Category: Business Planning

According to the statistics, the global B2B industry was valued at $7.72 billion in 2021, and it is expected to grow by 18.7% from 2022-2030. Enhanced marketing and sales strategies have become essential for B2B brands to stay ahead of their competitors, and B2B sales require a more strategic and methodical approach. Therefore, B2B businesses should use B2B sales consulting tools and focus on creating an effective sales funnel to convert potential clients into paying clients. Continue reading this post to learn more about how the B2B sales funnel works and how it contributes to business growth. 

What is a B2B Sales Funnel?

A B2B sales funnel is a stage-by-stage model that B2B companies follow to turn prospects into paying customers. It is also known as the engine that powers the B2B sales process. The key objective of the sales funnel is to demonstrate how customers interact with their brands and what specific steps are important to persuade them to make a purchase. Boosting the Return on Investment (ROI) of the company is the secondary objective of the sales funnel. The sales funnel divides the purchasing process into smaller steps aimed at increasing sales. 

Stages of Successful B2B Sales Funnel 

A sales funnel is a crucial element of the B2B business plan of every B2B firm, as it makes the sales process effective and efficient. The important stages of a B2B sales funnel are – 

1. Awareness

The first step in the B2B sales funnel is awareness. It’s the point when a customer learns about your brand for the first time, usually through an inbound marketing channel like a blog post or social media post. The awareness stage for sales and marketing teams is about promoting the brand, sharing guidance and solutions to typical customer pain points, and starting to gather leads. In this stage, the visitors cannot be termed as prospects as they don’t have information about your product. 

2. Interest

You’ve captured a buyer’s interest and assisted them in finding a solution to a problem. They are interested in your brand, your products, and how you can improve their business or job experience, but they are not ready to make a purchase yet. This is known as the interest stage. The goal of this stage is to develop a relationship between a potential consumer and a brand. To do this, you need to consistently offer content via various channels and offer free trials or demos to slowly move them into the next stage. 

3. Evaluation

This stage is also known as the decision-making stage. Your target buyer has probably researched your competition and is aware of your brand at this stage. The next step is to make a purchasing decision. As a result, they will try to learn more about your brand and ask about your pricing and packaging choices. This is the time to discuss why your service or products are the best and how they can meet their demands. To persuade potential customers, you can use sales websites, calls, educational webinars, or business tools.

4. Purchase 

The action stage is the last stage of the B2B sales funnel. Because you correctly cultivated your prospect, your lead is now prepared to be converted. Now, it is time to use reviews, testimonials, package bundles, product training, and special offers to persuade customers to purchase your product. If the deal is closed, your prospects will now become paying clients. However, the sales process is a cycle that never ends. The first few weeks after making that sale are crucial for building a long-term engagement with your new customer.

Top Benefits of the B2B Sales Funnel

Here’s why every B2B firm should have a sales funnel –

• Identifying a promising lead is easier with a B2B sales funnel.
• The B2B sales funnel helps increase the lead conversion rate. 
• Comprehensive B2B sales funnels help build trust and relationships with leads.
• Sorting and ranking the leads becomes smoother with the help of a B2B sales funnel.
• B2B sales funnel will keep you focused and help streamline your marketing strategies. It will ultimately help push customers through the sales cycle. 

 

Sales Questions You Should Ask at Each Funnel Stage

The sales call that feels like an interrogation does not get results. So, the sales representatives should ask questions that elicit long answers rather than yes or no. The perfect questions for each stage are –

1. Top of Funnel

In this stage, salespeople deal with outbound leads who do not know about the solution you offer –

1. Please describe your major business issue.
2. How is this creating a problem for the company?
3. How does it affect your day-to-day operations?
4. How are you addressing this pain/problem right now?
5. What would it signify if we could solve this issue?
6. What will happen if we ignore it?

 

2. Middle of Funnel

In this stage, people want to talk about the solution and potential outcomes –

1. Can you clarify what you hope to achieve by introducing (tool/category)?
2. Which KPI would you like to see improved if I could wave a magic wand?
3. What factors do you consider when making purchases?
4. What factors are most significant to you as you assess vendors?
5. What is lacking from your current solution?

 

3. Bottom of Funnel 

In this stage, you should ask sales closing questions –

1. What happens between getting the green light and signing the agreement?
2. What other details do you require from us in order to proceed?
3. What potential roadblocks stop you from moving forward?
4. Do you see a scenario in which you move forward before [date]?

 

The Bottom Line 

The well-structured B2B sales funnel helps understand how buyers move through the customer journey. It is a crucial element of every B2B business that makes the sales process smoother. Keep the stages mentioned above in mind while building a successful sales funnel for your business. You can also contact B2B sales consulting experts at Company Expert to get professional help for improving the sales efficiency and effectiveness of your B2B firm. We take a pragmatic approach to transforming the sales processes, talent, and tools to help you drive double-digit sales growth. Get in touch with us to learn more about how we can help you build a sales funnel.

