These are unprecedented times and events and shows have come to a standstill. Marketers in B2B organizations, where events and tradeshows majorly helped drive sales, are now facing challenges on how to grow their business. Studies have shown that many are re-evaluating strategies wherein budgets are being allocated toward digital marketing. In the absence of events, digital avenues promise to become the new growth-drivers. If you are also transitioning to an online strategy, then read on to know how you can use digital marketing to drive up and sustain your company’s growth.
Host Webinars
Events, meetings, and shows may have come to a halt, but there are still markets and buyers who need your product or service. Hence, you need to stay in touch with your prospects so that growth does not stop. One way to reach out to a large audience is through webinars. When you host a webinar:
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- Don’t try to oversell your product – now is the time when customers want reassurance and not sales pitches
- Choose a topic of discussion that would help the audience
- Don’t host a webinar that is too long as the attention begins to fluctuate: half an hour is enough to get your point across
- Make sure that the clients or leads can see your face when you host the event – it will help them to connect with you better
- Save the webinar and upload it onto your website. Also, share it on various social media channels. This will allow the audience who could not attend it, will be able to view it as well
- Get an influencer or an important client to participate in the event as well
Be Present on Social Media
Billions across the globe use various social media channels. So, during such time, if you want to sustain your growth, it is imperative that you focus on social media to talk about your brand. Of course, you must keep in mind the times and thus act responsibly and maturely.
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- Find out what people are talking about before you create your own message
- Write content that goes with the times, shows you as sensitive and concerned for the people, and provides accurate information
- Don’t bombard people with excessive posts – chalk out a plan of when you will post the content
- Use the live streaming options when you make important announcements. This will also help you to stay more engaged with the audience
- Use paid facilities like Facebook and LinkedIn advertising to promote your brand
Content is Important
Now is the time when you should focus heavily on the content that you are creating. It should be done responsibly keeping in mind the fact that prospects are nervous and anxious. So, write content that is both informative and useful together with the fact that it gives reassurance and shows compassion. Also, you need to share your content with the audience in a timely manner. Sharing news that is old or even that which is still unverified will lead to adverse reactions. Find out:
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- The topics that are trending
- The topics that will help your audience
- Pay attention to the tone of your message
- Don’t try to relate your product or service with the world news forcibly
- Carry out keyword research to know what information is being sought
Use Push Notifications to Engage
If you have a mobile app-based user base, mobile Push notifications are a great way to engage with your audience and keep them updated on the latest developments on your service, share tips and keep your users engaged.
Search Engine Marketing
A study carried out by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research showed that B2B marketers allocated nearly 40% of their budgets to shows and events as compared to only 8% on online marketing. However, this is now changing – events stand canceled, and thus more investments are now happening on online marketing. One such area is search engine marketing. This form of brand promotion will help you to:
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- Reach the prospective customers faster
- Lead to greater brand awareness
- Set the ads that are geo-targeted
- Manage your ads and implement them quickly
- Optimize your ads such that the right audience gets targeted
- Increase traffic
- Make your name appear on related keywords that your competition is using
- Review your ads and adapt to the new tone
- Set the KPIs such that they reflect the current scenario
Overhaul Your Website
Use the time that you have now to look at your website and update it – change the way it looks and even update the content. For instance:
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- See if your webpages are sending the right messages to the audience
- Analyze the website’s organic search rankings – use better keywords so that your ranking in search engines go up. This will get more web traffic gets directed to your site
- Write new blog posts that are relevant to the current times
Network Professionally
You can use technology to promote yourself as a leader in your industry. For this, use professional networking platforms like LinkedIn wherein you write about industry trends, comment on posts, offer solutions to those seeking advice, and also connect with other business leaders and share ideas with them. When the audience read more about you, they will remember your brand better as well. It will also lead to more email exchanges with likeminded people. You can use the ScanBizCards app, a popular business card app, to discover contacts from these emails as it has a built-in feature called Email Signature Capture which will help you to auto-capture contacts from your emails.
Use VR and AR
VR and AR have a lot of untapped potentials. You must brainstorm with your team to come up with ways that you can use these to connect with your prospects more. For example, those in the construction business, where direct engagement with customers has come to a halt, can use AR to show clients the final results of the projects.
Summarizing
No one predicted a pandemic like this. But it has happened and it has taken the world by storm. Hence, we have no choice but to adapt to a new way of running a business. Despite a lack of events, B2B companies still have plenty of marketing tactics that they can choose from to sustain growth. So, consider the ones that will help you run your company. Adopt and adapt to the changes – after all, this situation is temporary and these tactics will help you to stay connected with your audience till normalcy returns.