Take CTRL: 6 Simple Strategies to Improve Your B2B Technology Company’s Marketing

Boss blog

May 25, 2021
5:18 pm

Getting your business out there and in front of the right people can be a tricky feat. When there’s so many competitors and products to compete with, positioning your B2B technology business as the best company for the job takes a strategic plan and a load of digital marketing. Don’t believe us? Marketing spend is expected to grow by 14% in 2021. That’s in addition to the huge 24.67 billion U.S. dollars spent in 2020 alone.

Maybe you’re thinking to yourself… ‘That’s just general marketing, though. Not specifically digital marketing.’ Well, 49% of users say they use Google to discover or find a new item or product. Half of your target audience is exclusively using the internet to scope out their next product. That’s a staggering amount of people to ignore if you’re neglecting your technology company’s digital marketing strategy.

At the end of the day, you want to create as many high-quality leads as possible. Improving your digital marketing strategy is the way to do it. Whilst the best way to create leads is hotly contested and ever-changing, we like to think that Seth Godin had the right idea in his book Permission Marketing. In it, he states that companies have the privilege (not the right) to send personal and relevant messages to people that want to receive them – want being the primary word in that sentence. (Want to hear more from Seth Godin? Check out our interview with him here in our B2B thought leaders magazine.)

Godin’s style of marketing directly recognises something we generally don’t want to acknowledge: People have the right to ignore marketing messages. They can glaze right over your carefully crafted ad and get right on with what they were doing. Permission Marketing revolves around nurturing a relationship with leads to earn their respect and their brand loyalty.

When creating content to promote your B2B technology company, it’s vital to keep that sentiment in mind. We break down all the content we create into 3 stages: Inspire, Educate and Engage.

The Inspire stage is about creating content that is immediately resonant with your audience, without the need for any existing relationship. That is how you’ll first initiate the engagement and maximise the reach of the brand.

Once you have initiated the relationship, you need to nurture it via more substantial information. This is the Educate stage. Content created for the Educate stage could be via longer-form video content, blog posts or email, but it’s content that requires a greater investment of time/effort from the audience.

Now that the relationship is well nurtured, you can begin to drip feed through promotional and sales messaging or use the audience for targeted ad campaigns. This is the final stage: Engage.

There’s a range of ways to guide your target audience through the above 3 steps, but we’ve taken 6 of the most impactful strategies that we’re sure will promote your B2B technology company.

Regular blog posts

A potential customer has a query. Where do they go? If they’re like 49% of people, they turn to the internet! Your B2B technology company’s article should pop up to answer their question.

It seems like every established business has a blog. The best businesses don’t just haphazardly tack a blog section onto their websites as an afterthought, though. They’re a rich resource that’s great for SEO, a short form of educational content and can be tailored to guide your visitors through the buyer journey. Blogs are one of the primary forms of media used in content strategies today. At this stage, it’s important to remember that your blogs are a resource. A source of knowledge. It’s not the place for a hard sell. Your content should establish you as the answer to their questions. As the expert in the B2B technology space.

And when we say ‘regular’, we don’t mean average. To make the most out of your blog content, you should be producing at least a blog post a week, if not more.

White papers

The value of white papers (or downloadables) is very similar to the previously mentioned blog posts. They’re an answer to a user’s question and should provide a load of knowledge, as well as positioning your company as the expert in the B2B technology industry. However, a white paper is different in that it’s an in-depth dive into a highly relevant topic that is sure to provide value to your target audience.

You’re asking them to invest more time into your content, as a white paper is much longer and more detailed than a single blog post, but you’re providing more valuable information as a result.

If you think your downloadable is really exceptional, you could gate it and collect the user’s email address. That way, you gain immediately and directly from your content. (As opposed to gaining in a less measurable way, like brand awareness.) The user is getting something from your downloadable content, and if your emails further provide useful information, you’ll be increasing their chances of becoming a genuine lead.

Email marketing

As one of the greatest unsung heroes of digital marketing, your email list is one of your best assets and should always be considered in your marketing. It has the highest ROI out of any digital marketing strategy ever, generating $38 for every $1 spent. That’s an astounding 3,800%.

You’re be starting to build up a mailing list of engaged users that have actively opted in to hear from your B2B technology company. As such, you should be actively creating relevant content that connects with them. One of the best ways to ensure users are receiving highly relevant content is by segmenting your mailing list. Say, for example, if your technology company often works with different sectors. You could segment users into appropriate mailing lists to ensure content is always highly tailored to that particular sector.

Social media

It’s 2021. The whole world is on social media, and if you’re not, it’s time you joined the crowd. There are no points for being a contrarian in this game. Positioning your business on social media is essential for expanding your reach, increasing brand awareness and promoting your products.

As a B2B technology company, we’d advise you to primarily focus your efforts on Facebook and LinkedIn. They’re both incredibly powerful platforms. As of Q1 2020, there are 2.6 billion monthly active Facebook users, and LinkedIn’s number of users in the U.S. alone reached 160 million.

Businesses have begun to take a more candid, personable approach to their social media. Users are less concerned with the glossy polish of an ultra-corporate organisation. They want authenticity and a great product. One-on-one communication with customers is a great way to establish a conversation and create a lasting impression.

Chatbots

When a user is enquiring about something, the faster the response, the better. That’s why chatbots are such a useful tool for any technology company. 69% of U.S. consumers prefer using chatbots when engaging with brands. They’re able to answer straightforward questions with ease and direct engaged users towards different landing pages or content that you’ve tailored to certain user intents. Whilst chatbots aren’t exactly a form of content, they’re a great way to promote the content you’ve already created on your site.

Voice search

Voice search is the new kid on the block. Smart devices like an Amazon Alexa or a Google Nest can be found in almost every home, but very rarely do businesses take advantage of their sudden popularity.

It’s a bit like the advent of mobile devices. Marketers had to adapt to this new device, which is now the predominant form of tech and makes up to 50.71% of searches. We’re still learning how to strategically position businesses with voice search, but at the moment, the key seems to be to focus on FAQs with simple, conversational answers that focus on your products.