You may also like:

1. Lead Generation Ideas for Each Stage of the Sales Funnel
2. What are The Different Stages of a B2B Sales Cycle?

 

 

Social media is undoubtedly one of the best platforms for B2B brands to increase their visibility. It helps create brand awareness, educate and inform the target audience, and gain trust and reliability. Therefore, creating high-quality and authentic social media content should be a crucial part of every firm’s B2B business plan. If you are also on the lookout for social media content ideas, this is a must-read blog post. Continue reading to learn about the top social media content ideas for B2B businesses. 

10 B2B Social Media Content Ideas

B2B firms can use social media to humanize their brand and make it more relatable to their target audience. People are always looking for new and interesting content on social media, so you can use business playbooks to create and post authentic and relevant content to make your business thrive. Here we are sharing 10 social media content ideas that you can use to boost the social media strategy of your B2B business. 

1. Short videos on stories

According to the statistics, almost 800 million people engage with stories every day. It gives a feel of exclusivity to the people. So, businesses should post regular stories on Facebook and Instagram to stay connected with their target audience. You can post BTS stories or share your views on trending topics relevant to your industry. 

2. Behind the scenes

It is one of the most popular forms of content businesses post on various social media platforms to engage their audiences. Behind-the-scenes or BTS videos let you show your business candidly, which builds trust and allows your audience to see your business from a different perspective. You can share the BTS in the form of stories, reels, or separate video posts. 

3. Explainer videos 

People love watching video content more than reading text-based posts on social media. As a result, video content is popular among B2B marketers to increase the brand’s visibility. You can make videos to introduce your products or explain any complex topic related to your business. People on the internet prefer quick and informative videos, so when you plan B2B marketing strategies, you must invest your time and efforts in explainer videos.  

4. FAQs as social media posts 

People always have multiple questions about a business, and answering them repeatedly can be a time-consuming task. So, you can create social media posts answering frequently asked questions (FAQs) about your business, products, or services. It will save you time as you will not have to keep answering similar questions, and people will find answers to their questions quickly. 

5. Social conversation 

Starting a social conversation is a good and interactive idea for social media content that helps increase your social media engagement. It will also help you understand your target audience or clients. Conversations help build a relationship that leads to sales in the long term. You can do a poll on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to keep the engagement high.

6. Animation and GIFs

Animation and GIFs are popular among various types of businesses because they capture people’s attention on social media. GIFs are short and silent videos consisting of short animations that help convey emotions or certain messages to the audience. Posting one or two relevant GIFs daily on your social media platforms can help increase your social media engagement. You can also post funny GIFs related to your business. 

7. Share success stories

If you want potential brands to partner with you in their future projects, you must impress them with your achievements. Sharing success stories, company milestones, and achievements is one of the best social media content ideas. You can also use B2B marketing playbook products for creating and posting this type of content in an interesting and unique style. Don’t forget to share with people about the awards you receive because it will help them discover more about your firm. It will also increase people’s trust in your brand, and you will get new clients. 

8. Client testimonials 

When you tell people about your services and products, they may not believe you. But when your clients share their experience of working with you, people want to know more about it. As a result, client testimonials are a popular content format. It should not be limited to blogs and websites. Rather, you must share your clients’ experiences on social media platforms to attract new clients. You can also record short interviews with your clients to share them on Twitter or Instagram. 

9. Holiday content 

Another way to attract a large number of social media engagements is by posting social media content about holidays and celebrations. You can think of unique and creative content ideas for Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Independence Day. There are two types of social media content you get from the holidays: the first type is a simple post wishing people happy holidays(such as “Happy Labor Day”), and the other is sharing the celebration pictures and videos. For example, if you celebrate Christmas or Halloween in your organization, share a glimpse of it on social media as live videos, recorded videos, or photos, and it will draw attention to your brand. Pro tip: you can customize the holiday content based on your locality to connect with the right audience. 

10. Company event content 

If you host or participate in any business event, you can post about it on social media. You should take pictures and record videos of the event and later post them on social media with engaging captions. It is an easy and effective idea for social media content because showcasing prestigious events helps increase your branding and credibility. 

Partner with Company Expert to Build a Social Media Strategy for Your B2B Business 

Now that you are familiar with the importance of B2B social media content for business growth, you must optimize your B2B social media strategy. You can take advantage of the content ideas shared in this post to create engaging and effective content. But do not forget to evaluate what works and what does not work for your business so that you can build a successful strategy accordingly. 

You can also get the assistance of a reputed B2B consulting firm like Company Expert to create engaging content for social media platforms. We offer full-service marketing services and can support all of your marketing activities. Our team of specialists will plan, execute, and track your social marketing strategies. Want to learn more about our services? Visit our website and schedule a free consultation now!

A website is the core element of the B2B marketing strategy of a business. As a result, 51% of B2B companies spend a large amount of their marketing budget on website development. The decision-making process in the B2B world starts with an online search, which means your website meets the prospect before you do. The visitors perceive trust and authority from the look and feel of the website, and no one wants to waste their time on poor-quality websites. There is so much information on the internet that if your visitors don’t like your website, they are just a few clicks away from your competitors. Therefore, knowing what separates a good website from a great and winning website is important. In this blog post, we will share the top 10 important features of a B2B website. Continue reading this post to learn how you can transform your existing website into a successful and client-generating website. 

