Here at The Brit Agency we recently stumbled across a fascinating article published on the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions blog. It lays out three pillars of B2B marketing success and how they can drive profitability. The blog cites a prediction from Gartner, which states that “by 2022, profitability will replace customer experience as the Chief Marketing Officer’s (CMO’s) number one strategic priority.”
To ensure marketing programs remain on track to build customer relationships and experiences that drive profitability, it claims there are three crucial pillars to the foundations of any B2B marketing program:
- Reaching buyers with the power to act.
- Driving meaningful engagement.
- Building trust along the way.
In this blog, we will take a look at the three pillars and look at how each of these are part of the foundation of any successful Inbound Marketing Strategy.
1 - Reach buyers who have the power to act
Your B2B marketing strategy needs to not only reach direct buyers and users of your product/services, but also the people with the ability to influence business decisions within their company. To increase your profitability, you need to reach multiple stakeholders in any given organization.
That means it’s crucial your marketing strategy is able to zero in on professionals who have not only purchasing authority, but also those that have influence on the people that do. The Inbound Marketing methodology of using Buyer Personas can help you do just that.
By creating Buyer Personas based on insightful data and research of your ideal customers, you can focus your B2B marketing strategy on qualified prospects. This will drive every aspect of your marketing from content creation, product development and sales follow up, and will ensure you attract high-value visitors, leads and customers to your business.
2 - Driving meaningful engagement with your audience
The B2B buyer’s journey is often a long process, meaning your company must establish itself as a source of authority that engages its audience and empowers them to build long-term relationships with your brand. You need your audience to understand the value your business can provide them with.
LinkedIn, for example, does this by having a distinct purpose compared to other social media networks. It is a place for people to find information, explore content and connect with others, which all take place in a professional context. It’s the social media site you go to for anything related to your professional life.
This, in fact, is what the entire Inbound methodology is based on. Inbound Marketing is the method of growing your organization by building meaningful, lasting relationships with prospects and customers.
Meaningful engagement is created in your Inbound Marketing strategy by attracting, engaging and delighting your audience at each step of their Buyer’s Journey. This meaningful engagement creates loyal customers and encourages word-of-mouth, driving profitability for your business.
3 - Build trust and meaningful relationships
Last but not least, the third pillar of any successful B2B marketing program is building trust. Trust is the foundation of any meaningful relationship and will convert prospects to customers, and convert customers to brand advocates.
The Inbound methodology helps you build trust through the content you create. Through Inbound Marketing, you will be creating valuable content and experiences that are tailored to answer the unique problems your potential and current customers have.
Inbound marketing is about forming the connections your audience is looking for, and solving the problems they already have. When you can solve those problems for your audience, you will be able to build trust and create meaningful relationships that drive sales, both in the short-term, and long into the future.
Do you want to improve your B2B marketing strategy and increase the profitability of your business? Contact The Brit Agency today. We have years’ of experience strategizing and executing B2B Inbound Marketing programs that generate significant business growth.
