In a world where everything is online, digital marketing is evermore needed for B2B companies. Digital marketing is the promotion of a brand online through communications outlets such as social media, Google, Bing, and other online platforms.
As of 2021, there are 4.9 billion internet users worldwide, and the number of online shoppers worldwide will reach 2.71 billion in 2024, which shows how important it is to showcase your services to your customer base online. You may be asking yourself why digital marketing is essential to your organization compared to traditional marketing. Before diving into the three reasons that you need digital marketing for B2B businesses, take some time to answer these important questions.
Do you find yourself questioning why social media matters?
Have you said things like “I don’t do the whole social media thing.”
Do you Google restaurants and businesses around you before using their services?
If you answered ‘yes’ to one or more of those questions, then you need digital marketing for your B2B business. Many corporations started as family centered companies and overtime, grew into medium or large businesses. As the organization expanded, the company may not have seen the need for digital marketing and branding, however their stakeholders and investors are seeking new ways to scale the organization, and digital marketing is the answer.
Let’s dive into the three main reasons you need digital marketing to grow your organization.
Learn the three important reasons why you need digital marketing for your B2B business.
Reaching your target audience is key
Building brand value with the customer
Ability to gain better analytics through digital marketing
Reaching your target audience is key
When it comes to reaching your target audience, it is essential to have a targeted plan for reaching your customers.
Digital marketing allows the user to target audiences through behaviors and online footprint habits. Platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn have the ability to narrow your audience and push out ads to your ideal customer base.
Traditional marketing can be more time consuming and costly, compared to digital marketing. With traditional marketing, your target audience is broad, and the return on investment is harder to track. Digital marketing allows B2B companies to target businesses online through Google ads, display ads, social media platforms, and SEO. Utilizing digital communication platforms allows you to reach the customer at the start of the customer journey.
Research suggests that people are now seeing between 3,000-5,000 ads a day. What does this mean for your business? It is ever more important to target your customer base online to make sure your leads are seeing your advertisements, and not another companies' campaigns. Reaching you target audience is one of the first steps to a successful marketing campaign, along with providing the best branded content for your target audience.
Building brand value with the customer
Around the world, millions of people wake up and check their cell phones before heading into work. With the rise in social media, it is important that B2B companies create a strong brand online and provide good, branded content.
The customer experience will help determine if the customer becomes an advocate for the company brand. Creating a strong online brand will build rapport and increase positive customer experiences. Most digital marketing is about optimizing for a better user experience and creating helpful content because that’s what customers want. Digital marketing is an excellent way to build brand value with the customer and create that long-term marketing strategy.
Ways you can build brand value with your customers:
Create valuable content - No one enjoys spam ads. Your customers want to receive content that makes them feel like they are part of a larger cause. For example, Nike is not just a company, they sell motivation and goals. People want to be a part of Nike because it's bigger than just a product. When you buy Nike, you are buying the feeling of "ambition" - Just Do It.
Your company brand is not your logo. Your company brand is your "Why." What kind of company are you and why do your customers love you?
Create trust - You can create trust by interacting with your customers online. Respond to comments and messages in a timely manner. Treat digital marketing tools as lead generation forms. Would you let your leads sit in your email for weeks? Don't let your customers sit in your message box for hours.
Once you have identified your target audience and created trust with your brand, it's time to pull your analytic reports to make sure you are on track with your marketing campaigns.
Ability to gain better analytics through digital marketing
Before the age of technology, marketers would advertise through print ads in newspapers, ads on billboards, commercials on television, and other traditional marketing channels. This can be an effective marketing method if done correctly, however, analytics and data about your customer base are not available through traditional marketing. Digital marketing allows you to better analyze your customer base and target them directly, pushing your customers through the marketing funnel in the most effective way.
Using platforms like Google Analytics, SEM Rush, and other online marketing tools, you are able to identify the ideal customer that your company hopes to reach. By monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) such as click-through rates, you are able to create effective online marketing campaigns that fit your business objectives, goals and KPIs. Digital marketing is the new way of marketing and it is not going away anytime soon. According to Forbes, 45% of B2B content marketers expect their content marketing budget to increase in 2024.
To summarize, if you are not using digital marketing in 2024 for your B2B business, you are missing out on potential leads. Digital marketing is one of the most effective ways to market B2B companies and is expected to grow every year.
What to do moving forward?
If you learned something new, follow me on LinkedIn for B2B marketing, communications, and branding tips. Follow my company page at 1414Marketing to receive new posts weekly on LinkedIn. Contact me for a free 30-minute marketing consultation.
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