While B2C marketing offers plenty of room for creativity and engagement, B2B strategies require a more subtle, intelligent, and compelling approach. There are many biases among digital marketing professionals regarding B2B marketing—that it is dry, "tough to crack," or limited to specific search keywords. But those are just misconceptions. Let’s join the experts at digital marketing at Markdao Vietnam to uncover the truth!
Overview of B2B marketing - the digital marketing playground for agencies
Before embarking on a B2B marketing strategy, we must first understand its roots. B2B marketing refers to marketing activities, including digital marketing , aimed at businesses that produce or provide products/services to other businesses. In a B2B marketing strategy, you cannot simply "perform" as you would for individual consumers; you must focus on the logic of the product and emphasize functional features. This is why B2B marketing is often perceived as drier and more challenging than B2C.
When developing a digital marketing strategy for a business, you need to clearly understand who makes up the client's procurement department and what their roles are in the company's purchasing process. Business clients have a significant need for information, so it is crucial to provide in-depth content. What they truly care about are features, detailed specifications, usage instructions, and the advantages of the product. The most effective marketing message will analyze how your product or service can help the client save time, money, and resources.
Digital marketing for businesses: 4 misconceptions and the naked truth
B2B marketing demands high standards to satisfy procurement clients, which has led to many misconceptions about digital marketing activities. However, the reality "behind the scenes" is quite different, and only those with deep expertise in this field truly understand it.
Misconceptions about keyword lists in digital marketing campaigns
According to the purchasing decision process, before paying for a product, customers typically go through several stages, the most important of which is researching suppliers. In B2B digital marketing it is the same; before taking a conversion action (placing an order, making a call, filling out a form), customers have already spent a significant amount of time researching and exploring. Marketers can "get involved" in this process, reaching out and stimulating customer demand. Understanding exactly what they have been researching during this period is crucial for identifying keywords for SEO or Google Ads campaigns.
Marketers often mistakenly believe that B2B customers only focus on a small group of specific keywords when searching. Unfortunately, this assumption is completely off-track: 71% of B2B customers begin their search with broad, vague keywords, while only the remaining 29% search directly for products or services.
Google searches play a pivotal role in shaping purchasing behavior, with 90% of B2B customers starting their research on potential suppliers by searching on Google. This comes as no surprise, which is why owning and optimizing a website is a prerequisite when doing digital marketing. The search frequency of purchasing businesses (clients) has increased significantly; the average B2B customer performs 12 searches before making a decision.
In short, a digital agency should not just focus on a specific group of keywords clearly related to the products or services they offer; they should expand their keyword set to cover the entire industry to reach and persuade customers from the very moment they begin their search process.
Digital marketing agencies misunderstand how business customers make decisions
Many agencies, when doing digital marketing for business clients, often have misconceptions about the age of their clients, leading to misguided strategies. Previously, most B2B customers were middle-aged or older, with needs and behaviors different from younger generations. However, times change; today, Millennials (born between 1980 and 1994) are your true clients, accounting for more than half of the B2B customers surveyed. This shift in the workforce structure has led to changes in the needs, search behaviors, and decision-making processes of B2B customers.
Millennials were born during a time of technological transition and are the first generation to grow up with technology. They are more proactive, more influenced by digital information, and less bound by traditional business relationship frameworks. Millennials are also the ones who pioneered digital marketing. Therefore, when developing strategies, agencies need to redefine their target customer personas and find content and marketing methods that appeal to them.
The goal of B2B digital marketing is not necessarily about targeting "high-ranking executives"
Must the decision-maker be a high-ranking executive or the head of the company? It is precisely because of this mindset that B2B activities digital marketing often targets managers and directors. But is that really the case?
Behind the scenes, behind a director's decision, lie the opinions and discussions of their staff. Subordinates have a significant influence on the decision-making process. In reality, we live in a flat world with multi-dimensional information, where professional specialization within companies is highly valued. It is the departments and individuals directly managing tasks who truly influence a company's decision-making process.
In B2B digital marketing, we cannot overlook the employees who directly manage purchasing tasks. According to surveys, while 64% of managers and directors are the final "sign-offs," 24% of final sign-offs are not actually managers or directors. Subordinate departments have an 81% influence on a company's decision-making process.
Underestimating video is a mistake in B2B digital marketing
Many people mistakenly believe that video only increases brand awareness in B2B digital marketing. However, video plays a significant role in the B2B customer decision journey. With the rise of video content marketing, many businesses often turn to YouTube to make purchasing decisions. 70% of B2B customers watch videos during their buying journey, and the time spent watching videos is steadily increasing.
What customers care about is no longer limited to websites and text; they now look for authentic videos about products. The most searched and watched types of videos are: product and service feature videos, followed by tutorials and comparison/review videos. Therefore, marketers cannot ignore video. With the advantage of conveying information quickly and clearly, video content creates a significant wave of influence on customers during the purchasing process. So, what is the question here? Businesses need to produce videos as soon as possible to unleash their digital marketingcampaigns.