1. Clear messaging

Website visitors should get to know what you do within the first few seconds of their visit. This is only possible when your website clearly and concisely explains what you do. Most businesses check out a website in search of solutions for their business problems. They expect and prioritize a website with clear messaging that answers their key questions. It is important to state goals, offer solutions, and avoid jargon. Visitors should not get confused with too much information. A good website is one where a business speaks for itself and offers solutions. If you want to share a detailed description, you can use the ‘About Us’ page.  

2. High-Quality Content 

Content is the core of a website. Every business conducts research before making a purchasing decision. Usually, they search for information online regarding a product or service, which makes high-quality and relevant content important for a B2B website. Websites are involved throughout the buying process, so having appropriate content for visitors at various stages is important. Content like blogs, eBooks, case studies, customer reviews, and white papers help engage and retain prospects’ interest. You can also use business tools to strengthen your B2B content marketing strategy. 

3. Blogs

Every B2B website must have a blog section because it boosts the overall website quality. This section includes industry news and guides people may find through an organic search. It is also an opportunity to create more pages with informative content, ultimately resulting in increased online visibility, traffic, and leads. A new blog post increases the chance of being found online for a keyword term relevant to your business. You can also provide a preview of recent blog posts to showcase that you update your website content regularly. Many B2B consulting experts suggest that the blog is the heart of the website and can boost your B2B marketing efforts. 

4. Call-to-Action

‘Contact us’ is not the only call-to-action you should use everywhere on your website. It was widely used 10-15 years ago when the sales process revolved around salespersons. At that time, speaking to the business’s sales team was the only choice to learn about their services and products. In recent times, prospects research a business, and salespeople are involved much later in the sales cycle. Therefore, B2B businesses should use a variety of CTAs to engage prospects. Such as ‘find out more’, ‘learn more’, and ‘download now’ to encourage action and cater to people in the initial stage of the sales cycle. You can place a call-to-action on the website’s footer and every subpage of your website so your visitors can get directions on what the next step is.  

5. Landing Pages

The landing page is a web page that visitors can land on, and where you make a special offer, or provide a piece of information in return for contact information. It also helps generate inbound leads. When someone arrives on your website or reads a blog on your site, the CTA will direct the visitor to the landing page for more information. This can be in the form of an eBook or other content format, and you can ask the visitors to fill in the form to download that item . The ultimate aim is to gain the contact information so that you can nurture them with relevant content. Other benefits include capturing and converting leads, moving leads through the sales funnel, and growing the keyword ranking.   

6. Visually Appealing

Your B2B website should have a sleek, modern, and minimal design because massive texts or multiple fonts are no longer in style. An aesthetically pleasing website with flowing modules and clear text attracts visitors. Additional items that you can add to your website to make it look professional and appealing are :

• Use a mixture of long and short web pages.
• Avoid using bright and distracting colors.
• The CTAs should be in vivid colors so they are visible in the background. 

You can also check out  B2B website design trends to learn more about website designs. 

7. Search Engine Optimized

The journey of prospects starts with a search engine. Usually, people type what they are looking for, and the search engine result page shows them a list of web pages that includes the term they searched for. This means if your website does not show up in the list when your prospect searches, you miss out on various growth opportunities. Optimizing the website is important to gain organic traffic, boost brand awareness, and business exposure. 

8. Mobile-Friendly

We are all familiar with the popularity of smartphones and other mobile devices to browse the internet. According to Statista, website visits from mobile phones account for 52.2% of all website traffic worldwide. Mobile devices include smartphones, tablets, and other smart devices. If you want to retain your website visitors, your B2B website should be mobile-friendly . Another important reason for making a mobile-friendly website is that search engines like Google prioritize mobile-friendly websites. However, this does not mean you should not optimize the website for desktop as well. The best thing to do is to optimize the website for desktop and mobile so that everyone can have a great experience with it. 

 

9. Clear Navigation

Navigation is an overlooked factor in website design. Usually, businesses focus on other aspects such as the website design, web pages, layout, and color, but they forget about the website navigation. There is no benefit to having an interesting and creative website if users cannot find the information they want. Navigation is an important element of the website because visitors don’t want to dig around to find important information. Website navigation helps users access the information as quickly as possible. Clear and easy navigation improves the user experience and results in better visitor retention and website traffic. Though you can use strategic planning tools and get professional help to learn more, we will share some website navigation tips to help you:

• Link the logo on the home page.
• The navigation system should be placed at the top and left of the page. It should include tabs like “About Us,” “Contact Us,” “Products,” “Services,” or “Site Map.”
• Navigation should be clear, consistent, and structured. 
• Avoid linking terms like, “click here,” you should rather link the location where it will take you, such as “Contact Us.”

