What is B2B inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing can be a cost effective and efficient method of attracting, converting and retaining customers who are spending much of their time online.
However, in recent research we conducted with SAPIO, less than 50% of respondents in the IT, Manufacturing and Engineering companies we surveyed are investing in key areas that underpin a successful B2B inbound marketing strategy which can help deliver leads and increase sales. While some sectors, such as IT, do seem to have a handle on generating leads through their website, there is still room for improvement in this respect for the manufacturing and engineering sectors. Across the board, only around 50% of the companies we surveyed (less in some sectors) are investing in SEO (keywords and technical SEO) to improve search results and updating their website with regular content to improve visibility of their brand with the potential of turning visitors into customers.
A B2B inbound marketing strategy is a must if you want to raise brand awareness, customer loyalty and gain more sales leads. Here we take an in-depth look at how B2B inbound marketing techniques can help you to deliver.
A B2B inbound marketing strategy is based on attracting prospects to your website with content that is relevant and valuable to them. Inbound marketing enables you to find pre-qualified prospects and complements outbound marketing strategies.
If you can attract the right buyers to your website with content, half the battle of finding leads and winning sales is done. Buying teams are researching online before purchasing, so at the initial stages of the buyer journey, inbound marketing is particularly important in helping potential customers find your website, company and product information. In fact, access to the right information, at a time when a prospect actually needs it, can help solidify a purchasing decision. According to TechTarget’s 2022 Media Consumption Report* 82% of B2B buyers can now develop selection criteria or finalize a vendor list solely on the basis of digital content.
Source: TechTarget 2022 Media Consumption Report
B2B inbound marketing versus outbound marketing
Both inbound and outbound marketing are key pieces in the overall marketing strategy, and can be successful on their own or combined.
The key benefit of B2B inbound marketing is that it attracts pre-qualified prospects to your website, whereas with outbound marketing you need to identify and actively segment and target (through paid media or telemarketing in large numbers) in the hope of interrupting enough of your target audience just at the right time so that they take note of your marketing message or promotion.
Inbound marketing builds trust and attracts prospects when they are already in the process of looking for answers to their business problems or actively searching for a solution like yours.
So, if combining both inbound and outbound it makes sense to start with inbound marketing, building a base of prospects, and use paid marketing programmes such as placing advertisements to reach a larger number of targets.
