B2B Marketing: The Beginner’s Guide

At Ahrefs, we merchantability SEO tools. These tools are mostly utilized by different businesses. So, successful bid to scope them, we prosecute successful B2B marketing.

In this guide, you’ll larn however to make a B2B selling strategy and what tactics you should use. We’ll besides look astatine immoderate palmy B2B selling examples.

But first, immoderate fundamentals:

• What B2B selling is
• B2B vs. B2C marketing
• Create a B2B selling strategy
• B2B selling tactics
• B2B selling examples

B2B selling (short for business-to-business marketing) is the process of promoting products oregon services to different concern oregon organization.

B2C marketing is abbreviated for business-to-consumer selling and is the process of promoting products oregon services to individuals (who are buying things for their idiosyncratic use).

Examples see buying apparel from Uniqlo, an iPhone from the Apple store, oregon a car for your idiosyncratic use.

While B2B and B2C selling look similar opposites, they’re not mutually exclusive. Many businesses merchantability to different businesses and consumers. For example, a section bakery whitethorn merchantability baked goods to walk-in customers and besides supply canapes for concern events. Such businesses volition person to bash some types of marketing.

However, don’t fto the word “B2B marketing” mislead you. Ultimately, a concern is made up of people. So B2B selling inactive involves selling and selling to people.

The main quality is B2C selling involves 1 decision-maker, i.e., 1 user makes the decision. But B2B selling usually involves much decision-makers (e.g., the team, caput of department, CEO, etc.). This means much time, education, and discussions are needed earlier immoderate acquisition determination is made.

Understanding this is important to knowing B2B marketing.

Search for B2B selling connected Google, and you’ll find lists of “strategies” you tin use. But those are not strategies. They’re tactics.

You can’t propulsion each B2B selling maneuver connected the partition and anticipation 1 sticks. It’s inefficient and a discarded of clip and resources. Instead, you archetypal request a strategy—this volition find the tactics you’ll use.

Here’s however to make a B2B selling strategy.

1. Decide connected the customers you’ll target

To take your people customers, inquire yourself these six questions:

• Does your merchandise align with what the conception wants?
• Does it bring you the astir worth if you summation your marketplace share there?
• Do you person the income and selling resources to summation your marketplace share there?
• How hard is it going to beryllium to summation your marketplace share there?
• Does this conception power immoderate different segments? If so, how?
• What are the trade-offs if you displacement your absorption to caller segments?

Your perfect people segments are those wherever you tin marque the astir money, fixed the resources available.

Remember besides that successful B2B marketing, the customers who are utilizing your merchandise oregon work may not be the ones purchasing it. For example, SEOs whitethorn beryllium utilizing our toolset, but the last decision-maker whitethorn beryllium the caput of selling oregon adjacent the CFO.

Make definite you’ve done your market research to fig retired however the buying process works successful your people segment’s industry.

Recommended reading: How to Create a Marketing Strategy successful 5 Steps (With Examples)

2. Position your merchandise oregon service

According to positioning advisor April Dunford, positioning is “the enactment of deliberately defining however you are the champion astatine thing that a defined marketplace cares a batch about.”

With bully positioning, customers tin easy recognize what your product/service is, wherefore it’s special, and wherefore it matters to them. This is important due to the fact that customers are ever evaluating you. Neglect to specify this clearly, and customers volition invent a position—often 1 that is non-ideal oregon misrepresents your product/service and brand.

Plus, a bully presumption differentiates you from your competitors. In immoderate cases, it whitethorn adjacent power however the people marketplace perceives them.

So however bash you presumption your merchandise oregon service? The champion mode is to use the step-by-step model from April’s book, “Obviously Awesome.”

Here’s a tl;dr. You should:

• Understand who your champion customers are (step one!).
• Form a positioning squad and align your positioning vocabulary crossed teams/departments.
• List your competitory alternatives.
• Figure retired the attributes and features that marque your product/service unique.
• Figure retired the existent worth of these attributes and features. What bash they bash for your customers?
• Find a people marketplace that cares astir astir your unsocial worth proposition.
• Capture your positioning successful an evergreen papers that tin beryllium shared crossed all teams.

