The 16 Best And Worst Practices In B2B Marketing

Not very long ago, marketing was a one-way communication channel. Marketers broadcasted their messaging about products and services to a broad audience in hopes of landing leads. Today’s B2B marketing landscape is vastly different from what it used to be.

For starters, your buyers are more aware than ever before they can choose when, where, and how they interact with brands.

They also have more power than ever before, as they’re now in the driver’s seat when it comes to the buying process.

This shift has left marketers feeling overwhelmed and even paralyzed – after all, the world of B2B marketing has gotten significantly more complex than it was just a few years ago.

Comparing the Best vs. the Worst (+LinkedIn Prospecting)

Key Takeaways
1. Implementing the right B2B marketing practices is crucial for success.
2. Focus on customer-centric strategies to build strong relationships.
3. Email marketing remains a powerful tool for B2B communication.
4. Leveraging content marketing helps establish industry expertise.
5. Effective data analysis drives informed decision-making.
6. Avoiding common B2B marketing pitfalls is equally important.
7. Social media engagement can amplify your brand’s reach.
8. Invest in lead nurturing for a higher conversion rate.
9. Collaboration between sales and marketing teams boosts efficiency.
10. Regularly assess and adapt your strategies to industry changes.

Table of Contents

Best Practice #1: Have A Defined Strategy

When it comes to your B2B marketing strategy, one of the first things you should do is define your goals and objectives. Specifically, you need to determine what you want to accomplish with your marketing efforts.

Do you want more leads? Do you want increased brand awareness? Are there specific products or services that are not selling well and require some additional investment for them to gain traction within the market?

Once you’ve established these objectives, then it’s time for another round of planning: defining your audience. Who is going to receive this content? Is it going into an industry trade publication where only certain types of professionals read it (i.e., C-level executives)?

Is it being sent directly via email or other channels such as social media and SMS text messages?

The answers will help determine how much effort goes into delivering each piece of content so that its target group is reached effectively while also maximizing ROI based on budget constraints.”

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Best Practice #2: Personalize The Experience

Personalization is one of the most important, yet often overlooked aspects of B2B marketing.

Personalization increases engagement and can increase conversions by as much as 50%. It’s also something that you should be doing regularly because it helps you create a more engaging and personalized experience for your customers.

There are two main types of personalization: contextual and behavioral. Contextual personalization is based on the content that your customer sees when they visit your website or read an email (e.g., knowing if the person viewing a product page is male or female).

Behavioral personalization considers what people do on your site (e.g., whether they’ve watched any videos) and uses that data to improve future interactions (e.g., by suggesting related products after someone watches a video).

Best Practice #3: Create Buyer-Centric Content

Focus on the buyer’s journey. B2B buyers are complex, and it’s critical to understand at least one buyer persona as well as their pain points and concerns at each stage of the journey.

For example, if you’re a SaaS company that helps companies manage their training programs, you’ll want to know a lot about who your ideal customer is (they’re usually HR managers), what they want from your product (it should be easy to use with an intuitive interface).

How they learn about new technologies (by reading industry blogs or attending conferences), and how their company is set up right now (with different departments handling different aspects of training).

By understanding these things, you can create relevant content for them that speaks directly to those needs.

And thanks to the fact that we live in a world where all types of information are just one click away online nowadays you’ll have ample opportunity for engagement with potential customers when they start researching solutions online.

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Best Practice #4: Use Data And Analytics To Optimize Marketing Programs

The fourth best practice is to use data and analytics to optimize your marketing programs.

How? By using the same metrics that you’re analyzing for your other business functions in order to help improve your marketing programs.

The example below shows how a company used their data on sales interactions as well as their customers’ online behavior patterns to improve their lead generation:

They analyzed which channels were most effective in generating qualified leads (social media, emails, blogs), and which ones weren’t (landing pages).

They segmented the leads based on what they knew about them (like where they came from) so they could better focus their efforts on those prospects who were most likely to become customers.

Best Practice #5: Embrace Automation

You’ve heard it before: Automation is good. But what does that mean?

It means you can do more with less. You can reach more people, and do so more efficiently and effectively.

