How to Create a B2B Marketing Strategy
A strong B2B marketing strategy is one of the fundamental ingredients for success in today’s highly crowded global marketplace. With digital content and properties capturing an increasingly larger share of B2B decision-makers’ attention, it’s critical for your brand to develop a B2B marketing strategy that addresses both traditional and emerging promotional opportunities.
But creating a B2B marketing strategy is easier said than done. Walker Sands specializes in helping growing firms design and execute a B2B marketing strategy that engages key audiences and significantly improves your brand’s credibility with prospective buyers. In our experience, there are several components that nearly every successful B2B marketing strategy has in common.
Developing an Effective B2B Marketing Strategy
When developing a B2B marketing strategy, it’s important to understand that there is no such thing as a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Marketing plans and tactics that are effective for one brand may not pack the same punch for the next—sometimes even if the two companies are direct competitors.
Instead, your B2B marketing strategy needs to be tailored to your organizations unique goals as well as the needs of the company’s that comprise your customer base. With that in mind, here are few elements that you will need to address as you create a B2B marketing strategy for your brand.
- Brand Messaging. You can’t broadcast your brand message to the world until you know it yourself—that’s just common sense. So for many B2B firms, the first step toward developing a B2B marketing strategy is to identify and clarify key messages based on brand priorities and the needs of your customers. After you have identified the most important brand messages, you can begin to develop strategies to align them with various audiences and distribute them via various online and offline channels.
- Competitive Analysis. Simply duplicating your competitors’ strategies won’t cut it. However, it is valuable to understand which marketing tactics and strategies are connecting with customers in your industry. By gaining insight into the most effective initiatives in your corner of the marketplace, you can significantly improve the impact of your organization’s B2B marketing strategy.
- Digital Strategy. Most B2B companies leverage a variety of digital tactics (e.g. company website, PPC campaigns, etc.). But to achieve digital advantage, B2B firms need to move from a tactical, siloed approach to a strategic approach—developing a coordinated digital strategy that dovetails with organization’s comprehensive B2B marketing strategy.
- Measurement & Analysis. Constant improvement should be a hallmark of your B2B marketing strategy. Measurement and analytics provide visibility to marketing performance and highlight critical gaps in your marketing program, enabling you to more accurately align your B2B marketing strategy with industry benchmarks and the demands of the marketplace.
Your B2B Marketing Strategy: Getting Started
For most brands, developing and implementing a successful B2B marketing strategy isn’t something that can be performed in-house. Your company’s marketing team has enough on its plate and by outsourcing strategy to an experienced B2B marketing firm, you gain the advantage of specialists with broad industry experience.
Walker Sands is uniquely positioned to help B2B technology brands leverage marketing strategy for bottom line business results. As an industry leader in PR, marketing and digital, we have the resources and expertise to help you create and implement the B2B marketing strategy that is right for your brand.