 

10. Analytics and Reports 

Lastly, you should be able to track, analyze, and get reports on your business website. It will help you decide what features are important for your website and what changes you should implement. Your B2B website should report on website traffic, and you should track activity on the website to see how it’s performing. You can do this by analyzing the organic traffic, direct referrals, paid search, social media, and email marketing to check which channel is generating the most traffic. The analytics and reports are also important for making data-driven decisions on the marketing budget. You can use various sales and marketing tools to analyze the traffic, conversions, bounce rates, and other digital aspects. 

The Bottom Line 

A high-performing B2B website can be your game-changer to attract visitors and generate leads. Following website best practices is crucial to stand out amongst the flood of competing websites. Whether you are planning to redesign your site, or update your current site, you should keep the points mentioned above in mind.

If you need more help to boost your B2B website and marketing strategies, you can partner with a B2B consulting firm like Company Expert. We work with professional services companies every day to refine, adapt, and optimize strategies designed to accelerate growth. Our skilled and experienced professionals develop and implement effective marketing strategies to inject accelerated growth into the DNA of your firm. Feel free to get in touch with us to learn more about our services. 

Did you know almost 90% of startups fail in the open market, and around 10% close their doors within the first year? Though there are various reasons for the failure, the absence of a go-to-market plan is one of them. A GTM plan helps you present yourself to the audience in the best way possible. If you don’t want to chase the wrong audience or launch a product too early or too late in the market, you must have a proper GTM strategy. Continue reading this post to learn how you can set your next product launch up for success.

What is a B2B Go-to-Market Strategy?

A go-to-market strategy is a step-by-step plan to ensure the successful launch of a new product or existing product into a new market. Unveiling new products/services with a GTM strategy eliminates the chances of costly mistakes. Along with that, sound GTM strategies help you launch your products/services to the right audience, with the right message, at the right time. Your go-to-market strategy should answer the following questions:

• What products or services are you selling, and what problem does it solve?
• Who is your ideal customer, and what are their pain points?
• Where will you sell your products and services?
• How to reach the target audience?

No matter how cutting-edge your new products or services are, your GTM strategy can make or break their success. The 3 essential elements of a B2B go-to-market strategy include:

Market Intelligence – Understanding the market you are entering is the first and most important step. You can conduct market research with the help of frameworks like the Ansoff Matrix, which breaks the product market introductions into four paths. 

• Market penetration – Selling an existing product to an existing market.
• Market development – Selling an existing product to a new market. 
• Product development – Selling a new product to an existing market.
• Diversification – Selling a new product to a new market

Understand the market and how your product relates to it. It will help develop the GTM and guide the research.

• Market Segmentation – In the market segmentation phase, you can take your market research one step further. This will help you understand who the decision-makers within that market are. You can use your market research to create a buyer persona to help segment your market to target the best-fit customers. You can also conduct research on existing customers to understand their pain points.
• Product Positioning – Once you understand the market you are entering and who your customers are, the next step is to develop a product positioning and messaging strategy. It is important to stand out from competitors and resonate with buyers. You should ask yourself some questions when creating the product messaging, such as:

1. How does your product address the needs of the market?
2. Why should your target market believe you?
3. How do you claim that your products/services will fulfill their needs?

Though the components of a GTM strategy are simple, execution can be complicated. But, you can manage it according to your product and the market you are entering.

When Do You Need a GTM Strategy?

Now that you know what a GTM strategy is, you must be thinking about when you need a GTM strategy. Competition and market forces change quickly. As a result, every B2B firm (even established companies) needs a GTM strategy for a successful launch. Read on to learn more about when you need a GTM strategy.

• You must have a GTM strategy before launching a new product in an existing market.
• If you are planning to bring an existing product to a new market, the GTM plan can help.
• A GTM strategy is helpful when you plan to test a new product in a new market.

You must also remember that a single strategy may not work for you every time. Therefore, if a strategy has helped you in the past, don’t assume it will deliver the same results again. Instead, you should focus on building a new GTM plan using the go-to-market strategy template based on current market conditions and trends before launching a product/service.

Top Benefits of a Go-to-Market Strategy

Here’s a list of top benefits you can enjoy with a robust GTM strategy.

• When you have a well-crafted plan, everyone in the organization will stick to it. It will help maintain consistency and keep everyone on the same trajectory. 
• Making a plan before a product/service launch will reduce the chances of mistakes, ultimately reducing the costs associated with failed product launches, and you will stay closer to your budget.
• The GTM strategy also includes developing brand messaging and aligning to one comprehensive view, resulting in a seamless customer experience. 
• Last but not least, a GTM plan ensures a successful launch and keeps your firm on the path to success. 

4 Popular Go-To-Market Business Strategies

Though a single GTM strategy cannot work for every firm, it can be tailored according to your business needs. Let’s break down some popular GTM strategies and learn about them. 

