If you’re ready to take your B2B marketing to the next level, it’s time to become more visible to the buyers you want to reach. And these buyers have evolved.

5 ways to stand out from the crowd with your B2B Marketing

Here are five ways to stand out from the crowd and achieve your marketing objectives. 

We’ve chosen to highlight these strategies based on current B2B Marketing trends and we’ve done our lot of research into what experts are saying. 

#1. Revisit your sales and marketing relationship

Gartner recently dove into the B2B Buyer Journey to try and understand it and map it out. Turns out their customer survey indicated that the B2B buying doesn’t play out in any kind of predictable, linear order. 

According to their research, this is what the B2B Buyer Journey looks like nowadays: 

This means that, while your sales reps used to be THE channel to your customers, they are now ONE of the CHANNELS that lead to your customers. 

The old model of marketing used to be in charge of attracting leads for the sales team and then handing them off is pretty much dead. Because customers don’t buy in a linear fashion, you could be  missing out on key moments to present additional insights to customers and prospects if you’re still using that business model.

It’s important to note that this research was done in 2019, pre-pandemic, and we all know how the pandemic accelerated the shift to digital for B2B buyers. 

Ergo, in today’s world, the process is no longer a hand-off from marketing to sales, but a parallel process where marketing continues to intervene even after the lead has been generated and handed off to sales.

It goes without saying that beyond the buyer journey, it’s also important to keep up with all the ins and outs of your particular industry, including what your competitors are doing, new products being launched or developed, and any industry updates.

#2. Content is King: Build content that your audience will devour

At the end of the day, your B2B company sells solutions, operational value, and measurable impact to other businesses, and the main goal is to help them grow bigger and make more money.

Your content needs to highlight and convey this very clearly, be it on your traditional marketing tools such as brochures and fact sheets, or through digital communications, website and social media. Otherwise you’re not standing out from the crowd.

Gartner research found that customers who perceived the information they received from suppliers to be helpful in advancing across their buying journey were 2.8 times more likely to experience a high degree of purchase ease, and three times more likely to buy a bigger deal with less regret.

#3. Digital is the way to go: Cater to your buyer’s journey with your digital ecosystem

Build an ecosystem that touches your audience at every stage of their journey and that includes ensuring your Website caters to that journey 

B2B buyers now rely heavily on supplier websites, across all their buying channels, and tend to rely most heavily on e-commerce - regardless of how complex and customized their purchase may be. 

According to Sana research, two-thirds of B2B buyers are spending more online now than pre-pandemic. On average, they have increased their online spend by 45%. And the percentage of products bought online has increased from 51% to 67%.

Did you know that According to a Gartner study, around 46% of B2B buyers use social media at the start of their buyer journey?

According to the Corporate Executive Board, 77% of B2B purchasers said that they would not even speak to a salesperson until they had done their own research. Data from B2B PRSense tells us that 80% of business decision-makers prefer to get company information from a series of articles versus an advertisement. 

If you still need convincing that digital is the way to go, give us a call! 

#4. Start measuring the results of your efforts

81% of marketers expect the majority of their decisions to be data-driven by 2022. Seventy-six percent say that’s already the case. (GARTNER).

If you’re not measuring your results, how do you know where to capture additional opportunities? 

The two broad categories of metrics that matter are brand metrics and revenue metrics. It is critical to understand how to use both to maximize your marketing results.

An example of a brand-oriented metric is social engagement, traffic to the website, and impressions generated by the brand. In broad terms, these metrics represent the top of the marketing funnel and indicate how many people are aware of your business and what portions are likely to become customers.

Revenue metrics measure how many of your target audience members are converting into customers. We often call it the conversion metric because it’s an important piece of the revenue-generating process - particularly if there is a longer sales process in place before leads are handed off to sales.

Setting up a dashboard that measures some key metrics (between 5 and 10 in general) will allow you to determine where the opportunities for additional revenues and brand awareness lie.

#5. Partner with B2B Marketing Experts

B2B Marketing teams are notoriously lean. This means that very often, they’re expected to wear many hats, which means they are often stretched too thin and your marketing is not optimized. 

Ideally, your B2B marketing would require at least a copywriter, graphic designer, on-page specialist, link building outreach specialist, PPC specialist, conversion optimization specialist and social media management specialist, on top of someone to cater to the needs of your sales team (brochures, information, documentation, promotional items, newsletter), etc.

If you add up the cost of all these additional headcounts, it definitely makes a lot more sense to partner with a B2B marketing agency that can provide you with all those specialists for less than the cost of one employee per month.

Here is an example of the type of marketing activities often delegated to B2B marketing agencies.

Final Thoughts

At Vibe Médias, we've been working in the B2B Marketing industry since the early 2000s, and we've handled marketing budgets in excess of $10M.

If you want to partner with experts who can bring you B2B Marketing to the next level and help you crush your goals, we're here for you.

To find out more about how we help professionals like you build a strong Marketing Strategy and Plan to attract and retain prospects and clients, schedule a call with us!