Six Ways To Promote B2B Business In Uncertain Times

Uncertain times in businesses can be a product of several circumstances, ranging from internal organizational changes to industrial fluctuations to political or environmental influences. It can affect your business and your team, and even leave you with a smaller marketing budget.

In these hard times, businesses may be in jeopardy and consumers less likely to buy, which makes business leaders uncertain about their organization’s financial future. A viable business-to-business (B2B) marketing strategy is imperative to push the business through unforeseen challenges. The resulting approach must be smart, agile, cost-effective and, most importantly, consumer-oriented.

Here are some tried-and-tested ways to promote B2B businesses to ensure continued growth, even when the going gets tough:

Leverage Content Marketing

Over-reliance on outbound marketing tactics can be a problem under challenging times. When things are bad, people don’t want to hear from a sales representative — and this is where your free inbound marketing strategy can pay off.

When businesses are slow, the audience has time to engage with industry-related content. Make sure your assets are poised well to relay an appropriate brand message through an effective content marketing campaign. This helps nurture leads, shorten sales cycles and acquire long-term customer relationships that can alleviate the uncertainty.

Provide Value Through Webinars Or Virtual Events

B2B marketers often rely on tradeshows and conferences, but there are circumstances when you might be forced to cancel the show, potentially losing out on a number of prospects.

The most effective strategy in such cases would be to move the events online, turning them into webinars and virtual conferences. These online networking events might hit a sweet spot with an audience that’s still looking for new business partnerships and ideas but is wary of the possible risks of attending events in person.

Create polls and surveys, conduct Q&A sessions, do live demos and have giveaways to engage the audience and make your virtual event stand out.

Pay Attention To LinkedIn Live

Live streaming content might be intimidating for some, but it is necessary to adapt to new technologies if your business is to survive the challenges of a changing world.

Live videos allow you to interact with the audience and engage them with quality content. You can take an educational approach, such as a product walkthrough, how-to session, presentation or seminar. LinkedIn’s live-streaming feature can help you gain access to many potential leads.

You can gauge the success of your live streams quickly by asking for audience reactions through a poll or requesting the attendees to leave their opinions in the comments. Also, use live videos as an opportunity to introduce your audiences to industry stakeholders, and invite guests who add value to the session — imparting knowledge and providing value with charisma is highly critical to your success.

Rebuild Connections Through Email Marketing

Email marketing can be a great tactic to reach out to your customers and connect with them one-on-one through your customer relationship management (CRM) software or your email subscriber list. But this isn’t the time to deliver a sales pitch; instead, use this opportunity to check up on your leads, offer support and provide resources they might find helpful.

In 2019, marketers identified email marketing as the most effective distribution channel for nurturing leads. You, too, can use this channel to deploy thoughtful and considerate efforts with emails that offer value to your audience. Your customers will likely appreciate such sentiments, and when the timing and opportunity are right, they will think of you.

Elevate Ranking Through Search Engine Optimization

Being at the top in Google’s search results is critical for B2B companies since buyers, their target customers, often research prospective purchases online to learn more.

This makes it imperative for B2B businesses to have a corporate website that offers up-to-date and relevant information about the products and services they offer. It means having a variety of content that ranges from blog posts to webinars and videos. Remember, if your product pages do not answer the buyer’s questions, you may be driving your leads away.

Search engine optimization (SEO) can increase a website’s search visibility and help it climb higher in search results. Use keywords in titles and product descriptions so that your brand appears more visible online.

Create An Effective Social Media Strategy

To create an efficient strategy for promoting your business on social media for free, you must determine your goals and understand your customers. Competitive insights or influencers should also be sought out to assess consumer behavior during an uncertain time. This will allow you to address your audience effectively.

After that, you must determine the social media platform that aligns with the values and goals of your business. Most B2B marketers, for example, use Facebook to promote their business or create awareness about their events.

Double down on these efforts during uncertain times to ensure the survival of your business. Retreating is not an option, but you might need to change your tactics according to the needs of your audience and general market sentiments.

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This article is written by Indre Deksnyte and originally published here

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