Choosing a B2B digital marketing strategy.

Developing a B2B digital marketing strategy is no straightforward task. Wide varieties of proficiencies, audiences, and customer buying processes convolute even the most basic of goals. To complicate things even further, small businesses diving into this with limited budgets are unsure of what will work best for them with the resources at their disposal. Prioritizing what digital marketing channels would work best for your small business requires an understanding of three things:

• What are you selling?
• How are you selling?
• Where are you selling?

The difference between DTC and B2B marketing.

The most important difference between B2C (business-to-consumer) / DTC (direct-to-consumer) and B2B (business-to-business) marketing is that when you are selling to an individual consumer, they are primarily responsible for making a decision for themselves. The value of that decision will also be perceived by the individual customer with no outside input.

When marketing and selling to a business, you are selling through an individual, not to an individual. Their decision impacts an organization and will be judged as valuable or not by those within the organization, especially superiors. This is an incredible amount of extra anxiety and accountability put on the buying experience.

Keep this in mind as you read further.

What are you selling?

There are generally two types of offerings that can be sold, productized goods or services and customized services or expertise.

Productized goods and services.

A productized good would be a widget or part that is mass produced and can be sold to businesses in volume. Think floor mats, paper, auto parts, equipment, etc. A productized service would be a non-tailored and repeatable service. Think of online or app-based software products like accounting, email platforms, project management suites, etc.

When something is productized it creates the ability to sell in high volume at fixed fees or subscriptions. A product offering has the ability to demonstrate and prove value before purchase. In doing so, the buying decision is based less on trust and more on fact. If a car engine has more horsepower than competitors, it will provide more power and thus speed. All of these factors support a shorter buying process by demonstrating proven guaranteed value.

These offerings are typically purchased as needed, which does create the need for intense remarketing to generate any tangible lifetime value (LVT) for a customer.

This scenario requires marketing goals that are based around generating sales, building exposure, and encouraging repeat business.

Customized services and expertise.

A customized service would be anything that is tailored to the buyer. Think consultation, strategy, operations, and professional services. These services are based on industry, professional, or administrative knowledge.

When something is customized it is uniquely sold every time. Even if there are a variety of approaches, it takes knowledge of the customer’s situation to provide the correct scope and cost to achieve a result. Selling a customized service requires proving a process or knowledge provides likely value. This makes the buying decision entirely based on potential value demonstrated through relatable proof cases or direct preliminary conversations. All of these factors create a longer buying process.

These offerings are typically purchased as long term relationships and when they are successfully executed, result in a high lifetime value (LVT) for a customer.

This scenario requires marketing goals that are based around generating awareness, building trust through expertise / authority, and supporting client retention.

How are you selling?

Whether you’re selling a productized or customized offering, there are a few factors to consider that will help determine where your marketing and sales dollars are best prioritized.

Gross Sales

This is simply the value of a sale to your business. For productized goods, depending on the volume, this value may wildly range from very low to high depending on the initial sale volume. For customized services, this is likely a high one-time value or high recurring value.

Net Profit Margin

This is the real growth number. What is the profitable value of a sale? In the productized realm volume is key to this. For customized services which carry a large profit margin and low cost of service, this will be a bigger win, even with a small volume of sales.

Time to Nurture

The selling cycle is largely based on the need for trust in the purchase. Productized goods and services will see a shorter time to sale while customized services will require a large amount of trust to be built over time before a commitment is made.

Closing Percentage

Know what your sales closing percentage is. It is the key metric to run any predictive formulas for marketing and advertising budgeting. The bridge between marketing qualified leads (MQLs) and sales qualified leads (SQLs) can only be connected with historical data from within your own business. Marketing platforms such as Google and Meta, can forecast campaign activity, but without this metric, the success of any campaigns will be a guessing game.

Lifetime Value

The value of a sale is often restricted to being viewed as its initial revenue. For productized goods, this number may be lower, but customized services should/would see a much higher value in a sale given the relationship and dependencies established between two businesses.

Where are you selling?

In an ideal world, every company would be active in every digital marketing channel, but that’s rarely possible given the manpower, budget, and time constraints small businesses face. So if you can’t do them all, you better prioritize them to best match the buying processes of your target customers.

Organic Channels

Organic digital marketing channels are the easiest to dive into given that they are typically free to initiate and require nothing more than time and effort. However, they do also act as a communications tool rather than a selling tool. That doesn’t make them ineffective, but it does favor their usage to the long-term trust building process of selling customized services and expertise.

The goals of these channels are to increase visibility and touchpoints with your target audiences so that they come to you when they encounter a need for your expertise.

Paid Advertising Channels

Paid digital marketing channels involve a bit more of a commitment to understanding budgeting, targeting, and the advertising bid process to reach new audiences that may want to buy your product or service. These channels lean into a selling call-to-action and reach your target customers before they find you on their own.

The goals of these channels are to generate leads or sales. The ads would convey enough value to earn the interest and outreach of the target audience to purchase or show interest in buying.

Choosing your B2B digital marketing strategy.

Once you know who you are selling to, how you are selling, and which channels match best with your goals, you can start to prioritize the channels you want to include in your B2B digital marketing strategy.

Digital marketing strategy for productized goods or services.

For productized offerings, selling is the driving factor in this strategy. The goal is to find ready-to-buy customers through paid placements in high-intent channels. The high-volume of potential sales, strong closing percentage, and adequate profit margin can justify the advertising costs necessary to generate the gross revenue seen in return.

Prioritized Channels:

1. Search Advertising – Buy clicks for those already looking for your product or service.
2. Search Optimization – Earn clicks for those already seeking your product or service.
3. Social Advertising – Gain exposure with your ideal target audiences.
4. Social Content – Engage with existing customers and demonstrate value.
5. Content Marketing – Build your authority and demonstrate value to existing customers.
6. Email Marketing – Encourage repeat business from existing customers.
7. Display Advertising – Stay top of mind.
8. Podcasting – Network in your industry and build a personal brand.

Digital marketing strategy for customized services and expertise.

For customized offerings, building trust is the driving factor in this strategy. The goal is to increase exposure gradually over time and establish your business as an authority and expert in the field. The low-volume of potential sales, high closing percentage, and very high profit margin can justify the advertising costs necessary to generate the gross revenue seen in return. Additionally, the lifetime value of these contractually based sales further supports the effort and costs necessary to acquire the business.

Prioritized Channels:

1. Search Optimization – Earn clicks for those already seeking your services.
2. Content Marketing – Build your authority and demonstrate value to prospects.
3. Search Advertising – Buy clicks for those already looking for your services.
4. Social Content – Engage with existing customers and demonstrate value.
5. Social Advertising – Gain exposure with your ideal target audiences.
6. Email Marketing – Encourage repeat business from existing customers.
7. Podcasting – Network in your industry and build a personal brand.
8. Display Advertising – Stay top of mind.

Be realistic.

The last word of advice is to be realistic. The idea of prioritizing the channels you may dive into as part of your B2B digital marketing strategy is about being the most effective and efficient with the resources and expectations you have. The younger your company is, the more risk is involved with diving in too deep. More established companies can afford the time and money necessary to tackle more at once and even A/B test tactics on the fly.

Set goals progressively and follow suit by tackling these priorities in progression as well.