Think about how many hours you spend on social media each week or even just responding to emails from customers and prospects across your sales funnel. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were some way for those tasks to get done for you?

Automation doesn’t have to mean turning over all of your responsibilities to robots though that would be pretty cool!

Instead, it’s about implementing tools like drip campaigns and lead nurturing programs (which are automated email sequences) that allow you to connect with leads at the exact moment they’re most interested in hearing from you.

That kind of personalization helps move them down your sales pipeline faster than ever before while freeing up your time for other high-value activities like building relationships or driving revenue growth through strategic partnerships or product development initiatives

Best Practice #6: Leverage Social Media

Social media is one of the best ways to reach a large audience and engage with prospects. It’s a great way to promote your content and build your brand, as well as increase your SEO.

The best practices for using social media are:

Create original content that will attract followers and keep them engaged regularly
Post links to articles or blog posts you have written that are related to your industry (and make sure they are good!)
Respond positively and quickly when someone comments on something you have posted

Generating demand for B2B products requires a mix of strategies. Explore our guide on 12 Ways to Generate Demand for Your B2B Product to discover effective tactics for increasing interest and sales.

Best Practice #7: Use Video Effectively

Video is the most popular form of content marketing, and for good reason. It’s an effective way to engage customers and offer them value, so you should use it in your B2B efforts.

Video is also an excellent way to showcase the value of your product or service and the key benefits that drive revenue for you as a business.

In other words, if you can figure out how to demonstrate what makes your product/service stand out from the competition (or even just make life easier) then videos are one of best ways to do that.

It’s important not just because they’re entertaining, but because they allow people who might not know much about what you do see how things work in action with their own eyes!

Best Practice #8: Utilize Customer-Generated Visual Content

As a B2B marketer, you already know that visual content is more engaging than text-based content. But what you might not realize is how much more shareable visual content can be compared to other types of social media posts.

According to a recent study by Buffer, tweets containing images receive 18% more clicks on average than those without images.

Also, tweets with images see 2x the engagement rate as those without them and that’s just for Twitter!

So when it comes to other sites like Facebook and LinkedIn (which also have an image preference), visual posts are going to be seen by even more people and shared even faster than they would be otherwise.

Best Practice #9: Pay Attention To Mobile Optimization

As the world becomes more and more mobile, you should be paying attention to your company’s mobile optimization. If your website is not optimized for mobile, it can do a lot of harm to your SEO and lead generation efforts.

If you want to keep up with the times and still be able to attract attention from potential customers, then you’ll need to ensure that any marketing materials are easy to read on a smartphone or tablet.

This could mean making sure that all images are optimized so they’re not too small or blurry when viewed on smaller screens. It could also mean taking advantage of modern CSS techniques instead of using images when possible (like buttons).

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Best Practice #10: Optimize For Voice Search

It’s a growing trend, and it’s not new, but it’s certainly getting more popular. One of the reasons for this is that many people especially B2B buyers prefer to speak their searches instead of typing them into their phones or computers.

With voice search on the rise and AI getting better at understanding natural language (i.e., what you mean when you say something).

Optimizing your website or landing page can help increase conversions by making it easier for users to find what they’re looking for in fewer words than they would type into a search bar.

Worst Practice #1: Make It About You, Not Your Customer

The first worst practice is making it all about you. It’s tempting as a marketer to want to tout your success and talk about how great your product is, but that can come off as self-serving and insincere.

It also puts off potential customers by making them think of you instead of themselves or their business problems.

This isn’t just an issue for B2B marketers; an overwhelming majority of consumers make purchasing decisions based on how well they believe the company understands their needs rather than on price alone.

You can avoid this trap by focusing on the customer’s pain points throughout your marketing strategy including during sales calls or social media interactions with prospects and testing how well these tactics resonate with prospective buyers before implementing them in earnest.

Worst Practice #2: Ignore How Your Audience Prefers To Communicate

The second worst B2B marketing practice is ignoring how your audience prefers to communicate.

Social media is not just for posting cat videos and memes; it’s also a great way to engage customers in meaningful conversations about your brand, products, and services.

Email can be used for more than just sending newsletters it’s an effective channel for communicating with customers on a personal level.

