AIM: Education B2B Marketing Mistakes
OBJECTIVE: To help businesses not to make the classic B2B Marketing Mistakes
RESULTS: Growth. Progress. Success. Development.
Being a part of the marketing segment, I have often heard marketers say: “The likes of marketing are determined through trial and error methods.” I highly disagree with this. Driven by this ‘trial and error’ notion, many businesses end up committing common mistakes with their marketing strategies.
B2B marketing mistakes have become common in the present scenario as many marketers tend to rely on solutions provided on the internet rather than seeking expert consultation. In this blog, we will cover the 10 ‘timeless’ B2B marketing mistakes and how to identify and fix them as soon as possible. I know anything that is timeless is supposed to be ‘good’, however, these common errors are not.
- You are making all of it about you.
When it comes to marketing, everything is not about you. You might have a unique and exclusive range of services, but you are (or you might be) failing to focus enough on your clients. This is one of the timeless B2B marketing mistakes.
Your banner might be perfect: “We are a (exaggerating adjective 1 like dynamic, visionary, successful, etc.) company offering (exaggerating adjective 2 like comprehensive, unique, holistic, etc.) services. Established in (random date), we have (exaggerating adjective 3 like numerous, plethora, myriad, multitude, etc.) clients and are run by a (exaggerating adjective 4 like experienced, expertise, seasoned, etc.) number of members. We do this. We do that.”
While it is fine to boast and exaggerate your company and its services, it becomes absolutely irrelevant in situations that demand major attention towards clients.
How to fix:
For every promotional activity on your website, ask the following questions:
“What is the value or benefit this delivers to our client? How will it make them feel or make their life easier? Will this exact tactic deliver results for this particular client?”
Good quality customer insight and leveraging the frontline knowledge of your business development team will also enable you to use the vernacular of your clients. Use and communicate with the language of your clients and prospects. Serve and solve their problems before you begin narrating about yourself.
- You are not using responsive designs.
The world (at least a major population) is too lazy to consume content on laptops and desktops, lest they are hooked to it (such as passionate markers like you). In fact, mobile accounts for over half of web traffic worldwide. In the first quarter of 2022, mobile devices (and that’s excluding tablets) generated 54.8% of global website traffic and have consistently hovered around the 50% mark since the beginning of 2017. Plus, Google’s mobile-first indexing means the mobile (not the desktop) version of your website is the benchmark for how Google indexes your website and determines your rankings.
Therefore, not using a responsive design is a dire B2B marketing mistake that you are making and hurting your site’s user experience as well as ranking. A responsive design allows you to deliver the same content but in an optimized format (the design adjusts according to the user’s device size and shape).
How to fix:
Prioritize the mobile experience by using a responsive design. You can implement the following practices for ensuring a mobile-friendly experience:
- You can reduce the amount of typing required. For this, you can merge multiple form fields into a single one by allowing autofill wherever possible. You can also use the option to connect existing accounts (like Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter) instead of offering a signup option (from scratch).
- You can ensure an optimal mobile site speed. For this, you can compress images, minify the code, avoid unnecessary redirects and enable browser caching and compression.
- Ditch the navbar and opt for a hamburger menu. This will turn your space-hungry navbar into an expandable menu.
- Lastly, optimize your content layout for the “thumb zone,” which is the easy-to-reach area of the screen using the thumb while holding the device with one hand.
- You are not prioritizing your brand positioning.
Oftentimes, very minimal thought goes into ideating a company’s (competitive) positioning. One of the huge B2B marketing mistakes which brands make is not investing enough on their brand positioning. Ask yourself: How do you want your clients and your prospects to perceive you in the market?
Ask a marketer about competitor analysis and watch the sparkle in their eyes. While competitor analysis is a great way of generating market and improvement insights, it often goes in vain since many companies do not utilize the results in a proper manner.
How to fix:
The key, here, is investing in genuine market insight. Genuine market insights are invaluable in objectively understanding how you are perceived as compared to your competitors. Moreover, generating comprehensive market results and competitor analysis will help you focus on your development areas. If you’re a technical business with a special capability that delivers the benefits sought by your audience, then start by owning these enticing advantages.
- You are not focusing on your Search Engine Optimization.
71% of B2B researchers begin their research with generic Google searches, and 61% of B2B decision-makers start the decision-making process with a web search. Ranking higher on SERP is vital for every business, be it B2B or B2C. The ranking of your site can degrade if you don’t focus enough on your SEO strategies. Ignoring SEO means a ton of lost traffic and leads. Besides more traffic and leads, the higher your website ranks on Google, the better your brand awareness and authority, plain and simple.
That’s because when someone finds your business organically (for relevant non-branded keywords), they’ll be able to appreciate the fact that your company is authoritative enough to be ranked so high.
How to fix:
This is a very comprehensive topic. SEO is a vast topic. With the ever-evolving Google algorithms, you need to be attentive to managing the SEO of your site. However, focusing on the basics can help you move up your ranking. You can follow the below-mentioned steps:
- Manage your website’s on-page SEO by optimizing:
- Page titles, meta descriptions, and URLs for the right keywords
- Images for file size (compression) and relevant, descriptive alt text
- Page load speed, by reducing redirects, enabling caching, minifying the code, etc. Use PageSpeed Insights to get exact recommendations on how to improve your site speed
- Content such as your blog posts for structure, comprehensiveness, keywords, and internal links
- Build a backlink strategy to generate backlinks from high-quality and authoritative websites, using tactics like guest posting, as quality backlinks play a huge role in pushing websites higher on SERP.
- You are not utilizing social media to the core.
Today, not being active on social media platforms is one of the huge B2B marketing mistakes. Social media needs no introduction. It is one of the effective channels where you can connect with potential customers, nurture leads, and build brand awareness and authority while establishing meaningful relationships with your existing customers. For businesses, social media enables you to converse with your customers in a more “human” and direct way. But a common and potentially off-putting mistake many B2B marketers make is seeing social media as a channel to simply broadcast their promotional messages and nothing more.
How to fix:
First and foremost, drop the corporate jargon and opt for an informal and genuine way of social engagement. You can further boost engagement by responding to comments and queries in a conversational way (by using emojis to talk like an individual and not like a robot). Post helpful content that benefits your followers. Don’t go on and on about your product’s bells and whistles. Instead, strive to spark two-way communication and make connections rather than merely pushing your products.
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