climate. In an era of retrenchment, normally challenging B2B business development becomes more difficult, yet all the more urgent.
Hurdles to understanding. We are in an era in which, for the first time, we are marketing business products and services to an audience for whom the understanding of such products and services—precisely because of their complexity—cannot be assumed. More than ever, B2B marketing is all about education.
The end of need. Especially in a time of economic downturns, the notion of a successful business “needing” to buy a product or service is sometimes questionable. How do you market B2B products and services that your target audience considers not must-have but “optional”?
Boredom, sophistication, cynicism. Is there a consumer or business target who doesn’t approach marketing information with a skeptical eye?
In Master Strategy’s experience, the single most effective way to break through all these barriers is with B2B marketing communication that’s designed to engage prospects intellectually and engender a positive working relationship based on confidence and trust. Well-executed, high-engagement communication is successful precisely because it demands involvement, serves as education, and inspires buy-in. It’s what we do best.
It’s Not About You: B2B Marketing Strategies to Build Customer Relationships
Successful B2B marketing of a product or service involves presenting it clearly and compellingly. But even more important is showing the customer you understand his or her business as well as you do your own.
One tactical error we see marketers repeatedly make is becoming so focused on their product or service that they actually—and ironically—forget about the potential customer. That is, they understandably get so wrapped up in describing their exciting offering—its features and benefits, why it’s breakthrough, what differentiates it from other, similar products and services, etc.—that they neglect in their marketing materials to acknowledge the potential customer’s own needs and challenges.
The result is that the customer walks away with a pretty fair understanding of the product or service—yet remains unconvinced that the marketer is truly engaged with his or her business and its specific hurdles and needs
Remember that when you’re engaged in B2B marketing of services, a customer needs to be sold not merely on what you’re offering, but on doing business with you—and having confidence in your ability to grasp and address his or her circumstances. Your ad copy, presentations, and marketing materials should spend as much time acknowledging your customers’ challenges as touting your own product or service.
As a B2B marketer, never presume to “intuitively” understand your business customer’s challenges. There’s nothing more ineffective than B2B marketing messages that strike the potential customer as naive, superficially researched, or uninformed about his or her field. At Master Strategy we’ve learned that B2B marketing strategies and B2B marketing communications must be backed up by research—ideally, by conversations, interviews, and focus groups with your customers’ customers.
We recently marketed a product targeted to a niche audience consisting of managers of residential rental-apartment complexes. We purposely created the marketing materials only after several evenings of exhaustive round-table discussions with a panel of apartment-complex managers who shared their feelings with us, and described their day-to-day, in-the-trenches challenges in detail.
This kind of footwork is the essence of truly effective, high-engagement B2B marketing communications—and avoiding what we at Master Strategy, a B2B marketing agency specializing in service providers, deride as “it’s-all-about-me” marketing.
Why Successful B2B Marketing Needs an Outsider’s Perspective
Those in your firm who supposedly know your product or service best can sometimes communicate it least. An outsider’s point of view is key to message development—and to successful B2B marketing of services in general.
It takes a rare CEO, COO, or Director of Marketing to acknowledge that he or she might not be the best person to be the chief author of messages, campaign concepts, and B2B marketing strategy in general to launch new services or promote new products B2B. But time and again when working with clients, we observe the phenomenon that those who are closest to a product or service offering can turn out to be the least skilled in communicating its value to the target audience.
Dog Eat Dog: B2B Market Research Keeps the Competition in Perspective
If you sell services business to business (B2B), of course it’s important to know what your competitors are doing in the marketplace. But an obsession with your competition can be crippling—creatively and otherwise. Tips on keeping the competition in perspective.
It’s almost impossible for B2B marketers not to spend time comparing themselves to the competition. It’s an increasingly tough marketplace out there, and launching or promoting a product or service in ignorance of what competitors are doing—and what they’re charging—is foolhardy.
Need a B2B Marketing Strategy to Grow Profitably? Think in Four Quadrants.
If your company sells services business-to-business (B2B), there are a number of marketing strategies that will help you to grow. But not all of these B2B marketing strategies will enable you to grow profitably. Although the top line of your income statement might increase, at the end of the month or year, the bottom line might actually shrink.
What Works: How to save time and improve your marketing results
Management teams frequently tell us that their #1 marketing challenge is too little time. The goal of this blog is to save you time and increase your results by focusing on what works for marketing services business-to-business (B2B). We welcome you to join the conversation and let us know what works for you.
Any company has a finite amount of resources (time, budget, and effort) to spend on relationship development and new business outreach. Especially if that amount is less than your competitors have to spend, it’s critical that your investment generate the highest return possible. To compete and win, you must identify and penetrate your highest priority target markets on a time- and cost-effective basis.