• Inbound – It includes the use of various forms of marketing to create brand awareness and attract new prospects organically at every stage of the buyer’s journey. Examples include content marketing, blogs, events, SEO, social media, and more. This strategy aims to attract the right audience at the right time with the right content. Keep in mind, content creation is one of the most affordable forms of marketing. 
• Sales Enablement – This is the process of preparing salespeople with content, training, and coaching for each stage of the sales cycle. The ultimate aim of this strategy is to increase sales results and productivity.
• ABM – It is one of the most popular strategies for B2B firms. The sales and marketing teams use their expertise and valuable content & technology to locate, target, engage, and close deals with high-value accounts. 
• Demand Generation – The demand generation strategies can be more outbound or sales-centric than other approaches. It includes cold calls, email blasts, list buying, TV commercials, sponsored webinars, and more.

How Can Company Expert Help Your B2B Firm Develop a Go-to-Market Strategy?

Company Expert offers a playbook product, the Go-To-Market Strategy that will walk you through defining the purpose of your GTM. For example, it includes who your targets are, what you are selling, and how to position yourself to reach those targets through sales and marketing. The other benefits of using this playbook are:

• It will help increase sales and revenue for your B2B business.
• You will better understand how to market your products and services.
• With this playbook, you can build a powerful GTM strategy for your next product launch, expansion, or venture.

Businesses planning to acquire customers via new product launches, expansions, or ventures can use this playbook to reach their desired results. You can also use this playbook to create GTM strategy goals via SMART goals or objectives, develop a target audience persona, and define what you are selling to the audience.  

The Final Word 

Bringing a new product to the market requires a great go-to-market strategy. Otherwise, you may end up wasting your valuable time and resources on launching an unprofitable product. C rafting a thoughtful and actionable go-to-market plan for your business increases the chances of a successful launch. You can contact the highly specialized consulting team at Company Expert and use our business playbook to develop effective GTM strategies for your B2B firm. We help clients create plans that enable them to make more informed decisions and create a clear road map for success. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more!

If you look back to the 2000s, a sales playbook was a collection of documents sitting on a shelf in the training room. In today’s business environment, sales playbooks are hosted on the cloud and handled internally. Various B2B consulting firms offer sales playbooks that companies can use according to their business needs. 

B2B selling is different from B2C selling, as B2B prospects require specific solutions. Using a well-planned sales playbook makes the sales process more efficient. Keep reading this blog post to learn more about the sales playbook. 

What is a B2B Sales Playbook? 

B2B sales playbooks are the sales manual describing a B2B company’s sales process, workflows, and procedures. It acts as a guide for the sales department. A sales playbook streamlines the entire sales process allowing teams to better handle sales activities. Therefore, incorporating a sales playbook into your B2B business plan is a smart move. 

Why Should B2B Firms Use Sales Playbooks? 

According to statistics, companies that have a flexible and well-defined playbook perform 33% better that companies that don’t use playbooks. If you are still not convinced and are wondering why you should use a sales playbook for your B2B firm, we have listed the top benefits of a sales playbook. 

• It Helps Save Valuable Time 

The salesperson of a B2B firm without a sales playbook spends most of their time looking for or creating content. Having a sales playbook that includes ready-made messages, questions, and resources boosts their efficiency, and they spend more time selling. According to a study, salespeople spend a third of their time searching for the best content and another third working on administrative tasks. This is a waste of valuable time and resources, which will ultimately affect B2B sales. This is why every B2B firm should use a sales playbook so that sales reps can use their valuable time wisely.

 

• Help New Salespeople Get on Board

A sales playbook acts as a live guide to understanding the company’s sales process, which helps streamline the onboarding process. A good sales playbook makes it easier for new salespeople to get used to the company’s sales process, tools, and communication flow. Sales playbooks must have everything new salespeople should know about the company’s core message and how to approach a prospect. This makes it easier to get new salespeople on board. 

• Training New Sales Members Become Easy

When new salespeople already know the sales process of a firm, training them becomes easier. Usually, new sales employees work and learn the job following other sales reps, which is not the right approach. If another salesperson makes a mistake, the new employee can also copy the same. However, if your firm has a B2B sales playbook, the training department can quickly and easily train new employees.

• Learn the Best Practices from Top-Performing Sellers 

If sales reps from your team succeed with a new strategy, they can include it in the sales playbook in order to share it with other members. Many B2B consultant experts suggest that it is one of the best and easiest ways to spread best practices from top-performing sellers. 

• Sales and Marketing Team Can Work Together

The sales and marketing team of every B2B firm should work collaboratively to achieve the desired results. The playbook clearly documents both teams’ roles and responsibilities, which helps avoid confusion. Also, with a sales playbook, it becomes easier for the departments to work together towards common business objectives and revenue-generating activities. 

• Bring Consistency in Sales 

When everyone on the sales team uses the same sales playbook, it brings consistency to the sales efforts. As a result, the sales process is more efficient, which results in lower lead times. 

• Help Create a Well-Defined Responses to Difficult Situations  

Every client and every situation is different. Therefore, sales reps should know how to tackle a variety of situations. The sales playbook includes the measures needed to handle difficult situations, the things to be done, and people to be contacted in case of a sales objection. It helps salespeople target prospects effectively and manage difficult situations with ease. 

Top B2B Sales Playbook Offered by Company Expert

Company Expert offers various sales playbook products that you can use, so your team implements successful selling techniques. Here’s all you need to know about popular sales playbooks and their benefits. 

