B2B Marketing: How to Market Your Business | Mailchimp

1. Market research

Conducting market research is crucial for any business, regardless of who your customer is. Market research is how you can find gaps in the market, identify your customer pain points, and see what competitors are doing. You need to figure out what your customers’ obstacles are and what they need to overcome so that you can ensure your products or services meet their needs.

By conducting marketing research, you’ll get a better idea of exactly who your customers are, including their pain points and desires. But market research will also give you insight into how your competitors are performing and what they’re doing right and wrong.

You want to create a picture of your ideal customer, known as a buyer persona, which in the case of B2B marketing, would be another business or organization. Research their demographics as well as their interests and behaviors so you can get a complete understanding of who they are. You can do this by interviewing other people in your industry or creating surveys to send out to current customers.

Market research will help you figure out what marketing tactics are right for your business, such as different types of social media content to create that can help you market your business more effectively online and ultimately drive sales.

2. Reviews and testimonials

Establishing credibility is essential for organizations looking to grow because it lets your current and potential customers know they can trust you. There are several ways you can improve your business’s credibility, such as by attracting high-quality reviews and testimonials. Conducting case studies is also important, as it allows you to show your customers your success with real-life data.

Word of mouth is a great way to promote your business, and often that comes in the form of a review. If your business has negative reviews, that can seriously hinder the likelihood of a customer choosing you over a competitor. If a customer is faced with two extremely similar businesses that offer the same products at the same price, but one has better reviews, they’re most likely going to choose them. This is why it’s so important to focus on getting high-quality reviews and testimonials from your customers as this improves the credibility of your business.

Make sure you include positive reviews on your business’s website, as this is a great way to convert website visitors into customers. If potential customers can see raving reviews about your products or services on your website, they’re going to be more likely to purchase from you in the moment. Positive reviews can go a long way for your business. You can also include case studies on your website so your customers can see for themselves how your business performs.

3. SEO

For your business’s website to be successful, it first needs to be discoverable, which you can do with SEO tactics. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of driving organic traffic to your website by using different tactics, such as incorporating keywords in copy and target links.

Your website is the first impression of your business, so it needs to contain quality content. Your website should be well-organized, easy to navigate, and functional, making it easy for users to browse.

SEO can either be on-site or off-site, both of which are important for B2B marketing. On-site SEO is the practice of optimizing a website, such as using targeted keywords that tell search engines about the content of your website so that customers can easily find you. Off-site SEO includes SEO tactics that occur outside of your website, such as obtaining links to your website from other publications and sharing your website on social media. These are both crucial tactics to utilize in order to optimize your digital presence and ultimately drive traffic to your website.

There are various SEO tips that you should use to gain visibility on search engines and drive traffic to your website, such as:

• Using alt-texts on photos: An alt-text is a description of an image that appears if the image fails to show up on a website, which gives you another opportunity to use target keywords.
• Adding meta descriptions: A meta description is an element of the HTML that summarizes a page’s content. Having meta descriptions is important because they can improve your website’s click-through rates.
• Improving page speeds: Your website pages should load quickly so users can easily navigate the website. If your website lags or takes a long time to load, readers are much more likely to click the back arrow and visit another site.
• Creating a relevant blog: Having a blog gives your business a space to talk about relevant topics in your industry, which can boost your visibility.
• Having a strong home page: Your home page is typically the most visited page of your website, so it should be engaging and contain pertinent information about your business.

SEO can be as simple as using plain language on your website that is easy to understand and creating high-quality, valuable content that your readers will engage with. Try to implement as many SEO tactics as possible so you can boost the discoverability of your business.

4. Referral system

Referrals are a great way to drive interest in your brand. If someone mentions a brand to you, you’re most likely going to choose that brand over a competitor, simply because someone you trust referred them to you. That’s why having a referral system for your business is so important.

Referral marketing can take many different forms. Your customers can simply refer your business to their peers, but you can also implement a formal referral program. Incentivizing clients to refer your work to their network can improve lead generation efforts. In fact, 78% of B2B referrals help generate leads for the business, so it’s crucial to implement a referral system to encourage customers to promote your company.