1: Identify your target customer
This is the first step for any marketing strategy, but things get complicated when your customer is a business. Instead of targeting individual consumers, your company needs to target the individuals within companies who have the power to make purchase decisions.
As a B2B company, you likely have a good idea of the types of businesses interested in your product. It is time to take this a step further by creating a customer profile that will guide your advertising strategy. Here are some key points to consider so you can create a strong customer profile:
Target company –
What industry, company size, location, and structure of company are you targeting as your ideal customers? The more specific you can get, the better.
Decision maker’s job title –
Visualize the potential size of the businesses you are targeting. Determine how your product’s purchase fits into their corporate structure and determine whose job it is to purchase products like yours. The business owner/CEO would make these decisions in a smaller company. Larger companies may leave this decision to specific department managers.
Ease of purchase and implementation –
An expensive or hard-to-implement B2B product tends to demand a longer timeline and more people when making a purchase decision. Determine the job titles of those who have input on this decision and consider targeting them alongside the managers and business owners.
2: Think beyond LinkedIn
When most people think of business-to-business advertising, they think of LinkedIn. As the largest business networking platform online, most advertisers on Linkedin are B2B companies.
The best marketing platform and strategy is the one that generates the best results for your business. While Right Left Agency has had great success running campaigns for our clients on LinkedIn, we also have learned that some companies perform best with Facebook and Google.
Facebook – Facebook is a great place to market if your customers don’t always know they need your services just yet. Using Facebook, you can target professionals who are not actively searching for what you provide. With 2.7 Billion monthly active users, a lot of people spend a lot of time on Facebook. These people include your target customers (even professionals spend a lot of time on Facebook!). Facebook has a detailed targeting system and a low concentration of B2B advertisers. It also has a much lower cost per click on average than LinkedIn, making cost per lead cheaper.
Google –Google is a great place to advertise if your customers are actively searching for your solution. When they start researching on Google, you can be the first website to show up and capture them right as they are looking to make a purchase decision.
Linkedin – LinkedIn also allows you to target customers before they are searching for your solution LinkedIn plays a vital role in business marketing by providing an excellent platform for content marketing, increasing engagement, and demonstrating thought leadership. The opportunity to market directly to CEOs and business owners is attractive but beware of the volume of competitors.
3: Be Specific With Targeting
Here are some ways to use targeting tools on Facebook and Google so those who have the power to purchase your product or influence these decisions see your product.
Here are some potential ways to target your customers:
- Target by profession: If you want to get your product in front of managers and business owners, targeting job titles on Facebook Is a great first step. The downside? Targeting by profession can overly narrow your advertisement’s reach since not everyone keeps their Facebook job title up-to-date. Those who have the power to implement your business-to-business product or service may be excluded from your targeting based on how you’ve defined what professions to Target. Thankfully there’s an option to let Facebook “ expand interest.”
- Target by interest: Get into the head of a manager or small business owner and imagine what they read, what they watch, and what they do for fun that is specific to their profession. Industry-specific publications, scientific journals, and a general interest in your target industry are key to targeting the right people.
- Target by competitors: People searching for or engaging with your competitors online might be the perfect target market!
- Use Lookalike Audiences: Did you know that Facebook allows you to upload a customer list and find more people similar to your customers? This is a great tool for profiling your customer using Facebook’s advanced tools.
4: Keep Their Interest With Remarketing
Businesses take time to make purchase decisions… more time than the average consumer! Remarketing specifically targets individuals who have already shown interest in your product. It is the digital and automated equivalent to following up on a lead.
Targeting based on time spent on the website or based on those with abandoned shopping carts your B2B product or service will be in the forefront of the customer’s mind as they finalize their purchase decisions. You may need to serve them ads for weeks or months before they are ready to make a decision!
To Wrap It All Up
Targeting business with B2B products and services requires a bit of ingenuity to ensure your ads are placed in front of the right people, but the results are highly measurable and proven to be effective. Remember that online advertising targets individuals, so build a profile based on the individuals within companies who have the power to implement your product, and follow up with interested people through remarketing.
If you’re interested in executing any of the ideas we highlighted above, let us know and we would be happy to talk about your digital marketing strategy.