• Account Management Plan Strategies 

Key account management plans are important to determine which accounts are promising for your B2B firm, and they help you determine which customers should be growth accounts. Company Expert offers an Account Management Plan Strategies tool that provides a framework for identifying and developing key and growth account plans.  

• Account Management Playbook 

An account management strategy requires a lot of time and commitment. But, it will help you create a repeatable and scalable process to drive revenue and build a stronger relationship. If you want to develop a standardized account management strategy for your firm, you must use the Account Management playbook. With this playbook, you will capture, codify, and institutionalize the best-practice behaviors of top performers. The account management playbook by Company Expert also defines and illustrates the best way to nurture, develop, and grow important clients.  

• B2B Sales Strategy 

A sales strategy is a must for the success of a B2B firm. It provides the guiding principles to keep other marketing and sales activities running smoothly. A sales strategy outlines important decisions a firm needs to make to create sales activities and tactics. Using this business playbook, you can develop a high-level sales strategy for your B2B firm. It forces you to think strategically about the sales function and how you can improve the capabilities of your sales team.  

• Consultative Selling Methodology 

The consultative selling methodology is easy to understand, but it may take a while to master it . You can use the consultative selling methodology playbook, which helps B2B firms develop a system that produces repeatable, scalable, and predictable revenue. It also provides a step-by-step methodology on how B2B firms should prospect and navigate the buyer through a sales cycle. 

• Designing and Executing Sales Campaign

A well-designed sales campaign can help you achieve your sales goals. As B2B sales cycles are long, it is crucial to nurture relationships and develop trust by adding value to every interaction. Therefore, you should always adopt a methodical approach to designing and executing sales campaigns, as it is the best way to flourish in the competitive market. Designing and executing a sales campaign is a playbook that can help you craft a successful sales campaign, ultimately creating a steady and reliable pipeline. A B2B firm’s executives, directors, and staff can also use this playbook to stay organized when working on multiple initiatives. 

The Bottom Line

In this blog post, you read about the sales playbook, its importance, and the popular sales playbooks you can use to grow your B2B firm. The right resources and skilled team are extremely important in order to accelerate sales and drive double-digit sales growth. Why not partner with Company Expert to improve the sales efficiency and effectiveness of your B2B firm? We are a leading B2B consulting firm with a highly specialized consulting team focused on delivering immediate and sustainable sales growth. Schedule a free consultation now to learn how we can boost the sales of your B2B firm!

LinkedIn is one of the most rewarding and result-oriented social media platforms. It helps B2B businesses drive traffic, make connections, establish partnerships, boost brand awareness, and generate leads. As a result, more than 30 million companies and 770 million people across the globe use LinkedIn. 

Earlier, LinkedIn was one of those social media accounts everyone had but no one used. But now, it is predominantly used by professionals. Most B2B marketers use LinkedIn as an essential marketing tool to establish a well-oriented marketing campaign and generate leads. When you use LinkedIn, you can expand your horizons and seek insights and opinions. 

In this blog post, we’ll share how playbooks help boost the LinkedIn marketing strategies of B2B companies. But, before that, let’s learn the importance of LinkedIn marketing. We’ll discuss some effective strategies to help B2B marketers boost their B2B business plan in order to get the most out of this social media platform.

What is B2B LinkedIn Marketing?

B2B LinkedIn marketing is when B2B marketers plan various marketing strategies for LinkedIn to build a brand or drive engagement towards their business. It helps businesses find and engage with relevant communities of professionals. LinkedIn is also a popular platform for professionals to connect and establish partnerships. New features are frequently added to LinkedIn, making it a perfect channel for B2B lead generation and driving traffic. More than 50% of all social traffic to B2B websites and blogs comes from LinkedIn, and 80% of social media B2B leads come from LinkedIn. So, if you want to boost your business and grow your audience, you must use LinkedIn marketing to its fullest potential. 

What are the Advantages of LinkedIn Marketing for B2B Companies? 

LinkedIn has become a reliable platform for B2B marketers because it has several advantages. We’ll share a few benefits your business can get from a LinkedIn marketing strategy.

1. Find Your Target Audience – The main motive for using LinkedIn is business communication. LinkedIn helps you find your target audience, and you can easily reach out to them. It is the right platform you can use for business communication and networking opportunities. 

2. Collaborate with the Business Community – There are various interactive features on LinkedIn. You can use it to create an online community of like-minded people. You can further communicate and collaborate with those professionals.  

3. Collaborate with Influencers – When you participate in communities and share quality content on LinkedIn, you become an influencer. But, along with that, you can also research influencers in your niche and collaborate with influencers that fit your brand. 

4. Thought Leadership – Thought leaders have a deep understanding of the business industry and the marketplace in which they operate. You can establish yourself as a thought leader on LinkedIn by discussing topics with groups or answering questions on LinkedIn’s answer board.  

5. Get Feedback – If you have a new idea for your business, you can start group conversations about it. It will allow others to respond and interact with you on the subject. Ultimately, you can get valuable feedback from opinion leaders and key influencers. 