Also, if you’re targeting aggregate lawsuit segments, marque definite you make a antithetic presumption for each of them. For example, our escaped tool, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, is targeted astatine website owners, and our transcript reflects that:

Whereas Site Audit is targeted astatine seasoned SEOs and marketers. Thus, the presumption and transcript alteration as well:

3. Set strategical objectives for the year ahead

For your strategy to work, you request to cognize wherever to go. Those are your objectives. Set 1 oregon 2 for each of your people segments and align them with the SMART criteria:

• Specific – Clearly authorities the desirable outcome, answering the who, what, when, however much, etc
• Measurable – Must beryllium capable to way advancement with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Achievable – Be bold with your goals, but besides realistic; usage existent maturation arsenic a benchmark
• Relevant – Ensure each nonsubjective aligns with your wide selling and concern strategy
• Timely – Set up a clip framework for achieving the goal

For example, a imaginable selling nonsubjective for our blog could be:

Recommended reading: Marketing Objectives: How to Set Them Right (With Examples)

4. Decide connected the tactics you privation to use

It is lone astatine this constituent you tin statesman considering what kinds of tactics you privation to use. But you’re not choosing them astatine random. You’re choosing them based connected the strategy you’ve created above.

The mode I deliberation astir this is by utilizing this mental model from David Fallarme, selling manager of On Deck:

Basically, you request to usage the close hunting tools to hunt the close animals.

From measurement one, you should already cognize what benignant of customers you’re going after. They’re typically either:

• Elephants – Worth hundreds of thousands of dollars per year
• Antelopes – Worth tens of thousands of dollars per year
• Rabbits – Worth thousands of dollars per year
• Mice – Worth hundreds of dollars per year
• Flies – Worth a fewer dollars per year

From here, you tin determine what benignant of hunting tools you need. There are 3 main types:

• Spears – Require tons of nonstop quality accomplishment and involvement, similar income and concern development. For businesses that people endeavor customers.
• Nets – Pull successful a ample fig of imaginable targets astatine once, similar contented marketing. For businesses that people tiny businesses.
• Seeds – You works the seeds with your merchandise oregon service, and the lawsuit basal grows connected its own. Examples are connection of rima and virality. For businesses that people tiny businesses oregon consumers.

For example, astatine Ahrefs, our people lawsuit basal is worthy astir $1K-$10K. This is the crushed wherefore contented selling is our main B2B selling strategy. It works truthful good due to the fact that it is the close instrumentality for the close animal.

But that’s not all. The tactics you usage should lucifer however your people customers devour information. For example, don’t make podcasts if nary 1 successful your manufacture listens to them.

Finally, your tactics should determination you person to your goal. For example, if your extremity is to get much integrated traffic, past email selling whitethorn not beryllium a bully tactic.

Here are immoderate fashionable B2B selling tactics worthy considering—many of which we proceed to usage astatine Ahrefs.

1. SEO-driven contented marketing

This is the superior maneuver we usage astatine Ahrefs. Simply speaking, we make contented astir topics that our people customers are searching for.

Here’s however we find these topics:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer
2. Enter a keyword related to our manufacture (e.g., “SEO,” “marketing”)
3. Go to the Matching terms report
4. Toggle the Questions tab

Here, we spot tons of keyword ideas and their estimated Traffic Potential. We’ll enactment down those keywords applicable to us.

Then, we’ll make contented designed to fertile for those keywords. Here’s the model we use:

2. Email marketing

The premise of email selling is simple: cod the interaction accusation of imaginable customers and email them your branded messages.

First, let’s cod the interaction accusation of your people customers. At Ahrefs, we support it elemental with a “subscribe” box:

You tin besides connection a “carrot” successful speech for subscribing. Typically, B2B companies similar to connection escaped eBooks, achromatic papers, templates, oregon courses:

Next, the email. Once again, we support it elemental by emailing our subscribers a play digest of what we’ve published and what we’re presently reading:

But the world’s your oyster. Experiment and spot what makes consciousness for some your concern and your customers. For example, the selling agency, Demand Curve, sends a monthly “growth tactics” newsletter.

However, it besides occasionally sends emails that beforehand its programs and services:

3. Account-based marketing

Account-based selling (ABM) is simply a benignant of B2B selling that focuses connected aligning selling and income to scope circumstantial people accounts.

ABM considers people accounts arsenic markets-of-one and emphasizes the prime of accounts implicit the fig of leads.

Read our beginner’s usher beneath to larn however to execute ABM for your business.

Recommended reading: The Beginner’s Guide to Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

4. Digital advertising

Digital advertizing is casual to understand: wage a platform (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) and thrust postulation from that level to your site. It is direct, measurable, and scalable. You tin usage it for immoderate selling campaign: lead generation, contented promotion, and more.

At Ahrefs, we usage paid ads chiefly to beforehand our content. Since we beforehand our merchandise successful each portion of contented we produce, each nonfiction acts arsenic an “educational sales page.”

Driving paid eyeballs to our contented means we get to amended our imaginable customers portion showing them however our merchandise fits into their selling strategy.

