Last updated on June 20th, 2024
For any business, generating new leads isn’t easy. Getting the ones that are the ideal fit for your products or services is an even bigger challenge. As per research, 53% of marketers reported spending at least half their budget on lead generation.
This is usually the case for most B2B companies, with about 62% struggling with lead generation. The digital realm offers a new opportunity for these companies to find new leads, but doing this requires a strategic approach.
Let’s uncover the ideal marketing channels for B2B marketing strategy and understand the strategies for effective lead generation, providing you with a framework for a long-term B2B marketing approach.
The Use of Digital B2B Marketing Channels Is Growing: Here’s Why
Ever since the shift to digital mediums, digital marketing channels have proven to be the most effective channels for B2B marketing strategy because of factors like:
1. Wider Outreach
As per the latest figures, 5.3 billion users worldwide (65.7% of the global population) are connected via the internet, and 4.95 billion people use social media in some form.
This makes digital mediums the best channels for B2B marketing, helping you reach a wide audience.
2. Ability to Control Your Target Audience
Digital B2B marketing channels do not just boast of a huge reach but also provide the ability to control whom your messaging or posts will be showcased to.
Based on demographics, user behavior, interests, and other parameters, B2B marketers can define their target audience, making it easy to distribute their messaging to a focused audience.
3. High-Quality of Leads
Digital advertising and social media posts provide the unique advantage of allowing precise targeting of your audience based on specific criteria such as demographics, interests, and behavior. This capability ensures that your marketing efforts are not wasted on uninterested parties but are instead focused on individuals who are most likely to be interested in your products or services.
As a result, your messaging reaches a highly relevant audience, significantly increasing the likelihood of obtaining high-quality leads. This targeted approach helps your business stand out amidst the vast amount of digital noise, maximizing the effectiveness of your advertising spend and improving overall campaign efficiency.
4. Easy to track
Digital channels make it easy for marketers to track audience response and user behavior. This includes clicks, engagement, page visits, and even the ability to track user progress, making it ideal to provide relevant messaging to a specific user.
This level of detail in tracking user actions makes digital marketing one of the best B2B marketing channels.
5. Cost Efficient
B2B marketing channels offer a cost-effective alternative to traditional marketing methods, primarily because they allow for precise targeting of specific audiences. This targeted approach not only helps in reaching the most relevant group of potential customers but also significantly enhances the return on investment (ROI).
Additionally, digital B2B channels provide the capability to continuously monitor audience interactions and engagement levels. This real-time data enables marketers to make immediate adjustments to their strategies, optimizing their campaigns as needed. Such flexibility and adaptability are generally not possible with traditional advertising or field marketing, where feedback loops are slower and adjustments more cumbersome.
B2B Marketing Channels That Move Today’s Strategies
B2B is a segment where the seller and buyer are both businesses. This makes B2B marketing slightly different from any other marketing segment since the approach needs to be tailored to attract a business-focused and highly niche audience.
Source: HubSpot – State of Marketing Trends Report 2022
To attract new leads and share your message with your target audience, some of the best channels for B2B marketing include the following:
1. Content Marketing
Content reigns supreme in B2B, positioning brands as industry authorities. By creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content with your brand’s objective, you can gain new leads and even drive profitability.
Hubspot is a brand that has cemented its position as a market leader and go-to brand when it comes to anything marketing. The brand continues to use blogs, newsletters, videos, and podcasts to reach its target audience and has been one of the pioneers of using education to generate leads.
Good content also forms the bedrock of all your B2B marketing channels, which is why it is so important to get it right. Using SEO content writing services, you can craft a content strategy that is apt for your brand and can help you take your B2B brand to the next level.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the bedrock of online visibility.
Using SEO, B2B brands can optimize their websites to rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP). This can help you attract more organic traffic to your website, significantly increasing the chances of generating leads.
A great way to provide value-driven content and increase your website’s ranking is by using pillar pages. Convertkit, a creator marketing platform, uses this strategy to its advantage.
They create articles, podcasts, and long-form guides to help their target customers (including business and direct users) craft the right marketing strategies using their products.
You can check out their pillar page on how to vlog, which details the entire process of subtly promoting their products and how to get started. If you want to use a similar strategy for your B2B marketing, we recommend starting with a content refresh.
Content refresh will use your existing materials and blogs as the basis for creating fresh content relevant to today’s users and is a great way to boost your SEO.
3. Programmatic Display Advertising
Programmatic display advertising is an automated process of buying and selling advertising space in real-time. It is commonly used in Facebook or Instagram advertising, Google search ads, or display ads on web pages.
