Marketing is a must for every B2B company, but there are still a lot of basic mistakes being made. If you want to reach your prospects and customers in an efficient way, you need to get the fundamentals right. Here are seven common mistakes that B2B companies, big and small, should avoid.
B2B marketing has evolved tremendously in the last decade, and there are a number of companies across the globe that are doing an amazing job. However, for every bright shining star in the B2B marketing sky there are ten times as many companies that are not getting the fundamentals right. And that means that they won’t attract potential buyers or stay top of mind with existing customers.
Here are seven fundamental mistakes that far too many B2B companies are making, no matter their industry, location or size. Fixing this doesn’t require a big budget, or having a big marketing department. It's more about changing your mindset and understanding what your prospects and customers are looking for.
Ready? Let’s get started:
1. Focusing only on facts
It’s a common misconception among B2B companies that their customers make purchase decisions based only on facts. Even though we’ve known for many years that emotions play just as big a role as facts when B2B customers make decisions. As a result, far too many B2B companies overload their marketing with facts and figures, instead of trying to connect on an emotional level with their prospects and customers.
Of course facts are an important part of our communication, but in order to reach your buyers you need to talk to both their hearts and minds. Don’t miss out on using the most powerful communication tool in the world: storytelling.
2. Talking features and benefits
This is another classic situation among B2B companies: They are very invested in talking about the features and benefits of their products. But, a lot less so when it comes to understanding the buyer’s situation and explaining the value of what they sell.
Unless we place our products or solutions in a context that is meaningful for our customers we will never get them to buy. And in this context, what we’re selling isn’t primarily the technical specs; they become important later.
A better starting point is to teach and inspire your potential customers about what your product can do for them.
3. Deciding what matters for customers
Instead of finding out what their prospects and customers want to learn about, far too many B2B companies have already decided what’s important. So they create content and activities focused on what they think their buyers should be interested in.
A much smarter way of doing this, is of course, to find out what’s going on in the industry or niche that your customers inhabit and then address that, from the perspective of how can we help to solve any challenges.
The best advice in content marketing I’ve ever come across is this: “Answer the questions your customers actually have, not the ones you think they should be asking”. And that works pretty well in marketing as a whole.
Find out more about what your customers are thinking with UP Market Research and Analysis.
4. Not investing in content
What I’m talking about here is content that’s relevant and useful for the target audience. Content that can be used in owned channels to attract search queries and educate the buyer during the purchase process. In other words, content that can be used in content marketing or inbound marketing.
B2B companies that don’t invest time and money on this hand over the opportunity to impact prospects and customers to their competitors. By allowing the competition to dominate search and digital networks like social media they miss out on educating and inspiring potential buyers from the very beginning of the purchase process.
5. Saying everything at once
No one likes to have a lot of information dumped on us at once, and then have to sift through it to find the answer to whatever we’re looking for. We want a relevant answer to the question we have then and there. And if we’re satisfied we will return to learn more at a later stage. Despite this, far too many B2B companies try to say everything on one web page or in one gigantic document.
A better way is to think about your prospects’ purchase process as a journey. There are several stops on that journey, where different aspects will be important. As they gather more insights and understanding they will ask different questions. If you structure your content and activities according to this journey, you will be much more successful.
6. Using exclusionary language
It’s easy (especially in technical or scientific businesses) to say something in a way that only a small group of people will understand. Ask any expert. And that’s how a lot of B2B companies approach their marketing, as well. They use expressions, abbreviations and acronyms that only a few people will understand. And by doing this they are effectively shutting out a much larger audience.
It is important to talk about what you do in a way that the broader public can understand it – simply because there are significantly more buyers than in the small group who speak your technical language. Yet, companies are often afraid to make the complex easy to understand, and the result is that they exclude potential customers.
7. Treating every prospect the same way
One thing that sales people have been aware of for ages is that some customers are more important than others. That’s why there are key account teams, for example. Some customers are more profitable, have a better fit or a greater potential. But this knowledge is rarely used by marketers. Instead, they use the same content and activities on prospects that have great potential as they do on visitors that will never became buyers, or not very profitable ones. All in the name of lead generation.
A much more efficient way is to develop content and activities aimed at those prospects with the greatest potential. This is the cornerstone of Account Based Marketing, and something every B2B company can learn from.
Key takeaways
If you want to improve your company’s marketing, here are a few key steps to take:
- Define and research your target audience. This will help you create more relevant messaging, better content and a deeper understanding of their situation.
- Use content marketing or inbound marketing to ensure that your solutions are visible when prospects begin searching or researching via their networks.
- Ensure that what you say is both relevant and easy to understand.
- Work more closely with the sales team to identify key accounts and segments to target in your marketing.
Want to improve your marketing?
Successful B2B marketing requires both planning and endurance. That takes time and resources. Here at UP we have a proven track record in everything from marketing strategy to content planning and production. We’ve worked with content marketing and marketing automation for a long time. Let us help you improve your marketing efforts.
Learn more about UP Inbound Marketing.