Recommended reading: PPC Marketing: Beginner’s Guide to Pay-Per-Click Ads

5. Public relations (PR)

In June 2021, we were featured connected Tech In Asia:

By appearing connected notable and authoritative publications, you tin amended your marque awareness, physique credibility, earn backlinks, thrust referral traffic, and prosecute your people audience.

The easiest mode to statesman getting PR is by utilizing HARO. HARO is simply a escaped work that connects journalists with manufacture experts. Subscribe and you’ll person emails with inquiries from journalists and bloggers.

Here are immoderate tips from my colleague, Michal Pecánek, to assistance boost your chances of getting a diagnostic from them:

• Check the work – You should debar those that aren’t authoritative.
• Be picky – You should lone respond to requests wherever you tin genuinely supply large information.
• Respond arsenic accelerated arsenic imaginable – Many radical are monitoring the aforesaid niche arsenic you, truthful respond arsenic rapidly arsenic you can.
• Get assistance – Don’t hesitate to bring colleagues connected committee if they’re much qualified to answer.
• Stick to the publication – Don’t deviate from the format the writer is requesting.

Recommended reading: 9 Great Public Relations Tactics With Campaign Examples

6. Events and trade shows

Nothing beats a handshake and a face-to-face meeting. As such, events tin beryllium a productive marketing channel, particularly if you’re selling to larger accounts.

For example, Ogilvy Consulting hosts NudgeStock, an yearly behavioral subject conference. This attracts executives from each astir the satellite funny successful utilizing behavioral subject to lick problems, which is precisely what Ogilvy Consulting does.

Though organizing events tin springiness your marque a immense boost, you don’t needfully person to bash that. Participating successful events is worthwhile too. Even better: If you person the required expertise, you tin look arsenic an adept connected a sheet oregon arsenic a speaker.

As the existent planetary concern makes it hard to conscionable successful person, virtual events enactment too. For example, NudgeStock went virtual for its 2021 conference. SaaS institution Drift besides created a virtual summit:

7. Social media

Social media whitethorn look retired of spot for B2B marketing, but don’t hide that business-to-business selling is yet inactive people-to-people marketing. No substance the decision-maker’s rubric oregon position, they inactive usage societal media connected a regular basis.

However, don’t unreserved into the latest societal web conscionable due to the fact that it’s presently hot. Focus connected the platforms wherever your customers are—you should cognize this from your strategy.

For example, astir SEOs are progressive connected Twitter and LinkedIn, which is wherefore those are the platforms we’re astir progressive on.

Here are immoderate examples of palmy B2B marketing.

1. HubSpot – inbound marketing

HubSpot’s selling attack is simple:

• Create contented that ranks for keywords its people customers are searching for
• Offer contented upgrades to promote email sign-ups
• Get income teams to interaction these leads (this depends connected antithetic touchpoints)

Today, HubSpot’s blog generates an estimated 7.7M monthly integrated hunt visits:

Coining this strategy “inbound marketing,” HubSpot has grown into the behemoth it is today. Many B2B companies person since adopted a similar approach.

2. MeetEdgar – podcast appearances

MeetEdgar is simply a societal media automation instrumentality founded successful 2014. In 2019, it shared that it had crossed $2M successful ARR.

Its main strategy is podcast appearances. The founder, Laura Roeder, knows her people audience—entrepreneurs and marketers—listens to podcasts. So by appearing connected related podcasts, she tin beforehand her institution and get links from these sites.

In total, Laura appeared connected an estimated 100 podcasts. This strategy, according to ex-employee Jen Carvey, has grown MeetEdgar to 1.25M website visitors and 100K email subscribers.

3. Snowflake – SEO and ABM

Snowflake is simply a unreality computing-based information warehousing company. With an ARR of $600M and an oversubscribed IPO, its occurrence stems from its selling strategy.

First and foremost, Snowflake took the clip to fig retired a unsocial positioning strategy to basal retired from its competitors. Its positioning—“The Data Warehouse Built for the Cloud”—took the institution from $0 to $100M.

As you tin see, your selling strategy and positioning matter.

Since its main customers are endeavor accounts, Snowflake chose ABM arsenic its main selling tactic. By aligning its income and selling teams, it creates targeted pieces of contented that usher its endeavor prospects down the buyers’ journey.

Recommended reading: The SEO & ABM Blueprint for Snowflake’s MASSIVE IPO

Final thoughts

B2B selling isn’t astir executing arsenic galore tactics arsenic possible. It’s astir creating a strategy and past lone executing tactics that determination the concern forward.

But carnivore successful caput that it doesn’t mean you’re constricted to conscionable 1 selling channel. You tin usage arsenic galore tactics arsenic required, arsenic agelong arsenic they acceptable your strategy.

Did I miss retired connected thing important astir B2B marketing? Let maine cognize on Twitter.