Overcomplicated B2B Marketing Is a Sure Path To Weak Results
Your industry can be niche. Your subject matter can be complex. But the way you market your business can still be as simple as this: “Specific customers have a problem, and we have a specific solution.”
B2B marketing doesn’t have to feel complicated. However, digital marketing agencies and their B2B clients often fall into three traps that lead to inflated budgets, confusing ads, and limited success:
- Trying to Be Everything to Everyone
- Trend Chasing
- Clogging the Funnel
See whether you identify with these traps and learn how to avoid them with the help of a B2B digital marketing agency in Kansas City.
“Whether You’re A, B, C, D, E, F, G, or H, We Specialize in Serving You!”
Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, does it? But this kind of messaging, where your business tries to have an answer for every market, is common in the B2B world.
Why do businesses fall into this trap? For understandable reasons. Your company may make a product or offer a service that is versatile and flexible. It can be applied to many use cases and, because your business is passionate about what you have to offer, you imagine it helping as many people as possible.
As the saying goes, “You can’t be everything to everyone.” Why?
- You’d need a marketing strategy for each audience you want to serve.
- You have no name recognition, contacts, or relationships in some of these markets.
- You don’t have the resources to build a robust business pipeline in all these industries.
Yet this doesn’t stop some B2B companies, and the results are … varied, to say the least. You begin creating ads, social media, emails, and websites that contort language until it rings perfectly true for every possible industry you want to serve. But what happens? Your marketing rings true for no one. “We’re the Most Trusted in Every Industry” is not a compelling message.
What our B2B digital marketing agency recommends instead: Identify a small (two or three) set of audiences where you have established relationships, traction, and expertise. Make these decisions based on data. Identify one more industry that you’d like to break into. Just one. Allocate your digital marketing strategy to a refined set of audiences and reap the rewards of knowing who your business matters to and why.
“I Heard Our Competitor Had Success With X. Let’s Go After X!”
You can’t enter an industry cold. Even if you’re seeing the competition take advantage of work that’s currently outside your wheelhouse, that doesn’t mean you’re a shoo-in for the next job that comes along. Industry trends come and go, and those who are ready to capitalize on them are ready before the trend occurs. If this isn’t you, you’re likely already behind the curve.
True, you need to start somewhere to find new opportunities, but unless you have the overhead to explore an entirely new market, you may want to focus on your strengths. There’s still plenty more business to be had in the industries where you already do so well! When you become a job chaser, you start allocating your marketing budget reactively, not proactively.
What our B2B digital marketing agency
“Awareness, Consideration, Conversion … Wait, Did Someone Say Conversions?”
The marketing funnel is the path that prospective clients take toward a transaction with your business. The path is simple: awareness, consideration, and conversion. In the ideal scenario, your clients become aware of your service or product, consider its value, and act.
Yet many B2B teams’ eyes glaze over when trying to understand the awareness and consideration phase. These phases just aren’t tied to tangible metrics to warrant much attention. Misinformed B2Bs fall into the trap of wanting to convert, and that’s where they want to put their money.
But no business can be successful with messaging that urges conversion. Decision-making takes time and requires multiple touchpoints to help your future clients get wind of who you are, weigh the benefits of working with you, and finally make a decision. If your message is “act now” without the proper balance of “here’s who we are,” and “here’s what we can do,” results will be slim to none.
Don’t emphasize conversions when you need a smooth-running funnel that carries the right customers through the process of decision-making. That means the right ads at the right time in the right places — not a barrage of “work with us!”
What our B2B digital marketing agency recommends instead: Allocate a balance of marketing tactics to all three stages of the funnel, with the correct messaging and targeting to move potential customers through the funnel. Keep track of potential opportunities and leads in a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that tracks and analyzes interactions with your advertising. Do this with help from a strategic digital marketing team and you’ll have marketing that leads to sales, not just marketing for the sake of marketing.
Avoid the Traps and Get the Treasure With Top-Tier Digital Marketing
iFOCUS Marketing & Advertising has demonstrated success helping B2B businesses succeed with expert digital marketing services. We help you take an approach that favors sustainable growth with room to branch out, find new opportunities, and take advantage of your business’s unique value.
When we sit down to work with you, you won’t find us encouraging you to take uncalculated risks or chase the next fleeting trend. Our approach is measured, responsible, and driven by maximum results. Sidestep the traps and be the pro you are with help from our marketing professionals.
Get a custom strategy from iFOCUS Marketing today, your B2B digital marketing agency in Kansas City.
Peter Mishler is a senior copywriter. He enjoys learning everything he can about your business to help build your authority and web presence. Peter is the author of three internationally published books, for which he has received critical acclaim and national writing awards. He loves spending time with his wife and two children.
