Here’s the thing about B2B marketing — it’s a lot different from its B2C counterpart, but there are parallels you can draw when it comes to marketing channels.
Marketing products and services to business professionals means taking a different approach from what one might typically consider “traditional marketing.” Many people mistakenly believe that the channels B2C marketers use for brand promotion aren’t useful for B2B companies.
However, that’s not true at all.
You can use many of those same marketing channels for B2B brand promotion. You just have to use them differently. What’s more, not all marketing channels are created equal. Some are far more effective than others based on your B2B audience.
The key?
Knowing where to focus your attention first. Which marketing channels should you test the waters with before analyzing results and focusing on the most productive?
In this article, we’ll walk you through a series of B2B marketing channels excellent for brands looking to get their name out there.
What Makes a Marketing Channel Great for B2B Brand Promotion?
Before jumping in, let’s take a moment to touch on what B2B businesses should look for in a marketing channel.
First off, your target audience needs to frequent this channel. That means understanding who you’re marketing to and how they like to receive information.
These days, the vast majority of people get their information online. So digital marketing channels are the first choice for B2B marketers everywhere.
Second, it needs to be something that’s going to fit comfortably into your marketing budget. You don’t want to break the bank and cut into your profits.
The types of digital marketing we’ll discuss here have excellent ROI potential. Far better than traditional marketing tactics such as direct mail.
Finally, remember that the channel you choose shouldn’t be your only marketing venture.
For example, you can’t bank on SEO alone and expect to succeed. Marketing is about trying things out, moving in new directions, and learning from your mistakes.
Google Analytics is one of the best ways to learn and improve. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the newest version of this tool, and it’ll be your new best friend.
From your GA4 dashboard, you’ll gain insights into more information than ever before. Your data is at your fingertips, from customer segmentation and churn to conversion rates and spend analysis.
Staying on top of your data allows you to adjust your strategies and improve your marketing tactics, improving your bottom line.
Over time, you’ll be able to clearly see which strategies are working and which aren’t. You can even use Customer Success Software to collect and analyze data on customer behavior, engagement, and satisfaction, and leverage these insights to your strategies and tailor your offerings.
Now that we understand our criteria let’s look at some of the best B2B brand promotion channels.
The Best Marketing Channels to Promote Your B2B Brand
Here are six digital channels to help promote your B2B brand.
Content Marketing
When promoting your brand to a B2B audience, the first channel you should consider is content marketing.
Content marketing includes many different types of content, like those listed below.
That’s because content marketing is a hugely diverse marketing channel that can take many forms, from blogging to video production, social media content, audio content, ebooks, email, and more.
Content marketing is about producing and sharing helpful content with your target market to attract and keep them.
By creating exceptional content, you can establish your company as a leader in its field and earn the audience’s confidence.
Of course, content marketing tools are essential for any content marketer’s success. They include everything from grammar checkers to video and photo editing software.
Blog posts, case studies, and infographics are popular materials in B2B marketing. However, another popular material within the B2B realm you can create is a white paper, and it’s possible to utilize various content marketing tools to enhance any of them.
For instance, AI copywriting tools can help you produce long-form SEO content five times faster if you can master prompt engineering.
A SaaS blog can be a great example of a powerful marketing channel for B2B businesses.
By regularly publishing high-quality, informative content, SaaS businesses can establish themselves as thought leaders in the software industry and build a loyal audience of potential customers with a strong relationship willing to trust them with their unique software needs.
One of the main benefits of a SaaS blog is that it allows software businesses to showcase their expertise and provide value to the audience. Companies can demonstrate their authority and build trust with readers by offering helpful tips, insights, and industry news.
Doing this can be especially important for B2B businesses, as potential customers often seek solutions to complex problems and want to work with a company that deeply understands their industry. By providing valuable content in various formats, including engaging videos created by a video editor, you can effectively position your company as the trusted partner they need.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Like content marketing, SEO is a valuable marketing channel for every business. It goes hand-in-hand with any content marketing strategy.
To ensure your target audience finds your brand in organic searches, you must optimize your digital assets appropriately. Doing so includes keyword research, technical SEO, and on-page and off-page SEO.
While SEO is crucial and effective, it’s also a long game. An investment in the long-term success of your business rather than a quick win.
It also requires a lot of skill to apply and optimize well enough to see results.
It’s not just writing content with a few strategic keywords sprinkled in. You must appeal to Google’s ever-shifting algorithm and build links on and off your site. Not to mention, ensure your B2B content is of high quality and optimize the backend of your site — including titles, meta descriptions, URL slugs, and image alt text.
Your business name should also be SEO optimized to ensure you can rank for the keywords you want to target. Using a business name generator can help inspire you with SEO-friendly names for your business.
Because this channel is so specialized, entrusting your SEO efforts to an experienced staff member or an SEO agency is the best practice.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is incredibly versatile for B2B industries.
There are so many exciting and effective paths you can take. But regardless of how you decide to dive into social media marketing, some advice is worth following.
- Post original content – make sure you’re posting original content on your chosen social media platform without plagiarizing or reposting from others. If you don’t have time or don’t feel like you have the creativity to come up with new content all the time, hire a ghostwriter.
