Optimizing B2B marketing strategies can be among of the most difficult (and valuable) priorities for a CMO.

This challenge is due to various factors, but mainly because B2B content marketing strategies should be customized to specific industries, and because B2B marketing is always in a state of evolution. As new marketing tools become available for business owners, new techniques and strategies are tested and proven for higher levels of ROI.

We have narrowed down the top six B2B marketing strategies that are sure to deliver success for your business in 2023.

1. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing

PPC (or pay-per-click) marketing is somewhat self-explanatory. PPC marketing strategy describes the process of paying per click on ads that can be delivered across a variety of digital platforms, including social media (Facebook, LinkedIn), video sharing websites such as YouTube and TikTok, and of course, through search engines like Google. When executed correctly, PPC marketing can be one of the highest-ROI B2B digital marketing strategies.

PPC marketing can be deployed efficiently to generate demand from your existing audience. We recommend using PPC marketing to retarget current contacts as well. Yet PPC should only be used if you’ve identified that your product or service is in demand by your target market.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is a great, cost-effective way for a business to build awareness for its product or service. When used effectively, SEO helps to improve your audience size and fill the top of your marketing funnel.

SEO requires research to maximize its effectiveness. Try boosting your SEO by creating on-site content (including blogs, articles, videos, infographics, etc.), and by campaigning for off-site  backlinks and directory citations.

SEO typically doesn’t generate results immediately, especially in competitive markets. It takes time to secure high-quality backlinks as well as for Google to recognize your content, index it, and rank it..

3. Email Marketing

Email marketing uses emails to increase the awareness of your brand, or to drive goals for your company.  Even in today’s mobile, text-centric environment, email marketing remains one of the most efficient B2B digital marketing strategies.

Email marketing is extremely versatile: it can be used at any point in your marketing funnel. You can use e-mails to increase brand awareness, gain repeat business, or convert contacts into paying clients. The options are truly endless.

4. Customer Marketing

Customer marketing is designed to leverage the satisfaction of current customers through a variety of different methods. Referrals, references, loyalty and reward programs, and case studies are powerful strategies for enlisting current, delighted customers to help your customer base, close ratio, average order size, average order frequency, and more.

The best methods of deploying customer marketing strategies create new ways to offer value to your current base of customers and to get them to help you sell to new customers.

5. ABM – Account-Based Marketing

Some of the best B2B marketing strategy examples include account-based marketing (ABM). Tailoring your marketing campaigns based on each client’s specific needs is a great way to help you convert at higher rates and to provide value unique to key clients’ challenges.

ABM is best suited for businesses that have longer selling cycles, higher order sizes, and complex decision making processes. ABM is an extremely useful strategy when selling high-value solutions to enterprise accounts. With ABM, you are treating accounts like small markets, providing marketing messages, offers, and added value to each company directly.

ABM doesn’t work without the full cooperation of the sales team, so total sales/marketing collaboration is critical. ABM requires unique messaging and special value propositions. No one understands this need more than the sales teams.

6. Utilize User-Generated Content(UGC)

One trend that has emerged in recent years is user-generated content or UGC. User-generated content is content that is either created or appears to be created by the users of your product or service. UGC is a major driver in the success of many B2B content marketing strategies.

UGC resonates with audiences because it appears to be more genuine than traditional ad content and that typically leads to more conversions and value for your ideal customer profile. UGC can be used in any part of the marketing funnel, but it’s perhaps most effective at the top of the funnel. Additionally, UGC can be used internally for feedback from your clients, which can help to improve your marketing approach overall. UGC is also very cost-effective, making it a great tool to use in your marketing toolbelt.

2023 promises to be year of transformation, new opportunities, and economic uncertainty for B2B marketers. To get ahead and maximize your marketing funnel, consider researching and investing in these six B2B marketing strategies.

65% of the average company’s revenue comes from current customers. Yet most companies don’t have structured customer referral or reference programs. This is a miss.

