3 Marketing Mistakes B2B Companies Make

B2B or business-to-business companies are in a challenging business. You have to promote your product or service, but your audience is significantly different than those businesses marketing to the average consumer. You have far greater upside potential if you close a few major sales, and you’ll go out of business if you don’t sell yourself to the few people who will literally be in the market for what you offer. Here are three marketing mistakes B2B organizations make. We’ll discuss each mistake in detail and tell you how to avoid making this mistake yourself.

Using B2C Marketing Strategies

Business to business or B2B marketing differs markedly from marketing to the general public. A common mistake business to business salespeople make is selling to a broad audience in the hope of closing sales, instead of determining the exact niche their ideal customer is in and marketing to that group. It isn’t about how many read your social media post or how viral your marketing video went.

At the end of the day, it is about how many people bought the product. It is repetition within the narrow field your ideal customers are located in that will build brand recognition and maximize conversions. Use a service like Zoom the List to market to the small group that is almost certain to buy from you if you make your case the right way.

You Make the Prospect Do the Work

Suppose your marketing pitch worked and the prospect is now interested. If they have to do research on your case studies, analyze your different pricing options, compare your product to the competition or research delivery methods, you’re failing in business to business marketing. Yes, buyers do this research as part of their job, but you’ll close far more sales if you provide this type of information to them up front on your website. Or, better yet, send it to them in your whitepapers and marketing copy when they request it.

You Target the C-Suite

There are two main approaches to sell your product or service to a business. One is to aim at the C-suite, competing with everyone else to talk to the key decision makers. The other is to convince their team members that they need your product or service, and let them make the case to their management that the business needs to buy what you offer.

Look for ways to market to the laboratory staff, accountants, or engineers who would be using your product and making the case for how much easier it will be to do their jobs if they bought your products. If they have the market analysis you’ve created showing how your product is better than the competition and improves productivity in their department, now the C-suite is seeing your research as presented by their employees … and they’re far more likely to buy the sale pitch from their people than yours.

Conclusion

All these mistakes could hold you back and cut you from a huge portion of your potential clientele. If you manage to steer away from these few examples, you should be able to reach your audience better and change those leads to sales.

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