46% of B2B companies plan on increasing their content marketing spend within the next 12 months.
Do you have a B2B marketing game plan in place for 2021?
You don’t need to be a master strategist to craft a compelling marketing plan.
A simple plan could send your B2B business soaring to new heights.
It’s time to get creative and start thinking about potential B2B marketing strategies for your business or organization.
With more mediums at your disposal than ever before, driving awareness and inspiring consideration couldn’t be easier.
Frankly, B2B marketers are spoilt for choice with potential opportunities.
There’s no point sitting on the sidelines, watching great opportunities pass you by.
A quarter of B2B organizations allocate only 5% of their total budget to marketing.
With so much money being left on the table, we want to encourage B2B businesses and organizations to swing for the fences.
Now is not the time to be playing it safe.
Moving fast with aggressive experimentation is going to be vital to your success.
In this article, we are going to provide you with some much-needed inspiration.
At Cashflow Podcasting, our team is always buzzing with fresh B2B marketing ideas.
We want to instill this same enthusiasm in you!
There’s often an assumption that B2B marketing must have a corporate feel.
In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
Those who succeed in B2B marketing are usually the ones pushing against conventional wisdom.
So, what are you waiting for?
Keep reading to learn the answers to the following questions:
- What is a B2B marketing strategy?
- What are effective B2B marketing strategies?
- How do you craft a B2B marketing strategy?
- How do you execute your B2B marketing plan?
- Where can you get ideas for marketing strategies?
Let’s start by going back to basics and considering the fundamentals of B2B marketing.
What is a B2B marketing strategy?
A B2B marketing strategy is a plan to drive awareness of your products or services to business owners.
In many cases, this will be achieved through a variety of mediums, utilizing several different platforms to reach the target market.
Deploying the right B2B marketing strategy can be a complete game-changer.
In the space of just a few weeks, you can transform the prospects of your business, filling up the sales pipeline with qualified leads.
This doesn’t happen by itself.
You’re going to need to put in the work.
Fortunately, there are many B2B marketing services available to support you along the way.
The majority of B2B businesses are outsourcing their marketing activities.
In fact, only 41% of B2B businesses conduct their marketing activities in-house.
Half of B2B marketing teams outsource at least one content marketing activity.
It’s often surprising to see that many B2B businesses do not have a comprehensive marketing strategy in place.
As a result, they rarely have a full sales pipeline and typically struggle with lead generation.
A solid marketing strategy will turbocharge your ability to generate leads.
What are effective B2B marketing strategies?
Are you serious about taking your marketing to the next level?
You could be just a few steps away from transforming your B2B business into a sales machine.
Rather than diluting your attention across multiple verticals, we recommend mastering three or four marketing channels.
This will enable you to focus on volume and produce content at scale.
Here are just a few ideas to get you started:
- Record podcast episodes for distribution across several streaming platforms.
- Write SEO-optimized blog content to boost your website’s organic traffic.
- Post social media content across several platforms.
These marketing efforts can complement each other.
For instance, one of your blog articles could inspire a podcast episode.
Both pieces of content could then be shared across social media.
When your marketing efforts inform each other, you are running an efficient campaign.
There’s nothing worse than having a marketing campaign or strategy with loose ends.
If you can intertwine the many components of your marketing strategy and turn this into a cohesive effort, you are more likely to strengthen the strategy as a whole.
50% of the content created by B2B marketers is focused on creating brand awareness and interest.
When you are producing content for your target market, you must know what you’re trying to achieve.
Are these people familiar with your brand?
Do they understand your USPs and overall value proposition?
These are just a few questions to consider as you produce content for your target market.
How do you craft a B2B marketing strategy?
The complexities of crafting a B2B marketing strategy will depend on your approach.
We always like to keep things simple.
First and foremost, you need to think about how to drive brand awareness.
Top-of-funnel marketing should be the initial focus point.
Once you’ve established how to drive brand awareness, you can begin to look at creating content that has the power to convert business owners into potential customers.
It’s important that you make sure the marketing strategy is cohesive.
When you have multiple elements complementing each other, things can get exciting.
There’s certainly an art to crafting an effective B2B marketing strategy.
To master this art, you must have the bigger picture at the front of your mind.
When you are crafting a B2B marketing strategy, you must identify pillar content.
Typically, this is premium content, such as podcast episodes and long-form videos.
We believe podcast episodes should be at the very core of any marketing strategy devised by a B2B business.
There is a genuine appetite from business owners for more audio content.
Many B2B businesses have found success by starting podcasts that appeal to a very specific niche, matching their ideal customer avatar.
A B2B podcast doesn’t need thousands of weekly listeners for it to be deemed a success.
You just need a few hundred listeners each week that fit into your target market.
While this might sound challenging, it’s easily achievable with the support of a podcast production service.
How do you execute your B2B marketing plan?
Business owners often forget how powerful data can be.
If you have data on your previous marketing efforts, take the time to carefully study it.
Marketing data can often be filled with hidden gems.
When you find an interesting data point, this can help to inform your strategy going forward.
The more data you have, the better.
When it comes to executing your marketing plan, we recommend starting with the pillar content before creating anything else.
This will ensure you can utilize elements of the pillar content across smaller pieces of content.
For instance, if you had podcast episodes as your pillar content, these could be transcribed and turned into blog posts.
These blog posts could then be distributed through social media posts.
Do you see how everything can come together?
Where can you get ideas for marketing strategies?
If you want to be the best, you need to learn from the best.
Take a look at B2B businesses that are crushing their marketing campaigns.
Specifically, consider how each piece of marketing they produce feeds into the next.
Have you considered starting a B2B podcast?
To get some inspiration, you can listen to existing podcasts that are likely to appeal to your target market.
Are you ready to take your B2B marketing strategy to the next level?
It’s time to get the ball rolling with some compelling podcast episodes.
Schedule a call with Cashflow Podcasting today!
Ben Krueger is the founder of Cashflow Podcasting and he specializes in helping thought leaders and entrepreneurs amplify their impact through podcasting. He’s a world traveller, outdoor sports junkie and future enthusiast!
