If your business is selling in the manufacturing or industrial sector, then you may think that marketing isn’t all that important. This is especially true if you only have a handful of competitors. However, the quality of your products or services will only take you so far. If your competitors have a better marketing strategy in place, then there’s no telling how much business you could be losing to them. Here are a few valuable pointers for B2B marketing.
From Wikimedia
First of all, work on building a following. If you want any of your marketing efforts to have any kind of impact, you need to have an audience to aim at. If you haven’t already, start gathering contacts. Email marketing has proven to be very effective for a lot of B2B ventures, so try gathering addresses to start building a subscriber’s list. One of the best ways to do this is setting up at an expo. There, you can tell other business owners about what you do and collect email addresses through a sign-up sheet. Be sure to explain the kind of news your subscribers are going to receive in the process. Another good move would be organising a webinar about some newsworthy topic tied to your industry.
From Wikimedia
My next tip is to source content by making connections with other industry leaders. Ask any business owner in manufacturing and industrial areas. They’ll tell you this is one of the most effective ways to foster relationships with prospective and current customers. Aside from attending expos and networking events, trawl LinkedIn to find influential leaders who are blogging about the industry your business is most relevant to. Make sure they’re not only active bloggers, but also have a decent following. Then, reach out to a few of and ask them to write a piece to assist your marketing. As long as they’re not direct competitors, you should get some good responses. It may be worth reaching out in this way to your previous customers too. For example, if you’ve sold a big order of stainless steel drawer slides to a business, suggest a post on how these have helped them.
From Pixabay
Finally, make sure you don’t forget creativity when you’re drafting any of your marketing materials. It’s true that some niches are more glamorous than others, especially within the B2B sector. If all your company exports is a specific model of nut or bolt, then you may find it very hard to come up with any creative ideas for marketing content. While this can be hard, it’s not impossible, and it’s certainly not something you should give up on! If you’re stuck for ideas within your own organisation, then one easy way to get them is creating a contest for user-generated content. Believe it or not, this can be a fun twist within almost any niche. You might want to ask your social media followers to submit unconventional uses for your bolts, and offer a prize to the winner.
I hope this advice on B2B marketing has helped. Marketing for a narrow niche is difficult, but certainly not impossible.
This article was provided by ellie jo