How to promote a small B2B business

In a world where technology is booming, small B2B (business-to-business) businesses have numerous options for promoting their business online. There is no need to spend thousands of pounds on marketing campaigns to help you stand out in your industry. Instead, you have plenty of low-cost, high-effect marketing tactics you can use to rise above your competition. 

This guide will teach you how to promote your B2B business by covering the following:

• What B2B (business-to-business) marketing is
• Marketing methods for promoting a small B2B business 
• The difference between B2B and B2C marketing

Before we share tips for using marketing to promote your B2B, let’s take a look at what B2B marketing is.

B2B marketing refers to marketing strategies and content that’s specifically aimed at a business or organisation. If your company sells products or services to other businesses or organisations (rather than individuals), you will use B2B marketing to reach that audience. 

B2B marketing is different from B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing. Instead of businesses, B2C marketing targets the needs, interests, and challenges of individual consumers. These consumers typically buy products or services for themselves or on behalf of other people. 

Here are a few proven methods you can use to spread the word about your B2B business:

Every successful marketing strategy has a ton of research behind it to ensure its effectiveness. Researching everything from your marketplace and competitors to studying your target market will help you create B2B marketing efforts that resonate with these businesses. Doing research will also help you determine what business goals and objectives you need to set.

Conducting research means you’ll know your prospects and clients better, which means you can serve them better. Market research gives you an idea of how your business fits into the marketplace and how well your processes work. You’ll see which aspects of your B2B business perform well and how you can alter your efforts to provide a better service.

Did you know that 90% of people with access to the internet use social media these days? That’s why social media is excellent for spreading the word about your business. 

Remember that different channels service different audiences, so some will be more rewarding for your business than others. While you might feel tempted to use every platform, it’s much more effective to pick two or three that are most relevant to your business and its target audience. This way, you’ll use your time more effectively and still get in front of more relevant businesses.

Email marketing is a tried and tested method for reaching individual consumers and business customers, which is why most B2B marketers use email. When done well, email marketing leads to engagement that turns subscribers into leads, then customers.

This form of marketing is also a highly effective way to share your brand’s content to make sure people see it. In fact, according to Hubspot research, 83% of B2B companies use email newsletters as part of their content marketing program, and 40% say these emails are most critical to their content marketing success. This brings us to our next point:

Engaging content is key when it comes to marketing your B2B brand. If you have the skills, you can create content yourself. If not, you can hire an experienced freelance writer to do it for you. Make sure your content is educational, entertaining, relatable, engaging, and digestible.

Content marketing can be a powerful tactic to attract new customers to your B2B business. You also need to make sure your content is optimised for SEO (search engine optimisation) and includes keywords and terms that your target audience will search for. You can learn more about SEO in this guide.

Without a business website, you’ll almost certainly struggle to find clients. You need to develop a brand to stand out from the crowd, including a memorable logo, colour palette, fonts, and brand ‘voice’ aka how you communicate. 

Your site doesn’t have to be complicated. All you need is a landing page that summarises your company, a page that explains your services, plus an About and contact page. You can always expand your website as your business grows and evolves.

Template-based website builders like WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace allow you to set your site up for free or at a reasonable price. Remember to ensure your website is easy to use and includes your contact information in case customers have questions.

Customer loyalty programs, where you reward customers for spreading the word about your business for you, is a great way to market your B2B business. Offering loyalty programs will make your customers feel valued and encourage them to become loyal fans of your business. 

You can offer anything from exclusive promotions and discounted prices to free products or appointments in exchange for a promise that your customer will help you sign a new client. Generally, customers uphold this promise through point systems, referrals, or similar methods. 

Having an effective customer loyalty program in place means your customers will tell people they know about your offering. These people will then check your website and (hopefully) book a call with you to find out more. Word-of-mouth marketing is highly effective because people tend to trust the reviews of people they know over promises from companies. 

If you successfully implement some of these B2B marketing methods, you’ll start seeing results in no time!

Running your own business means you often have a lot on your plate and many different tasks you need to juggle at once. The last thing you need is to waste unnecessary time dealing with financial management. 

Staying on top of your finances can be stressful and time-consuming if you don’t have an efficient system in place. That’s why thousands of business owners use the Countingup app to make their financial admin easier. 

Countingup is the business current account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. With features like automatic expense categorisation, invoicing on the go, receipt capture tools, tax estimates, and cash flow insights, you can confidently keep on top of your business finances wherever you are. 

You can also share your bookkeeping with your accountant instantly without worrying about duplication errors, data lags or inaccuracies. Seamless, simple, and straightforward! 

Find out more here.