Are you still relying on traditional marketing or trade shows to generate leads for your B2B business?
Think about this, what will you do when you are planning to source for say, CCTV cameras for your office?
Just Google, right? If so, why are you still promoting your business in the old-fashion way?
B2B researchers are getting younger and more digital savvy, from the executives, managers, procurement to bosses – all of them have their influences in the company prior to making the purchase from you.
According to Google, more than two-thirds of research is conducted online prior to any contact in the path to B2B purchases.
It is no longer an argument that digital marketing is the most effective way to reach business researchers not just in Malaysia, but in any part of the world.
If you are new to digital marketing, here’s the checklist to acquire leads online for your B2B business. Follow these proven steps and your prospects will be knocking on your door!
Step 1: Build your microsite & assets
Before you start any campaigns, you need to build an online salesman, in the form of a microsite, also known as the landing page.
Even if you already have a regular website, you can still develop the one-pager microsite for your key product or services.
Your online salesman has to be convincing, showcasing your USPs in an eye-catching, easy-to-understand format.
Videos can be another form of your online salesman, best to get the professionals to produce videos for your B2B business, be it corporate, testimonial, animation or any style you prefer.
Step 2: Be there on Google search
Google Search Engine Marketing (SEM), also known as pay-per-click, is arguably the most powerful weapon for B2B marketing.
SEM is the immediate formula to get almost instant results. Perhaps, this is the one you should prioritize if you have a limited budget or resources.
Just imagine when your prospects are searching for keywords that are relevant to your business, you just have to be there, on the first page of Google search results.
Instead of your periodical or tactical campaigns, approach SEM as a demand fulfillment strategy. It is “always-on” on Google search.
Step 3: Push tactical campaigns
With more than 23M users in Malaysia, Facebook is the go-to platform to advertise your business.
LinkedIn is another platform for B2B businesses to consider. There are more than 4M LinkedIn users in Malaysia, with most of them are working professionals.
Media platforms suggested above are meant to drive awareness, push marketing or in other words, demand generation.
Therefore, it will be great to execute tactical campaigns to drive awareness. For example, execute periodic promotions to entice your prospects.
Step 4: Start content marketing
Truth be told, this is the most challenging marketing effort of all, and not many B2B companies, especially in this part of the world, know how to do this.
Yes, this is a game of patience and persistence. You need good writers, video producers, and some SEO knowledge to make this work.
For example, if you keep producing content (be it articles or videos) related to your industry, you will become the industry’s thought leader one day.
When you are dominating your domain, research on solutions related to your business will lead to your content out there, be it via Google or YouTube.
Step 5: Set up email marketing automation
We have only mentioned leads acquisition up to this point.
What if your inbound sales team can’t get hold of the prospect, or fail to convince in the first attempt? What if the prospect is simply not ready during the first contact?
Bring on marketing automation, which might sound technical, but it is just a series of planned emails intended to “warm up” as in nurturing your leads, based on preset workflow or rules.
You need an email marketing platform like this, not just for marketing automation, but also as a CRM tool to communicate with your existing customers.
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