This summer, my wife and I bought a new house. Nice buying experience with our real estate agent. This week (5 months later), the agent called to say hi. She had a fresh-baked pie she wanted to deliver to our home to show her thanks. By the way, could she video the event of bringing the pie to our front door? With our permission, could she share the video on her social channels? Sure, why not, we said. Happy to help.

Three things happened here:

1. She reconnected with us. (A reminder of our positive experience/relationship. Maybe a trigger to refer to her if we know someone in the market).
2. She gave us a gift to show her gratitude. (Very thoughtful).
3. She shot and posted a public video of us happily receiving the gift. (Viewers of this video can see that she creates lasting relationships with her customers).

Total investment in this simple appreciation initiative for each of her customers? Maybe $20 and an hour each? Immediate ROI: unknown. Longer-term ROI: no-brainer.

Does your company actively encourage customer references and referrals? If not, why not? Too Expensive?

Read our article Do you know your Customer Lifetime Value?

Identifying Competitors

Who are your brand’s top 5 direct and indirect competitors? Can you compare their strengths & weaknesses to yours? How do your products compare on price, quality, service, and total brand experience? What potential future competitors may emerge?

Take an objective, detailed assessment of the market’s leaders and challengers. Then, validate your unique selling proposition (USP) compared to competing brands.

Competitive analysis can inform/inspire you to develop or improve your brand’s offerings. You’ll not only learn how to compete, but you may identify applications and segments that competitors aren’t.

Developing your strategy

Identifying exactly what makes you unique should be the driving factor of your marketing strategy. Without doing your due diligence and researching your market and competing brands, other marketing efforts could be completely wasted. You can create/adjust your strategic investments and prepare for changes. You’ll better understand your current risks and establish critical factors for success in the future. This process could even open your eyes to potential issues you didn’t notice before.

“How should I start?”

To start informally and with little cost, search for your product category (and your city or “near me”). What competitors are displayed? Visit their websites and social media, list their product features/benefits, and compare them to yours. Then, ask your customers why they buy from you and ask non-customers why they don’t. One main factor could be as simple as your competitors ranking higher on Google than you. Every business in your market is constantly competing for relevant keywords. That could be one reason customers choose one over the other.

Read more on SEO and ranking on Google here

Be objective and self-honest about your findings. There is no benefit in lying to yourself. The more you can accept your uniqueness, the better off you’ll be. You can’t be the best at everything so prioritize what you’re best at. Overall, just make sure you always learn and improve.

For even more information on finding your main competitors: Click here

Definition

“What is the definition of marketing?” someone asked in a group. Several people gave different answers that were unclear. Then, I web-searched it and also found different definitions…The top results were wrong (IMO). Several were focused on selling or advertising (“getting potential customers interested in your products.”) Looking at the bigger scope of things, this perspective is grossly incomplete.

To me, marketing is a combination of:

Understanding your market (via research or experience)

Creating value (innovating or iterating with something better)

Educating someone (who may appreciate that value)

Connecting with them (messaging)

Earning their trust (credibility, proof, reputation)

Fulfilling their expectations (great customer experiences)

There’s no particular order here, but it’s logical that *understanding and *creating value come first and are connected to everything else in the chain.

You can read more about how we develop a Marketing Strategy here

The Key is to INSPIRE

If all those things happen, there MAY be an opportunity to inspire action (maybe “get them to buy.”) With that said, marketing is not selling, just as selling is not marketing. Selling can be as simple as offering a random product to a random person and hoping to create a sale. But, marketing on the other hand, has more to it than that and we wouldn’t want to confuse the two.

When I was at HP, our marketing team worked closely with R&D to develop future products that wouldn’t hit the market for years to come. We had to understand the market first and then design a new product that would offer real and differentiating value. That is the pre-beginning of the product lifecycle.

Where do people get it wrong?

“Marketing” often gets a bad rap. It can get too unfairly associated with activities that some people dislike (teleMARKETERS, pyramid MARKETING schemes, ‘junk’ mail, infomercials, etc.).

