If you’re the CEO or marketing director of a B2B company, you might be wondering: What are the most important marketing tactics?
One of the most common things that people wonder about is what tactic they can use to get more of the right types of clients. At Ajax Union, our CEO and Founder, Joe Apfelbaum, always says,
“The right strategy will save you a decade”
So in fact, the tactic does not matter as much as the strategy because traffic can come from anywhere as long as it’s the right traffic.
There are three main tactics that drive traffic: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, and Email.
SEO is beneficial because it brings organic traffic from Google search engines to your site. But what happens when the traffic hits your website? Does your business have a plan? If you don’t have the right messaging and the ability to convert that traffic, your business is in trouble.
The whole reason businesses engage in SEO, social media, and email campaigns is to get one thing: attention. Businesses need attention to thrive. But what if your business is not ready for the attention? What if you get the attention and your business doesn’t have the bandwidth to handle it? What if you get the attention from the right people and you do not have the resources to follow up? What if you get the attention from the wrong people and they waste your time?
You can avoid all of these scenarios by starting with a strategic goal for the traffic you want to get.
If you want to get people into your marketing funnel (system for nurturing leads to get them warmed up and want to buy), the three most effective ways are SEO, social media, and email.
Let’s review the three most important marketing tactics every B2B business should have:
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
When you want more information on something, where do you go? GOOGLE! You Google everything. Want to know when the sunset is in Brooklyn, NY? Google it! Want to know how to create jump cuts on a video editing software, you Google it! Want to find a digital marketing agency that focuses on B2B companies? You Google it and then you ask your friends if they heard of Ajax Union.
Chances are that if they are B2B and are in NYC, they have heard of us. Why? Because we rank pretty high on Google, both on the ORGANIC side and on the PAID side for the keywords that matter.
Start with identifying the MOST important keywords you want your business to rank for on search engines like Google and then find out where you are for those keywords. Remember that people have INTENT when they search. Traffic with intent is very valuable.
What do people want to do when they search that particular keyphrase? Do they want to buy? Do they want to learn? Do they want to have fun? Think of high-intent versus low-intent when creating your keywords. Keep these rules in mind:
Rule 1: The more generic the keyword, the more traffic there is, but the harder it is to rank highly on and the more expensive it is to advertise to.
Rule 2: The more specific the keyword is, the easier to rank and the better the lead! So choose your keywords wisely.
2. Social Media
When it comes to getting traffic from social media, there is both paid traffic and organic traffic. Both have value but with social media, paid will get you the most bang for your buck, especially on Facebook and Instagram.
When we say ‘paid traffic,’ we mean advertising on social media. It’s very effective because you can target people based on who they are, what they do, where they live, and how they think. Paid advertising allows you to pick people of a certain income level that have watched certain videos, live in a specific area, and have a specific email address.
The more targeted your traffic is, the more effective your paid media will be because it will make it more likely that people will take action. People will take action if the message resonates with them. LinkedIn is a great source to get organic traffic. Businesses can post on LinkedIn, and hundreds, if not thousands of people, can see it in just a few hours and it costs your business nothing but time.
Your business must have the right strategy and invest time and effort to get it right. When you do get it right, you will win big with social media.
3. Email Marketing
Everyone has an email. Everyone checks their email. Everyone also deletes emails. When using email marketing for your business, the key lies in having the right LIST and sending them the right message on a consistent basis.
Email marketing works really well for businesses because the audience is more clear. Email marketing lists are generally made up of contacts who have already interacted with your business. So when sending an email, your message is more targeted and customized, making it more likely that it will garner engagement or responses.
When using email marketing, make sure not to send emails to random leads. Instead, invest in building a relationship with a group of people that are likely to buy and refer business to you.
When you jump into the world of marketing, you’ll find that there are hundreds of other tactics that you can use to get traffic and attention to your business, product, or service. The key is to know where to put your time. Where focus goes, energy flows, so focus your efforts at one traffic source at a time.
For example, if you have a product or service that people search for all the time, that’s a great opportunity to use Google Adwords.
If you need to build an audience and nurture them, use Facebook ads to target people based on who they are.
If you have a list that you built over the years that you can be sending emails to, work on improving your emails and offer to get more out of your list.
If you do these three things right, you will be able to have more leads than you can handle.
For more insights on your business’s marketing tactics, schedule a FREE strategy session with us and we’ll give you personalized insights on your B2B marketing budget.
For more helpful information on B2B Marketing check out our resource library!
