What is B2B marketing, and how can a digital marketing agency help you?

Content 23 Feb 2024

B2B marketing has a notorious reputation for being complex in the challenges it presents. Success typically hinges on accurately identifying your target audience and positioning your campaigns in the right places at the right time. This is where a B2B marketing agency can step in.

Marketing agencies are teams of experts who know how to reach your target audience using an array of platforms. You might not have this expertise in your team, and it could be tripping you up when it comes to achieving your goals, whether that’s increased profits, business growth or brand awareness. B2B agencies work with you to create marketing solutions with your short and long-term goals in mind. 

B2B marketing tends to have a more complicated, longer purchasing journey and often a higher price point. This article explains b2b marketing and how a b2b marketing agency can help you achieve your goals. 
 

What is B2B marketing?

B2B (business to business) is a business model where businesses sell their products or services to other companies. Unlike a b2c (business to consumer) business model, b2b marketing is typically focused on conversation and long-term goals rather than a quick or direct purchase.

Both business models use their respective strategies to determine how they communicate with their audiences. However, their priorities and target audiences have contrasting objectives and goals.
 

B2B vs B2C marketing

B2B marketing targets the needs, interests and challenges of organisations. It typically connects and builds relationships with the employees within the company who are responsible for purchasing. Depending on the business size, there might be just one individual making the purchasing decision, or it could be a collective. Essentially, this makes the business itself the customer.

B2C marketing focuses on the desires, concerns, and difficulties of individuals. The customer usually buys things for themselves, which makes them the customer. 
 

How do you connect with B2B customers?

Companies focus on ROIs (return on investments), efficiency and expertise when they are looking to purchase a product or service. They are typically driven by logic and financial incentives instead of emotional purchases or feelings of satisfaction.

The first step for a prospective client is educating them on your product or service and how it will solve their problem effectively. This is where B2B content marketing comes in; more on that later! 

A B2B sales cycle generally involves communication between the client and a sales representative or account manager instead of a direct purchase. This is due to the layered and complicated nature of most B2B business products or services and the longer chain of contact to build better relationships with companies before purchasing.
 

B2B marketing 101

Although similar to B2C marketing, the techniques and goals behind B2B marketing are very different.

You will need to create a well-rounded strategy focused on your business goals. A good B2B content marketing agency will collect data from the techniques listed below. We then use this data to make educated marketing decisions.
 

Understand the B2B buying journey

Due to the sometimes layered nature of B2B products and services and the higher price point, B2B sales cycles tend to be longer. 

Regardless of your strategy or progress, your marketing efforts should focus on leading a prospective client to a purchasing decision. Typically, this is where a digital marketing agency can help relieve time pressure and help you achieve your goals quickly and efficiently. 

The B2B buyer’s journey is broken down into three parts.

• Awareness Stage - The company has a problem and designates a staff member to begin educating themselves on the issue. E.g. a business looking to market itself. They might search for something like -‘how to market my business online'.

• Consideration Stage - The member of staff starts researching solutions for their problem. E.g. searches like ‘How to do b2b marketing’ or ‘What do b2b marketing agencies do?’. They will then shortlist and consider different solutions.

• Decision Stage - The prospective client concludes they are actively looking to make a purchase or formally begin a buying process. E.g. ‘local b2b marketing agencies' 

To get a better understanding of your customer's B2B buyer’s journey, we recommend a customer journey map. 

Customer journey mapping is a visual representation of a company’s customer experience. They are a compilation of customer experiences as they interact with a business and companies on a visual map, showing the flow of communication and actions until the point of purchase.
 

Identifying target markets and customers

When building a B2B marketing plan, you’ll learn all you can about your target market and the audience.

The first step to identifying who your target market is is finding the decision-makers in companies that fit your customer profile. This is done by creating customer personas.

You can generate customer personas by combining data on previous customers to create a persona of a prospective customer. You can use these profiles to help you understand and predict what your customers want and how to be best reached. These profiles allow you to step into the shoes of your customers to understand them better.

When defining your target audience, it is important to remember you are marketing to a person working for a company, not the company. There is still a human element. Customer profiles are an excellent way to learn how a prospective client might conduct research and make purchase decisions. 

The four Ps of marketing

The four Ps of marketing are the building blocks for creating engaging marketing content. We marry the four Ps together and use them as critical factors for developing B2B marketing content strategies. These factors will be used in content creation, promoting, advertising, b2b branding and positioning your product or brand.

The four Ps of marketing are product, price, place, and promotion. 

• Product - What product or service you are selling
• Price - How much does it cost
• Place - Where is the product or service going to be sold
• Promotion - Where and how will customers find out about your product or service

The four Ps help marketers consider everything related to a product or service. This feeds into the decisions on marketing your business, product or service. Whilst analysing the four Ps, there is the opportunity to learn what your competition is doing and what customers want from you. B2B content marketing agencies will create your digital marketing content around the four Ps and information collected.

Are you looking to create unique content with a personal touch and expert attention? Contact us today.