The digital marketing space has revolutionized how we do business today. Just over a year ago, many businesses frowned upon digital marketing tactics, but today everyone has shifted online.
They are experimenting with different digital marketing strategies and exploring new technology to generate leads and drive sales.
How can your message be heard over all the noise?
We explore five evergreen digital strategies B2B digital marketing strategies to help keep your pipeline going and grow your books.
Influencer Marketing
Today’s corporate decision-maker is savvy and discerning, they don’t believe everything you say about your solutions. They will research, compare, and look for recommendations.
Who better to give these recommendations than an influencer? A person who understands their market and offers authentic insights into your offerings.
With research showing that up to 92% of people trust their peers’ opinions, influencer marketing is a potent and effective tool for driving sales.
It offers businesses the platform to engage with other brands, with the help of leaders already making waves in their industry.
Other benefits of using influencers include:
- Providing authentic professional credibility for your brand.
- Offering unique points of view that B2B buyers resonate with.
- Granting you access to larger networks and professional contacts, enlarging your reach.
So, how do you use influencer marketing to drive sales?
Start by creating buyer personas. It will give you an all-around idea of the people who can influence your target audience.
Where possible, go for an expert or leader who is already familiar with your offerings. Their experience can prove invaluable to your message and target audience.
Be realistic about timelines. Unlike B2Cs where decisions are made faster, you’re dealing with companies that may take time to approve purchases. Even where an influencer is involved.
Collaborate with the influencer. Having an influencer parrot your brand’s message will not work and potential customers just might see through it.
Allow your influencer to share their experience, insights, and expertise, and let this inform the content you put out.
Cold Calling
In an age of social selling, outbound email, and other digital techniques, cold calling is still a reliable way of driving sales. Here’s why.
People still answer and listen to calls from new salespeople as long as you offer value. Successful cold calling comes down to planning. If you put in the work, you’re more likely to win.
Here are some tips to help you along:
- Dig up information – know more than just the contact person’s name and designation. Look up their interests, values, and mutual connections. Research the company they work for, its size, and pain points. Consider how your offerings can help measurably solve these issues.
- Make the call about your listener – listen to your prospect and let them know that you’re available to help them achieve their goals.
- Use a call guide – Scripts don’t just sound robotic but also feel like you’re dumping a ton of information on your listener. Use a call guide instead to direct conversations.
- Use objections to your advantage – objections and rejections feel terrible but you can use them to refine your message. Listen carefully to what the prospects are saying and revise your calling techniques.
- Practice cold calling with a colleague – let them raise all kinds of objections from polite declines to downright rude ones. It will help build your resilience.
- Remember to follow up – cold prospects slip through cracks if they aren’t followed up. Follow them up with an email, voicemail, or text message.
Video Marketing
Video marketing is huge and an essential tool for B2B sales teams that want to drive sales digitally, irrespective of their industry.
Because people world over prefer video over written text.
You can adapt video into anything you need to drive your numbers from product demos to webinars, and customer reviews.
Here are practical ways to use video:
- Create product demo videos to help your potential leads to gain a better understanding of your offerings. It helps prove that the features you’re promoting work.
- Use video to share your brand story. It can connect you with customers that share your ideas and appreciate the work that has gone into building your business.
- Invest in tutorial videos to educate your audiences (prospective clients included) on how your products can help solve your problems.
- Post customer review videos for social proof and credibility. As mentioned earlier, prospects trust reviews from other users over your word.
- Consider reposting webinar or conference content to pull in and generate high-quality leads.
- Create case study videos where you delve deeper into how your solutions assisted past customers with specific problems.
- Use video to create awareness about upcoming promotions or seasonal offers.
Pay Per Click Ads
PPC advertising enables companies to showcase their offerings the moment a person submits keyword-relevant queries on Google or other search engines.
For B2B sellers, these ads allow them to target the exact audience they are looking for,
Examples of PPC ads include:
- Search ads: these text-based ads are extremely common and make their appearance at the top of search results. On Google, you can also find them at the bottom.
- Display ads: these ads use both photos and texts, making them visually appealing to prospects. The ads are showcased on websites affiliated with Google.
- Social Media ads: like search-based ads, social ads are very popular. They appear on social media feeds and connect businesses to social media users.
- Remarketing ads: they track past website visitors and re-market your business whenever these people come online. It’s an excellent way to keep you at the fore of their minds.
- Gmail sponsored ads: these ads reach your prospects in their inbox and can be seen at the top of the user’s mailbox.
- In-stream ads: with in-stream ads, you’re targeting YouTube viewers. The ads appear at the start of the video playback, or a couple of seconds/minutes in.
Be Purposeful About Your Content
Today’s discerning B2B buyer prefers self-guided searches. It gives them the freedom to compare different brands, prices, and solutions without external pressure.
They mostly reach out to sales reps when they are ready to move to the next stage.
Does your content consider your buyer’s journey?
Here are examples of content you can share with your prospects to help move them down the sales funnel to conversion
- Awareness stage: your leads are looking for solutions to their problems. Helpful content includes eBooks, research studies, white papers, and blog posts.
- Consideration stage: with the information they have found, the prospect is now considering options from different companies. Best food for thought content includes case studies and expert guides.
- Decision stage: The prospect has narrowed down their options and needs a “why should I choose you.” Share demos highlighting your unique value proposition, testimonials, and product reviews.
- Loyalty: The prospect is already your customer, but the journey is not over. They need information that will help maximize their purchase. Share how-to videos, product-focused articles, product updates, and loyalty programs.
As part of the loyalty stage, be sure to install the live chat feature on your site so the customer can receive prompt responses to their queries.
