Member Article

How to ensure B2B marketing works

Huddersfield-based digital marketing agency Splitpixel was founded in 2008, and provides its services to B2B companies of all sizes.

Co-founder Charlie Herke says: “It’s easy to have a negative impression of B2B marketing – that it’s not as creative or attention-grabbing as in a B2C environment. But business decision makers are customers too, and they’re looking for something that helps them solve their problems.

“And due to the value of the contracts and number of people involved, there’s a much longer sales pipeline than with B2C.

“It can be a challenge, but it’s also exciting! There is much more of an opportunity to nurture contacts, and many ways in which you focus on improving the customer journey, by focussing on turning those contacts into strong leads more effectively.

“Developing an effective strategy is essential. For B2B companies, it’s less about the types of businesses you want to work with, and more about the people who actually work at those businesses. How are you going to attract their attention?

“One of the first steps we take is to develop our clients’ customer personas, by creating a profile of the ‘ideal contact’, who we can then create content for.

“Website copy shouldn’t just be about products and services though. Keeping up a regular blog presence – one that establishes you as a thought leader in your industry – is key for B2B. If you can solve one problem for your personas with a helpful blog for example, there’s a good chance they’ll come back to you for something else. Good blog content also expands the scope of your coverage in search engines too – it’s absolutely essential for SEO.

“But it goes beyond just website content. B2B marketing works across more channels than B2C – email is still a really strong platform for businesses to communicate. Banner advertising and AdWords open up even more opportunities to be seen. Social media presence is important – particularly LinkedIn, which is an incredibly powerful tool.

“Finally, the company’s full team needs to be educated – often the whole concept of inbound marketing is completely new to them. There’s nothing worse than putting a strategy in place, planning everything out, and handing it over only to see clients take it nowhere – so training and ongoing support is a key part of what we do.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Katie Mallinson .