8 Myths About Digital Marketing for B2B Companies
Leveraging digital marketing is critical to the success of your B2B company. When researching for digital marketing advice, however, you will often encounter an overwhelming number of choices. As with most recommendations, you’ll have to decide whether or not you should follow the advice. To help you make the decision, we’re providing 8 myths about digital marketing for B2B companies that you can ignore today.
#1: If you aren’t on every social media platform, you’re doing it wrong.
The key for successful social media marketing is to focus your energy where your audience spends their time. If your target audience mainly uses Twitter, then investing in posting on Instagram or Snapchat won’t help you achieve your goals. As with most marketing tactics, you should define the goals you want social media to achieve before you start implementing. Once you have the goals, you’ll know where to spend your time and how to measure success.
#2: B2B buyers aren’t on social media.
If you fall for this myth, you’ll miss out on many opportunities to connect with key decision-makers at your target companies. The truth is, B2B buyers are on social media. According to a 2015 study from the International Data Corporation, “75% of business-to-business B2B buyers and 84% of C-level/vice president executives use social media to support purchase decisions”. Because so many buyers are on social media, finding the right platform for your audience and creating content that speaks directly to them will raise awareness of your business and, ultimately, drive new leads to your business.
#3: B2B companies grow through relationships, not digital marketing.
Most B2B companies have a sales team focused on contacting buyers at target accounts with cold outreach, networking at events, and referrals. While this strategy is extremely important for many businesses, leveraging digital marketing will make your sales team’s job significantly easier. Many B2B companies find great value in their digital marketing, and according to Nurture, “81% of businesses reported their blog as being critical to B2B lead generation.” With today’s technologies, you are able to track your digital marketing efforts and engagement in real time and share these insights with your sales team. For example, if you see that a particular target account reviewed three of your content pieces in the past week, this would trigger your sales team to content them and provide insight for the topics to discuss.
#4: B2B companies buy based on logic and any digital marketing should highlight why we’re the logical choice.
It’s true, B2B companies have longer buying cycles and they tend to have checklists for determining what solution is the best choice, but at the end of the day, the evaluation committee is made up of people. As B2B Marketing states, “around 90% of purchasing decisions are made subconsciously, based on emotion rather than logic. Furthermore, business professionals are around 50% more likely to buy a product or service that demonstrates personal value through emotional appeals.” By tapping into emotions, you can better connect with your B2B buyers.
Creating digital marketing (or any marketing) that speaks to benefits, the problems you solve, and how life will be better with you connects with the buyers on a personal level. This approach can spark hope and inspiration for the endless possibilities in choosing you. This is an emotional appeal, not logical. Many companies will create a logical reason for why the most inspiring company is the best choice. Use this to your advantage in marketing and create content that resonates with the buyer at each stage of the buyer’s journey.
#5: Paid digital advertising only works for B2C companies.
Paid digital advertising is a key tool in the B2B marketer’s toolbox. Digital advertising allows you to more directly target your key buyers where they spend most of their time--online. From paid search advertising to display ads to social media, there are plenty of digital advertising options that produce real results for B2B companies. These advertising methods can achieve real results: according to Hubspot, 65% of B2B companies have acquired a customer through LinkedIn paid ads, which is just one source. As with most marketing campaigns, it is important to set defined goals and measures of success before you begin advertising or you risk spending your budget too fast.
#6: Email marketing is only helpful for promoting events.
Even though 87% of B2B marketers say email is one of their top free organic distribution channels, many B2B companies use email marketing solely to promote events or webinars. While this is crucial and effective, you can use your email list for so much more. Leverage your marketing technologies to identify where subscribers are in the buyer’s journey, and create targeted content that can help them at that particular stage. Always narrow down your list to speak directly to that audience for best results. Monitor engagement and revise your approach as needed for best results.
#7: If all of our customers wouldn’t find content interesting, then we shouldn’t create it.
It’s easy to think that because someone bought from you, they must have done so for the exact same reason as other customers. Instead, remember that different organizations have different challenges, and create content that speaks directly to those unique challenges. Unless you offer a very specific solution to a very small group of companies, you probably work with several different types of clients. Identify groups, define their challenges, and create targeted content that appeals directly to them. If you’re writing for everyone, no one cares.
#8: Effective content marketing should always promote our services.
Sometimes your best content won’t even mention what you do. It is critical to establish trust with buyers, and many readers find constant promotions annoying. Instead, create content that is educational and helpful, and only promote your company in content when you know that they are interested in buying. This allows you to nurture your leads and promote at the right time.
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