With more than 562 million users in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide, LinkedIn serves as a key consideration for business-to-business (B2B) outreach. In fact, with all of these professionals in one place, not only can you make new business connections, but you can also generate leads and build your company’s brand. In this article, I’m going to give you four tips that will help you get started and easily leverage LinkedIn to be a strong B2B marketing tool.
The four pillars of your value proposition, right? Perhaps not. These are the four things that great industrial companies get right. The problem is that customers expect you to get these things right, each time, all the time. Your customers and your customer’s customers are very demanding. So, what happens when the cost of goods goes up or your delivery is off schedule? Your customers start looking for a new supplier unless you offer something more, something that they can’t get anywhere else. This “something” is called a differentiated value proposition.
A company's marketing strategy is off to a good start: They have a decent website, a blog and a strong social media presence. Their product and/or service is out there for all the world to see, but could they be doing more? Every company seems to have its own blog and Facebook page these days. Is there a way to stand out above the rest?
Today’s landscape of buying and selling has shifted—no longer are consumers looking for salespeople to assist or educate them through the buyer’s journey. Today, prospects are armed and ready with information—typically gathered over hours of research before contact is made with a salesperson. Considering this information, you need to position your website and print collateral to do the selling for you, without being obvious or annoying.
The future of business depends on humanizing the customer and employee experience—that future is not “B2B” or “B2C.” It’s B2H. Business to Human. People matter more than ever, not just the consumer but the employees as well. An article written by McKinsey & Company on March 2016 explains that businesses are adopting customer-centric strategies throughout their business. Executives delve into the competitive advantages of building a more customer-centric organization and are achieving striking results. Studies by Forrester show that companies who invest in UX (user experience) see a lower cost of customer acquisition, lower support cost, increased customer retention and increased market share.
As the Internet becomes more saturated with content, it’s important that companies begin to think of alternative ways to get their messages in front of their target audience. All too often do we see companies fall into a content creation rut - creating great content that doesn’t deliver the desired results, but then continuing the cycle without stepping back to reevaluate and adjust the strategy.
Typically when we consume information on the Internet, we are engaging with content that doesn’t necessarily meet our needs as consumers. We want content that helps us make the best decisions, not something that predominantly talks about the company we are seeking help from. This problem is rampant among the B2B industry.
