B2B marketing - Some Highlights in Tech Space

Marketing highlight in the B2B Technology space

Sharing the company’s passion - Giving the customer value

Marketing in B2B is like talking to people at work, while marketing in B2C is talking to people at home. It is usually more challenging because the product is more complex, and the marketing-sale funnel often longer in B2B. Therefore, the main difference is that marketing in B2B business should be evaluated in the long-term instead of the short term and the target audience is broader involving non-customer as well. In the technology space, marketing should constantly innovate and provide “the one” value to the customer, so that the brand stands out in the minds of potential customers when it comes to their buying decision.

Let’s discuss together some marketing tactics, on how to integrate the sales and marketing function and ROI measurements in B2B marketing in the technology industry.

1.     Most appropriate tactics in the B2B technology space

-        Inspire & learn from competitors: analyze what is good and what is not from existing practices to have a better understanding of the market, then tailor with the own brand.

-        Present the product: In the technology space, the product is usually complicated, because it is not visible, and not self-explanatory. So, to present or introduce the product, the brand usually needs more work to educate the audience, it is also a challenge for the company to simplify the way in explaining the product to the mass community but still deliver all the important features of the products. One of my favorite methods is to use a similar comparison of a very simple example, to symbolize/visualize the difficult concept. Hence, infographics & videos are highly effective types of content.

-        Be a problem-solving destination: from all the contents on blog, training seminar, webinar, social media, provide value for viewers and prospects, ideally related to solving a problem which related to the product directly /indirectly.

-        The partnership is the key: partner with other agencies, consulting brands, businesses, organizations who have similar customer prospects: to cross-referral, co-create seminars, training, workshop, event, interview, guess blog posts...

-        Partnership with existing customers: offer existing customers to be affiliate/ambassador of the brand, interview them and create quote/video to provide quality reference on the website & social media platforms.

-        Networking: join conferences, events, platforms for other businesses, to create connections, meet new business owners and managers. Also, attend events that related to the industry of business, as well as online events all over the world (since the influence of covid, the most events now hold online, make them easier to attend, as long as they speak the same language)

-        Work with Influencer in the technology niches: promote, interviews, recommendations to their audience, build awareness & reputation.

-        Identify & emphasize the USPS: to make the brand value & image stand out from competitors, and in the crowded & noisy space on the internet. Use transparent statistics, data to prove the product’s value, and build trust – consistent relationships with prospects.

-        Social media: connect & engage with other institutions, C-level executives, and managers of businesses who work in the same industry of prospects. Send direct messages with useful information/benefits to create deeper engagement. If there is positive feedback from prospects, can bring the sales team in the communication process, shorten the marketing & sale funnel.

-        Creative & Brainstorming: there should be always some space to revise and create new – fun messages to the majority of viewers. Also, sometimes test out a few ab-norm ideas to extend the diversity in marketing practices.

-        SEO, SEA, keyword research: not only for the keywords on the webpages but also for hashtags & keywords on all social media channels (Twitter, Linked In, Instagram...).

-        Retargeting: Retargeting with the website visitors, social media channels visitors/engagements, event attendances, etc.

 

2.     Interactions between sales and marketing

-        Target customer’s understanding: Work together to draw the best persona, identity the prospect traits, common questions, common objections.

-        Having a shared platform: to update all ideas for brainstorming, highlight all important factors of potential partners & historical partners, also have the strategic decision on customer recovery, retargeting prospect...

o   For successful partners: the reason why the partners accepted the offer, what are the main benefits that drive them to agree with the offer.

o   For unsuccessful partner: what is the main reason for the objection/rejection. Is there any possibility to reconnect - or keep marketing communication (future webinar/training/update/useful industry information...)

-        Consistent in communication: Create a consistent way of communicating with the prospect in different touchpoints/ communication journeys. Discuss together to have a consistent tone, key message delivery, and develop according to the funnel.

-        Integrated funnel between marketing leads & sale leads:

o   Marketing qualified leads: will be connected mostly by the marketing team, maintain a friendly, supportive and light conversation, identify leads with potential interest, to offer compatible value/ free training/free demo related to the product.

o   Sale qualified leads: When prospect have a positive response and want to discuss more detail, they can be moved to sale qualified leads, and the direct email/phone contact will be handle by the sale department, to discuss more detail about the product, and set up a further connection (set up an introduction of product according to their needs for example).

3.     ROI measurement of B2B Tech marketing 

ROI for B2B marketing is vary based on the type of activities & products, while some are obvious, some are more difficult to evaluate. Marketing practice can be evaluated by metrics and KPI.

Metrics: used to measure specific campaigns such as bounce rates, page views, time on page, new visitors, search rankings, impression, new followers…

KPIs: is more likely used to evaluate the digital marketing strategy, such as

-        Total sales

-        Leads generated

-        Revenue

-        Return on marketing investment (ROMI)

-        Lead-to-sale conversion rate

-        Booking rate (from calls)

-        Cost per lead (CPL)

-        ROAS (Return on Ads Spent)

-        CPC, CPM

-        Conversion rate

However, The evaluation could be estimated since the values from marketing B2B usually measure in the long-term rather than for a short-term period or a specific campaign.

ROI should also measure for both in-bound and out-bound activities, for both organic & paid traffic.

The overall formula is : (Revenue – Investment) /Investment * 100

In which:

-        Investment can include: Salaries, Paid tools, Professional digital marketing services,…

-        Revenue: to allocate the revenue achieved from marketing activities (usually estimated depends on the organization’s operation & sale-marketing funnel).

 

Let’s talk about me: One thing that sets me apart while at university

I can cook the best Fried spring rolls (I hope you tried it before) in my class.

Apart from that, in my studies, I usually chose more demanding options than other fellow students, which also required a lot of arrangement with time management for studies and documentation preparation. I have been working while studying and doing many side projects at the same time, and I enjoy it because I feel motivated while I see myself improving in a new field, learning new skills, and having a meaningful experience. I participated in different activities and projects (ex: The Amazon Challenge, where we have to organize meetings and talks with some business owners with our team to bring their business to the Amazon platform).

I have also participated in many trade shows in different countries and cities in Europe, so I have traveled abroad frequently. I also got an offer as a kindergarten teacher in Rome, but I didn't take it because even though the job at trade shows was more stressful and involved a lot of travel, but it trained me more in my desired skills. I was able to understand more customer behavior in Europe and be more flexible in my time management, where I worked a lot in a certain period and can choose when to arrange my availability so that I can manage my time to focus on my studies during important projects or exams.

 

Thanks for bringing up such an interesting topic/discussion theme, I found it inspiring because it is much related to my current work and what I am learning to improve at the moment. I'm also very curious to listen to some of your opinions about these topics in our discussion.