10 Essential B2B Marketing Services to Grow Your Manufacturing Company

January 25, 2021

Traditionally, when one thinks of B2B marketing strategies, outbound and direct tactics usually come to mind, reaching out directly to buyers or potential clients. However, nowadays, there are plenty more tools and tactics you can use to really expand your reach and boost those returns. That’s where the wide range of B2B marketing services comes into play. In addition to relying on traditional direct and outbound techniques, things like having a niche-driven strategy and an optimized website will truly pay off in the long run.

As some of today’s leading digital marketing professionals, the team from WSI B2B Marketing wanted to share some of our specialized insight with you. Here you’ll find everything you need to know about creating a B2B marketing strategy that goes above and beyond the competition.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

One of the first tactics that any reliable B2B marketing professional will suggest is optimizing all of your offerings for SEO. Doing so will make it easier to get your offerings directly in front of your ideal audience. This tactic often involves two major components: off-site SEO and on-site SEO.

• Off-Site SEO: This particular tactic is based on bringing traffic to your website and increasing your search engine rankings by linking to your site via guest articles in other publications or other types of outside engagement. This helps boost your website’s reputation and authority, resulting in increased rankings.

• On-Site SEO: On-site SEO is a bit more in-depth and involves the use of industry-specific keywords to attract the right type of qualified leads. It’s the job of on-site SEO to clearly communicate what your site and services are all about. The more specific and targeted you are, the better online search engines will be able to process the results, especially when geo locations are used.

Optimizing Your Website

Piggybacking off of the SEO tactics mentioned above, having a website optimized for the best results is essential. These days, customers and potential clients aren’t going to wait around for a website that takes forever to load or doesn’t offer clear information about your products/services. Your website is the number one tool for building visibility online and increasing your presence, so it needs to be optimized accordingly.

With a quality website, you can showcase your goods and services, as well as demonstrate your unique expertise in the marketplace. This is where you can develop a clear strategy for working your leads through the funnel once they reach your website. First, you’ll need to attract prospects and potential buyers from the right audience segment, then build and foster engagement by giving them opportunities, and lastly, turning these opportunities into sales for those that are ready to buy.

As mentioned above, the design also plays a key role in creating the best website. You need to provide a setting that’s both user-friendly, as well as stocked with the most important information you want to communicate to potential clients. Responsive web design, allowing users to peruse your site from a variety of different devices, is essential, as now more than ever people are using mobile and tablet devices to surf the web.

Finding & Exploiting Your Niche

We mentioned in our introduction that creating a niche-driven strategy when it comes to B2B marketing can pay big dividends. Studies show that the most successful companies online offer specialized services and have found a very unique, targeted niche. What exactly does this mean? In the simplest of terms, it means that your company occupies a space and provides a service that nobody else does, or in a way that not many in the industry are offering. Identifying your niche will help distinguish you from the competition.

Do Your Research

It almost goes without saying that the more research you can do into every aspect of your digital marketing plan the better the results will be. Proper research is the foundation of any targeted marketing blueprint, helping you understand how to make informed decisions and providing your team with a solid baseline to work from. It will also give you the insight you need to determine which of your goods and services are performing the best, and which ones need an extra boost.

Social Media

Another great tool when it comes to B2B marketing is social media. Nowadays, there are a wide variety of platforms and applications businesses can take advantage of, but first, it’s important to do a bit of consumer research and see which applications are used most by the customer segment you’re trying to reach. Many businesses today benefit from referrals via social media that stem solely from simple interactions, meaning if you’re not on social media you’re likely missing out on a whole chunk of revenue available to you.

Advertising

Not only does advertising promote your services, but it also plays an essential role in increasing your expertise and visibility by driving content downloads. When it comes to advertising, B2B companies have a number of different options, everything from pay-per-click (PPC) ads on social media sites and search engines, to retargeting and featuring highlighted content and advertising on industry trade publications and websites. However, much like social media, advertising will serve you best if you target your advertising to professional services, like LinkedIn and other industry-specific sites. This is because you’ll have an easier time reaching your ideal audience.

Lead Nurturing, Marketing Automation, & CRM Solutions

• Lead Nurturing: Remember that content funnel we mentioned in point two? Well, here’s where it really comes into play. Getting qualified leads to work through the funnel on your site is how you increase your revenue, so how do you do it? Well, one way is through analytics-driven direct email campaigns and another is by sending drip email campaigns that highlight more targeted offers.
• Marketing Automation: These days, having a huge team of marketing professionals crunching numbers and monitoring campaigns is no longer necessary, with the advent of B2B marketing automation. You can bring together all of your digital marketing channels under one umbrella, collecting data and insight, measuring campaigns, managing your tactics, and more. Of course, you’ll need to select software that can be scaled to meet your needs.
• CRM Solutions: Also referred to as customer relationship management systems, CRM software enables B2B firms to track and gather client information in an effort to better serve their customers and grow their business. Your CRM database services as the go-to place for all of your customer-related info, everything from buying habits to employee interactions with them. This software helps you to create a targeted effort and improving customer service across all channels.

Referral Marketing

An often overlooked B2B marketing tactic, referral marketing can be just as useful as any of the others mentioned here if done properly. Although it might seem that referrals will mostly come from past clients, this isn’t actually the case. In fact, most studies show that the majority of referrals a business receives online are actually based on their reputation and area of expertise, rather than from people who’ve worked with them directly. So, the more you work on building brand recognition online, the more business you’ll receive from referrals.

Testing & Optimization

We touched briefly on website optimization above, but it doesn’t stop there. For a comprehensive B2B marketing plan, you’ll need to frequently test your tactics and optimize them accordingly, tweaking them occasionally to align with industry best practices and keep up with Google’s search algorithms. Collect information about what emails you’re sending that generate the best results, which language is favored by potential clients, and what types of devices your audience is using most.

Analytics & Reporting

Last, but certainly not least, analytics and reporting processes are essential in helping your B2B marketing team determine the long-term success of campaigns, planning future campaigns, and making data-driven decisions about your marketing tactics. Google Analytics is an essential tool that will tell you in-depth data about how your site is functioning, and there are also other tools that can help you analyze the success of everything from SEO to PPC campaigns.

One More Thing Before We Go…

Before we cut you lose to develop your own B2B marketing blueprint, we wanted to say that it’s important to always keep moving forward when it comes to digital marketing. There’s never a time to stand still, as the landscape is always changing, giving you new tools and tactics to tweak your campaigns to optimize results.

Contact WSI B2B Marketing for Proven Results

We know how difficult it can be to develop and implement a winning marketing strategy, which is why we’re always available to help. We’ll create a proposal specifically designed to meet your needs and expectations. WSI B2B Marketing understands that implementing a marketing plan can be quite an investment, which is why if we don’t generate the results you deserve, we offer a money-back guarantee on all management fees.

To learn more about developing a winning digital marketing strategy, contact us online today.