4 TACTICS TO ATTRACT MORE AUDIENCE THROUGH DIGITAL MARKETING TECHNIQUES FOR B2B BUSINESSES DURING COVID

B2B, or business to companies, is unique, requiring a well-designed and creative marketing plan. But when times like this pandemic occur, what can one do? With too many questions now circulating, brand executives are compelled to ask: what strategies will stay and what can be done?

Businesses re-evaluate their business strategy and divert expenses with trade conferences postponed and face-to – face meetings momentarily halted. Previously allocated marketing budgets for industry events and travel are currently being diverted into digital marketing. As B2B marketers take advantage of new levers to sustain traction in their business, digital tactics, especially inbound channels like webinars, organic and paid social media, SEO and search-engine marketing (SEM) will increase.

This article will take your through how these tactics will allow you to attract the right audience in order to ahead of your competitors while you move to a truly online approach during and sustain your business during this pandemic. Let’s dive straight in.

Social Media Tactics

It is the most efficient way of sharing information with the masses; considering billions of people active on social media, who would want to miss the chance of engaging them. Of course, accountability comes with tremendous scope, and advertisers need to evaluate their approach across various social media platforms and the way they are engaging with their audience to ensure better performance, which benefits them. Try these tactics:

• Listen socially before posting socially
• Moderate the comments sections to eliminate misinformation
• Write posts in real time
• Take into account live streams and important announcements
• Update opening / closing times or other important information
• Increase your budget for paid social media advertising especially for Facebook and Linkedin

Webinar and Other Event Tactics

Your ability to connect with prospects and leads is hindered without industry events, trade shows and face-to – face meetings. For a few countries, however, the goods and services you provide are still a necessity. Just as businesses, friends and families take part in video conferences to organize happy hours and spend time online, which enable you to connect with hundreds of prospects and leads through online events and webinars. Maintain face-to – face meetings with these tactics:

• Avoid being salesy; Be empathetic and provide value
• Your content should be beneficial to your audience and others who find value in it
• Make it simple, make it short. 30 minutes is adequate time
• Show your face to communicate through video
• Make good use of email and LinkedIn InMail for your virtual event
• Archive your event or webinar for spectators who were unable to attend it
• Invite your customers as a live case study to build trust

SEM Tactics

A hard hitting fact is that B2B marketers taking part in industry events allocated almost 40% of their budget to exhibitions and industry events which is almost five times as much as compared to 8% spent on online marketing. Marketers can invest more in SEM by canceling events and reassigning marketing budgets to remain profitable. While awareness and online leadership has been an efficient B2B marketing tactic for many years, it is more important than ever that people have to make the switch to the Internet. Please have these tactics to improve your overall SEM:

• Increase the budget on campaigns to meet the equivalent demand
• Check system preferences; use of smartphones may be limited during these times
• Analyze the location information; this will keep on changing from time to time
• Review your copy to convey the correct message

SEO Tactics

During this time, the demand for skilled content writers has increased. Content will also be factual, timely and helpful, but thee always has to be in a fine line without news jacking. News jacking means that you inject your ideas into a news story for the sole purpose of generating leads. Although, this is not in any way unethical, but instead a smart digital promotion tactic in certain cases that will benefit customers and companies. Implement these search engine strategy tactics:

• Examine what content goes out more than ever before
• Ask yourself: who are people going to benefit from this?
• Pay heed to your brand’s tone and the message it’s conveying
• Don’t just pump content for the sake of it
• Conduct new keyword research to learn what your audience is searching for on a daily basis

We cannot plan before hand for such extraordinary times, but when the events unfold we should improvise accordingly. Take into account all these tactics and implement them to stay relevant during these times. Bottom line, it is of paramount importance to keep your audience up to date by being supportive, insightful and appropriate. If these tactics are not yielding the results you wanted, feel free to contact us to guide you through other strategies to keep your business relevant and afloat.