Stalking, Espionage, and More: The Guide to a Successful B2B Marketing Campaign
October 23rd, 2015 by
Dealing with business to business, or B2B, clients in search engine optimization, search engine marketing, or social media can be challenging. There is an extra layer of difficulty associated with a technical business that you don’t typically have when working on B2C campaigns.
The key to starting a B2B online marketing campaign is to focus on your business. Having a jumping-off point of information also allows you to craft thoughtful questions to ask in your initial meeting. Here are some easy things you can do to understand a technical client’s business and industry (besides scouring their site).
Understanding the Client
1. Watch the Tube – I love watching YouTube videos that my clients have created. Industrial clients tend to be good at showing off their technology via video. It can be super insightful, and it may help with your strategy down the road.
2. Set up a Google Alert – Reading up on industry news can initially help with learning about the B2B client, and it can be informative later on when you need ideas for social media posts and press releases. (Side note: I think it’s 110% acceptable to have a Google Alert about yourself, so go on and set that up too.)
3. Do Some Stalking – Head over to LinkedIn to find out who you are going to be speaking with and what their background involves. I’ve also gone as far as joining engineering groups on LinkedIn to see what people in the industry are talking about (and more importantly for SEO and SMO, what types of posts get them engaged). I would also advise checking out any professional associations, charity organizations, and conferences where they regularly attend or present.
Reaching the Client’s Customers
1. Infiltrate the Buying Center – Find out (most likely by asking) which industries the client works with, and ask the right questions to find out who the decision makers are in the buying process. This can help you with ad targeting and creating relevant content for C-level buyers vs. operational team members.
2. Find the Trigger – I always ask technical clients about their sales cycle, and most importantly, what triggers the need for our client’s goods/services. It is helpful to know what other businesses are going through and where search engine optimization fits into the B2B marketing plan.
Relaying that Knowledge to Your Team
1. Shout It from the Rooftops – Let the appropriate people on your team know the information they’ll need in order to produce the highest quality work for your client. This might be the hardest part of a B2B marketing campaign. Ask anyone on my team: I’m guilty of giving everyone all of the info I have on a super-technical topic! One short-term solution is to keep an ongoing “Everything you need to know” doc and organize it through bookmarks. This way, your team can quickly get to the info that impacts their task.
What are some of your tips for working with B2Bs in SEO? Let us know in the comments!
Way to sell your audience on clicking on the resources in that ongoing doc of info about the client, Maggie! I love the “it’s only 2 pages of material”
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Thanks, Paula! I think it’s always important as an account manager to get people interested in what they are going to be working on. If you can humanize the account, or make the client “cool” in any way, I find that you get better buy-in across the board. This usually translates into success for those B2B online marketing campaigns!
Totally agree with your approach with the client. I think for relaying knowledge it really helps to have a weekly team meeting. We used to do monthly, but now go weekly and it keeps much better focus.