Here at Errand Pro we have isolated three B2B areas that will be crucial in 2020. In our last post, we explored the first one, B2B Web Design Trends For 2020. This second post explains how to expand and target your B2B marketing efforts.
Social Media And Newsletters
B2C entrepreneurs have long understood the importance of social media to reach customers and clients. Strangely enough, B2B businesses seem to be behind.
They need to follow suit.
B2B business owners and decision-makers are getting younger. Social media and similar marketing routes are familiar to them. If anything, they expect your business to have a solid presence in professional social media in 2020.
But don’t discard traditional marketing tools either: hyper-personalized email marketing also has a role to play in promoting your message and making your business noticed.
Use Social Media To Build Your Brand
Social media are often perceived as the playing field of B2C companies, not B2B ones.
However, a majority of B2B buyers also use social media. While B2B buyers will rarely make purchases on Facebook, social media are a useful tool to build awareness around your brand and display your know-how in your area of business.
Use social media like LinkedIn and your company blog to promote your brand expertise. Show your experience and knowledge around your line of business and prove your worth as an entrepreneur and business owner.
Social media will give your potential buyers an idea of who you are and what you do. They will get a feel about what sort of business entrepreneur you are. That way, when they see your company listed as a possible supplier, they will remember who you are and what you do from your social media posts, photos, and other interactions. This will set you apart from your competitors.
Use Social Media To Humanize Your Brand
Social media can play an important role: they humanize a brand.
Make caring and kind comments about your line of business. Show that you have some specific causes you care about. This will give your potential buyers an idea about your values, behind the impersonal façade of a company.
Equally useful is for your employees to post on the company’s Facebook page, even if it is about mundane things like working, sharing a coffee or waiting for a meeting to start. It gives a rounded image of your business and shows your personnel during their day.
What’s Your Social Media Goal?
When it comes to social media, you should have a clearly defined goal: do you want to promote your brand? Are you interested in showing your after-sales services? Are you trying to get people to visit your website?
Keep in mind what your goal is to deliver the right message to the audience you are interested in attracting.
Remember that different social media have distinctive audiences. Therefore, your messages should be different across these platforms. You may want to promote a similar message to all channels. However, be careful about how you present it, depending on whether it is on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
Which Social Medium Is Best?
The answer to that common question is simple: the one that works for you.
Don’t over-expand. Do you have a whole team of social media experts, dispensing posts and responding to comments on all platforms? If not, it’s best to focus on a couple of social media that you feel comfortable with. Ideally, focus on those that best suit your business and where you expect to find the most suitable buyers.
Being able to use a social media tool in depth is a key marketing trend for 2020.
Being able to master a social media platform and get your message across in a professional and efficient way is the basis of your marketing strategy.
Personalize Your Message
For a while now, many have predicted the death of the email. They have been proven wrong time and again. Email is still one of the most economical and efficient ways of reaching your audience. This is especially the case if you use a marketing platform.
Marketing platforms like Hubspot have the tools to create a personalized message, tailored to your intended recipient.
Personalized messages are one of the key trends of 2020.
Marketing platforms have tracking methods that record visitors’ movement on your website and e-shop. Use them to improve your targeting by combining them with remarketing tools offered by Google Ads and Facebook. If a visitor abandons a shopping cart, the platform will send a message informing them and asking if there was something wrong. If a visitor downloads a pdf with particular information, the platform can follow their footprints and suggest more relevant information.
Notice that the emphasis is on the ‘personalized’ side of the information supply. Giving bundles of similar information to all your potential customers is increasingly inefficient.
What Should You Write About?
As to what kind of content your audience will appreciate, this largely depends on your kind of business. Obviously, your email marketing efforts should concentrate on what your buyers need: better service, excellent products, good prices, timely delivery, and ease of purchase.
However, never underestimate people’s reaction to an urgent offer or time-sensitive discount.
Clearly stating such offers on your email title will trigger people’s curiosity and will make them want to open your email. Again, targeting the right people with the right offer is the key to success.
Finally, make sure your emails are mobile-friendly. Mobile has been a trend for a while now, and it looks set to only grow in importance in 2020. If a potential buyer opens your email on their tablet or mobile and can’t read it, they will just delete it. This will create a bad impression that will be difficult to mitigate in the future.
Conclusion
To summarize, use the following trends in 2020 to maximize your gains from your B2B marketing efforts:
- Focus on the social medium that best serves your interests
- Tailor your message
- Use email to send timely offers and discounts
- Make sure your emails are mobile-friendly
Happy marketing!