Digital marketing is a no brainer tactic, but for business-to-business brands, the execution isn’t always as clear as it may be for business-to-consumer brands. While B2B brands are required to consider the way they leverage digital marketing capabilities to reach their audiences in unique ways, there’s no better time to strategize and put a solid plan in to action.
Earlier this year, eMarketer published a report that predicts the forecast of B2B digital ads, which approximates a 13% rise in revenue from 2017, up to $4.6 billion fro $4.07 billion from last year. This is significant as it marks the tremendous growth in this particular space. Considering the numbers that have accumulated since 2013, it appears that in a five year timespan, B2B digital ads will have increased 111 percent.
In a space that was arguably designed for business-to-consumer interaction, B2B brands are reclaiming their presence. AdWeek’s Jennifer Toton argues that this progression indicates a do-or-die tipping point, and here’s why.
The first reason embodies the accessibility to resources. As the digital era continues to evolve, B2B companies are reimagining the way they market their services. With the help of customer relationship management (CRM) tools, and the outpour of support from leading brands like Salesforce, digital transformation feels more easily attainable to these B2B brands.
Additionally, there’s new ways to track the relationship between the impact of different marketing initiatives and the revenue it generates. Brands like Marketo who specialize in marketing automation work to create associations with CRM programs to enhance the way brands engage with consumers, make sales, and cultivate long term relationships with customers. This has revolutionized the way brands implement tactics for things such as email marketing.
While these resources are undoubtedly a financial investment, the practices they bring forward are as useful as they are effective because they precisely measure performance analytics, allowing the companies using them to better assess the impact of their initiatives.
Accounts-based marketing, otherwise referred to as ABM, is another asset to B2B companies seeking to refine their digital marketing strategy. The root of ABM’s success is the fact that it elicits authentic engagement with a potential new customer early on in the sales cycle, and remains present to the time of a processed transaction. It’s also a tool for making the most of a brand’s defined budget. As put by Adweek, “ABM allow you to set big-picture objectives, set account-specific goals, measure outcomes, and use multiple sources of data to create your ideal customer profile.”
Considering the majority of B2B brands are typically working within a smaller budget, this is more or less a game changer. This embodies why digital is such an appealing option—it accommodates the demands of a tight budget all while delivering an impressive cost-per-thousand (CPM) rate in comparison to traditional advertisements.
These new features only begin to scratch the surface in way of how you can assess the impact of your marketing efforts. Companies now have the capability of analyzing the impact of content inside advertising, and in conjunction with it. Because B2B sales run with minimal interaction, its imperative for B2B brands to ensure their marketing messages are impactful, but also very cohesive. New technologies allow brands to customize and easily revise content to better fit the needs of the consumer.
These three advancements embody the need for brands to implement an extensive and inclusive digital marketing strategy. These technologies are designed to simplify the scope of such an enormous task, and they do it well. What plans do have to improve your digital marketing strategy?