Overall, Marketing covers everything from pre-development R&D to staffing to internal cost controls to shipping to post-sale customer service. It’s everything that goes into delivering customers value and fulfilling the brand promise.

In fact, I simplify the definition of Marketing to: “Introducing and delivering something of value to people who appreciate it.”

Suppliers that do that better than their competitors get the win – and so do their customers. That’s the hidden beauty of great #marketing.

If you want to read more about marketing vs. selling. Click here

Every strategy is unique

What digital marketing strategy is best for your business? As with many “make or buy” business decisions, there are trade-offs between time, money, and quality that will affect your ROI and opportunity costs.

And just like building a house, there’s not just one “best way” to build new customer demand for your brand. A lot depends on your urgency, your patience, and your willingness/ability to invest, test, and scale.

Your options

The chart below is overly simplified, but it provides a directional overview of some basic options for digital marketing investment. All of these options presume that your website is optimized first and that your business is prepared to manage growth in demand.

The rabbit and turtle icons suggest the comparative timeline needed to achieve results. The dollar signs loosely suggest the comparative investment levels, not the potential ROI. The ROI of course depends on how much time you are willing to commit to your strategy.

PPC advertising

Well-targeted PPC advertising with the right message to your target audience can make your phone ring in the next 48 hours. There is a significant cost involved, but we help you work the funnel math and optimize your conversion rate for maximum ROI. When working with a PPC marketing strategy, there must be very clear goals.

Targeted advertising can be super effective in driving sales and getting one-time purchases, but actual customer acquisition and brand recognition come from the other forms of marketing you have. The main downside of PPC is that once you stop paying, your results stop as well. There is no way to organically (for free) build a community or drive sales with a strategy like this. With that said, it becomes even more important to discuss your main objectives and choose the right mix of strategies.

SEO

SEO drives 10x more traffic than social media and has lower customer acquisition costs than PPC ads over time. The key is “over time.” When properly executed, it can grow and sustain your exposure to many more people who are actively in the market for your services.

Although there may not be immediate results within a day or a week, when you commit to a long-term SEO digital marketing strategy, the results prove to be far more beneficial than other methods. Over time, your business can work its way up the Google rankings and be found by more customers than any other organic method could produce.

Check out more information we have about SEO: Click HERE

Overall

Finally, it’s not “either-or.” The best ROI can come from a multi-touch strategy. Not everyone researches, discovers, or buys in the same way. A blended approach can help your brand reach and nurture your future customers at multiple points along their buying journey.

Keep learning.  There’s a lot more to learn about B2B marketing trends in 2023.

The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing

Marketing is not always about trying to sell something, building and maintaining a strong customer relationship is even more important in the long run. When the customers have an excellent first experience with you, they are more likely to remember your brand and genuinely care for your business.

A Story

A friend of mine recently had day surgery, then went home. The next day he got a handwritten thank you/get well card signed by all the clinic’s staff. Although it was such a simple gesture, it had an unusually personal touch.

Another friend received a plant at her home a few months after he bought his house. “Hope you are enjoying your new home!” the handwritten note read, signed by his realtor.

No coupons, no upselling offers, no “we appreciate your referrals.”

Just gratitude, thoughtfulness, and a genuine human connection. These are fundamentals of delivering a brand promise and building strong customer relationships. Exceeding expectations, giving before asking, being consistent, and being genuine.

Once a brand has mastered these traits and cultivated a delightful brand experience for its customers, only then is it ready to spend money on advertising and demand generation.

Read more about the concept of Brand Positioning: Click here

You can’t fake authenticity

Some businesses implement CRM (customer relationship management) strategies selfishly. They only engage their customers directly in hopes to reel them back in the future and make more money off of them. Any attempts to give your customers an authentic human connection should come from a place of gratitude. Each and every customer is a catalyst that is helping your business grow, so it is only fair that they feel appreciated for giving you their business. You can always sell to someone once, take their money, and be happy with that; but the brands that actually care about their customer relationships will be the ones who continuously grow over time.

For more info on Customer Relationship Management, read this article: Click here