SMS messaging allows you to reach out in real-time, which is especially helpful when you want to resolve issues quickly or offer customer support outside of normal business hours.

Chatbots are a great way for marketers (or anyone else) to interact directly with prospects via text message or voice assistant (like Alexa).

These bots can take information from potential clients and then provide personalized responses based on that data while also answering questions they may have about your product or service offerings.

Voice assistants like Siri and Alexa are perfect tools for interacting with customers who prefer using their phones over computers or tablets because it keeps everything simple you don’t need any special equipment beyond what’s already in place at home!

Worst Practice #3: Don’t Pay Attention To The Numbers (Or Ignore Them Altogether)

If you’re ignoring the numbers, it’s likely because they seem irrelevant or because they don’t tell the whole story.

That may be true in some cases, but often the numbers are more important than you think. If your salespeople aren’t hitting their quotas or if revenue is way down, there may be a reason for it.

The first step is knowing what kind of data is available to you and how that data can be used effectively. The next step is using that information to make decisions about how to improve your marketing efforts.

Section. Worst Practice #4. Don’t Make Customer Experience A Priority

Why is customer experience so important? Because it’s the new marketing, branding, and sales. It’s everything.

We’ve been talking about customer experience as if it were an idea whose time has come. But now we need to actually make it happen by bringing together all of our efforts in one place to create a singular focus on the needs of our customers.

Don’t believe me? Just ask Amazon, which has built its entire business model around providing a superior customer experience and has succeeded wildly because of it.

Section. Worst Practice 5. Think All B2B Companies Are The Same

There is a common misconception among marketers that all B2B companies are the same. This is not true. Each company has its unique challenges, needs, and goals. Your strategy should be tailored to meet these specific needs.

There’s no point in wasting time trying to sell something that isn’t relevant to your buyer’s current business situation or industry challenges.

If you’re able to identify what makes your target buyer unique, then it will be easier for you to create a marketing plan that will give them value and help them achieve their goals, and keep them as a customer for life!

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Section. Worst Practice 6. Not Realizing That The Fundamentals Are Always Relevant

Be wary of the “next big thing.” While it’s easy to be tempted by shiny new things, don’t lose sight of the fundamentals.

The fundamentals are always relevant, and they aren’t going away even in a digital world, there will always be a place for good old-fashioned human interaction.

As technology advances and marketing evolves from one trend to another, marketers should remember that while their tactics may change over time, their core practices like strategy development and campaign planning are constant.

These fundamental practices won’t go anywhere; rather than chasing after each new trend in marketing as it arises (and then forgetting about it once something new comes along), marketers would be better served by focusing on these tried-and-true methods instead.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we want to emphasize the importance of the fundamentals of those best practices that we’ve talked about so much throughout this list. As you can see from many of our worst practices, a lot of what companies get wrong is simply not doing the basics!

Sure, B2B marketing has come a long way since its inception, and there are probably still a few practices on here that might surprise you in their relevance.

But at its core, good marketing is always going to boil down to understanding your audience and meeting them halfway. That’s pretty simple advice for anyone trying to engage with another person!

FAQs

What are some key B2B sales and marketing practices to adopt?

B2B sales and marketing practices play a crucial role in achieving business success. Implement practices such as personalized communication, account-based marketing, and leveraging data-driven insights to enhance your results.

How can I address common challenges in B2B marketing?

To address common B2B marketing challenges, focus on strategies such as refining your target audience, optimizing content for different stages of the buyer’s journey, and embracing marketing technology to streamline processes.

What role do effective B2B marketing strategies play in business growth?

Effective B2B marketing strategies are essential for driving business growth. They help you attract and engage the right audience, build brand authority, and nurture leads, ultimately leading to increased conversions and revenue.

What are the benefits of account-based marketing (ABM) in B2B?

Account-based marketing (ABM) in B2B focuses on targeting specific high-value accounts. It leads to more personalized interactions, stronger customer relationships, and a higher likelihood of closing deals with key accounts.

How can data-driven insights enhance B2B marketing efforts?

Data-driven insights provide valuable information about customer behaviors, preferences, and trends. By leveraging this data, B2B marketers can create targeted campaigns, improve customer experiences, and make informed strategic decisions.

Costantine Edward

Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.