When it comes to B2B tech marketing you need to stay on top of your game and know the products you’re selling. After all, people looking for business software solutions won’t respond to someone who can only quote specs at them — they want someone who can communicate the value of the product.
Here we’ll look at eight ways marketers in B2B tech can stay updated on the industry and sell themselves more effectively to clients. From optimizing your website to doing your homework on industry jargon, see which of these tips you could try during your next campaign.
We’ll go into the details soon, but first, we’ll take a look at what B2B tech marketing is.
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What is B2B tech marketing?
B2B tech marketing is the act of selling a technology-based product or service to another business. That could be anything from antivirus software to cloud storage. It includes tactics like content marketing and email marketing commonly used to sell business-to-consumer (B2C) products.
8 B2B technology marketing tips
While there isn’t any one-size-fits-all solution for B2B tech marketing, there are a few ways you can be smart about your strategy. These tips will help you get to know the B2B tech space a little better and present yourself as a professional so you can more effectively communicate with potential customers.
1. Create buyer personas
You can’t market to your target audience if you don’t know who they are. Take the time to come up with detailed buyer personas for the people you think would get the most out of your product or service. Some questions to ask when formulating personas include:
What issues does my product realistically address?What occupation do my most likely buyers work in?How are people likely to use this product?How will this product help my target audience solve their biggest concern?
A word of warning: be detailed with personas but don’t go overboard. You want enough information to understand your audience and map out your marketing strategy, but getting too deep in the weeds will just waste time and effort.
Examples of sample personas could be “HR Manager Brittany” or “IT Services James.” They serve as fictional snapshots of likely target demographics, so you’ll want to know things like what their goals are, where they work, and how much they can spend. From there, you can create content tailored to each of your personas.
2. Make sure your website is up to date
This one seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how often businesses neglect their online presence. Your site will be the first thing almost every prospective buyer sees before they come to a decision on your product — it’s on you to be sure it makes a good impression (read a deeper dive on website best practices here).
Make sure your site loads quickly. Don’t bog it down with a lot of large, ultra-high-quality images, graphics, or video. You can use these elements to make your site visually engaging and interactive but do it intentionally.
Optimize your site for mobile. More and more people are browsing on their phones, and they will abandon your page if it lags, breaks, or doesn’t work properly. The mobile version of your page should prominently display relevant information with minimal graphics and images. Menus and navigation headings should be easy to find and use.
And lastly, make sure your site has all the pages it needs. You should have a landing page that catches people’s attention and entices them to click through, an About page, an FAQ list, a Contact page, and pages that explain your product or service — at the very least.
3. Stay current on the industry
Keep tabs on industry leaders and take note of how they’re marketing themselves. What are they doing that you can incorporate into your own marketing strategy?
Check up on social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter to see what content is being shared. Learn who the major influencers are in your field and pay attention to what they’re sharing. Curate and share good content on your page, watch what gets the most engagement, then model your new content off of that.
Stay on top of the latest industry data. Especially in the world of technology, you don’t want to be quoting outdated statistics in your marketing material or social posts. Check industry publications and sites regularly for the latest data. Influencers in the space might also share the latest figures. Double-check the source and take note of relevant information.
4. Take advantage of email marketing
Email marketing remains one of the best lines of communication between you and potential customers, regardless of the industry. You can use your email list to nurture and qualify leads to close sales, all while collecting valuable data. And nobody owns that list but you.
Most email marketing platforms offer a host of automated options you can use to make marketing easier. Welcome emails, follow-ups, and appointment reminders can all be automated to save you time. Automated features also make it easy to send a series of emails and maintain regular communication afterward.
5. Learn industry terms
Over time, you’ll pick up the jargon commonly used in your sector. Once you know the terms and how to use them, it can help create a sense of trust and professionalism with prospective clients.
That might mean terms specific to your client’s company or the industry at large. The important thing is learning what they actually mean, then how to use them appropriately. Be sure you understand a term and its proper context before using it — it’ll be extremely obvious if you use jargon without fully understanding its meaning.
This doesn’t mean you have to pepper every bit of correspondence, social media post, and blog with complex industry lingo. That will just annoy people. Use it the way the experts do: sparingly and when it makes sense.
6. Brand yourself effectively
The branding you use should be cohesive across all platforms. Your logo, colors, font, layout, and other design elements should match across your website, social media channels, and email correspondence. Your brand voice should also be the same across every platform you use.
In addition to being cohesive, your technical brand should also be memorable and create value for the customer. Ideally, people will think of you or your client first when they think of your industry sector. Some ways to achieve memorability and value include:
Sharing useful informationClearly communicating your values, then standing behind themSpeaking with authority on industry subjectsConsistency in your messaging and content
Combining all these elements will help you create a brand that is reliable and that people feel they can trust.
7. Keep your listings active and engage with reviewers
Keeping your business listing active is critical to ensuring you show up in search results. Your Google My Business listing, as well as listings on sites like YellowPages and Bing, should be as complete as possible. That means business hours, site links, relevant business information, and photos.
Reviews are part of your business listing and one of the first things people will see when searching it. Encourage customers to leave you a positive review if they’re satisfied with your work, and thank them for it when they do.
Even if a review is negative, interact with it when someone has a valid criticism and see what you can do to correct the issue. People look for business owners that are truly engaged with their customer base.
8. Start a blog
Blogs remain one of the best tools to convey value to prospective customers and establish your business as an authority in the industry. They can be optimized for SEO, incorporate multimedia to make them more engaging, and act as shareable content that promotes your business.
Figure out your area of expertise within the tech industry and develop blog topic ideas based on that specialty. If your business sells firewall or antivirus software, for example, you could write entries on cybersecurity and good digital hygiene. Once you’ve got your niche locked down, you can even promote the blog via your email newsletter.
Try it for yourself
If you’re already doing some of these things, that’s great! If most of this is new to you, then you now have an array of ideas to try for your next B2B tech marketing campaign. Experiment with different marketing methods until you come up with the best mix, and never be afraid to try something new.
The Constant Contact blog is an excellent source of business and marketing tips for tech businesses. If you want to learn more, head over and check it out for more insights, or download the free PDF on tech services marketing.
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