 

Advanced LinkedIn Strategies for B2B Marketing

If you have included LinkedIn marketing campaigns in your B2B marketing strategies, but it is not delivering the expected results, the secret to cracking the right LinkedIn strategy can help. Go through this list of a few advanced LinkedIn strategies that could help you win more clients. 

1. The first thing that people notice about your company page is the image and description. So, use the logo or post a high-quality image and write an appealing company description to create a compelling company page. 

2. Posting content on LinkedIn is one of the best inbound strategies for B2B brands. You can either post informative articles from the company page or your personal profile. Keep the content original and unique.

3. When you write content for LinkedIn, be sure to use statistics and data in your posts. It will help make content effective & readable, which will ultimately attract quality leads. 

4. LinkedIn groups help market the brand and organically spread the word to the right audience. So, first, you can participate in other groups, and once you get an idea of how things work you can create your own LinkedIn group. 

 

Popular Playbooks You Can Use to Boost Your LinkedIn Marketing 

Company Expert offers a solution set packed with insights, examples, and actionable strategies to help grow B2B firms. The solution set includes playbooks and point solutions that provide ready-to-go tools to solve the issues of firms like yours. You can use our playbook products to boost your LinkedIn marketing strategies. We offer a definitive guide to LinkedIn marketing that includes the following playbooks. 

1. Optimizing Your Profile

Optimizing the LinkedIn profile is as important as keeping the website updated. So, make sure you invest enough time and resources to customize the LinkedIn profile of your B2B firm. It will help differentiate your business and result in more leads. You can use this playbook product as it outlines how to build and optimize a LinkedIn profile. Also, you will get a step-by-step model to optimize, review, and refine the profile regularly. 

2. LinkedIn Posting

If you want to drive more engagement and conversions, you can use the LinkedIn posting playbook. It can be used as a component of a broader marketing strategy on LinkedIn. In addition, the playbook will help leverage best LinkedIn practices, increase ROI, and grow a network of prospects. All the B2B marketers aiming to use LinkedIn as a key way to grow their client base must use this playbook. 

 

3. Optimize LinkedIn Company Page

When someone searches for your company name, your LinkedIn page will likely appear in the search results. B2B buyers also check the LinkedIn page before making a purchase. It provides social validation that your company is legitimate. Use this playbook that outlines how to build and optimize your LinkedIn company page. It walks you through writing and optimizing a LinkedIn company page and building the network. You’ll get a step-by-step model for optimizing, reviewing, and refining your LinkedIn page regularly. 

4. LinkedIn Campaign Planning 

An effective LinkedIn campaign helps B2B firms generate leads at every stage of the buyer’s journey. Usually, professionals spend a lot of time building campaigns to move users from one stage of the funnel to the next. B2B marketers must use this B2B marketing playbook product to build a successful LinkedIn campaign and utilize it to its full capacity. The playbook outlines a step-by-step model for planning, targeting, and developing LinkedIn campaigns. 

5. Content Repurposing 

Another playbook you will get in the definitive guide to LinkedIn marketing is content repurposing. Repurposing content means you take one content asset and alter it to create other pieces of content. It helps your firm increase the utility value while reducing the cost of producing content. Content repurposing is an important aspect of overall content development and marketing plan. Use the playbook to get started with the content repurposing, and the templates in the playbook will help guide you through the process. 

Take Your LinkedIn Marketing Strategies to the Next Level with Company Expert

Now that you are familiar with the endless possibilities of LinkedIn, you know that it is an important tool for every aspect of the marketing strategy. From research and planning to sharing content, you can use this social media platform in various ways to get your desired results. Company Expert can help you craft a well-planned LinkedIn marketing strategy. If you want to stand out from your competitors, you can also use our B2B playbook products to thrive on this robust and powerful platform. Partner with us to take your LinkedIn marketing to the next level. 

 

In recent years, content marketing has been moving at the speed of light. With the development of technology and the internet, people are tired of  old advertising and sales tactics. Now, people have the option to skip the ads and choose the brand they want to interact with. Buyers are attracted to a brand’s authenticity, transparency, and friendliness. So, if you want to win their money, you must win their hearts first. 

Content marketing is a cost-effective and customer-focused strategy that supports long-term growth. According to statistics, successful B2B marketers spend 40% of their marketing budget on content marketing. Every B2B firm should have content marketing in their B2B business plan, and marketing professionals should be familiar with content marketing best practices. Unfortunately, many businesses skip the planning and jump right into creating content, which is not the right approach. Read this post to learn more about B2B content marketing, its importance, and the top ways to prepare a successful content strategy. 

 

What is B2B Content Marketing? 

According to Content the Marketing Institute, “content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

This is a general definition that applies to B2B and B2C content. However,  B2B content marketing involves a lengthy and complicated process as it may take weeks, months,or longer to nurture a prospect. B2B content marketing refers to using the content in written, video, audio, or other formats to promote a brand’s products and services. It is about informing the other businesses what you do and how it can benefit them. B2B marketers aim to create useful, authentic, engaging, and high-quality content to boost brand awareness and generate more leads. A strong content marketing strategy guides the customers through the path to purchase. 

