Top 4 B2B strategies to market your business in 2020

business plan

With new technology regularly coming in, it should come as no surprise that of all the marketing strategies in place, those that have to do with digital means are currently some of the most effective.

Going even deeper, B2B Strategies, in particular, have proven successful. The advancement of technology has brought about some serious changes in the past decade. As a result, B2B consumers have changed as well.

But first, what are B2B marketing strategies? These refer to the marketing strategies that are more focused on selling goods and services to businesses and organizations. These are strategies used by companies, to sell to other companies. Today, the market is much younger than before – over 45% of B2B buyers are 25 to 34 years old. In addition, most B2B researchers cited Internet search and vendors’ websites as their top means of researching products and services.

In order to stay on top of their game, B2B businesses need to adapt and create an experience that will get decision-makers to notice them. Remember, you’re marketing not just to ordinary individual buyers, but to bigger corporations that are set to buy in bulk. Luckily, the opportunities to do that are endless.

That said, here are 4 simple but effective strategies to help you market your business in 2020.

Before You Start: Have A Business Plan In Place

Before proceeding with specific B2B marketing strategies, it’s important to go back to the basics. No business strategy will ever be effective when there’s no business plan to back it up. Every business, no matter the industry or size, needs a business plan. Whether you will use it to provide direction for yourself and your team or to attract investors, having a business plan is crucial for your company’s success.

In a nutshell, here’s what a business plan should include:

  • Executive summary – an overview of your business that summarizes the key points of the document;
  • Company description – describes what your company does;
  • Market analysis – contains thorough research of your niche, industry, audience, and main competitors;
  • Organization and management – summarizes information about your business’ structure and team;
  • Service or product – clearly describes the products and services your business provides;
  • Sales and marketing plan – describes your sales strategy and how you will market your business;
  • Funding request – states how much money do you currently need to operate your business;
  • Financial projections – should include a sales forecast, balance sheet, cash flow statement, expenses budget, and a profit and loss statement;
  • Appendix – an optional section where you can include any additional documents (like permits or resumes) to give your reader a feel for your product, marketing, service, etc.

With a business plan, your company has a robust tool that guides you through all of the decisions that your business will make. As this contains the steps to be taken for your goals to achieve, it’s in here that you can determine whether or not a certain B2B strategy will work to your benefit.

Now, The Four B2B Strategies to Market Your Business in 2020

1. Polish Your Content Marketing Strategy

Even in this day and age, content marketing is still key. Even when it comes to B2B marketing, content marketing will always top the list of effective strategies to employ. After all, it’s only through your content that you can talk about and advertise your products and services. It’s here that you can be strategic enough to convince big businesses to purchase from your company.

Articles and blogs are great, but 2020 is all about new, exciting things. Focus on great visual content such as videos, augmented reality, interactive content, and virtual reality.

Videos unite animation, audio, text, graphs, and live footage to provide an immersive experience that can inform and educate your leads about what your company offers in a more attractive and much efficient way.

Considering the fact that this year, video is expected to account for nearly 80% of global traffic, it’s clear why businesses are eager to start using video through AR, VR, and film to convey their message and tell their brand’s story.

If this is not enough, you should also know that Google is now ranking video content higher than text content.

To help you along this line, if you’ve noticed that your content isn’t proving effective, seek the help of the experts. A B2B lead generation agency helps you not just in looking for leads per se, but also in creating an effective content that’ll appeal to your leads.

2. Keep Up with Your Social Media Strategy

Even though social media tends to be a tricky part of the marketing plan for most B2B companies, they have finally realized that it is an efficient way to find new clients.

Considering the fact that over 220 million Americans were on social media in 2019, it’s no surprise that nearly 85% of B2B marketers today use social media, making it the most common B2B marketing tactic.

However, it’s important to note that, in order to be successful, B2B marketers need to take a strategic approach and execute their social media campaigns with precision. Start by ensuring that your goals are well defined.

For instance, why do you want to build a social media presence? Is your goal to build your brand, improve your customer service, or generate better-targeted leads? Next, identify your target audience and cater to their needs by sharing information with businesses that are in your area of expertise. Finally, make sure to select the right platforms.

Find out where your target audience is present (for B2B that’s usually LinkedIn) and focus 80% of your marketing efforts there.

If so far, LinkedIn has been the main social media platform (80% of all B2B leads originate from LinkedIn and that’s why nearly 95% of B2B marketers use it to publish content), this year you should include Instagram and Facebook in your social media strategy. They can help you build better brand recognition and establish yourself as an authority in your niche.

3. Refresh Your Email Marketing Strategy

If you look at email marketing stats, you’ll find out that email is the third most influential source of information for B2B audiences, followed by industry-specific thought leaders and colleague recommendations.

This year, focus AI and dynamic content tools to make your email marketing strategy more useful and boost the opening rate. These technologies will help you create even more personalized email campaigns by regulating the type the content served, as well as the time when it’s served.

4. Use VoIP

VOIP refers to the phone service of your company that runs through the Internet, rather than going through your local phone company.

Have you ever thought about your VoIP phone system? VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol, also called IP telephony) is a great marketing tool that businesses can use to give themselves a major boost. After all, VOIP is cheap but provides increased functionality for the business that it serves.

To help you along this line, here are some ideas on how you can integrate VoIP into your marketing strategy:

  • Properly customize your auto attendant to enhance your business
  • Use VOIP’s analytics to track your marketing results
  • Instead of using boring elevator music (or dead silence), take the chance to improve your customer service by adding customized announcements or music
  • Add a click-to-call extension or button to your site, email signature, or online advertisements, as this will make you more reachable to your customers
  • Get a toll-free number to make yourself look bigger and more trustworthy in the eyes of your customers.

Don’t know how to start with VoIP? Here’s a list of the best-hosted VoIP providers to help you out.

Final Thoughts

Are you still contemplating how to go about your marketing strategy in 2020? This list may not be comprehensive, but it certainly provides a look at some B2B marketing trends to consider, giving you the opportunity to shape a successful marketing strategy.

Start with these four strategies, then work your way from there. While B2B marketing may seem more challenging, these strategies would show that it’s doable. If you’ve long been struggling along this line, you can now start employing excellent and workable strategies for your business.