The 3 Categories of B2B Marketing
Marketing has taken on an increasingly important role in recent years, with buyers more put off by direct sales than ever before.
We have previously talked about the inexpensive marketing tools that are available to businesses and the different types of 'leads' that lurk in every database, but something that many don't consider is categorising your actual marketing efforts.
B2B businesses, in particular, should be breaking down their marketing efforts into three sections, depending on what stage of the buying, or awareness, process someone is at.
These categories can be simply labelled as: Pre-Click (before), Post-Click (during) and Post-Conversion (after).
1. Pre-Click Marketing
This is the 'Raising awareness' stage. It is everything that happens before someone visits your website. You are trying to make everyone aware of your company, of who you are, of what you do and, ultimately, drive them towards your website.
Many companies spend great amounts on their website, but make the mistake of doing little in the way of marketing to actually get them there. Think about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Social Media; both are absolutely vital in ensuring that people have heard of you.
If they haven't, they aren't going to be venturing towards your website anytime soon.
2. Post-Click Marketing
This is everything that happens after the prospect has visited your website, but before they are a known lead. What methods are you utilising in-order to progress someone onto the next stage of the buying process?
Think about landing pages, perhaps directed from social media with a specific audience in-mind. What downloads are you offering? What incentives does the user have to, first, stay on your website and, secondly, find out more about you and what you have to offer?
Better landing pages and content-driven marketing will ultimately produce better online marketing ROI.
3. Post-Conversion Marketing
This is the part that has changed in recent years. Previously, after a 'name' was captured – the prospect would have immediately been considered a lead and deemed sales-ready.
Not now.
With buyers prefering to buy at their own pace and approach YOU when they're ready, sales and marketing now work together to bridge the gap from Prospect up to Customer. This is where the Lead Scoring and Lead Nurturing strategies can begin.
At Contact Edge CRM, we specialise in Microsoft CRM, which helps businesses find creative ways to engage with customers. And by accurately tracking how the first engagement was initiated, it is easy to determine which elements of your marketing strategy are working.
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