 

Why is Content Marketing Important for B2B Businesses?

 

Content marketing offers many benefits that help increase sales and contribute to business growth. Here are the top reasons to include B2B content marketing in your B2B marketing strategies. 

1.  Around 74% of B2B buyers study products/services online before making an offline purchase. You can attract B2B buyers with informative material highlighting your company’s knowledge and services. Either you provide what B2B buyers are looking for, or your competitors will. 

2. Content marketing is not only more cost-efficient than other strategies but also more effective. Businesses that effectively plan and execute a content strategy experience more benefits and growth. 

3. Content marketing enables you to communicate successfully with a range of customers. According to CMI and MarketingProfs, the popular and effective content formats that deliver expected results are – case studies, social media posts (excluding videos), e-books, and white papers.

4. Small firms with blogs get 126% more lead growth than small businesses without blogs. So, produce relevant, fresh, and authentic content consistently for your website to gain exposure. 

 

How to Create a B2B Content Marketing Strategy? 

According to B2B consultant experts, great content starts with a well-planned content strategy. It is a blueprint to align content ideas, objectives and efforts to gain traffic, generate leads and convert businesses into your clients. Here’s how you can create a winning B2B content marketing strategy from scratch.

Know Your Audience

You must educate yourself about your target market before you begin B2B content marketing. You can start by making a customer profile or persona for your ideal client. Then, gather information about buyers and their purchasing preferences to create a more accurate and detailed persona. In B2B content marketing, you may have to create a buyer persona of people responsible for making the purchasing decision. Finally, understand your target audience’s content requirements and expectations in order to develop the best approach and right content strategy.

Set Achievable Marketing Goals 

When you are unclear about what you want to achieve, you might waste time posting irrelevant content. A content marketing strategy should serve a particular purpose. So, before you plan the strategy, you must set quantifiable, achievable, and clear goals for your campaign and individual content pieces. 

Content Ideas 

Now that you understand your target audience and goals, the next step is conducting research for content ideas. The different types of content formats that can work wonders for B2B marketers in different stages of the buyer’s journey are – blog posts, podcasts, articles, case studies, white papers, and more. You can also use tools to find trending topics relevant to your industry. 

Choose a Distribution Platform 

If you don’t promote your material wisely, producing excellent content won’t help you. It is said that “It’s not the best content that wins. It’s the best-promoted content that wins.”

There are numerous platforms available to efficiently distribute your content. So it’s your responsibility to determine which one suits you the most. According to statistics, 89% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to generate leads. However, LinkedIn might not work for you. So, find out which platforms are most frequently used by your audience and use them wisely to share your content. 

Improve Your Content Marketing Strategy with Company Expert’s Playbook Products 

Do you want to establish yourself as the thought leader in your industry? If yes, you must have a content strategy that separates you from others. Here’s a list of Company Expert’s B2B playbook products that you should incorporate into your B2B content marketing strategy to stand out from the crowd.  

1. Content Planning

It is an effective tool that aims to create the right content to help you become a thought leader in your B2B industry. You can use the playbook for content planning, creating compelling content, content pillar and solution-oriented content. It also helps ensure brand consistency and tone across your marketing. 

2. Content Idea Generation

Writing engaging and effective content on trending, relevant topics is no more a daunting task with the content idea generation playbook. As the name suggests, this product will help you create interesting and engaging B2B blogs and articles that will resonate with your target market.   

3. Content Repurposing 

When you alter content to create other pieces of content, it is known as content repurposing. If you want to increase the utility value while reducing the cost of producing content, you can count on the content repurposing playbook. It provides a framework for content repurposing and addresses various questions like how to plan, develop, and optimize the existing content. 

4. Developing Effective Case Studies

Case studies help you share your client’s success with your prospects to position your company as a trusted leader. Our playbook provides a 6-step guide to developing robust case studies that capture the reader’s attention, keep their interest, and elicit a call to action. Use our playbook to prepare a well-written case study to convert prospects into clients. 

5. Editorial Guidelines

Every B2B firm must have editorial guidelines for its content writers. These will help them write blogs and articles that will strike the right tone and message with target clients and establish a consistent style for the firm. If you want to create or refresh the editorial guidelines for your firm, use our playbook. It contains five critical elements and walks you through a 4-step process to create consistent editorial guidelines. 

 

Set Your B2B Business Up for Success with Company Expert  

B2B content marketing helps increase traffic, generate leads, and earn revenue. With the right B2B content strategy, you can convince businesses to choose your products/services over your competitors. Whether you want to build a fresh content strategy or improve your existing content plan, Company Expert’s playbooks can take your content plan from dull to profitable. I 

Company Expert is a reliable B2B consulting firm offering specialized services and playbooks to develop clear and compelling messages and strategies to position your firm as a trusted expert. We work daily to refine, adapt, and optimize approaches designed to accelerate the growth of professional service firms. Use our playbooks to create an effective content marketing strategy for your B2B firm.