B2B Marketing Strategies: Your Guide to What Works in 2024

B2B marketing strategies can be tough to decode. Not only do B2B campaigns target buying committees instead of individual consumers, they also have to create touchpoints throughout lengthy purchase cycles.

So, how can you succeed as a B2B marketer? In this article, we'll walk through how to design marketing strategies for B2B and share examples of businesses that have the right idea.

What is B2B marketing?

B2B marketing is a strategy businesses use to promote products and services to other businesses. For example, many financial, healthcare, and software companies market directly to other businesses.

Both B2B and B2C marketing use many of the same channels. For instance, you can reach both businesses and individual consumers via channels like social media, email, and video marketing.

However, there are several important differences between B2B and B2C marketing:

• Larger buying committees: B2B buyers rarely make purchase decisions alone. Instead, you have to market to a group of people known as a buying committee, which in enterprise SaaS has an average of six to eight people. This often means developing marketing materials for multiple personas.
• Lengthy sales cycles: B2B buying committees don't usually make quick decisions. Instead, the median B2B sales cycle lasts 2.1 months. Marketing campaigns with multiple touchpoints can help you win these deals.
• Greater emphasis on relationships: Business purchases tend to be significantly larger than a typical consumer purchase. As a result, B2B marketing prioritizes building trust and establishing relationships.
• More focus on customer education: While B2C customers often buy based on emotion, B2B customers often buy for revenue-related reasons. As a result, B2B marketing often provides more education to help customers make the right decision for their team or company.
• Slightly different channel mix: B2B and B2C marketing use the same channels. But they don't always allocate the same resources to each channel. For instance, B2B marketers tend to focus more on webinars and content marketing.

5 Steps to designing successful B2B marketing strategies

Use this guide to outline a marketing plan for your B2B team.

1. Identify your ideal customer

To market your brand, product, or service, you first need to define your ideal customer profile (ICP). B2B marketing teams typically consider demographics, firmographics, and technographics.

Demographic data refers to job titles and roles. To reach key members of the buying committee, you may need to develop marketing for each relevant persona.

Firmographic data refers to the company's characteristics. For example:

• Industry
• Location
• Company size
• Annual revenue

Technographic data refers to the technology the company uses. For instance, marketers can develop campaigns that position their product as a solution that aligns with specific tech stacks.

2. Map out the customer journey

Since B2B committees rarely buy right away, you need to know how they typically go from initial awareness to purchase decision. When you know the steps they typically take, you can plan your marketing more effectively.

Use your organization's marketing data to map out the customer journey. Identify typical touchpoints that B2B customers encounter as they go from awareness to consideration to decision to retention.

As an example, you may find that prospects start visiting your website regularly after clicking on a specific ad. Or you may find that they're likely to book a sales call after watching a certain webinar.

3. Perform a competitive analysis

To make your marketing content and strategy stand out and stick with prospects, you want it to be unique. And you certainly don't want it to resemble efforts from other businesses in your space.

To differentiate your business, do a competitive analysis. Take note of the marketing and advertising campaigns your competitors are running. Then identify opportunities and use your brand's strengths to outperform the competition.

4. Clarify your value proposition

How is your business uniquely positioned to help your ICP? Get clear on your value proposition.

Pinpoint what makes your business, product, or service unique. Then, use your findings to create messaging that resonates with your target audience. Use this messaging throughout your marketing campaigns.

5. Define goals and tactics

What will your marketing efforts achieve? How will you reach these objectives? The final step in developing a B2B strategy is setting goals and deciding on the best tactics and channels to accomplish them.

Align your marketing goals with your business goals. Match your tactics with important touchpoints along the buyer's journey.

As an example, suppose you need to reach specific revenue goals. To generate warm leads that you can convert into customers, you might host a live webinar and set up an email nurture sequence.

Top B2B marketing channels

How does effective B2B marketing look? Get inspired by these examples.

B2B video marketing

Video marketing is particularly important for B2B teams due to its relationship building capabilities. Whether you live stream virtual events, host webinar series, or offer on-demand video, this format is helpful for establishing trust.

In many cases, webinar marketing also gives you an opportunity to interact directly with prospects. For example, Livestorm's webinar software enables marketers to poll and chat with viewers during events.

You can also use Livestorm to record live streams and turn live events into on-demand videos. Then, you can use these recordings to generate leads.

Spendesk uses webinars to connect with the spend management platform's target audience. The webinar pictured below is designed for finance and HR professionals and features a panel of internal and external speakers.

