Making a great first impression with your tech or business to business (B2B) business is essential in driving a successful digital marketing campaign. However, many marketing opportunities are overlooked due to common misconceptions that they do not apply for tech or B2B businesses. 

So let’s clear a few of those up and get you on your way to effective and profitable digital marketing.

Content Marketing is for B2C

Yes, Business to Customer (B2C) businesses largely use content marketing to gain business but this is just as relevant for tech companies and B2B. Good content and successful Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) will help you reach a wider audience and shout about your brand.

Did you know that 57% of B2B buyers make their purchase decision before ever speaking to a salesperson? You don’t want to miss out on that opportunity. And, as an added bonus, content marketing generally costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads!
You can read more on content marketing and SEO in our blog here.

Social Media is Mostly Beneficial for B2C

One of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to the type of digital marketing tech or B2B business should invest in is social media. Assumed to perform best for B2C businesses, social media could actually be a game changer for your business. According to LinkedIn, social media is one of the top 3 content marketing tactics for B2B businesses (64%, with blogging at 53% and case studies at 64%).

Of the 83% of B2B companies who use social media, usage of each platform is as follows:

1. LinkedIn: 95%
2. Twitter: 77%
3. Facebook: 76%
4. YouTube: 59%

Blog Posts Are Not Relevant for Tech/B2B

Let’s knock that one down right away. Companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website and 53% of businesses say that blogging is their marketing priority. The positive stats linked to blogging for business are too many to mention here but take it from us when we say this is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website.

Your blog is the face of your brand and a way for new customers to find you and what you’re all about. Your content will obviously be relevant to other tech and B2B businesses within your field of expertise and full of useful data but this is your opportunity to have the space to explain to everyone what you do and reach a wider audience. B2C blogs tend to be shorter whereas a B2B blog can be much longer, with room to go into depth about your specialist area and to build relationships with your niche audience.
Read more on the benefits of and how to write an engaging blog here.

Use of Emotion Does Not Apply

You’d be forgiven for assuming that only B2C businesses use emotion in their marketing. But B2B buyers are humans too and, according to a recent report by Google, CEB Marketing and Motista, over 50% of B2B businesses formed emotional connections with their customers. Emotional connections can be formed while still maintaining a data-driven approach with focus being on feelings around risk and credibility.

B2B purchasers are over 50% more likely to buy your product if they see personal value in it. Keep the detailed, specialist language to convey authority and expertise in the subject matter but don’t forget to include a human voice among the data and stats. There is a real person behind that business decision after all.

My Budget is Better Invested Elsewhere

You need to speculate to accumulate, as they say. As much as we’d all love to spend all of our budgets on equipment, research, staff and more, the best thing your business could do to grow is devote a large portion of time, money and energy into digital marketing. 

Your potential clients are out there. Go get them! Take content marketing by the horns, create your blog, take advantage of the social media platforms and make that connection with emotion and your tech/B2B business will be well on its way to mastering SEO and reaching every corner of the internet.

Or even better, outsource to the experts to do it for you. Get in touch to see what we have to offer and how we can help you.