Through automated, data-driven placements, your message reaches a specific audience. Real-time adjustments also ensure optimal performance, making each ad impression a potential lead.
You can run programmatic advertising by bidding for a specific keyword or bidding for ad space targeted toward a specific user. You can thus get your brand right in front of your target audience using an omnichannel approach.
An example of a powerful programmatic display ad is this sponsored ad by Asana on social media platforms. It targets users with clear intent and provides all the information they need to get started.
4. Events (In-person and Virtual)
Another great B2B distribution channel is events, which can be in-person or virtual. From trade shows to summits, these events offer direct engagement opportunities to help you connect with your target audience.
But you do not just have to rely on in-person events or tradeshows to get your B2B brand out there. Webinars and virtual events are great channels for lead generation, and 89% of marketers believe these channels outperform all other channels for getting qualified leads.
The power of webinars is also in the way they are marketed. Instead of a direct sale, webinars have the power to educate and influence the buyer, giving you a positive head start to building a solid long-term relationship with the lead.
5. Video Marketing
If you think video is mainly for non-marketers in the B2C segment, you could not be more wrong. About 91% of marketers say they use video marketing as a tool to reach their target audience, a number that has increased steadily since 2016.
The reason is that videos are a powerful way to engage your audience and convey your message.
For video marketing channels in B2B, there are several options to explore, which include thought leadership, how-to videos, product demos, and more.
Take this example of Salesforce talking about how it implements AI, which tells a story, engages the user, and showcases how Salesforce adds value to the customer.
6. Podcasting
A key challenge in B2B marketing is educating the target customer. Most customers are unaware of how a particular product or service can actually add value to their lives, and podcasts are a great way to teach the audience about how they can simplify their lives using the latest technology.
Take the example of The SaaS Marketing Show by Hey Digital. The company, which specializes in providing digital marketing services to SaaS clients, has its own podcast to teach its audience just how effective its products and services are.
Source: Statista
They use case studies to showcase real-world success stories and even go deep into the strategy that adds tremendous value to their target audience.
7. Social Media Marketing
Social media is a powerful tool for B2B marketing. This is because it allows you to connect with potential customers, build relationships, and promote your brand.
Most marketers are well aware of this, so 83% of B2B marketers mentioned social media as an effective B2B channel for lead generation, and 21% highlighted it as very effective.
A good example of brands using social media to their advantage is Mailchimp, which uses colorful posts and graphics to engage users.
During COVID-19, the company created a report on how Mailchimp teams adapted to the situation and provided ideas for businesses to engage in the virtual environment. This subtle brand promotion can do wonders for B2B brands if leveraged effectively.
8. Paid Search or PPC
Paid search, or pay-per-click, is a type of online advertising that allows you to pay to have your website ads appear at the top of SERPs. This can be an alternative or used with SEO, and it is one of the best B2B channels to drive traffic to your website.
An example of how B2B brands can use PPC advertising can be seen in this use case by KOMarketing. Using PPC search ads, it can get in front of the searcher, who is taken to their landing page.
Once the user is given a compelling reason to fill out the form, it gets them into the lead generation process.
9. Email Marketing
The B2B marketing channels we explored help brands generate leads or focus on the inbound approach to promote their products and services. But a great way to keep nurturing your leads is by using email marketing.
This is because it allows you to reach your audience directly in their inbox instead of relying on them to come to you. This direct approach has been proven to generate long-term relationships for B2B brands and involves using personalized campaigns to nurture relationships.
Take the example of Atlassian’s well-designed email that tells its users about the updates it is rolling out. This simple yet power-packed email talks about the new features and benefits for its users, touching upon the key ingredients of a solid email: relevance, timeliness, and value.
What Makes a B2B Marketing Channel “The Best”?
While each B2B marketing channel brings unique strengths to the table, the best ones align seamlessly with your business goals. The best channel for B2B marketing is one that reaches your target audience and resonates with them, fostering meaningful interactions.
Whether it’s the visual impact of video marketing or the personalized touch of email campaigns, a successful strategy hinges on understanding your audience and selecting channels that complement your brand identity.
Leverage The Right B2B Marketing Channels For Lead Generation
“Content is the fuel for your lead generation efforts.” – Dayna Rothman
Lead generation for B2B is slightly different from others since the objective is not about massive reach but targeted outreach.
The B2B marketing channels we have covered in this blog are only the starting point of what you can do using the power of digital marketing. To succeed, brands must create a strategic content marketing approach to add value to their clients using B2B distribution channels.
Ready to start generating more leads for your business? Wittypen will help you understand how we can help you develop and implement a successful B2B marketing strategy.