- Post consistently – choose a posting schedule and stick to it. Your followers will come to expect your posts at that time on those days – don’t disappoint them. A scheduling tool like Later can help.
- Share value – give your followers valuable content. Share tips you may have learnt in CMO conferences, free tools that you use in your business, your tech stack, your favorite productivity hacks, your morning routine, etc.
- Engage – answer questions, reply to comments, respond to DMs. Also, visit followers’ and peers’ profiles and comment on their posts.
Then you have influencer marketing.
Some people think influencer marketing is still only designed for teens on TikTok buying makeup.
But the truth is that plenty of professional content creators for every industry make educational content for businesses. In fact, 94% of marketers think it’s a viable B2B marketing strategy.
These campaigns look different from the B2C influencer campaigns we’re all familiar with, but that’s a good thing. It means B2B marketers can step outside the box and get creative. They can partner with other companies, individuals, start-ups, or entrepreneurs.
Check out this amazing example from a partnership between Microsoft and NatGeo.
Microsoft wanted to promote women in STEM careers, so they partnered with NatGeo to feature some incredible women, including Paige Drobny, a fisheries biologist, and competitive dog musher.
The campaign reached over 91 million people.
Promoting your company’s brand or products through an influencer marketing strategy entails forming alliances with key thought leaders in your sector.
You’ll be able to reach a larger audience and earn the trust of your target audience if you take advantage of the influence these specific personalities have.
Social media management tools are especially helpful for keeping track of your social media campaign insights — including publishing, mentoring, analytics, influencer campaign monitoring, and keeping current on social media trends.
PPC Advertising
With search engine advertising, you only pay if someone clicks on your ad. This ensures you’re not pointlessly throwing money away on expensive marketing ventures that don’t bring you any traffic.
Google Ads is one of the largest and most well-known PPC channels.
Through Google Ads, you can bid on specific keywords relevant to your B2B audience. When someone searches, Google reviews the bids and arranges paid ad results on the search engine results page. These appear above the organic results, marked as ads.
PPC can be a great way to supplement your SEO. Since SEO takes time, you can immediately generate a return with PPC while the SEO ramps up. Then, once the SEO pays off, you can lower your PPC spend or phase it out entirely.
Paid ads are a specialty that requires expert knowledge to execute properly. If you decide to explore PPC, we strongly recommend teaming up with a professional or agency with plenty of experience and case studies showing they can do the job.
Email Marketing
Email marketing has been around almost as long as the internet, but it’s still a force to be reckoned with. Earning $36 for every $1 spent, a marketer would be foolish not to invest in this digital channel.
With the right automation tool, audience segments, and drip campaigns, B2B marketers can reach their customers at every stage of the sales funnel and nurture them through to conversion.
While email can be incredibly effective, it’s also amazingly competitive.
Campaigns fill our inboxes. Welcome emails, abandoned cart emails, onboarding emails – too many to count, let alone open.
But, with the right subject line and the perfect ratio of text to images, your emails can strike the right chord with your customers and earn that precious open and click-through rate.
Do that enough, and the result will be some well-deserved, qualified leads.
Nurture those leads through their journey (your sales funnel) with the right emails, and you’ll increase your conversion rates.
As you guide leads through their journey with well-crafted emails, enhancing conversion rates becomes achievable. Selecting an email marketing platform that aligns with this goal is crucial. Among the options, ActiveCampaign, TinyEmail and Flodesk each bring unique capabilities to the table. To better understand which might serve your needs best, try comparing TinyEmail vs Flodesk for starters, as they offer similar features.
Just remember: email marketing is a dance. Lead too fast, and you’ll leave your customers behind. Lead too slowly, and they’ll leave you for the next email in their inbox. If you’re already doing email Marketing and are unable to drive the expected ROI, try WhatsApp Marketing which offers a promising message open rate of 98% & a click rate of 45-60%. SMS via either a 10-digit or short code texting platform can also see fantastic results.
Podcasts
Podcasting is a fantastic medium for generating awareness and establishing yourself as an industry leader.
While there are podcasts on just about everything, such as television shows, theme parks, and more, there are also a lot of business-oriented podcasts designed to educate working professionals worldwide.
52 million US households listen to business podcasts, and 45% of podcast listeners have an annual household income of over $250,000.
By starting a podcast, your company can reach members in your preferred B2B audience and establish your brand as a credible source of knowledge. Be sure to establish the goals for your podcast before you start recording.
Your podcast should sound professional and have a clear intention for each episode. So invest in decent audio equipment and editing software.
The right microphone, pop filter, and editing software can make the difference between a successful podcast and a launch to the sound of crickets. Alternatively, another great way to promote your brand is organizing events and inviting the industry specialists to have a talk. This way you will create a strong network around your business.
Wrap up
And that’s it!
The marketing channels above represent a fantastic opportunity to reach B2B audiences.
Don’t forget to evaluate each channel, particularly those relevant to take-profit trader funding, before solidifying your strategy. This approach allows you to allocate funds in your business budget accordingly. Then, monitor your analytics, and adjust, improve, and eliminate strategies as needed.
Once you find the best strategies for your business, keep optimizing. The sky’s the limit!
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