B2B tech & inbound marketing: the perfect pairing

By x93 26 November, 2018

There is no denying the fact that digital disruption, technology and the internet have completely changed the way that customers behave, especially B2B buyer journeys across the technology sector.

Your clients and prospects now have a wealth of research available at their fingertips about products and services that may be designed to better suit their needs, be more cost effective or be more innovative.

As a B2B technology and software business, in order to guarantee success, you need to put your customer at the centre of everything you do. Part of this is creating a comprehensive marketing strategy that provides them with all of the information and insight that they need to make informed business decisions. But how do you do this? Inbound marketing is key.

Inbound marketing is essentially all about engaging with your audience – i.e. your target market, and those that are likely to be searching online for a solution that you can solve. In fact, research has shown that over 60% of consumers search for content that actively addresses their issues and challenges. What is key about content marketing is how you use is to differentiate your business from that of your competitors.

Inbound marketing content shouldn’t be sales focused, but should seek to address and solve issues that you foresee your clients to have. It essentially demonstrates that you know them and their business, and that you are the authoritative voice in your space.

But what elements does your inbound marketing strategy need to consider?

Consider the content that you create as the conversation starter with your buyer, whether this be whitepapers, blogs, eBooks or infographics. In the B2B technology industry, authoritative content helps to position your brand at the forefront of its field and communicate the value proposition of your product or service, as well help to demonstrate the return on investment your targets can expect if they opt to purchase from you.

There are thousands of B2B tech companies that describe themselves as innovative – but it’s the content that they create that will back this up. Be creative and be diverse. Make sure you’re creating content on a regular basis to keep the conversation with your audience flowing, and so they don’t go looking elsewhere for solutions to their problems.

Allow your content to create an experience for your buyer. It can be used for lead generation, improve SEO and as a differentiator, after all, 71% of B2B researchers start their research via a generic non branded Google search engine, so you need to create something that is going to allow you to stand out in the search engines too.

Social media also need to play a key role in the inbound marketing strategy for a B2B tech business. Social media provides an excellent outlet to demonstrate your brands personality and diversify yourself from the competition. The content you share needs to be more than just product or service led, and needs to focus on engagement and building a brand message. B2B business often forget they have a brand too!

Above all else, you need to understand your buyer and build a strategy around your target personas – understand their interests, purchase intent, challenges, goals and pain points. This understanding will help you to identify which channels to use to reach your audience, how to tailor your messaging to make it appeal to them, and how to develop an inbound marketing strategy that will deliver results.