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Depending on whether you are a B2B or a B2C business, some marketing models may be better at attracting customers than others.
This means you need to carefully consider the way you market to them, the platform your business generates content on and whether you use B2C or B2B sales funnels in your sales strategy.
Social media is now a prominent force in the marketing sphere, and ignoring it can be detrimental. It is standard practice for businesses to have social media accounts, but the social media channel you use should differ depending on your business.
For B2B marketing, the best platform to use is LinkedIn, with its 630+ million members and 260+ million active monthly users.
LinkedIn is a professional network that allows business executives and specialists to connect. Marketers can use this platform as a means to connect with influencers and decision-makers in the business world.
With B2C marketing, the best platforms to use are Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with their 330+ million, 2.38+ billion and 1+ billion active monthly users respectively. This is because consumers can be found following their brands on pretty much every platform.
The reason to use these three is that they are the largest, so creating content on them will allow you to reach a bigger audience.
Just because these platforms are the best to use, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to stick with them. You can use any platform to target the right customers regardless of whether you are operating on B2B or B2C, so long as your content matches the platform and your message relates to your audience.
One of the fastest ways a business can generate quality traffic to their website is through the use of paid advertising. This is when you pay to have an advertisement shown to a targeted group of people. In the digital world, this can be through social media, banners or with PPC Google ads.
The strategy you decide to use will differ greatly depending on whether you are attracting customers or businesses. They might both be purchasing from you, but they need to be treated differently because they have different goals and priorities.
With B2B marketing, your best strategy is to use LinkedIn ads, Facebook ads and PPC to attract customers.
You need to be where your customers are, and when businesses look for products or services, they are very unlikely to use social media to search for them. Instead, they will be trying to utilise their professional networks or Google for their search.
For B2C marketing, your best strategy is to do the opposite and instead build up a relationship with your audience via social media and blogs on Google. Engaging with your audience and raising awareness of your brand should be your top priority.
This also means that you have the freedom to choose any of the social media platforms to pay for display ads and utilise paid search. Your paid ad budget should be allocated to Twitter ads, Facebook ads, Instagram ads and paid Google search.
Sales funnels are the bread and butter of every business, allowing you to convert your visitors and potential leads into customers.
There are many different types of sales funnels that you can use, but it is important to pick one that is relevant to your customers.
With B2B marketing, a company might use the typical B2B sales funnels. This is likely to include three stages:
The advertisement – LinkedIn ads are the top choice for these types of businesses. Studies show that 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn, with 94% of B2B marketers using this platform to distribute content.
The booking page – When clicking an advert, the lead will then be directed to the company website. This is where they can book a free consultation to help them with their business problem.
The sales close – The lead will then be passed on to the sales team where they will try to close the lead via a phone call and get them to purchase their product or service.
With B2C marketing, a company will use a completely different approach. Phone marketing will rarely be used unless it is an expensive purchase because this approach can be seen as too intrusive.
The B2C sales funnels will adopt a softer approach, especially with an inbound marketing method. For example:
Social media post – A company will put out an Instagram post with the description that explains a concept and tells the customer to check the bio for more information. Instagram marketing can be highly effective, with 78% of B2C marketers creating content on this platform.
Redirect to the blog post – This post expands on the social media post, explaining the concept in-depth with a call-to-action at the end that directs a customer to the lead magnet.
Lead magnet – A freebie that is given in exchange for a visitor’s email and contact info.
Promotional up-sell – After a few nurtured emails, a promotional offer is then sent where the customer can buy their product or service.
Building the perfect sales funnel that complements your business model takes time to thoroughly test. It also requires the knowledge to tweak your funnel to increase conversion rates.
Highly optimised lead funnels can be a great way to generate revenue, but without the knowledge and experience, you can spend a lot of time shooting in the dark.
As a digital consultancy with 15 years of marketing experience and a focus on conversion rate optimisation and paid search, we have helped many companies achieve their goals.
If you need help with creating and setting up your B2C or B2B sales funnels in a way that maximises your returns, get in contact with us today.
