Marion Barnham • January 10, 2025
Business to Business marketing(B2B) is a way to promote business and improve profit. The parties involved are big or small businesses and not individuals like in Business to Consumer(B2C) marketing.
It wasn’t until the early 1980’s, when the first PCs were available and a world full of possibilities started for marketers around the world. The digital marketing era had started. In both traditional and digital marketing the goal remains the same and the only thing that has evolved is the channels used, like search engines, social media, email, and websites, making marketing more affordable than ever before. Another great advantage is that all your marketing efforts are being tracked effectively and you can re-adjust your marketing plan in order to have the desirable results.
Since I recently started working in this industry, I realised how many different types of digital marketing there are and how they all come together as one with the help of the marketing plan. The most common types of digital marketing:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Pay Per Click (PPC)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Native Advertising
- Marketing Automation
- Email Marketing
- Online PR
- Inbound Marketing
- Sponsored Content
For me one of the most important from the above is content marketing, which involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts). Content marketing gives the feeling of building a bridge between the brand and the customer.
Important Statistics to take into consideration:
- 77% of companies say they have a content marketing strategy. (SEMrush, 2019)
- 24% of marketers plan on increasing their investment in content marketing in 2020. (HubSpot, 2020)
- Companies spend 46% of their budget on content creation. (HubSpot, 2017)
- Nearly 40% of marketers say content marketing is a very important part of their overall marketing strategy. (HubSpot, 2020)
- 94% of marketers use social media for content distribution. (SEMrush, 2019)
(Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)
What makes it key to an effective marketing strategy is that it promotes products or services without being intrusive and invasive, but by giving consumers advice and tips that ultimately helps them during their buying decision process.
Consumers prefer to know a company via articles rather than ads. They also see and appreciate the effort in providing good quality content that’s useful to them.
However, many people fail to deliver. But why does that happen?
And how could you make your content marketing efforts more effective?
- Absence of a written plan: First of all they don’t have a written plan. With a 12 month content marketing plan you can schedule ahead, stop missing deadlines and have consistency. This will save you lots of time and it will keep your audience satisfied.
- Impatience: It takes time to see results in B2B marketing and many people give up ahead of time. What you should do instead of giving up on your initial strategy is A/B testing. You have to keep in mind that B2B Marketing demands flexibility.
- They forget that SEO is vital: All you need is a little bit of keyword research, because your content can’t be successful if people can’t find it. Always remember to put proper title tags, meta descriptions, slugs, alt tags for images, and interlinks.
- They ignore Analytics: You create content, you put time and effort and you try to optimise it but you never check your audience’s reaction. Each platform you use has its own tracking tools. Make it your friend and try to adjust your campaigns accordingly.
If you find it hard to implement an effective marketing plan on your own, here at Barnham Marketing, we are always happy to help you. Just email us at [email protected].