HubSpot uses video marketing to connect with prospects and customers asynchronously. For example, the HubSpot Spotlight series serves as a product showcase that highlights feature releases, product demos, and tutorials.

B2B event marketing

B2B event marketing creates immersive experiences for clients, prospects, and peers. These events can take place in person (live), virtually (online), or a hybrid of the two.

Events for B2B audiences can include speakers, panel discussions, workshops, networking sessions, or any combination of these formats. Some of common B2B event types include:

• Conferences
• Webinars
• Trade shows
• VIP dinners

As an example, Dreamforce is an annual conference for B2B tech companies. The three-day conference includes over 1,000 breakout sessions, workshops, demonstrations, keynote speeches, and networking roundtables.

HIMSS Global Conference & Exhibition is an annual event hosted by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. In addition to conference programming, the event also includes an expo hall for vendors to promote their businesses and generate leads.

B2B podcast marketing

With podcasts, B2B marketers can have detailed conversations about the trends, problems, and challenges their target buyers are experiencing. As a result, podcasts are helpful for building credibility and carving out authority in a niche.

B2B businesses can approach podcasts and live interviews one of two ways:

On the one hand, you can follow the example that Corum Group sets with The Tech M&A Podcast. Each episode explores a trend in tech mergers and acquisitions, establishing the organization as a thought leader in the space.

However, your organization doesn't necessarily have to host a podcast to get similar benefits. The exitfive podcast hosts B2B marketing leaders, giving them an opportunity to highlight their experience and promote their companies.

B2B content marketing

A typical content marketing strategy for B2B includes a range of content types, including:

• Blog posts that focus on search engine optimization (SEO) to attract organic traffic
• Case studies that detail how the company has helped B2B customers solve problems
• In-depth ebooks, guides, and whitepapers that include original research

For example, the Rippling blog features a steady stream of content geared toward finance, IT, and HR professionals. Both dedicated writers and members of Rippling's executive team contribute to the blog.

The Ramp resource center includes original research like the article pictured below. It also features content like customer stories, company news, and business spending benchmarks.

B2B social media marketing

Social media is an essential channel in most B2B digital marketing strategies. And because LinkedIn is a social network for professionals, it's often the most important social media channel for B2B businesses.

Social media platforms like LinkedIn are ideal for distributing and repurposing marketing materials. They can help you get your video, podcast, and content marketing in front of more of your target market.

For example, this MadKudu LinkedIn post features an interactive carousel with five steps for using quality scoring. This LinkedIn post also summarizes and links to a more in-depth blog post.

This Intercom LinkedIn post promotes the release of the customer service platform's AI copilot. It includes a LinkedIn live stream and links to a waitlist for the product.

B2B email marketing

Email marketing is especially helpful for developing long-term relationships with B2B customers. From monthly newsletters to product announcements to behavior-based campaigns, email can guide leads toward a conversion or encourage them to get more value from your product or service.

As an example, Lavender sends weekly newsletters. Each issue features new content from the AI-powered email coach, tips for writing more effective emails, and frameworks for powerful sales emails.

The Bubbles email below announces a new product feature. The email includes an animated GIF demonstrating the new release and a call-to-action button encouraging subscribers to use the feature.

The Apollo.io email below is a behavior-based message. It shows exactly where the recipient is in the onboarding workflow and incentivizes them to complete the process.

B2B influencer marketing

Influencer marketing may not be as popular for B2B companies as it is for B2C brands. However, influencers can increase brand awareness and drive adoption for B2B businesses.

For example, Vin Matano's LinkedIn post announces the seller's partnership with Magical. It also highlights use cases for the productivity app and includes a referral link.

Dale Dupree's LinkedIn post announces his partnership with Sendoso as a Sendinfluencer. The post positions Sendoso as a direct mail platform, helping followers understand how it could fit in their workflows.

Livestorm for B2B marketing

When you want to reach your B2B audiences via podcasts, webinars, or virtual events, Livestorm is a smart solution. With Livestorm, you can:

• Live stream podcast interviews, webinar series, and virtual conferences
• Create webinar funnels and generate leads with on-demand video content
• Set up email cadences to build long-term customer relationships
• Integrate Livestorm with thousands of apps for a robust B2B marketing platform

Want to see how our video marketing tool could enhance your B2B strategy? Sign up for a Livestorm account and set up your first event in minutes.